A burning desire to become a head coach again has led J.J. Plummer to Northeast Mississippi.

After spending the past five seasons as an assistant football coach at Hinds Community College, Plummer was named the North Pontotoc High School head coach on Monday night.

He replaces Cliff Dew, who resigned last month after two seasons.

"After tasting a little bit of success in my earlier years in high school ball, and seeing the kind of relationships you make with these young men ... That was just big-time special for me," the 36-year-old Plummer said on the phone Wednesday afternoon.

"I guess over the last eight years I miss being a head coach. I have had that burning desire the last four or five years."

If that surname sounds familiar here in Northeast Mississippi, it's because Plummer's father, Johnny, was a former head coach at Corinth High School and Northeast Mississippi Community College. Not to mention, the elder Plummer was at the helm of Delta State and of the Regional Football League's Mississippi Pride.

In the mid 90s, however, Johnny Plummer's days as the head coach at the former Woodland Hills Baptist Academy in Jackson was when J.J. Plummer got his coaching start.

From there the younger Plummer went on to become the head coach at Porter's Chapel Academy in Vicksburg, where he was the Mississippi Private School Association's Division 4-1A Conference Coach of the Year and Warren County Coach of the Year in 1998.

That 1998 season was the first time the Eagles had been to the playoffs in 16 years, and the team's 9-2 record was the best in school history. A year before that, in Plummer's first season in Vicksburg, the Eagles had their first winning season in 12 years.

Plummer continued his climb up the coaching ladder with stints as the receivers coach for the Mississippi Pride, head coach of Lamar High School in Meridian and a defensive assistant at Mississippi State under Jackie Sherrill.

After a 21-21 record at the high school level, the new North Pontotoc coach and athletic director served as the receivers coach and recruiting coordinator at Hinds this past season.

"I think Coach Plummer is an outstanding coach," said North Pontotoc principal Roger Smith. "I think the kids will take to him well.

"We're expecting good things as he leads us through our transition from (Class) 3A to 4A next year."