Gene Murphy, head football coach and athletic director at Hinds Community College, has announced the Eagles 2009 coaching staff, along with releasing the playing dates for the upcoming season.

Murphy will return to the sidelines in 2009 after a six-year hiatus. He served as the Eagles head man from 1987-2003, winning six state championships and compiling an overall record of 133-41-5.

Murphy will bring along four new assistant coaches with him, along with retaining assistant head coach and defensive coordinator Larry Williams, who will be entering his sixth season with the Hinds staff.

The four new coaches are Dwayne Curry (defensive line coach), Ben Dew (offensive line coach), Kelly Murphy (quarterbacks and wide receivers coach) and Dwike Wilson (defensive backs coach). All four coaches have collegiate playing experience, which should prove to be valuable in their coaching expertise.

Curry, who was a former All-American linebacker at Mississippi State University, comes to Hinds from Birmingham Southern College where he spent the 2008 season as the Panthers defensive line coach.  Curry has also served stints at Lane College, East Mississippi Community College, East Texas Baptist University, Pensacola High School and South Side High School in Atlanta, Ga.

Dew, a former Hinds (1993-94) and Arkansas State University standout, joins the Eagles staff after spending the past three seasons as the offensive line coach at Puckett High School, where he helped lead PHS to the 2006 and 2008 1A state championships. Dew has also coached high school ball in Kentucky and Tennessee.

Murphy, who played for the Eagles in 1997 and 1998 and spent the 1999 and 2000 seasons as a Hinds graduate assistant, has spent the last seven seasons as the defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at Wayne County High School, where he helped lead the War Eagles to the 2002 (5A), 2003 and 2006 (4A) state titles. Murphy also spent the 2001 season at Ackerman High School, where he helped guide AHS to the 2001 2A state championship.

Wilson, who played for the Eagles in 1997 and served as a graduate assistant in 1998 and 1999 with Hinds, comes to Hinds directly from Coahoma Community College where he spent the 2008 season as the Tigers defensive backs coach. Wilson has also spent time on the staffs of North Carolina A&T, Murray State University and Itawamba Community College.

Reginald Dillon, who also serves as the men’s track coach at Hinds, will also assist with the football program as the running backs coach.

The new coaches will be extremely busy preparing for the season to come, as Hinds will open the nine-game 2009 slate on Thursday, Aug. 27, with a road game at Northeast Community College in Booneville. The 7 p.m. matchup is a non-conference tilt with the Tigers.

Other significant dates include the first South division game with East Central Community College (Sept. 10), Homecoming vs. Itawamba (Oct. 8) and the final regular season game with Co-Lin Community College (Oct. 22).

All playing dates will fall on Thursday nights.