BLUE MOUNTAIN, Miss. - Jerry Conner, who four years ago began the men's basketball program at Blue Mountain College, has resigned as men's head coach.

Conner moved to Blue Mountain from Phoenix, Ariz., in 2006, and spent his first year with the Toppers recruiting, scheduling and promoting the program that would begin play the following year. Conner's resignation is effective May 1 and he will return to Phoenix where several of his family members live.

"These four years at Blue Mountain have been really enjoyable," Conner said. "It's been very frustrating that we haven't won more, but our team has gotten better each year and I believe we've got the program in good shape for the next coach.

"We've got some really good young men playing here, and we're a lot more athletic than we were when we began play three years ago."

"Coach Jerry Conner holds the distinction of serving as the very first coach of men's basketball at Blue Mountain College," said Dr. Bettye Rogers Coward, BMC president. "We are grateful for his investment in the program and for laying the groundwork for others to build upon."

Lavon Driskell, BMC athletics director, also praised Conner for establishing the Toppers program.

"I appreciate all the time and effort that Coach Conner has put into beginning the men's basketball program at BMC," Driskell said. "To build a program from the beginning stages is very time-consuming, plus it requires a lot of energy. Coach Conner was willing to embrace this monumental task and I thank him for his efforts. 

"I have enjoyed working with him as an athletic director and as a fellow coach. All of us at BMC wish him the best with his future endeavors."

During his three years as sideline coach, BMC was only able to compile a 3-92 record (2-50 in the TranSouth Conference) in NAIA competition, a stark contrast to his all-star career in Arizona high schools.

Conner's Arizona teams won more than 500 games during his 37 years as a prep coach, including 32 at Shadow Mountain High in Phoenix where he coached such notables as the Atlanta Hawks' Mike Bibby and former Boston Red Sox pitcher Curt Schilling.

While in Arizona, Conner's teams won two state championships, he was named Arizona Class 4A coach of the year three times, he was inducted into the Arizona Coaches Hall of Fame, and the gym at Shadow Mountain High was named in his honor.