Last week’s surprising and perhaps shocking news of Gary Merrill’s resignation as Person High School head football coach has just created more uncertainty for Rocket sports next year.

In the past several months, two long-time coaches — varsity boys’ basketball coach Ronnie Russell and two-time state championship volleyball coach Sandy Mathews — both left their posts, and now Merrill is the third to do so.

Merrill’s tenure was brief to say the least (one season) and I don’t imagine anyone was expecting this to happen a year ago. Consequently, the school is now in the unenviable position of trying to fill the job as quickly as possible, with the start of the football season just on the horizon (less than four months away), and the school’s current administrative head set to retire at the end of this school year.

Both boys’ basketball and volleyball appear to be in stable enough situations, with long-time assistant Charles Dacus having taken over the basketball reigns for Russell, and volleyball assistant Jennifer Taylor having been recommended to replace Mathews (though the school has not hired anyone for the volleyball vacancy yet).

Presently, the biggest mystery exists on the gridiron, where question marks abound even though Merrill seemed to have the team headed in the right direction. His presence was obviously a major factor in the successes Person experienced on the field in 2007.

The Rockets were 5-2 in the conference, finished second the PAC-6, and made the Division 4A playoffs. They won eight of 11 games on the field, but had to settle for a 6-5 official finish because of an ineligible-player violation.

The 2008 team, however, will feature a lot of new faces as over 30 seniors graduated from the 2007 squad.

So will the school go outside to find a new head coach, or perhaps hire someone from in-house? The job has been posted on the school website and with the North Carolina High School Athletic Association, so clearly outside candidates are in the mix.

Principal Margaret Bradsher, who announced her retirement last week, even acknowledged that searching for a new head coach at this stage is a difficult task.

An in-house possibility would be one of the current assistant coaches — that is, of course, if any of them desire the job.

The success of last year’s junior varsity team (Piedmont Athletic Conference champions with a 7-0 record), could lead to the hiring of one of the JV coaches to head the varsity next season.

But, at this point, who knows? What transpires over the next few months is anybody’s guess right now.

One program that is not experiencing uncertainties is the Person varsity softball team, which entered Tuesday’s game against Northern Durham tied with the Riverside Pirates for first place in the PAC-6 at 8-1.

Depending on the result of Tuesday’s games, Friday’s scheduled showdown at Riverside could be a contest for all the marbles in the conference.

The 10-4 Rockets, who ended up second in the conference behind Chapel Hill last year, were also red-hot entering Tuesday’s play, having gone 8-1 in their last nine games after starting the season 2-3.

Ace Brittany Shotwell broke a finger on her pitching hand early in the season. But that hasn’t turned out to be a factor, as she’s gone 8-2 and has consistently finished with double-figures in strikeouts, including a season-high 18 in an 8-1 victory over Riverside back on March 25.

One important area where Person has improved over last season is in run production. The Rockets had scored 112 runs through 14 games (an average of eight per game).

With Shotwell on the mound, Person will be tough to beat the rest of the way if it keeps getting that type of offensive output.