By JIM STEELE

McKenzie boys' basketball coach Larry Joe Smith is hanging up his whistle.

Smith, whose Rebel basketball team finished as regular-season District 13A co-champions, 13A tournament runners-up and with a 16-11 record, made the announcement to his team Friday afternoon.

"I've known this for about a week, but I told my kids today," said Smith. "I told them that I was going to be their biggest fan and supporter, but it was time for me to take a sabbatical as head coach."

Smith will continue to teach at McKenzie High School as well as serve as golf coach.

"Oh, I'm not done with coaching and I still want to do it," said Smith. "But it's just time for some new blood and new ideas with the basketball team."

Smith compiled an overall 362-230 mark as a high school and middle school basketball coach. He coached at DeSoto, Ark. before coming to McKenzie in 1985. He led McKenzie Middle School to an undefeated season and a state championship in 1994 and a state runner-up spot a year later. Smith took the middle school Rebels to the TNT state tournament in Springfield in 1990 where they lost in the state semifinals.

The coach led the 1998 McKenzie High School Rebels to a district title, a regional runner-up trophy, a substate victory at Greenfield and one of eight spots in the Class A state basketball tourney, where the Rebels fell by one point to Oneida in overtime.

In 2006, the Rebels won the district championship and spent time ranked in the Top 10. McKenzie was 24-7, but was upset by an atheltic Halls team in the first round of the Region 7A tournament at Trenton. This year, the Rebels fell to eventual state finalist Humboldt in the opening round of the Region 7A tournament at McKenzie. His mark as boys' coach at MHS is 155-146.

Smith led the 2005-06 golf team to its best season in school history, a record-setting campaign. The Rebels finished sixth at the A-AA state tournament, just a few shots off the runner-up pace. He was the Rebels' baseball coach for 11 years, leading them to a third-place finish in the 1987 state tournament, won by Dresden. His baseball teams reached substate two more times, once as a Class A team, another time as a 2A team.

I've done a lot of thinking, praying searching and this is the time," Smith said. "And to stay so long at one school is pretty good. And I'm able to get out on my own terms, which is something a lot of people don't get to do."

Smith took over for Don Durden, who left a long tenure at Greenfield, in 1996. He said he has a lot of memories from his time coaching all the sports he coached at MHS.

"I guess you remember the tough losses more than you remember the wins," he said, with a laugh. "But the good thing is the relationships that you build that you remember most. And I was fortunate enough to coach two sons."

Marshall Smith graduated last year, Kendall Smith graduates this year. His youngest son, Colin, is in middle school.

Smith will still be involved in organizing summer camps this summer and the Rebel team camp may team up with West Carroll.

"We have our gyms and Bethel and West Carroll has those side-by-side gyms," Smith said. "So we can get more teams in that way."

There is no word on who will replace Smith as basketball coach, but the school will do a search for a successor.