Sid Naron spent the past four years building cars. Now he’ll try to build a winner at St. Aloysius.

Naron, who left coaching in 2011 after a three-year stint at Mississippi Delta Community College, has been hired as St. Al’s baseball coach. He replaces Steve Hancock, who parted ways with the school during the fall semester.

Naron was the head coach at Mississippi Delta from 2009-11 and had a 21-80 record. He resigned in July 2011 to take a job with an auto parts supplier, but said he’s wanted to get back into coaching and the opportunity with St. Al seemed perfect.

“What made this the right fit was talking with (St. Al principal) Buddy (Strickland) and (athletic director) Mike (Jones), and seeing the family atmosphere and the dedication to academics. It’s an atmosphere I want my family in,” Naron said.

Naron and his wife, Chery, have two sons and the chance to enroll them in a good academic school like St. Al also factored into his decision to pursue the job. His son Ethan is a 15-year-old freshman — but not a baseball player — and Nolan is 1 ½.

“If I was going to go back to coach high school, I wanted it to be at a place where our children could be part of something special,” Naron said. “We wanted something faith-based, and this was right up our alley.”

Naron played baseball at Mississippi Delta and Delta State, and was a graduate assistant on the coaching staff in 2005 and ’06. He spent one season as an assistant at Mississippi Delta before ascending to the head coach position in November 2008.

That lasted three seasons before he stepped down for family considerations. Naron then went into private business with Faurecia, an auto supply firm that sells interior parts to Nissan.

Naron once again rose through the ranks to become an area manager for the company, but coaching remained his passion and he felt it was time to get back in the game.

“It’s something that’s a long time coming,” Naron said. “It’s a passion, and something God put in my heart to be at St. Al. I’m excited to get the kids and community involved about what’s going on.”

St. Al’s administration was just as excited to have him on board. Strickland said Naron’s experience on the college level was a huge asset, and his demeanor made it obvious he was the right choice.

“We interviewed four people. When he walked out, Mike Jones and I both looked at each other and said this is the one we want,” Strickland said. “It was clear in the values of his family and what they bring to the school, that they fit the mold we’re looking for.”

Naron will begin his duties at St. Al in January, when the spring semester starts. In addition to coaching baseball he’ll teach seventh- and 10th-grade world history. He hasn’t yet met his players, but said he’s familiar with the program through his friendship with former St. Al coach Clint Wilkerson.

Wilkerson is now the head coach at Ridgeland High School. Naron lives in neighboring Madison and, during his coaching sabbatical, continued to stay involved in baseball by coaching youth teams and giving private lessons in the Madison area.

St. Al won back-to-back MHSAA Class 1A championships under Wilkerson in 2009 and 2010. It has had winning records in each of the last three seasons under Hancock and former coach Derrik Boland, but has not been past the second round of the playoffs since 2010.

Naron, however, feels the Flashes aren’t far away from reclaiming their former glory. The fact the state titles were recent enough for some of last year’s seniors to have been in the dugout as junior high players means there’s a winning culture, he said, and the success of the past few years ensures he’s got a strong foundation to work on.

“Even though it’s been a few years, it’s still ingrained. These kids know how to win and how to go about it the right way,” Naron said. “The success they’ve had in other sports, too, it’s a feeling that you don’t have to build from total scratch.”