Mooresville hires alum Nate Bingham as boys basketball coach

Mooresville kept the hire close to home, choosing Nate Bingham to guide a boys basketball program that no longer needs a rebuild so much as a clear next step. The Pioneers won a sectional title in 2025, their first in 21 years, and then ran into Southport in a 61-53 sectional semifinal loss on March 6, 2026. Bingham now inherits the task of making sure that postseason breakthrough becomes a standard, not a one-year spike.

The Mooresville School Board appointed Bingham at a special meeting Monday afternoon, and the move gives the program a familiar face with real roots in the building. Bingham is a 2009 Mooresville graduate, and he also works as a special education teacher at the school. He was already on Gavin Groninger’s staff this season as an assistant, so this was not a search for a stranger or a wholesale reset. It was a decision to promote someone who already knows the locker room, the school day and the expectations attached to the program.

That background matters because Bingham has seen strong programs from several angles. His coaching stops include assistant roles at Ben Davis, Mt. Vernon, Plainfield and Mooresville, and before he was in high school coaching, he worked as a manager and graduate assistant at Indiana State. One source also identified him as Mt. Vernon’s varsity assistant and JV head coach. That kind of résumé suggests a coach who has spent time inside different systems, learned how successful programs organize themselves and now gets his first chance to run one.

Bingham’s most convincing credential may be the one that came in a pressure job. After Ben Rhoades resigned at Mt. Vernon in 2023, Bingham handled the final four games of the season as interim coach and went 3-1. That stretch included a sectional semifinal upset of No. 17 Anderson, a result that showed he could keep a team together and ready when the bracket tightened. For Mooresville, that is the real promise here: not a dramatic stylistic overhaul, but a coach who can preserve continuity, manage expectations and keep the Pioneers competitive over the next two seasons. With a sectional trophy already in the case, the standard has changed. Bingham’s job is to make sure Mooresville acts like it.