J.Z. George High School’s football team will be under new leadership next season as Dustin Alford takes over the program this summer.
Alford is coming to North Carrollton from Philadelphia High School, where he served this past year as defensive coordinator and powerlifting coach. He was also the head junior high and junior varsity football coach. Alford is replacing Rusty Smith, who announced last month he was stepping down and taking a position at Water Valley.
“Everybody we talked to who has worked with Coach Alford said he has a great work ethic and is a student of the game,” said J.Z. George principal Nathan Moncrief. “The head coaches he has worked for had nothing but high praise for him. One coach said he had no problem having Coach Alford run practice if he was away.
“When we interviewed him, we told him our kids are different from kids in other areas. He assured us he will be able to get them to buy in to the program and what he plans on doing.”
Before his stint at Philadelphia, Alford coached for two years at McAdams High School, serving as offensive coordinator and head baseball coach. He spent one year at Sebastopol Attendance Center as special teams coach and assistant baseball coach. He started his coaching career at Leake Central for the 2018-2019 school year as defensive coordinator and powerlifting coach.
“I have some close ties with a few coaches at Winona High School, and they told me it would be a great opportunity to be a head coach,” said Alford, who is originally from Carthage. “The school and program are a good fit for me at this point. I met Coach (Michael) Hargett a few years ago when I was coaching baseball at McAdams.”
Hargett is the athletic director at J.Z. George.
“Coming from Philadelphia, I realize J.Z. George may not have the athletes they do, but we are going to work on that,” Alford added. “I plan on meeting with the high school and junior high kids, and then meeting with all the males in the sixth grade and see who is interested in joining the junior high program. We have to build from there.
“My No. 1 goal is for us to be physical and tough, and to do that, we have to get in the weight room. Starting June 1, we will be lifting varsity and junior high three days a week. We have to get stronger and then work on being fundamentally sound.”
Alford is hoping to schedule some 7-on-7 drills with area teams during the summer. But, as he pointed out, the main emphasis will be the weight room.
“That’s going to be our emphasis,” he said.
In other coaching news at J.Z. George, Moncrief said that baseball coach Tony Banks is not returning next year. Also, head girls softball and volleyball coach Jamie Robertson will not resume those duties. Christian Whitman, who served as the softball assistant, will be the head fastpitch coach next spring. Matthew Gardner will take over the volleyball duties in the fall.
Ahmad Alexander will remain on staff as the boys basketball, assistant football and track coach. Moncrief said he should know in the coming weeks who will be coaching girls basketball and the baseball team.
