A Gentry High School graduate has been hired as the new boys basketball coach at J.Z. George High School, replacing Gerald Glass.
DeJuan Clark was recently approved by the Carroll County School Board to join the staff at the North Carrollton school. Clark spent the 2020-2021 school year at Southaven Middle School as an assistant for the middle school basketball teams and a health teacher.
Clark graduated from Gentry High in 2014 and spent the next three years at Blue Mountain College. He made the move to Mississippi University for Women for the 2018-2019 school year, and played there for one season. He then played one season overseas in Portugal.
“I’m excited to get the chance to start my own program,” said Clark. “I’m young and fresh, and I’m just ready to get to work. The season can’t get here quick enough.”
Glass, a Greenwood native, served as the head coach of the Jaguars for one year, going 3-7 overall in a COVID-19-shortened season. J.Z. George’s boys didn’t play their first game until Jan. 5, starting 0-5. They played much better down the stretch, finishing out 3-2.
“I want us to play an up-tempo style, which means we are going to get up and down the court quickly,” Clark said. “We will do some full-court trapping, and hopefully bring an exciting tempo to the area.
“I want to be consistent and firm. My job is to take these young men and teach them how to live in the real world.”
Clark received two varsity letters during his stint at Blue Mountain, an NAIA school in northern Mississippi. He also received one varsity letter at MUW, a Division III school, and was named honorable mention All-American in 2019.
Clark will also be the head girls track coach.
Also joining the coaching staff at J.Z. George will be Jacob Yanowsky, who will be an assistant with the football team and the head boys track coach.
Yanowsky, who graduated from Ole Miss in May, served as a volunteer assistant coach at Lafayette High School under Michael Fair, a former player at Carroll Academy and Mississippi State University and a former head coach at Pillow Academy.
He helped coach defensive backs and special teams during the 2020 season. In the spring, he was an assistant track coach.
Yanowsky, a graduate of Lewisburg High School, will work with defensive linemen and running backs on Rusty Smith’s staff at J.Z. George.
