After five years at the helm of the Charleston High School Tigers football program, head coach LaDon Taylor is ceding the reins.
The East Tallahatchie School District, in an April 6 Facebook post, announced that Rasheed DeBerry, 36, who has served as Taylor’s defensive coordinator, is the new head coach.
Taylor, 49, said he has considered stepping away for more than a year and that in January he discussed it with ETSD Superintendent Raymond Russell. He said Russell asked him to take additional time to think about it.
Taylor said he already had his mind made up.
“I just felt like it was time for me to step back,” Taylor said April 7, noting that “the daily grind of trying to be ready for Friday nights” in the fall had taken a toll on him.
Taylor, who has 27 years in the school system, is not leaving Charleston. He noted that he will continue to serve as district athletic director and alternative school director. He also drives a school bus.
Taylor’s ascension to head football coach took him by surprise. As defensive coordinator under longtime head coach Scott Martin, when Martin left in 2020, Taylor was awarded the job. However, football was canceled that fall due to COVID.
In four years of play, Taylor’s varsity football teams compiled a won-lost record of 45-13, a 77.59% success rate. In the playoffs, they were 16-3, winning 84.21% of those games. They appeared in three consecutive state championship games. In 2023, the Tigers won only the second state title in program history and Taylor was named statewide “Coach of the Year” in football.
This story will have continuing coverage.
