LaDon Taylor is the new head football coach at Charleston High School and the new athletic director for the East Tallahatchie School District, Superintendent Dr. Darron Edwards announced Friday morning.
Edwards said the ETSD Board of Trustees approved Taylor's hiring for both positions at their regularly scheduled meeting on Thursday. During that same meeting, the board voted to cancel all fall sports within the district, including football and basketball.
Taylor, 44, is a Charleston native and a 1994 graduate of Charleston High School.
In 1996, he received an associate's degree from Coahoma Community College and in 1998 earned a bachelor's degree from Mississippi Valley State University. In 2016, he received the Master of Education in Education Leadership and Administration from Jones International University.
Taylor has been employed by the Charleston school system since 1998 and has served in various teaching and coaching capacities at both Charleston Middle School and CHS for more than two decades. He has coached basketball, football and track.
He was defensive ends coach for the CHS Tigers when the team won a Class 3A state championship under then head coach Tony Vance in 2011.
In 2013, then head coach Scott Martin named Taylor defensive coordinator for the Tigers, a position he held since.
Both Martin and longtime ETSD athletic director Michael "Slick" Hargett announced that they would not be returning to the district this fall, leaving their positions vacant.
Taylor, the son of longtime CMS coach Roosevelt Taylor and longtime CMS teacher Janice Taylor, is married to Kimberly Taylor. They have two children, Jamar and Janiya.
This story will be updated and expanded.
