Parklane Academy wasn’t without a baseball coach for long.
Nine days after longtime head coach Ken Jackson was given the Southwest Mississippi Community College assistant’s job, Amite School Center coach Michael Clements was named as Parklane’s new head baseball coach on Thursday.
“I’m excited,” Clements said. “Parklane a has a great program and tradition. I obviously have some big shoes to fill with the great job Jackson’s done over the years.”
Clements got the job after spending one year at the helm for ASC. He had coached at Southwest for two years prior to taking over the Rebels.
“I thought I’d be at ASC longer,” Clements said.
Clements graduated from North Pike High School and Southwest before going on to play at Troy University.
The allure of taking over Parklane comes with its own support system.
After his last game, Jackson praised the Parklane family for all it had done for him.
“The Parklane family is so strong and that’s hard to leave,” Jackson said.
It was also one big reason Clements went for the opening.
“Parklane has a lot of community involvement,” he said. “I know I’ll get a lot of support.”
Decisions on assistants and who will help with the program had not been made and other details hadn’t been finalized, but Clements said that all should be taken care of by next week.
