SCC hires Wright as assistant, successor

Ronnie Cookson's probable successor has been hired.

Kenyon Wright has been named the new assistant boys basketball coach at Scott County Central and likely will take over the program when Cookson eventually retires.

"They've hired him and he's going to come down and work, and I'm going to work with him for a year, and then he'll take over probably," Cookson said. "Probably some time along that line. We're not for sure."

Wright, 23, worked this past winter as an assist basketball coach at Bernie High School. Before that he helped out for two years as an assistant basketball coach at Scott County while attending Southeast Missouri State, where he graduated from in 2007.

"He was down here last year some," Cookson said. "He was doing his student teaching. ... He's a hard-working young man. He's really dedicated. He likes the game of basketball. He's interested in the kids' welfare. I just think he'd do an excellent job as a varsity coach."

Wright played high school basketball at Bell City and was a member of the Cubs' 2002 Class 1 title team. He said he is looking forward to his new position and learning more from Cookson,

"He's a very knowledgeable person," Wright said of Cookson. "He's a very down-to-earth person, though, also. There's a lot you can learn from him. I've learned a lot from him already being around him for a couple years over there."

May in a rush at Perryville

As reported in February, Jim May has accepted the position as Perryville's new head football coach.

He's eager to install his system and get a look at his personnel in this summer's football camp.

"Offensively, I'm going to look to get the running game established a little bit more," May said. "They had a real good back in Kris Cottner last year who's gone now, so we need to find someone who can run the ball. In the [Jefferson County Conference] up there, at least in the early part of the schedule, it's a pretty tough division. There's a lot of physical play and a lot of hard-nosed schools up there, and I think we're going to have to get more physical to be part of it.

"I know I'll start immediately out of just a regular I-formation, and we may run some double wing. And it's just going to go from there. I don't really have a great idea of the personnel completely yet. ... We to get into camp in early June, and then I'm going to have a better feel for what I've got. And then I'm going to try to adapt a running game with a passing game based off play action into it. Whatever is going to suit us best."

May spent the 2004-05 school year as an assistant football coach at Perryville before most recently working as a Chaffee assistant coach.

May said the Pirates' defense won't change much.

"Defensively, coach [Jim] Bauwens who ran the defense last year is back with the program and he'll continue to run the defense, so I would assume it will be more of the same as what they've done in the past," May said.

Gohn wins AD award

Former Jackson and Southeast Missouri State football standout Mike Gohn earned the highest praise from his fellow athletic directors recently.

Gohn, the athletic director for the Parkway School District in suburban St. Louis, was named the athletic director of the year in Missouri at the annual athletic directors conference earlier this month.

"It's quite a thing to have your peers select you as the outstanding athletic director in the state," he said.

Gohn is in his 12th year as the athletic director for the Parkway School District.

Gohn said he's earning his paycheck this spring with the amount of rain the area has received. It's kept him busy trying to fit in all the rained-out contests.

"This spring has been killing us," he said. "We just can't get games in. We're rescheduling rescheduled games. There are some games we've rescheduled three times."

Gohn graduated from Jackson High School in 1977, then played defensive end for the Southeast football team. He earned All-American honors in 1979 and was named to the all-conference team three times. He was inducted into the Southeast Missouri State Athletic Hall of Fame last December.