High School

Carl Smith Jr. leaves Person High (NC) to become head football coach at Corinth Holders

Pirates get their new leader with less than two months to go before the opening kickoff; Rockets now in need of a head coach for the 2024 season

Gary Adornato

Carl Smith Jr., formerly the head football coach at Person High School (North Carolina), will be introduced to the players at Corinth High as their new head football coach on Monday evening.
Carl Smith Jr., formerly the head football coach at Person High School (North Carolina), will be introduced to the players at Corinth High as their new head football coach on Monday evening. / Person High Facebook

The kickoff of the 2024 high school football season in North Carolina is drawing closer with the start of preseason camps only a few weeks away. It's late in the game to be securing a head coach and even later if you lose one.

Corinth Holders High has landed its new head coach as it is set to introduce Carl Smith Jr. as the new leader of its football program, according to a report by highschoolot.com. According the school's social media account, Smith will be introduced to the players on Monday evening at 5:00 p.m.

Smith had served in a similar role at Person High in Roxboro since 2021. The Rockets went 2-8 in his first season, but improved to 5-5 in 2022 and the team went 5-6 last year, including an appearance in the NCHSA Class 3A state playoffs. In two seasons at Beddington High, including the abbreviated spring 2020 season, caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Smith post a 13-7 overall record.

Corinth Holders went 2-8 last year under Martin Samek, who left at the end of year. The Pirates have not had a winning record since back-to-back nine win season in 2014 and 2015.

Person High, with fall practice scheduled to get underway on July 31, must move quickly to fill its head coach vacancy.

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Gary Adornato
GARY ADORNATO

Gary Adornato is the Senior VP of Content for High School On SI and SBLive Sports. He began covering high school sports with the Baltimore Sun in 1982, while still a mass communications major at Towson University. In 2003 became one of the first journalists to cover high school sports online while operating MIAASports.com, the official website of the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association. Later, Adornato pioneered market-wide coverage of high school sports with DigitalSports.com, introducing video highlights and player interviews while assembling an award-winning editorial staff. In 2010, he launched VarsitySportsNetwork.com which became the premier source of high school media coverage in the state of Maryland. In 2022, he sold VSN to The Baltimore Banner and joined SBLive Sports as the company's East Coast Managing Editor.

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