This summer, Canton Public Schools hired three new coaches, one for football and two for basketball. Andy Claborn is the new head football coach. He was the junior high football coach at OBA for the past two seasons. Claborn has been coaching for the last 38 years at different high schools, making 24 playoff appearances, winning 11 district titles, as well as making nine trips to the semifinals, four trips to the state finals. Coach Claborn has a career record of 245-126.

Patrick Rich is coaching boy’s basketball. He coached softball, baseball, and basketball at Fairview for the last three years. Rich is teaching a character education class to emphasize “what it means to be a good person.” The Canton basketball boys had previous experience with Rich at the Okarche team camp.

David Baldwin is the new girl’s basketball and track coach. He was the Fairview High School boy’s basketball coach, having a 150-95 record in nine seasons including two state tournament appearances and four trips to the area tournament. For twelve years he helped coach the high school girl’s basketball team. Baldwin retired four years ago and worked in the oilfield. However, when a coaching job became available at Canton, he took the job right away.

Canton schools are excited to start the seasons with new coaches. The goal for these coaches is improvement every season.