Jarvis Davenport's decision to leave White County was not an easy one.
In 25 years of coaching, he has only moved schools twice. On Friday, he made his third move.
North Hall athletic director Sam Borg announced the former East Hall graduate and White County girls coach would become the next head boys basketball coach to roam the sidelines at Cottrell Arena this winter.
"I probably had three sleepless nights if that explains it," he said about the decision to leave. "If you're a coach and you care, there's always a group of kids that you're going to let down at some point because you can't coach forever, even if you want to. So, at this point, I had to look at what was best for my family and things like that, so even after weighing out all those things, it was still a hard decision."
Davenport has been White County's girls basketball coach for the last seven seasons, leading them to two region runner-ups and six straight state playoff appearances.
He said he was prepared to finish out his career in Cleveland and was not looking to leave.
"I honestly thought I would just finish my career in White County with no thoughts of going anywhere," he said. "You know, when people have jobs, and they have that one job that they say they would always leave a place for. I did not have that job. I was not looking for anything like that. But this situation came up, and after talking with them, I felt it was right, and so, I just prayed about it and felt like this was where I was supposed to go."
Davenport takes over a North Hall program that finished 14-13 last season in a super competitive Region 8-4A. The program has three returning starters, and the roster is littered with experience.
He said he hasn't had a chance to watch game film but knows how scrappy and hard-working his new roster will be.
"Being from Hall County, I've played against North Hall kids all my life," he said. "They've always been coachable, and they just wanted to win. And like I said before, if you get players that want to play hard and win and play for each other and not for the wrong reasons, then the sky's the limit as to what you can do. Once I get to know my players and they get to know me, we'll work on finding the best way to get the job done."
