Wednesday's Central Georgia - and of interest to Central Georgia - news and notes, compiled from staff reports, email reports, the web, and social media.

Tattnall goes for youth in football hire

          Less than a month after dismissing Chance Jones, Tattnall has a new football coach well-versed in Macon football.

          John Garrett Abernathy, a graduate of Mount de Sales and Mercer, is the Trojans’ new coach, as per a Tweeted release Wednesday evening.

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          Abernathy graduated from Mount de Sales in 2012, helping the Cavs go 17-6 his final two seasons. He signed as a long snapper with Mercer, which had just reinstated football and started playing in 2013. He played in seven games in 2013 as a sophomore and 12 as a junior, and then didn’t play in 2015, according to the Mercer website’s participation chart.

          The 26-year-old followed a year of grad school by beginning his coaching career at Jones County in 2017. He’s working on his specialist degree at West Georgia in Instructional Technology.

          Abernathy is Tattnall’s third head coach since Barney Hester left in 2013.

Signings

          Former Howard standout Britt Reeves is headed for the Big 12, signing to play women’s basketball at Oklahoma State. The 6-5 center played at Independence Community College in Kansas. …

          Clarence Jackson, who helped Washington County to a pair of GHSA Class A Public boys basketball state championships before finishing his high school career at Dublin, has signed with Wichita State.

The 6-6 forward played at Polk State junior college in Winter Haven, Fla., last season and averaged 13.3 points and 8.2 rebounds. A surprising miss by college recruiters, he was a four-year NCAA qualifier out of high school, so he is able to play one year of junior college and move on rather than have to graduate from junior college.

He signed Wednesday, less than a week after his grandfather and biggest fan died at age 56 from the coronavirus.

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