Mt. Zion-Jonesboro football coach may exit

Jarrett Laws, who led Mount Zion-Jonesboro to the Class AAAA quarterfinals last season, is the top candidate for the head coaching job at a new high school in Clayton County that will open in August.

Any hire becomes official the first week in March, when the school board meets. The new Riverdale school has not been named.

“It is a situation that I’m strongly considering, and in the next two weeks, I will make a decision concerning it,” Laws said.

Laws became Mount Zion’s head coach in 2006. The 2008 team finished 8-5, its first winning season since 2004 and best finish in the state playoffs since 2000.

A Florida native, Laws was head coach at Freedom High in Tampa from 2002-04 and offensive coordinator at Wharton High in Tampa from 1999-2002.

In other coaching moves:

• Habersham Central’s Gene Cathcart is the new head coach at Greenwood High in South Carolina. Cathcart was 40-27 and won two Region 8-AAAA titles in six seasons at Habersham.

• Lee County has hired Dean Fabrizio to replace David Johnson. Fabrizio was the offensive coordinator at Peach County.

• Columbus coach Brian Barnhill has resigned after one season in which Columbus was 1-9.

• Alpharetta has hired Jason Dukes to replace Bill Waters. Dukes had been the offensive line coach.

• Warren County promoted Marleau Blount to replace Lee Hutto, who took the Washington-Wilkes job.