After a decade of leading the Deer Creek School athletic program, Coach Benny McLendon has accepted a job to coach boys basketball at Manchester Academy.
The move for Coach McLendon, who has coached high school sports for more than 35 years, will allow him to scale back his duties. At Deer Creek, Coach McLendon coached multiple sports during the same school year, including football, basketball, baseball and track.
“I am looking forward to the new challenge at Manchester Academy. I love kids and I love coaching. The kids keep me young,” Coach McLendon said.
Coach McLendon spent the majority of his career at Humphreys Academy, where he coached baseball for 19 years and football for 12 years. His baseball teams made the playoffs 15 times and compiled a record of 92-56 in football. The sports complex at Humphreys Academy is named in his honor.
Coach McClendon was inducted into the MAIS Hall of Fame in 2016.
A 1970 Belzoni graduate, McLendon started his coaching career when he was 19 where he mentored boys in the Dixie Youth Baseball League for 20 years. McLendon was named the football coach at Manchester Academy in 2010, and he earned his 100th career victory at the school.
He became the athletic director as well as head football and baseball coach at Deer Creek School in 2014.
