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Catawba Men’s Basketball Coach Rob Perron has announced the hiring of Jo Jo English as an assistant coach with the program. English comes to Catawba after serving as head coach at Sumter High School for the past two seasons.
English guided Sumter to its first state title in 30 years last season and was named the USA Today South Carolina Coach of the Year. In his first season, he took Sumter to the Lower State finals and was the Region 6 Coach of the Year.
“After my visit to Catawba and spending time with the student athletes, I felt in my spirt that I was among family,” said English. “Talking with Coach Perron and Coach [Ben] Veshi, our shared vision is to make Catawba College the best program in the country. Sitting and talking to the players when I visited campus gave me conformation that my purpose is to share my experiences and my knowledge to help these guys gain an understanding of basketball and life.”
English played a decade of Professional Basketball after his collegiate years at the University of South Carolina. He was a 1,000-point scorer for the Gamecocks and was named All-Metro Conference in 1991. He would play parts of three years in the NBA with the Chicago Bulls under Phil Jackson from 1992-94. Two of those seasons, Chicago would win NBA Championships. English spent another eight seasons in the CBA and overseas.
He returned to South Carolina to earn a degree in criminal justice in 2003. He began helping the USC women’s program on his return. In 2005, English moved to Lower Richland High School before taking over at Sumter in 2013.
“We are excited to have Jo Jo on board and know he will have a positive impact enhancing each individual players skill set and will work extremely hard on the recruiting trail,” said Perron. “Coach English is all the buzz words you look for in a coach. He is an excellent communicator and has a wealth of experience with some of the best players and coaches in the game of basketball. I love his competitive spirit while maintaining a vision for developing the overall student athlete.”
“I met Coach English a couple years ago when I was recruiting somebody that he was playing against,” continued Perron. “I came away very impressed with how hard his team played and he obviously did an excellent job of game planning coupled with making in game adjustments. Needless to say he shut that prospect down.”
Catawba is set to open its 2015-16 season on Nov. 13 against Francis Marion in Florence, S.C.
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