CHS announces new basketball coach

Special to The Canton News  

Coach Brian “BJ” Townsend was recently named the head boys basketball coach at Canton High School. 

Coach Townsend, a Canton native and 2000 graduate of Canton High School, has been coaching in the district since 2012.  Coach Townsend started off volunteering in 2012, which led him to begin his education and coaching career in 2014. 

Coach Townsend was a part of the 2002 Holmes Community College State Championship Team.  He was the team’s MVP  during both his freshman and sophomore years and the MVP of the Mississippi Junior College All-Star game.  

Coach Townsend continued his basketball career at the University of Pikeville in Pikeville, Kentucky, where he had the opportunity to play for a team that was nationally ranked in the top 25 in the nation and competed for an NAIA National Championship.

Coach Townsend has spent the last nine years as an Assistant Coach for Canton High School under head coach Chris Love for the first two years and head coach Russell Evans for the last seven years.  Coach Townsend took over as head coach at Nichols Middle School in 2016, where he led them to the league’s championship game. 

After coaching at Nichols for two years, Coach then transitioned to Porter Middle School in 2019, where he has served as head coach for the past three years. He also led them to an undefeated regular season but came up short in the championship game. Coach Townsend says he was very proud of his guys’ improvement throughout the year and their hard work on and off the court.

It has always been Coach Townsend’s plan since graduating from college to come back to Canton and give back the knowledge and experience he’s gained throughout the years, all while being a role model and mentor for male youth.  He says his plan now, as the new head coach at Canton High School, is to lead them back to the coliseum and win the 5A State Championship under his leadership.

Townsend’s motto is “We can, we will, we must be great!”

Former Coach Russell Evans has been promoted to assistant principal of Canton High. CPSD officials say the district is excited about Coach Evans’s new leadership role as he continues making a difference in the lives of their scholars.