Ribault coach Marlon White resigns after two seasons with Trojans

Ribault's Marlon White shakes hands with former Trojans player Laveranues Coles when he was hired.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Ribault is on the search for a new football coach after parting ways with Marlon White, who resigned on Friday after two seasons with the Trojans.

White was 4-16 in his two seasons with the Trojans, although two of those wins came in the 2020 state playoffs. Ribault struggled offensively during its 1-9 season this year and scoring eight points or less in seven games. It opened the year with a 16-7 loss to Creekside in the WW Gay Mechanical Contractors Inc. Bold City Showcase. White confirmed his resignation late Sunday night.

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“I am grateful for the chance to have coached a great group of young men. Rebuilding a program is a process. Unfortunately that time was cut short,” White said.

“In the past year, we made it to the third [round] of the state playoffs, raised the team GPA from 2.21 to 2.86. We averaged 30 plus kids in our last two freshman classes and had 35 Juniors returning. The future is bright, and I wish them much success.”

White came in during a transitional time for the Trojans. Kelvin Smith was abruptly removed from the position before the start of the 2019 regular season and the program tabbed assistant Lin Shell as the interim coach. Shell led Ribault to a 4-5 season in 2019 and wasn’t retained.

Ribault went out of the area to hire White, a South Carolina native who spent time in the Air Force and worked the bulk of his coaching career at stops in North Carolina.

White said at the time that the rebuild of a program that had lost numerous solid players to graduation and transfer would take at least three years.

Ribault is the second Gateway Conference school to be on the hunt for a new coach. Mandarin parted ways with Bobby Ramsay last Thursday. Ramsay was the state’s coach of the year in 2018, the same year that he won the Class 8A state championship.


About the Author:

Justin Barney joined News4Jax in February 2019, but he’s been covering sports on the First Coast for more than 20 years.