Climbing the Ladder
Mark Clarke is just the type of coach that Eastern Canadian Basketball League president Tim Kendrick has been seeking. Clarke, a congenial 48 year-old basketball pupil and teacher, has been named assistant coach of the new league’s Valley Vipers. He has been the head coach of the Horton High Griffins in Wolfville, N.S. for seven years and has also served as an assistant with the Acadia Axemen of the Atlantic University Sport’s men’s conference.
“He’s a great young man who has always given a lot to his community and to the game of basketball,” Kendrick says. “He’s certainly well-prepared to make the step up to the professional level,” the president adds. “When we started this league, we said that we wanted to create opportunities for Maritime players and coaches.”
Kendrick has known Clarke for more than 30 years. He was Clarke’s coach at Horton for three years – and the Griffins won two western Nova Scotia high school titles during that span. Clarke, who grew up in Hantsport, left the Valley to play at Mount St. Vincent University in Halifax before returning to settle in New Minas.
“I enjoy being a coach for the high school kids and at university, but this is going to be a challenge and I’m looking forward to it,” Clarke says “I’m climbing the ladder, but it’s more about the players. I hope we can get some local kids to play at this level – a higher level after their college careers are done.”
Eric Perry, a Los Angeles native who has coached all over the world, will be the head coach of the Vipers.
In 1984, Papa Johns Pizza started in the small town of Jeffersonville, Indiana, and its popularity has spread all the way to Atlantic Canada. Today, Papa Johns boasts over 3,600 restaurants and can be found in more than 35 international markets outside of the USA. In Atlantic Canada, we opened our first Papa Johns franchise in Moncton, operating under the name of PJ Atlantic Restaurants Ltd. in 2009.
This was the first of many Papa Johns restaurants to be opening over the next few years to serve the Maritime provinces. We now have a dozen restaurants in the following areas:
639 Mountain Rd., Moncton
555 Dieppe Blvd., Dieppe
20 Plaza Ave., Saint John
528 Smythe St., Fredericton
133 McAllister Dr. Saint John
19 Babineau Ave., Charlottetown
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