JELKS MOVES ON AFTER 21 YEARS OF COACHING IN PINE BLUFF

By Sean Saunders/of the commercial staff

Mark Jelks coached baseball in the Pine Bluff Public Schools for 21 years.

He was an assistant when the Zebras won state titles in 1992 and 1995. He was also part of the three runner-up performances of 1990, 2000 and 2001, as well as 19 playoff appearances.

Then he decided in May to hang up his hat for good. Jelks decided to pursue his career as an administrator, focusing solely on his position as assistant principal at Pine Bluff High School.

Jelks says he finds leaving the game challenging when he sees his former players walking the halls. But he says he has an interesting plan to cope with baseball withdrawl.

“I have a great group of teachers here,” Jelks said. “Coaches have to prepare for gameday and gameday just happens to be everyday here. The teachers are like my players, and we have to have a solid gameplan so school can run smoothly each day.”

Jelks coached football and baseball during his days at Pine Bluff. But Jelks claims that baseball is his passion because he played baseball growing up as well as in college.

Jelks began his baseball coaching career coaching seventh grade at Jack Robey before taking over as the varsity coach there from 1990-95. He then began working as an assistant at Pine Bluff in 1995 under coaching fixture Billy Bock and took over as head coach in 2003.

Jelks was also a football coach for 18 years. Some of his football highlights include head coach at Jack Robey South from 1994-95 and an assistant coach at Pine Bluff from 1995-04.

“It was easier giving up football because I was able to do fall baseball,” Jelks said. “That helped me keep my mind off of football.”

Jelks had the honor of being selected as an assistant coach in the Arkansas High School Coaches Association’s All-Star Baseball Game in 1991. He was also selected as the District 6 Assistant Coach of the Year in 2002 by the American High School Baseball Coaches Association before taking the head coaching position.

“During the past five years as head baseball coach, my goal was to keep the program competitive,” Jelks said. “I feel we did that, and after many sleepless nights, I decided to accept an administration position.”

Jelks tried to balance his roles as both a coach and a principal last year, but decided that the work was too much. He said he wanted to put his degree to work by trying to better Pine Bluff.