Playing on opposite sides of the line, Columbus East’s Jared Clark and Columbus North’s Coleman Tennyson occasionally butted heads when their teams met the past couple of football seasons.
Friday night, the pair will be on the same team. They’ll suit up for the South in the annual North-South All-Star Classic at North Central.
“I ended up down-blocking him a couple of times when they stunted a little bit,” Clark said. “He’s one of those guys that we kind of looked at on film and prepared for. It will be interesting to see how the guys from the North (All-Stars) handle him.”
If he’s anything like he was at Columbus North, Tennyson will be a handful. The 6-foot-3, 285-pound defensive tackle wreaked havoc on opposing offenses in his three seasons as a starter.
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Tennyson is looking forward to playing with the South All-Stars.
“Just the whole experience is going to pretty fun, I feel,” Tennyson said. “I just want to get out there and do the best I can. I want to see if I can wrap up three tackles for losses and maybe a couple sacks.”
Clark and Tennyson almost ended up in the same conference. Tennyson is headed to Tiffin (Ohio), which is in the Great Lakes Intercollegiate Athletic Conference. Clark is going to Hillsdale (Michigan), which was in the GLIAC, but just moved to the Great Midwestern Athletic Conference.
The 6-4, 250-pound Clark, who played left tackle for the Olympians, is the fifth offensive lineman in as many years to represent East in the North-South game. He follows Rob McKee (2013), Evan Kuhn (2014), Devorus Lewis (2015) and Aaron Kruchten (2016).
“I’m really looking forward to the opportunity,” Clark said. “For as long as I can remember, we’ve had an offensive lineman playing that game. I get to continue that tradition, so I feel really honored.”
Meanwhile, East assistant coach Jonathan Martin will be an assistant for the South squad. Martin coaches East’s shot and discus throwers in the spring as an assistant track coach. Clark and Tennyson were shot and discus throwers for East and North and talked this spring with each other and with Whiteland’s Ryder Emberton about playing in the All-Star Classic together.
Martin has been an assistant football coach at East since 1992, mostly as a defensive line coach and head junior varsity coach. He also has coached the secondary and wide receivers and will coach wide receivers this fall.
Martin will represent Region 10 on the South coaching staff.
“It’s a very big honor,” Martin said. “You’re voted on by your peers. Just the opportunity to go there and have some fun and coach some different kids and meet a lot of different kids, it will be fun coaching them.”
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What: North-South All-Star Classic
When: 7 p.m. Friday
Where: North Central High School
Who: Some of the state’s top graduated seniors, including Columbus East’s Jared Clark and Columbus North’s Coleman Tennyson
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