Deas named girls basketball coach at Richland Northeast

Richland Northeast has named Jabari Deas as its girls basketball coach.

Deas replaces Precious Caldwell, who stepped down in April after four seasons to pursue a career in administration.

This will be the third head coaching stop for Deas, who was the boys coach at Manning from 2008-12 and the girls coach at Darlington from 2012-15. At Darlington, he led the Falcons to playoff appearances in each of his three seasons, including a first-round playoff win over Region 5-4A champion Airport in 2014.

Deas spent last season as a boys assistant coach at Lee Central. He also was an assistant there from 2002-07 when the Stallions made four consecutive state title appearances.

Richland Northeast finished fourth in Region 4-3A this year and lost in the first round of the playoffs. The Cavs will be moving up to 4A next year.

Deas will be one of two new coaches in Region 4-4A next season. Lower Richland also will have a new coach but hasn’t announced its replacement for Debbie Stroman yet.