North Marion High School’s ‘true team’

Members of the 2025/26 North Marion High School Varsity Boys Basketball Team are pictured on April 16, 2026, in the school gym with Coach Tim Yarn in center and, from left, Lamont Sweeting, J.D. Jackson, Edward Law and Matt Dial. [Photo by Andy Fillmore/Ocala Gazette]

Ask the members of the2025/2026 North Marion High School Colts varsity boys’ championship basketball team who the top player is and they will all point to each other.

That’s the sort of quiet, no brag, all-for-one, one-for-all spirit that head coach Tim Yarn has instilled in his student athletes.

It also may be among the reasons why the 2025/26 season saw the Florida Athletic Coaches Association 4A District 7 Coach of the Year honor bestowed on Yarn and Player of the Year kudos going to team member Lamont Sweeting. Yarn has been similarly honored three times previously. 

Key words Yarn uses to describe the 2025/26 team are “humility” and “trust.”

He said he also asks his players if individual statistics or letters for team “W” and “L,” or wins and losses, are more important. 

“What’s more important, numbers or letters when it comes to basketball? Our strength is in our togetherness,” Yarn said. “The members of this team are willing to sacrifice individual accolades for the betterment of the team. This is a true team.”

With perhaps one or two exceptions, Yarn has known all of his student athletes and their families throughout their high school careers.

According to maxpreps.com, the overall team statistic for points per game during the current season was 54.1. The NMHS team is ranked 49th in Florida and fourth in Division 4A.

The team racked up, according to school officials, the best win/loss season record in NMHS history, with 22 wins and four losses. The team won the county tournament and clinched the 2026 Florida State High School Athletic Association 2026 4A District 5 championships and a post regular season trip to the Regional Finals.

The Colts suffered a 47-44 loss to Gainesville Eastside at the Regional Finals, although NMHS had beaten Eastside three times in earlier meetings. The Feb. 21 loss to Eastside in the Regional Finals kept the Colts basketball team from the state finals but the season’s accomplishments and life lessons remain.

Several players met recently to reflect on the season, and one player described a type of “tough love” coaching. 

Senior Matt Dial, 18, who also is the school’s varsity football quarterback, played forward on the basketball team and had 60% in field goals, the maxpreps boys’ basketball site indicates.    

Dial said coach Yarn’s guidance helped him keep “focus” and “maintain goals.”

Dial has earned a scholarship to Belhaven University in Jackson, Mississippi. He is considering a career in the field of radiology.

Lamont Sweeting, 17, a junior averaged 6.5 rebounds per game, according to maxpreps. He said he is looking at a career in cybersecurity.

J.D. Jackson, 18, a senior, played point guard. Maxpreps states that he had three assists per game. 

Jackson said he looked forward to being coached by Yarn, who has played the same position, going into the season.

Team members expressed that Yarn motivated them to do their best.

Edward Law, 17, played point guard. He is ranked in the top 12 in 4A District 5 for 1 stat, according to maxpreps.com. The website indicates Law had 4.3 rebounds per game.

Yarn said players Tekelvin Jackson and Justice Phillips were members of the record setting team and that Andree Thomas and Danny Smith served as assistant coaches.

Curtis Langston, Darnell Goodman, Daryl Johnson, Angel Guerra, Kaleb White, Jorge Navarro and Adrian Cook are also on the 2025/26 NMHS varsity boys’ basketball team roster, according to maxpreps.

Yarn is a Marion County native and 1999 NMHS graduate and former basketball and football player at the school. He was a two-time All-State point guard in basketball and twice was recognized as an All-State football defensive back. He went on to play football at the University of South Carolina under coach Lou Holtz. Yarn has been coaching at NMHS for about 18 years.

Janice Ray, of the north Marion County area, has known Yarn for at least 40 years and has followed his career.

Ray wrote in an email that she would like to recognize Yarn and his “feisty players” on the 2026 NMHS boys varsity basketball team, saying they have done “what no other team in NM history has done.” She also noted his four-time Coach of the Year honor. 

“Yarn is not just a coach to his players, but a father figure who cares about them and helps them along the way with his love and faith. I have an article from the newspaper in 1999 where he was Player of the Year in Marion County and now he has earned Coach of the Year,” Ray wrote in part.

NMHS Principal James “Matt” Johnson said Yarn “made it happen” this season with coaching motivation and said the team put in “hard work and intensity.”

“I’m very proud of these student athletes,” Johnson said.

To see the school’s full athletics calendar, go to nmh.marionschools.net/student_services/athletics/athletics_calendar