Laurens – Jolly Doolittle is the new football head coach at Laurens Academy after seven years
in charge of the Greenwood Christian School program.
His decision to make the move wasn’t complicated.
“The short answer to that is I always try to be where God wants me to be,” Doolittle said. “I’ve
always told people that if someone is going to offer me I’m going to listen. It just felt like God was
leading me and my family there.”
Doolittle will be going from 11-man football to the SCISA 8-man game. However, he is quite
familiar with 8-man. He was the head coach at W.W. King Academy for nine years, the final three as an
8-man program. King went 32-8 in those seasons, reaching the state championship game one time.
Doolittle, who played 11-man football at Wardlaw Academy and went on to play collegiately at
North Greenville University, said football is the same no matter the number of players on the field.
“Football comes down to blocking and tackling,” Doolittle said. “It's the same for both: you build
your team around your personnel and put the ball in the best players’ hands. But if you can block and
tackle you can be successful.”
Doolittle takes over for Travis Plowden, who was the head coach for one season. Plowden, the
school’s athletic director and boys basketball head coach, took over last summer when Stacy Bell
resigned after less than a month on the job. The Crusaders went 4-7 last season.
Doolittle likes what he has seen of his players over the summer.
“It's a great group of guys, but we are very young with just one senior,” he said. “It’s a smaller,
rural school, but that’s where I’ve had most of my success over the years.
“Football is important there. (Former head coach and current headmaster Coach (Todd) Kirk laid
a wonderful foundation. I happen to have the belief we can do it again. The players have been accepting
to what we’re telling them, they work hard and they are coachable.”
He said he has had a solid core of 12 players throughout lifting and summer workouts.
Doolittle is the only newcomer to the coaching staff. Shannon McGee is back in charge of
volleyball after leading the team to a state championship. Jason Marlett is back in charge of the girls
basketball team after leading it to the state championship game.
Darryl Halbert will be back as the baseball coach with Megan Huck back as the softball coach.
Mary Littleton returns as the sporting clays coach and Tiffany Tarver as the cheerleading coach.
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