Malcolm Long Feeling Blessed To Be Athletic Director At His Alma Mater

By Billy G. Baker

Publisher

Gaffney — It seems like only yesterday that Gaffney athletic director Malcolm Long was tossing 60-yard-long bomb touchdown passes against Brynes to lead the Indians to a coveted region title before he went on to a stellar career at South Carolina State University.

Coach Long, a 2007 Gaffney graduate,  is very proud of the stability Gaffney enjoys with the retention of their head coaches from year-to-year. “We are fortunate to have all our varsity head coaches returning for this school year,” said Coach Long. “I feel it is vital for your athletic program to maintain head coaches from year-to-year instead of having to deal with a revolving door of head coaches that unfortunately happens at some schools.”

Coach Long is starting his third year as the athletic director at his alma mater. “I feel like one of my roles is being able to help our student athletes earn scholarship opportunities to the next level, not only in athletics but through academics also,” he said. “We have had many athletes at Gaffney earning financial support to the next level through academic achievement and we are very proud of that fact.”

Coach Long said he is grateful for the opportunity to give back to a community that supported him so much when he was an all-state athlete at Gaffney High. “It is a great feeling to be able to give back now in my role as athletic director,” said Coach Long. “Of the young people who followed my career and cheered me on, I know juniors and seniors in our athletic program fulfilling their own hopes and dreams on the playing fields and on the court. I now get to cheer them on.”

In college Long was a three -time All-MEAC player and he established numerous passing records with the Bulldogs. He helped lead Gaffney to back-to-back state football titles in 2005 and 2006 and was chosen a Mr. Football his senior year with the Indians. Long is a devout Christian and pasters a church in the Gaffney area as well.

“I honesty had no interest in the NFL after college,” said Long. “I had other goals in life that were more important to me.”

Coach Long shares a story about the baseball team this past season. “Jeff Mages is our head baseball coach and his players fought hard at the end of the season despite being young in a lot of areas and I felt like they deserved an opportunity to play in the playoffs,” said Morgan. “We had to apply and make a bid for one of the at-large spots available for the playoffs and we were successful getting that extra spot.

“So, after our last game the seniors were all down thinking they had played their last game at Gaffney and they all went berserk with excitement when I told them they were going to the playoffs after-all,” said Coach Long. “I really went to bat for them and seeing how excited they were to make the playoffs gave me a special feeling for them.”

The baseball team went on to defeat Clover (6-1) and Byrnes (13-8) in the playoffs before being eliminated by JL Mann.  

The softball, to be led once again by Maddie Pruitt, competed for the first time in memory in the district finals after earning two wins in the playoffs. “The softball team had a very good season and they finished second in the region,” said Coach Long.

The boys’ basketball team will once again be head coached by Charles Blue who will start his second season. The team won 15 games and finished third in the region. “Coach Blue has some fine assistant coaches helping him and his team was well-coached,” said Coach Long.

Mark Huff is a Hall of Fame basketball coach and once again he led a Gaffney team to a region title that ended up with 21 wins. The only thing that stopped Gaffney from a potential state championship run was the injury to talented sophomore forward Shiriah Harris who was averaging 18.7 points a game when she was injured late in the season.

“Coach Huff has a really strong group of players returning and do not be surprised if his team competes for a state title next season,” said Coach Long. “Coach Huff has ben around a long time and he is a great coach.”

Zach Bridges will coach the boy’s golf team once again while Tina Frye is heading the girl’s golf program. Bradlee Cooper returns for his 4^th season as head coach of the Gaffney volleyball team.

 Scott Simmons has completed seven seasons as the Gaffney head boys’ soccer coach and his team went to the playoffs this past season. Liley Cozel returns to head coach the Gaffney girls’ soccer team.

David Reams returns to head coach the boy’s tennis team. Coach Long said he brought Kenny Harris out of retirement from Union County to head coach the Gaffney girl’s tennis team.

Eric Agnew is back to head coach both the boy’s and girl’s track teams. “We had at least 10 qualifiers to the state track meet this season,” said Coach Long.

Kelly Ellis is back to head coach both the girl’s and boy’s swim teams. Lawanda Moorer is also back as head coach of both the boy’s and girl’s cross-country teams. The adult trainer returning is Jen Guiry and Coach Long felt like a second adult trainer was needed so he has added Gianni Paglia as the school’s second adult trainer this year.

Daniel Grellman will be starting his 4^th season as the head wrestling coach at Gaffney High. “Coach Grellman increased participation in the wrestling program and it is always good to see the numbers increase,” said Coach Long.

The Gaffney football team will rank number one in AAAAA starting the 2024 season under the veteran leadership of Dan Jones.

Gaffney will have early August scrimmages with Greer and Greenwood. They will play Independence High from Charlotte in their hosted McDonalds Classic in mid-August.



Last season Gaffney finished 9-4. They out-scored teams 391-297. They passed for 2,766 yards while rushing for 1,957 net yards for a total offense of 4,723 yards

 Gaffney’s first four regular season games are away at JL Mann to start season on August, 30, the following week on September, 6 they host Greenville. They have a bye week before playing at Boiling Springs on September, 20 and they conclude the month of September hosting rival Spartanburg on September, 27^th.

Reports are that over 50 colleges visited with head coach during the May evaluation football recruiting period, and 15 current senior Indian players are holding firm offers to next level programs, making it a slam dunk that the HSSR will rank the Indians number one in a AAAAA pre-season ranking to be released in early July.

“Things were quite busy around our school in late April, and May, with around 56 colleges visiting my office to get information on our players,” said Gaffney head coach Dan Jones. “This counts even smaller schools like North Greenville and Catawba but we had college coaches in from power five schools like Oklahoma, Texas, Texas A&M, Florida State, also. It is the most we’ve ever had come by I know that.”

Coach Long wanted to thank Gaffney Principal Eric Blanton and the entire school administration at Gaffney High for their support and backing of the Gaffney athletic program. “Mr. Blanton and all our school administrators help make the Gaffney athletic program very successful,” said Coach Long. “We also need to thank our fans for their support. We have the number one fan base in South Carolina and they follow all our sports, not just football.”