Panthers Welcome 10 New Coaches

By: Jay Hendrix

Special to the HSSR

           The 2024-25 school year opens on July 30^th this year in Batesburg-Leesville and with the new school year the Panthers welcome 10 new faces to campus with a few current coaches also moving into new roles. Seven new varsity head coaches will take over while five new assistants join the staff with the boys tennis head coaching position still to be filled.

In fall sports the volleyball program will now be headed by longtime coach, Erick Shick, who joins the program after having been head coach at Lexington and White Knoll. Shick, who has 28 years of coaching experience, is also joined by James Tiffner who will head the junior varsity volleyball team and has also been coaching for 28 years, mostly with Shick.  Shick was head coach in the North/South All-Star game last year as he led the Wildcats to the third round of the Class 5A playoffs.

           In football, Greg Lawson returns for his third season at the helm of the program and welcomes aboard Brian Cotney who replaces Daniel Burton who was a wide receivers coach for the Panthers. Cotney brings 10 years of coaching experience with him to an already veteran staff which returns mostly intact.

           Former B-L coach David Prince returns to B-L to take over the strength and conditioning program. With 28 years of coaching experience, Prince is a member of the South Carolina Strength Coaches Association Hall of Fame and coached the 2024 Class 5A State Champion weightlifting team at Chapin. Prince will be joined by Ty-Layshia West in strength and conditioning as an assistant and she will also assist in track and field. West, a 2019 Batesburg-Leesville graduate, holds several B-L shot put and discus records and won the state championship in 2017 and 2019 in shot put and also won in discus in 2019. In addition to three state championships, West also placed second in the shot put in 2016 and 2018. West also competed at Coastal Carolina and is working on her Nutrition degree.

           Another B-L alumnus is returning to take on a head coaching position as Paige Kaiser takes over the role of girls head cross country coach. Kaiser, a 2018 graduate of Batesburg-Leesville, holds the girls’ school record with a personal best of 19:59 and was a two time region runner of the year. Kaiser will team up with Justin Castro who enters his fourth season as boys head coach. Kaiser, who played soccer at Lander University, will also serve as the junior varsity girls soccer head coach in the spring.

           Rounding out the fall sports will be Nicole Yaworski in girls tennis. Under Yaworski the Panthers have won back-to-back region championships.

           In the winter another B-L alumnus; Deveto Johnson, will take over the varsity girls basketball coach after leading the middle school program for the past six seasons. Johnson replaces Ashley Enwright who coached the Panthers for just one season. B-L will also begin wrestling this winter with Zack Howerton leading the program. Howerton wrestled at Newberry College and has 11 years of coaching experience and was associate head coach at White Knoll previously. 

           In the spring the Panthers will also have new head coaches in the soccer programs. Gary Adams, who has been the girls junior varsity coach for the past two years, will take over the girls varsity program from Bob Roudybush. The boys program, which won the region championship in 2024, will be under the direction of Dr. Gabriel Berges-Puyo. Berges-Puyo has seven years of coaching experience and this will be his first head coaching role after playing soccer internationally in Spain. Haley Hernandez will join the girls soccer staff in her first year of coaching after playing at Columbia International University. 

           On final spring sport addition is Matthew Banks as a softball coach. Banks has 12 years of coaching experience. As of this article there are a few coaching spots left to be filled in the winter and spring but the bulk of the coaching staff is in place and ready to make the 2024-25 season special.