By Billy G. Baker Publisher Greenville — With the focus of a hungry lion on a hunt, after not eating for two weeks, and possessed with the passion of the departed Reverend Billy Graham saving souls at a tent revival in 1954, via a lava hot message, Scott Early takes over as the SCACA Executive Director , ready to lead and exceed. “I feel like this is what God put me on this earth to do,” said Coach Early. “I absolutely love my job!” Coach Early drives around the state in a pick-up truck that has the SCACA logos painted all over the vehicle, including positive messages. “I want to promote the SCACA in every way I can so my truck is certainly a great way to promote the organization as I drive around the state,” Coach Early. From an updated and colorful new website at sccoaches.org, to utilizing new software that makes renewing your Association membership fast and more efficient, Coach Early and his staff are making tremendous progress in their first year, after taking over from the hard-working duo of Shell and Mary Dula after last year clinic. Asked if he missed being head football coach, Coach Early replied, “I do not miss coaching football because I feel like having the clinic is like my state championship game,” he said. “My goal is to make things better and listen to get good ideas.” Coach Early didn’t take long to thank his support staff at the SCACA that consists of office manager Lacey Logan , finances & vendors manager Cindy Jacobs , and Neal Smith , the SCACA Associate Executive Director, who is in charge of managing the North-South Touchdown Energy Bowl held every year at Myrtle Beach. Coach Early gave a second shout-out to Ms. Jacobs with this year’s vendors increasing from 131, opposed to 108 last year. “I sincerely hope our annual clinic is an opportunity for coaches to develop new relationships, attend teaching clinics where we have top notch speakers, and leave rejuvenated and ready to have a successful season in his or her sport,” said Coach Early. Coach Early indicated a pre-clinic registration of over 6,000, and with the new software available to coaches, he predicted by the end of this clinic we SCACA could push to 8,000 or more members for the first time ever, This would include retirees, college coaches, and special memberships. Coach Early was also excited about a record amount of funds being generated that is distributed to the scholarship fund directly benefitting children of SCACA members headed off to college as freshmen. The annual Hall of Fame Banquet was held once again and 20, 25, 30, 35, year etc. service awards were also presented to many coaches. In an interview with David Shelton of the HSSR last summer, Caoch Early talked about why it was an ideal time for him to leave Westside High School and pursue his dream job. By the way, the next season the team Coach Early had built, won the SCHSL AAAA state football championship. “It wasn’t a case of me wanting to get out of coaching. I was happy with what we were doing at Westside and we were coming off a 10-win season,” said Earley, who spent nine seasons at Westside. “This wasn’t my timing. This was God’s timing. Two years ago, when coach Dula announced he was stepping down, I wasn’t sure then that I wanted to stop coaching. Over time, I became more comfortable with the thought, and with my background in the association, I felt this was a great opportunity for me to pursue. If I had not pursued it this time, I doubt I would ever have this opportunity again.” Though he had to go through an extensive interview process, there was little doubt that Earley was as prepared for the new job as any applicant. He was unanimously chosen by the Board of Directors. “I took a leap of faith because there was no guarantee I would get the job,” he said. “I am very humbled and honored that they placed their trust in me to do this job. I have huge shoes to fill.” The position of executive director of the coach’s association is one of the more respected positions in South Carolina high school athletics. Several highly successful football coaches have held the position over the last 40 years, including Bettis Herlong , Keith Richardson and Dula. Earley, a North Carolina native, almost accidentally fell into high school coaching. After college, he was working in a car detailing business and coaching little league football. As it turns out, Earley’s teams had a lot of success and the young coach was bitten by the bug. Earley returned to school and earned his degree in education. He got his first high school coaching opportunity under North Carolina legend Ron Massey . Earley moved to South Carolina and Lake City High, coaching under another successful coach, Mickey Moss . He got his first head coaching job, at the age of 28, in 2000 at Myrtle Beach High School. The Seahawks won the state championship in 2008 and Earley moved on after the 2009 season. He spent one year as the coach at Chapin and three seasons at Lexington before heading to Westside . Earley has plenty of knowledge and experience with the ins and outs of the coach’s association. He became actively involved with Richardson in 2000 and has been a major force in making the Touchstone Energy North-South All-Star Football Game and major event every December. “I learned from the best.” Earley says. “I became more and more involved in the mission of the coach’s association. Then, since January, I have been working with coach Dula. It has been a smooth transition period. I have a much greater appreciation for the job.” Earley sees the primary role of the coach’s association to be active in all matters related to coaches and kids. “Our coaches, and our kids, need an advocate,” he said. “They need representation and the association has taken on that role and run with it. This organization is growing every year. We have set records for coaches registration this year. This clinic will be the largest ever. It’s an exciting time. There’s a lot going on in the world of athletics and that makes the coaches association even more important.” With the increasing likelihood of NIL opportunities for high school athletes, Earley says it is important for the coach’s association to work in concert with the South Carolina High School League to ensure fairness at all levels. “This business is not what it used to be. It’s a scary time in many ways,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of issues to deal with.” Earley says one of his goals with his new work is helping to find ways to hire and retain coaches. Too often these days young coaches are getting out of the business for better financial opportunities. “We have to find ways to keep them in coaching,” Earley said. “It’s hard to tell a young coach to stick with it when people he went to college with are making twice the money that he or she is. We really have to do a great job of selling our business to young men and women. We have to convince them why they should stay the course with retirement benefits and our coaches’ kids’ scholarship program, We can do that through this coach’s association.” As he settles into his new role, Earley has hopes of modernizing the way things are done, which will encompass a lot of technological advances and improvements. But he is not looking to reinvent the wheel. “What’s been done before me has been amazing,” he said. “Those men before me have grown this association into a powerful voice for our profession. I just want to build on their success. I want to push our message even harder, getting the word out about who we are and what we do, to all coaches, from middle school to high school. We have a great association and we do a lot of great things. I just want to focus my energies on making sure we continue to grow.” As for his role as the director of the North-South all-star football game, Earley says he will relinquish those duties to better focus on all other aspects of the coach’s association. “I love the game but in this new role, I don’t want to be viewed as a football guy,” he said. “I want to focus on relationships with all of our individual sports associations. We have a lot of great people and I want to partner with all of them to give our coaches the best representation possible.”