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Colleton County hires new coaches to fill out staff By David Shelton Staff Writer Walterboro – Last year was an exciting time for Colleton County athletics. The school moved into new athletic facilities in football, baseball and softball and the new digs rank as some of the best in the lower state. Athletic director Leroy Riley continues to see improvement in every area and recently announced the hiring of a few new coaches to take over this fall. An addition to the varsity football staff is Brice Laughter. Hired as the new girl’s soccer coach is Laurie Townsend while Danny Wiggins will coach the junior varsity girl’s soccer team next spring. Craig Williams will be the new boy’s track coach. At presstime, Riley was still trying to fill vacancies in boy’s tennis, girl’s tennis and cheerleading. The remaining varsity sports are filled by returning coaches this fall. Returning to lead the girl’s softball program once again is Rusty Adams, who has guided the program for more than 25 seasons. Adams has accumulated more than 500 career victories at Walterboro and Colleton County High. Another top girl’s program is the basketball program, headed up by Jason Loudenslager. The Lady Cougars have become an annual contender for region championships and continue to be one of the state’s top 10 programs. Joey Gardner will return this fall to coach the volleyball team while Michael Tew will be back as the boy’s basketball coach in the winter. Heading up the baseball program is Percy Knight, who just completed his first season at the school. Knight is rebuilding the baseball program with a host of younger players and should be a playoff contender in a few years. Former Walterboro High standout soccer player Kyle Coker is the boy’s soccer coach. Ben Mitchell returns as the golf coach in the spring and George Smith will coach track in the spring and cross country in the fall. Dee Kinard is back for another year as the athletic secretary under Riley. Riley again returns as the head football coach as well.

?They?re athletic, as usual, and their skill people are as good as anyone?s,? said Riley. ?They always are a well-prepared football team. They?re coming off a loss but they are much better than they played in their first game. With this being their first home game, I?m sure they will play better.?

?As a coach, I want to see us play better and improve on the things we did wrong, but overall we saw a lot of good things from our team. We were pretty consistent on both sides of the ball, with a little letdown here and there. I was pleased with our effort overall.?

Colleton County displayed great balance offensively in the win, equally distributing the more than 400 total yards of offense through the air and on the ground. Senior quarterback Kevin Adams had a solid game, passing for more than 200 yards. Running back Eric Kirkland added 130 yards rushing and scored on a run and a pass reception. Tackle Trey Black was the top performer along the offensive line, along with sophomore Deshawn Griffith, who was making his first varsity start.

Receivers James Rice, Tony Stephens, Willie Grant and Jonathan Gordon had productive nights in the passing game as well.

?Being able to run and pass effectively makes us a much better offense overall and balance is something we strive for,? said Riley. ?Our pass protection was very good. Our receivers caught and blocked well on the perimeter. We were a little slow in the third quarter but otherwise we had three very solid quarters of football.?

Defensively, end Andre Collum and linebacker Phillip Martin were the top performers but Riley thought the defense played well as a unit.