Bluffton – Even though Hilton Head Christian Academy didn’t win as many state
championships in the 2022-23 school year as it had the previous year, athletic director Jason
Grunkemeyer is still excited about the overall program’s direction heading into the ’23-24 school year.
"We are very excited for another season of athletics at HHCA,” said Grunkemeyer, who will be
starting his second year as the school’s athletic director. “We have had some great momentum over the
past couple years with several of our programs having great success and we anticipate another
successful year.”
Instead of three state championships, Hilton Head Christian only claimed two. To no one’s
surprise, Hilton Head Christian won its fifth consecutive SCISA state championship in girls
basketball. The first four came at the AA level under head coach Kenny Conroy. The most recent
championship came at the AAA level, which is where Hilton Head Christian was placed after
reclassification. Also, the Lady Eagles won the title under new head coach Bobby Thompson, who
took over when Conroy stepped down.
The other state championship came from the boys golf team. The Eagles, who were coached by
Mike Spangler, edged longtime rival Hilton Head Prep by two strokes to win the AAA
championship.
Both Thompson and Spangler will be back as head coaches this year. In fact, the only change
among head coaches will be in boys and girls tennis. Brad Osborne will be the HHCA tennis coach
after heading up the girls and boys tennis program at Heritage Academy the last two years. The Heritage
girls won the Class A championship in 2022 and the Heritage boys took home the championship crown
this past spring.
Ron Reduzzi will be back for his sixth season in charge of football. The Eagles went 7-4 last
season in AAA after having consecutive perfect seasons while winning the AA crown. Peduzzi will be
assisted by Matt Smith, John Houpt, Ryan White, Shatone Powers, Matthew Ballard, Michael
McMullin and Luke Guess.
Hilton Head Christian will be starting a junior varsity football program led by Gerrick Taylor.
Dave Adams, a longtime head coach in the Hilton Head area with both South Carolina High School
League and SCISA schools, is the new middle school head coach.
Grunkemeyer will be in his third season as the boys basketball head coach. He led the Eagles to
their first 20-win season in over a decade, guiding them to a 24-5 record. They lost to Hilton Head Prep in
the AAA state championship game.
JW Wilkerson is back for his third year as the baseball coach. The Eagles went 14-14 overall
and 1-2 in the state playoffs. Drew Dale is back as the volleyball coach after leading HHCA to a 26-17-1
record and to the championship match in its part of the bracket in the state tournament.
Aaron Mau is the boys and girls cross country head coach, Parker Collins will coach the girls
golf team, Melanie Hilton is in charge of the boys and girls swim teams, J.R. Moise is the boys soccer
head coach, and Ashley Bezilla is the cheer head coach.
The HHCA boys swim team finished second in the Division II state meet.
“We are fortunate to have some really quality coaches that put in a ton of time to benefit our
students and I feel really blessed to have such a great staff,” Grunkemeyer said..
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