Beatty begins Second Year At Helm of Pinewood Prep Athletic Program,
Holland Succeeds Guerard as head Football Coach
By Billy G. Baker
Publisher
Summerville—The beat goes on at Pinewood Prep.
The Panthers continued to dominate the vast majority of their SCISA opponents during the 2009-10 school year winning state titles in boy’s basketball, boy’s and girl’s soccer, boy’s golf and in speed and strength.
Second year athletic director Nancy Beatty, who coached the girl’s basketball team to a title the year before, stressed that at Pinewood Prep everyone is like one big family. “We have closeness and togetherness here with everyone pulling for each other,” she said. “We are proud of the accomplishments of all our athletes and all of our teams.”
One significant coaching change for the new year is the retirement of football coach Pinky Guerard. The new head football coach is Dan Holland an assistant on last year’s team.
“First of all we thank Coach Guerard for bringing stability to our football program,” said Coach Beatty. “He has helped the raise the bar for sure. We are excited that Dan is taking over because he is an outstanding member of our faculty who brings a high level of energy and enthusiasm to the job. I am quite sure that he will be successful in running our football program.”
Another varsity coaching change is Phil Tobin taking over the baseball program. Former head coach Billy Sylvester returned to Laurence Manning after guiding the Panthers to the finals of the SCISA AAA.
“Phil lives near the school and we are real excited about having him on board,” said Coach Beatty. “He played at The Citadel and has been involved in coaching traveling teams in the area. We are pleased to have him a part of our coaching staff.”
Bryant McKee, formerly of Summerville, is succeeding former tennis coach Heinz Maurer. “Bryant is originally from the Midwest and he is real excited about taking over a well established program left by Coach Maurer,’ said Coach Beatty. “He too brings a lot of enthusiasm to the sport.”
Kelly Hazel is the new track and cross country coach at Pinewood Prep. “She is a very knowledgably and energetic track person and she has had programs in the community for a number of years,” said Coach Beatty. “ I am confident that she is going to do some great things with our cross country and track programs.”
The boy’s basketball team will once again be coached by legendary Hall of Famer Pat Eidson who coached his team to their fifth straight state title this pass season with a win over Heathwood Hall. “Coach Eidson is the very foundation of our coaching staff,” said Coach Beatty. “He is a teacher on site and he is always working with the kids in his program. He is a great example to everyone at Pinewood Prep.”
The soccer teams at Pinewood have been dominate under the coaching leadership of boy’s coach Jason Birchwood and girl’s coach Gail Osborne and return this year looking for the same success to continue. The boy’s team won their seventh straight AAA title this past May while the girl’s won a title for the second year in a row.
Another coaching veteran who will be back at Pinewood is long time golf coach Greg Baechtle who is also a school administrator. His linksters won another SCISA state title this May. The softball coach will once again be coached by John Eckley.
Coach Beatty gives a lot of the credit for Pinewood Prep’s success to headmaster Dr. Glyn Cowlishaw. “He has put good people in place to run the school and he reminds us that we are a team and he stresses that we are to be great educators as well as good coaches. Dr. Cowlishaw is all about academics and athletics being a partnership. Getting a good education will also be priority number one.
“At Pinewood Prep we allow our coaches to think outside the box and to be very flexible,” said Coach Beatty.
