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Ellis to coach boy’s basketball at West Florence
By David Shelton
Staff Writer
Florence – Former assistant Pete Ellis will return to the West Florence High School boy’s basketball program this season, accepting the position as head coach in May.
Ellis comes back to West Florence after spending the last five years as the head boy’s coach at Marion High School. He inherited a Marion High program that was 3-17 the season before he arrived and turned the Swamp Foxes in to a team that competed for region championships. His last four teams at Marion qualified for the Class AA lower state playoffs.
Ellis spent four years as an assistant at West Florence before leaving for his first head coaching position. He replaces coach Bion Shoemaker, who resigned after a 3-18 season last season due to health reasons.
Having seen Ellis work before during his tenure at West Florence, athletic director Neville Files has confidence that Ellis will turn the program around.
“He was a great coach for us in a number of different sports when he was here the first time,” Files told the Florence Morning News. “Now he’s really grown as a head (basketball) coach and brings a lot of excitement and enthusiasm with him.”
As this issue went to press, there was no other known coaching changes among varsity sports at West Florence for the coming school year.
Bob Kleinknecht will return as head baseball coach and Jason Brewer is the school’s golf coach. The golf team competed in the class AAAA state tournament in May, finishing 10th in the team standings.
Jim Fritchman coaches cross country and works with the track program and Jason Oaks works with the boy’s track program.
Jamie Magee led the girl’s tennis team to a region title last fall. West Florence qualified for the lower state playoffs and beat James Island in the first round before losing to Lexington.
Dustin Smith coaches girl’s soccer and volleyball. The volleyball team finished fourth in the region last season and qualified for the state playoffs. The girl’s soccer team won the region six championship and beat Aiken in the first round of the playoffs before losing a 1-0 match to Summerville in round two.
Veteran Billy Andrews coaches the boy’s soccer team. West Florence won the region championship last season and lost in the playoffs to Dutch Fork.
Long-time coach Charles Nelson coaches boy’s tennis and led the Knights to another region championship last spring. The team won their first round playoff match but lost to Dutch Fork in round two.
Trey Woodberry returns to coach varsity football this fall and Kevin Allen will be back as the girl’s basketball coach. Denise Carter is the school’s softball coach.
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