Beasley To Be Inducted Into SCACA Hall of Fame During Coaches Clinic In Greenville
Coach Beasley will become the 7th high school coach from Barnwell County to be inducted into the SCACA Hall of Fame at a ceremony in conjunction with the annual Coaches Clinic being held at the Greenville Convention Center between July 24-26.
By Billy G. Baker
Publisher
Barnwell—During the 2026 softball season, Barnwell head softball coach Mike Beasley, accomplished his 300th career win, spanning 28 seasons, that includes 21 seasons at Blackville-Hilda prior to taking over the Warhorse program four seasons ago.
Coach Beasley will become the 7th high school coach from Barnwell County to be inducted into the SCACA Hall of Fame at a ceremony in conjunction with the annual Coaches Clinic being held at the Greenville Convention Center between July 24-26. The Hall of Fame banquet will be held on July 25th inside the Greenville Convention Center.
Coach Beasley is a 1985 graduate of Barnwell High School. He graduated from USC-Aiken in 1997 with a degree in Physical Education. He later earned two master’s degrees from Grand Canyon University, both centered around school administration. He began his coaching career as the head softball coach at Blackville-Hilda in 1998.
He also compiled a 230-130 record as the boys’ basketball coach at Blackville-Hilda over a 15-year span. He has also coached volleyball for three seasons with the Warhawks.
In addition to coaching softball at Barnwell, Coach Beasley has spent the past four years as the Chief Operations Officer for Barnwell District 45 that has emerged as the Barnwell County School District in the past two years. By the year 2028, a brand new high “impact” high school will open, consolidating Williston-Elko, Blackville-Hilda, and Barnwell into the new Barnwell County High School.
Former Barnwell Hall of Fame basketball coach Chip Atkins (RIP) was a great influence on Beasley when their orbits collided at the start of Beasley’s junior season on the varsity basketball team. “During my sophomore year my father died of a massive heart attack and the next year Coach Atkins became the head basketball coach at Barnwell High and he became a mentor to me at a turning point in my life,” said Coach Beasley. “I always enjoyed him as a father figure in my life, and he was a great influence on me wanting to be a coach one day. I give him a lot of the credit for me seeking a coaching career after college.”
In fact, one incident during s game against Silver Bluff is still fresh in the mind of Coach Beasley, over 40 years later. “I am a guard dribbling down the court, and about that time, I hear a bam! bam! bam!! behind me,” said Coach Beasley. “I looked back to see what in the world it was and it was Coach Atkins kicking a chair into the stands, He was upset at the officials for missing a call.”
Coach Beasley will be surrounded at the banquet by wife Cythia, sons Logan, Skylar, and Dalton and he will be clinging to the fond memories of his eldest son Dustin, who passed during the Covid pandemic. The Beasley’s are also proud grandparents to Carter (6) and Tatumn (2), with a third grandchild on the way.
This past season, Coach Beasley’s Warhorse softball team finished 23-5, marking the first softball season in his career that he has had a team win 23 games. The core group of players on the 2026 team led the Barnwell Dixie Ponytails (age 11-12) to the National Championship in Louisiana in the summer of 2024.
“We are going to be a very strong program for the next four or five seasons at least,” said Coach Beasley. “We will have three seniors on the team this upcoming season, but after that, we will be led by a younger group of very talented next level players for a few seasons.”
In four seasons with the Barnwell softball program, Coach Beasley has led the Warhorses to an 80-20 record, and they are a perfect 36-0 in winning four straight region titles.
There are three core principles imbedded into the coaching philosophy of Coach Beasley. “As a head coach I feel it is my duty to instill high expectations in each and every one of my players,” he said. “Secondly, every player deserves to be treated with the same care, commitment, and encouragement. Finally, I stress to my players to never view failure as an acceptable outcome. I keep stressing that hard work pays off.”
At the Hall of Fame Induction ceremony, the honorees will not speak when they are formally honored for their achievements. Instead, SCACA has made a video of each honoree that runs from five to seven minutes.
Talk about Coach Beasley (age 58) being a man for all seasons listen to this: At one point in his journey at Blackville Hilda he served, in the same year, as the school Principal, volleyball coach, boys’ basketball coach, and head softball coach while also serving as they mayor of the town for 12 years!
“I was undefeated as the mayor,” said Coach Beasley.
Coach Beasley hopes to coach softball at least five more seasons before an exit strategy might loom big in his mind. “In this business you should always have a Plan B set aside just in case, but I have no idea what my Plan B might be at this point.”
The majority of the varsity head coaches will remain the same at Barnwell for the 2026-27 school year. Brian Smith will enter his third season as the head football coach. Keri Thorne has moved up to become the athletic director after serving as the assistant AD last year, Coach Smith will now be the assistant AD as well as head football coach.
Derek Youngblood remains the school Principal and Dr. Crystal Stapleton returns as the Superintendent for the Barnwell County School District.
Mariel Cooper will become the new varsity volleyball coach while Luke Catoe returns as the cross-country coach. Alan LeRoy returns as the boys’ basketball coach and WilliamHammonds is nearing 30 years as a girls’ basketball head coach.
In the Spring, Beasley returns to coach softball, Cody McCollum returns as the head baseball coach while Coach Smith returns to coach boy’s golf. Thomas Davis is back to head up the track program. Jay Harvey returns to head coach boys’ soccer and Tracy Turpin is back as the girls’ soccer coach.
