Hilton Head Christian has veteran staff around Peduzzi
Eagles have gone 72-21 with three state championships over the last eight years
Bluffton – Ron Peduzzi is preparing to begin his ninth season as the football head coach at Hilton Head Christian Academy. To say the first eight were successful might be a wee bit of an understatement.
All the Eagles have done during Peduzzi’s tenure is go 72-21 with nine of those losses coming in the first two seasons. They’ve won three state championships during that time, claiming SCISA AA crowns with undefeated seasons in both 2020 and 2021 and winning the AAA title in 2023 with an 11-2 record.
Peduzzi said the reason for the sustained success is because of the assistant coaches he has had around him.
“We have a very experienced coaching staff that has been together for several years,” said Peduzzi, who guided the Eagles to a 7-4 record last season. “Scott Berkner has been with me since 2015, and Matt Smith has been with me since 2017. We have been successful. We continue to strive to be better and work on things that we are not as strong as we’d like to be. We don’t want to take those things for granted.”
Smith and Berkner are two of the three coordinators working for Peduzzi. Berkner is the special teams coordinator, while Smith is the defensive coordinator and the assistant head coach. The offensive coordinator is John Haupt, who also serves as the quarterbacks coach and the strength coach.
The rest of the staff is made up of Shatone Powers, Ronnie Coolbaugh and Luke Guess. Powers will coach both the defensive secondary and the wide receivers, Coolbaugh will coach both the offensive linemen and defensive linemen, and Guess will be helping with the offensive line.
What Peduzzi really likes about his assistant coaches is what they represent off of the field.
“We are hard-working men of faith, solid people, husbands and fathers,” he said.
After losing 17 seniors from the 2023 championship team, Hilton Head Christian had to retool a bit last year. After starting the year with a 3-3 record, the Eagles won four straight games before falling to Wilson Hall 21-9 in the semifinals of the AAA state playoffs.
Hilton Head Christian has a lot of experienced players returning, including senior quarterback Reid McCollum. The Eagles run a quarterback-centric offense so having an experienced and talented signal caller back is a nice commodity to have.
McCollum completed 183 of 305 passes for 2,443 yards and 21 touchdowns while tossing 10 interceptions. McCollum was far and away the leading rusher, picking up 845 yards and 16 touchdowns on 154 carries. The next highest carry total was 47.
McCollum has his top target back in junior Joseph Haupt. He caught 65 passes for 784 yards and five touchdowns.
“We look for a great challenge this season,” Peduzzi said. “We have a group of fine young men playing for the Hilton Head Christian Academy Eagles this season, and we’re looking forward to getting the season started.”
Hilton Head Christian will travel to Charleston to face Porter-Gaud in its season opener on August 22.
