Johnie Moreno new football head coach for Lee Academy
The remainder of the Cavaliers head coaching staff returns for 2026-27 school year
Bishopville – When Lee Academy had an opening for its football head coaching job for the 2025 season, Johnie Moreno applied for the job.
He got an interview with Lee Head of School Brad Bochette and athletic director Kemp DeWitt, but Moreno didn’t get the job.
Fast forward a year though and Moreno is preparing for his first season as the Cavaliers’ head coach. He got the job after the man who beat him out last season, Justin Logan, decided to step down. Moreno is looking forward to the opportunity.
“I was set to be the B team head coach at Lugoff-Elgin (High School),” Moreno said. “They (Lee) had just got an opening, and Brad reached out to me and asked if I wanted to come in and interview. I had an interview with both Brad and DeWitt and had some really good conversations. This year the job opened, I interviewed, and that was all she wrote.”
Moreno was an assistant at Thomas Sumter Academy in Dalzell for many years and the two schools located about 20 miles apart scheduled each other every year.
“I always enjoyed playing there,” Moreno said. “They had big, strong kids, and I just liked the whole atmosphere there. I knew if I ever got the opportunity I would love to coach there.”
Moreno inherits a team that went 2-8 last year and lost to eventual SCISA Class A state runner-up Colleton Prep Academy in the first round of the state playoffs.
Moreno wasn’t hired until June, so he is still putting his coaching staff together. To date, he had Adam Skidmore, Trent Griffin, Noah Allen-Steele and his son, Maximus Moreno, in place.
Moreno is the only new varsity head coach for the Cavaliers. There is one with a new name but a familiar face in Ivy Capell. She is the former Ivy Watts, who is back for her second season in charge of the volleyball program.
Danny Price will return for his third season at the helm of the baseball team. He led the Cavaliers to a AA state title in 2025 and back to the state championship series this past year where they lost in three games to Dorchester Academy.
SCISA veteran coach Kim Langston will return as the girls basketball head coach and the girls golf head coach. LA reached the semifinals of the AA state tournament for the second consecutive year and finished with a 13-8 record.
DeWitt will be in his third year as the boys basketball head coach. Lee went 4-15 and did not make the state tournament.
Craig Nesbit is back in charge of the softball program. The Cavaliers were 12-12 this past season and went 2-2 in the AA state tournament. Nesbit has all but one starter returning for the 2027 season.
Lindsay Brazell will be the cheer coach.
