Manning has Johnson & Johnson as its new basketball coaches
Dr. Shawn Johnson back as boys coach; Justin Johnson in charge of girls
Manning – As is normally the case with most high school coaching staffs. Manning High
School has gone through some changes for the 2024-25 school year.
The Monarchs will have two new basketball head coaches as well as a new wrestling head coach.
Dr. Shawn Johnson, the superintendent for Clarendon County School District of which
Manning is a member, will take over the boys basketball program for the second time. Justin Johnson will be the new girls head coach and Richard Scheider will be in charge of the wrestling program.
Dr. Johnson was last the boys head coach in 2021 before stepping down after one season to focus solely on the superintendent job. The Monarchs went 16-8 that season and reached the second round of the AAA state playoffs.
He was replaced by Lamont Britt, who led the Monarchs to a 20-6 record and a region title
before taking a similar position at Swansea. Britt was replaced by Patrick Clark, who led the Monarchs to a 15-13 record last season and a berth in the AAA state playoffs. Clark and Manning parted ways after the season.
Justin Johnson takes over a girls program that struggled mightily last season. The Lady Monarchs won just two of 24 games in the final season under Verner Hilton, who was the head coach for three years.
After going 6-11 in her first season, the Lady Monarchs went 15-11 last season and reached the
state playoffs.
Scheider takes over the wrestling program from Spencer Thomas, who is now an assistant
football coach at East Clarendon, another Clarendon County School District high school.
Reggie Kennedy, who is the district athletic director, is back in charge of the football program.
The veteran head coach guided the Monarchs to a 7-4 record last season and a berth in the state playoffs. Manning has gone 16-7 the past two seasons after winning just one game the previous two seasons while dealing with the affects of COVID-19.
While Kennedy hasn’t brought in any new assistant coaches to his staff, he has lost two staff
members. Patrick Fleming, Kennedy’s defensive coordinator for the past three seasons and a longtime Monarch assistant, is now the head coach at Scott’s Branch, the other Clarendon County School District high school. Mark Green, who was the running backs coach, went to Scott’s Branch as well to become the offensive coordinator.
“I didn’t replace Patrick Fleming or Mark Green,” Kennedy said. “I just reassigned some of the
coaches on my staff.”
One of those is Charlie Richards, who will take over as the defensive coordinator.
“He has done an outstanding job of making the transition easy for our kids,” Kennedy said of
Richards, who is in his second season as the athletic director for Manning.
The remainder of the coaching staff will be made up of Robert Brown, Calvin McClary Sr.,
Dontavis Miller, Marco Thompson, Craig Hatcher, Barshan Holder and Gregg King.
“My staff has been working together for the past four years and it works well together,” Kennedy said. “They have done an amazing job since spring football.”
Manning will not be in the AAA classification this year after the South Carolina High School
League’s realignment and reclassification, Manning is now in the AA classification and will be a part of Region 7.
The other members of the 7-team region will be Atlantic Collegiate Academy, East Clarendon, Kingstree, Lake City, Marion and Mullins. Like Manning, Lake City is dropping down from AAA while East Clarendon is moving up from Class A. Kingstree, Marion and Mullins are AA holdovers and Atlantic Collegiate is in its first season in the South Carolina High School League.
All of the other varsity head coaches are returning for the new school year.
Raymond Gibbs, the former slick-fielding third baseman for the Monarchs who played under
Rick Coker, will be back for his second season in charge of the baseball program. The Monarchs went 4-18 in his first season and finished 0-10 in Region 8-AAA.
Catherine Mahoney returns for third season in charge of the softball program after a lengthy
stint as an assistant coach. While the Lady Monarchs didn’t win in 10 games in region play, they did pick up four non-region victories to finish with a 4-12 overall record.
With the move away from the ultra-competitive Region 8-AAA to AA, Mahoney is hoping that
will help the softball program take steps forward in reaching the state playoffs.
Manning is losing just one starter from its starting lineup in third baseman Marti Leigh Jones.
Much of the season was spent with five or six seventh- and eighth-graders in the starting lineup.
With Manning’s junior varsity team having lost just once – and many of those girls floating
between varsity and JV – Mahoney is anxious to see what the future holds.
Manning will have Ryan Glosson as the boys and girls soccer coach for the second straight
season. Miller is set to return as the boys and girls track and field head coach, while longtime head coach Kimberly Ferrari is back in charge of the boys and girls cross country teams. Holly McCabe will be back for her third year as the girls tennis head coach, while Sonia Daniels will be in her sixth year in charge of the volleyball program.
Doc Lewis, the athletic director at Scott’s Branch, will be back as the boys golf coach.
