Pat Eidson Becomes All-Time Winning Basketball Coach In S. C.
Pinewood Prep's Pat Eidson now SC's All-Time Winning Basketball Coach.
Pat Eidson Becomes All-Time Winning Basketball Coach In S. C.
By Billy G. Baker
Publisher
Summerville—Walking into Pat Eidson’s office, inside the “Eidson Gym”, a few days after this 45-year coaching veteran coached the Pinewood Prep basketball team to his “944th win on the hardwood, a new all-time record for coaching wins, at any level in South Carolina; was established and it began a walk down “Memory Lane.”
Coach Eidson is looking slightly “wind burnt” because it is a Tuesday afternoon, and that meant he and adored son “Chuckie” had just completed 27 holes of competitive golf at the George Miler Country Club, located a few miles from the Pinewood Prep campus.
“We try to play every Tuesday and Thursday, mainly at Miler,” said Coach Eidson, now 68, surrounded by “Coach of the Year” awards mounted on his wall; a tribute of his love and dedication to hundreds of young men who have donned the Deep Purple and Baby Blue of a Pinewood Prep basketball uniform.
After his team’s 67-31 win over Palmetto Christian on January, 14, Coach Eidson told a group of reporters gathered around him after the game, “ “I think mostly it means that I’ve been doing this for a long time,” he said. “ A lot of great players. It’s been the thrill of my life, really.
“When you’re 22 years old; I was really fortunate to get a job right out of college, but no, there’s no way you could ever dream that you’d stay with it this long.”
After spending 11 years at Easley Christian and Northside Christian, Coach Eidson was hired to take over the boys’ basketball program at Pinewood Prep in 1990.
“We were fortunate to win three state titles at Easley Christian before I took a job in the Charleston area at Northside Christian,” recalled Eidson. “My first four years at Pinewood Prep we were building a program and it was a lot of hard work. Scotty Scott had been at our school since the 7th grade, and he was our first player to go on and play college basketball.
“Scotty played at Pinewood his 8th and 9th grade years, and then he went to Summerville for two years, before coming back for his senior year and he helped us win our first state title at Pinewood. It was also Chuckies first year on the varsity, and that state title will always be very special to me.”
Over the next 8 years son Chuckie, and later Clemson signee Milton Jennings would be named Parade All-Americans and help lead the Panthers to several state titles. Chuckie would also become the first private school player in South Carolina to be named “Mr. Basketball” before he started a four- year career at South Carolina. He spent 12 years playing professionally in Europe where he was among the highest paid American players ever. One team retired his jersey, to the rafters, in April, 2024, after numerous “MVP” honors.
Another great player, among a host of great players, was Blake Hall and he is now the highly successful head coach at Goose Creek High. “I owe Coach Eidson a sincere thank you for helping develop me as a player and teaching me so much about the great game of basketball,” said Hall in an earlier interview.
After his first state title at Pinewood Prep, he would earn the school to seven more state titles, giving his impressive resume a total of 11, and counting, entering the 2024-25 play-offs.
The HSSR recently covered two Pinewood Prep games; one the joy of victory (72-49 over Cathedral) and the other the pain of defeat (69-59 to Porter-Guad).
Up at the half by only four points against Cathedral (31-27) Coach Eidson allowed this reporter into the Panther locker room at half-time. “Shoot it with confidence,” he repeated several times during his half-time pep talk. “If they set a pick, go under the pick, and cut-off the shot. Focus on your free throws. Knock it down!”
The Panthers came out in the second half and made three-point shots from all over the court, out-scoring their opponent 41-22 in the second half. Jayden Alexander led the way with 21 points, followed by Tre Green (13), Kais Parrish (11), Jon Slawson (11) and Tripp Eidson (6).
(Then came the home game with Porter-Gaud with the region title on the line on Feb.,7)
Trailing the Cyclones, 34-32, at the half it was noted that Porter-Guad had a 17-4 advantage at the free throw line, and this did not sit well at all with Coach Eidson, and the packed-out Pinewood fans at the game.
By the end of the game the free-throw advantage favored P-G over three-to-one and Coach Eidson even spent 20 minutes in a private conversation with one of the referees in the game just outside the Panther locker room.
“Well, they shot 30 free-throws and we shot 9 and I can’t ever recall this happening to one of my teams,” said Eidson after the game, choosing every word carefully. “If I am on the good end of that I am a pretty happy guy, but that was not the case tonight.”
Coach Eidson also commented about grandson “Tripp” getting three fouls called on him in the first half that sent him to the bench early. “I have to be careful with what I say,” said Coach Eidson. “Tripp plays defense straight up, and he is not looking for fouls I promise you. It is usually the other team fouling him, so him getting in early foul trouble was really concerning.”
Always trying to find a positive spin, Coach Eidson said this about the 10-point home loss to a truly talented Porter-Guad team, “This loss will get us refocused for sure. We will now be more determined to have a deep play-off run,” he said. “Give Porter-Guad credit they played very well tonight and we did not have an answer for number five (John Michael Jenkins-25 points). We simply could not stop him.”
Against Porter-Guad, sophomore Tre Green led the offense with 18 points, soph. Kais Parris had 13 points and 10 rebounds, while junior PG Jon Slawson had 11 points, soph Tripp Eidson had 10 points, 10 rebounds, and three blocked shots, and junior Jayden Alexander contributed five points.
On Feb., 8 Pinewood Prep defeated Palmetto Christian to improve their record to 20-7 going into their final regular season game against Northwood Academy on Monday February, 10.
The SCISA play-off bracket will be released two days later.
“I could coach much longer because I am healthy and enjoy being around the players but I will probably retire when Tripp graduates in two years,” said Coach Eidson. “We have no senior starters on our roster this season and we have three very good sophomores getting better with every game.
Entering the 2025 play-offs the stats leaders for Pinewood are Green (15.7), Alexander (10.5), Parris (10.3 & 7.3 Reb.), Slawson (10.2) and Eidson (8 & 7.7 rebounds).
“Winning at least one more state title would be great for the players, fans and the program and that is a strong goal we re pursuing this season and the next two,” said Coach Eidson.
Reflecting back to the office visit at the start of this article, Coach Eidson asked a very interesting question of this reporter. “What kind of Coach was John McKissick (Summerville football coaching legend) when he was 75-years old?”
Reply: “Coach won a state title in 1998 at the age of 72 and he looked like he was in his 50’s having a great time,” I replied. “He was nearly 90 when he retired.”
Perhaps that reply will inspire Coach Eidson not to retire in two years. He is likely to achieve the milestone of 1,000 wins before he hangs up the whistle.
Summerville has now become the town that produced both the winningest football coach and basketball coach in Palmetto State history. This speaks volumes for the rich tradition of sports in the community.
Additional Notes Compiled By Roger Lee of the Journal Scene & Shared With the HSSR:
Multi-sport coach
Eidson also coached the Pinewood Girls Volleyball team for 13 years, over two stints. His volleyball teams won three state championships as well as six runner-up titles and competed against teams from different classifications.
Coach’s Family
Pat married his wife Susan in 1977. He coached his son in basketball and daughter, Melissa, in volleyball. Chuck had a 12-plus professional career in Europe.
The father has coached two grandsons. Tre is a 2024 Pinewood Graduate and former basketball player. Tripp is a Pinewood sophomore who earned all-region basketball honors for the Panthers as a freshman.
Two great assistants: (Ray Murray & Tony Bulford have coached with Eidson for more than 20 years)
