Woerner preparing for first season as Saluda football coach

           Saluda – Greg Woerner began to play tackle football when he was in the fourth grade. Pretty much from that initial crack of the pads, there is one thing he has wanted to do: become a football head coach.

Woerner has seen that dream come to fruition in the last few months. He is now the head coach at Saluda High School and his first game is at home against Crescent on August 22.

“It means a lot to me, that’s for sure,” said Woerner, who became the head coach after longtime Tigers head coach Stewart Young took the Lexington job. “I’ve been around game my whole life and this is a life-long goal. To finally see it come true, that’s a blessing for sure.”

Woerner was the offensive coordinator under Young, and he will have his own offensive coordinator in Thomas Coleman. Woerner will coach the quarterbacks and running backs, while Coleman will coach the offensive linemen. Ed Chariker will be coaching the offensive line as well. Daniel Stone is coaching the wide receivers, and Drew Towery is the tight end coach.

Daryl Smith broke in as the Tigers’ defensive coordinator last season as well, and Woerner has retained him to run the unit this season. Reggie Phillips will coach the defensive backs, Mark Minchew and Raquon Hartley will both coach the linebackers, and Tommy Strickland will coach the defensive linemen.

The only newcomers to the staff are Hartley and Minchew. Hartley is a recent college graduate who played at Saluda, while Minchew came to Saluda from Gilbert.

Woerner, who is 38 years old and in his 14^th season as a coach, feels like the transition to being a head coach is going well.

Woerner knows he is following an outstanding coach in Young, who guided Saluda to the 2019 AA state title. However, he isn’t going to allow that to be his focus.

“I have big shoes to fill, that’s for sure,” Woerner siad. “It’s like I tell everybody, ‘I can only control what I can control.’ That’s the message I give to my players.

“I’ve learned a lot from Coach Young. My goal is to build on his success that he started. I’m looing forward to it.”

Jeannette Wilder returns in her dual role as athletic director and girls basketball head coach. Saluda is coming off a 15-5 season in which it won the Region 2-AA title.

Hannah Towery will be back as the softball head coach after guiding the Tigers to the AA state championship series. They were swept by East Clarendon in the best-of-3 series.

Jimmy Kinard returns for his fifth season as the boys basketball coach. The Tigers finished the season with a 15-9 record and were third in the region with a 7-4 record.

Meredith Wertz returns as the volleyball head coach, Sam Shealy as the boys and girls cross country coach as well as the boys and girls track and field coach, Travis Mills as the baseball coach, Tonya Chapman as the cheer coach, and Phillips as the boys soccer coach.

           The only new varsity head coach is girls tennis coach Jeff Hallman.