Upstate high school football coaching changes will include Gaffney wins leader Dan Jones

A blitz of high school football coaching changes has hit the Upstate.

Gaffney’s Dan Jones, who led the Indians to state championships in 2012 and 2021, confirmed Wednesday that he will retire following the 2024 season.

Meanwhile, Travis Miller stepped down Tuesday night at Wade Hampton and so has Clay Lewis at Chesnee. That news came Wednesday. Miller will become the athletics director at York.

Greenville will introduce its new coach, Jaybo Shaw, at a Friday news conference. He replaces Greg Porter, who left for Laurens. Union County last week announced that it has hired Quinnon Isom to replace Brian Thompson, who stepped down.

Jones, 64, has been a coach at Gaffney since 1992. He was promoted  from assistant to head coach in 2010 and has a career record of 131-51. During the 2022 season, Jones reached 120 wins and surpassed Bob Prevatte for most in program history. Gaffney was 9-4 last season, 3-1 in Region 2-AAAAA. The Indians lost more than one region game just once since 2016.

Wade Hampton went 2-8, including 0-4 in Region 2-AAAA, last season.  The Generals struggled in five seasons under Miller, going 6-38, including 1-20 in region play. Going 4-7 in 2022 matched the program’s best record since 2016. He has also been offensive coordinator at Blacksburg and Boiling Springs.

Lewis coached Chesnee for four seasons, going 18-24, including 11-7 in Region 1-AA. The Eagles were 7-2, 4-0 in 2020, his first season. They were 6-6, 2-3 last season.

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Isom, defensive coordinator at Crest (N.C.) for the past two years, has strong Upstate ties. He was offensive coordinator for the 2019 Class AAAA state championship team at Wren. Isom has also coached at J.L. Mann, Easley, Seneca and Greenville.

Shaw was coach for two years at Wayne County (Ga.) and went 17-7, including 7-3 in Region 3-AAAA. He is a former quarterback at Georgia Tech and brother of former South Carolina quarterback Connor Shaw.

This article originally appeared on Herald-Journal: SC high school football: Coaching changes under way in Upstate