Erik Kimrey speaks about decision to return to HS ranks, what he learned from Shane Beamer

Erik Kimrey was one of the notable hires of the Shane Beamer era at South Carolina, because he was a high school coach, and offered a local perspective on high school football in the state of South Carolina.

But Kimrey, the Gamecocks’ tight ends coach, left for a high school job in Chattanooga, Tennessee and the Baylor School.

“Learned so much this past year, being in that operation, watching Shane Beamer come in and build a culture and how he did that was truly inspiring to me,” Kimrey said. “Working on offense with a guy like Marcus Satterfield, his knowledge, I can’t wait to take a lot of what I’ve learned and make sure that we implement appropriately that fits our players and their skillsets.”

He called it an incredibly enriching experience, and Kimrey arrives at the Baylor School with that college experience on top of 17 seasons as the head coach at Hammond School in Columbia, S.C. working closely with Hammond’s former Head of School Chris Angel. Angel started his tenure as president and head of school at Baylor in 2021.

At Hammond, Kimrey led the SkyHawks to 12 SCISA state titles, more than any coach in South Carolina history, while compiling an overall record of 194-20, and became the youngest and fastest coach to reach 100 victories in South Carolina history and the only coach to have won six consecutive state championships, according to News Channel 9-ABC.

.@ErikKimrey today being introduced as the Baylor School’s new football coach.

“Learned so much the last year…watching @CoachSBeamer come in and build the culture. How he did that is truly inspiring to me.”

Big ups to @WebbWright for the hookup today. @abc_columbia pic.twitter.com/4CXXA1X7iZ

— Mike Gillespie (@MikeABCColumbia) February 3, 2022

Keith Farner

A former newspaper veteran, Keith Farner is a news manager for Saturday Down South.