Williston-Elko head coach Dwayne Garrick has plenty to be thankful for on this day.

In just his second season, Garrick has the Blue Devils playing for their first state championship in nine years. Friday’s Class A Division II championship game is also taking place at Oliver C. Dawson Stadium, a place with very special meaning for Garrick.

South Carolina State University is the place where Garrick’s career gained traction, thanks in part to head football coach Willie Jeffries taking a chance on the Presbyterian College graduate 18 years ago and hiring him as a graduate assistant.

“He gave me a chance to get my certification and to get myself into the public schools,” Garrick said.

Garrick got his opportunity at S.C. State after five years working in the private school ranks as a head coach and athletics director at Bowman Academy and defensive coordinator at Andrew Jackson Academy and Mims Academy in Harleyville. He was seeking to continue his coaching career by working on his teaching certification and graduate studies while at S.C. State.

Recommended by then-defensive coordinator Ben Blacknall and defensive line coach George Wheeler, it only took two minutes for Jeffries to bring Garrick into the fold.

“Once I recognized his dedication to the game ... and he was a stickler for details ... I didn’t have any problems putting him to work,” Jeffries said.

Living on campus with his wife Gina, Garrick paid his dues with long work hours both on and off the field. Instead of strictly running office errands, however, Garrick was placed in charge of the linebacking corps.

“I was going from coaching 20-25 kids to going out there with the number of players they had and the responsibilities given to me,” he said. “I was fortunate to actually go out there and coach. A lot of grad assistants just do paperwork and that kind of stuff. But, I was really fortunate to be able to coach on the field. Coach Blacknall kind of turned the inside linebackers over to me and I did a lot of on-field coaching. A lot of film breakdown.”

Among the linebackers Garrick worked with were All-MEAC standout Reggie Kennedy, one of eight players and coaches on the 1990 team who eventually became head coaches on the high school (Robert Hemby, Corey Wright, William Wrighten, Walter Wilson) and college (Kermit Blount, Ben Blacknall) level.

“It was nice coaching him. (Kennedy) was a good player, without a doubt,” Garrick said. “(Former NFL All-Pro defensive end) Robert Porcher was there. (Former offensive lineman) Orlando Brown,”

Along with traveling to such places as Atlanta and Montgomery, Ala., there were the “perks” working closely with a coaching legend.

“(Jeffries) put the time and effort in and he expected the coaches to put the time and effort in,” Garrick said. “But the number one thing is the way he treats people. He treats people really the way he wants to be treated and he treated those guys at State the way if he had a kid playing somewhere else the way he wanted his kid to be treated. That’s probably the biggest thing I remember.”

There was one occasion when Garrick wished he was somewhere else.

“I do remember one day,” he said. “I never heard Coach Jeffries really get upset with any of the coaches. I can’t remember who we played, but back then we practiced Monday morning at about five o’clock in the morning because there was conflict with classes. And Coach Jeffries pulled everybody under the goalposts, so I knew something was going on. He never did that before.

“And he just kind of went ‘We’ve got to coach these guys better! We’ve got to coach these guys better!’ That’s the only time I remembered him fussing or really getting on the coaching staff, but all of those guys paid attention to what he had to say. He’s known as a jokester. He’s got a thousand jokes. But that day, he was serious about what he was telling us and, I tell you, those coaches really responded.”

After two years at S.C. State, Garrick turned down an assistant coaching job offer from Johnson C. Smith to work with another coaching great — David Berry of Blackville-Hilda. Assistant coaching gigs at Bamberg-Ehrhardt and Barnwell soon followed before Garrick was promoted to the head position with the Warhorses in 1999.

“In monitoring his day-to-day coaching skills, I could recognize that he was going to go a long way in coaching,” Jeffries said. “He worked his players hard in practice and I could foresee that he was going to be a head coach in the very near future.”

Now Garrick finds himself on the verge of a state championship at the place where it all began. While much has changed at S.C. State since 1990, Garrick will always remain thankful for his days as a Bulldog.

“When I walk into that stadium, it’s going to be nice from the standpoint of remembering the days I was there,” Garrick said. “Kind of taking all that in as a coach. But maybe because Williston-Elko is playing for a state championship, I don’t want to lose focus of that either. But it will be nice to be playing on campus and looking forward to it.”

S.C. High School League

Class A Football Finals

WHO: Chesterfield (12-1) vs. Carver’s Bay (11-2) Division I

Scott’s Branch (10-3) at Williston-Elko (12-1) Division II

WHERE: Oliver C. Dawson Stadium

WHEN: noon (Division I) and 3 p.m. (Division II)

n T&D Senior Sports Writer Thomas Grant Jr. can be reached by e-mail at tgrant@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5547. Discuss this and other stories on-line at TheTandD.com.

 

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