Football season is right around the corner; catch up on what's new heading into the fall

As the calendar prepares to turn into August, excitement around high school football in the tri-county continues to build. This fall will come with some changes for quite a few of our local programs. From region assignments to new head coaches, here's a quick look at what to look forward to this fall.

NEW REGIONS/CLASSIFICATIONS

The new regions and classifications were announced all the way back in January, so here's a refresher on some movement in the tri-county, particularly for SCHSL programs.

The two-year experiment of splitting SCHSL 5A into two divisions is done, as 5A will consolidate back into one classification this year. Sumter High will be in Region IV-5A, which features three programs from its previous region. Along with Ridge View, Spring Valley and Blythewood, the Gamecocks will face Gray Collegiate, who makes the jump up from 4A.

The biggest local change comes for the other two Sumter County Schools, as Crestwood and Lakewood move back down to SCHSL 3A after a two-year stint in 4A. They will continue to share a region with Darlington and Hartsville in Region VI-3A but will also meet with Loris, Aynor and Atlantic Collegiate, the latter of which shared a region with Manning and East Clarendon in 2A for the last two years.

East Clarendon and Manning remain in 2A but have some new faces in their region. Lake City remains paired with the Clarendon County programs and they're joined by Dillon, Marlboro County and Waccamaw in Region VI-2A.

Lee Central is in Region V-1A with Central, Cheraw, Chesterfield, Lamar, McBee, North Central and Governor's School, which does not play football.

Scott's Branch is in Region VI-1A, which also features Bamberg-Ehrhardt, Bethune-Bowman, Branchville, Denmark-Olar and Edisto.

NEW COACHES

The tri-county has four new coaches this fall.

Sumter High made a splashy hire to replace Mark Barnes, bringing former Gamecock player and assistant Drew Marlowe in on Feb. 10. Marlowe led South Florence to two SCHSL 4A state titles and played for the state championship in four consecutive seasons. Last fall, Marlowe led the Bruins back to the 4A title game, where they fell to South Pointe. He was an assistant at Sumter High for 11 years before becoming a head coach for the first time at South Florence in 2020, making the move amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sticking in Sumter County, Lakewood hired Jerran Devlin as their new head coach on April 2. He takes over the program from Willie Offord, who took over the program at A.C. Flora. Devlin served two stints as an assistant coach at Wilson High School, most recently under former Sumter High defensive coordinator Brian Wilson, and spent nine years at West Florence. He looks to turn around a Lakewood program who went winless last fall but just played a part in a major turnaround at Wilson, as the Tigers won just one game in 2024 and claimed seven victories in 2025 on their way to the postseason.

Laurence Manning hired a coach who is very familiar to local SCISA programs, as David Rankin takes over for the Swampcats. He replaces Jimmy Noonan, who led the 'Cats for one season. Rankin has coached at two other local SCISA programs with two stints at Thomas Sumter and 11 years at Lee Academy. Rankin coached the Cavaliers from 2013-2023 and led Lee to four consecutive appearances in SCISA state championship games in his final four years, winning in 2022. Rankin most recently coached at Carolina Academy for two seasons. He also coached at The King's Academy and Williamsburg Academy.

Rankin's former program is another local school with a new head coach, as Johnie Moreno takes over at Lee Academy. He is the third head coach in as many seasons, replacing Justin Logan. Moreno spent time coaching at Thomas Sumter, Lugoff-Elgin and Calhoun Academy and is a 20-year veteran in the United States Air Force.