He turned around Lower Richland’s football team. Now, he’s headed to Jasper County
Jasper County School District has hired Rodney Barr, a former multi-sport coach with state championship experience, as its new athletic director, administrators announced Tuesday.
Barr, who led Hopkins’ Lower Richland High to two region titles and was an assistant coach in Florence for Wilson High School’s 2007 state championship, is starting the job in an unusual situation.
Currently, all sports programs for the school district are suspended due to the county’s high COVID-19 infection rate, district spokesperson Travis Washington said Tuesday.
Additionally, all students are attending online-only classes until at least Feb. 3. Washington said the district’s plan to restart hybrid classes on Jan. 20 will be delayed by at least two weeks while the district works to get its state-sponsored rapid testing program running. Near the end of that additional two-week period, the district will consult with medical advisers to determine if a longer delay is needed.
In a Tuesday Facebook Live press conference, Barr encouraged students to keep up with academics and continue workouts to prepare to take the field again, a message in line with his mission to make sure student-athletes are “spiritually, mentally, athletically, academically” well-rounded.
“We don’t want these young people to just be successful in Jasper County,” Barr said. “We want to create and instill something in them that they’ll carry for the rest of their lives.”
Barr said he intends to expand fundraising for athletic programs, build out the women’s and men’s soccer teams and add cross country and golf as school sports.
He’s already begun on the job, Washington said, though he was not sure whether Barr would take on any coaching duties in addition to the athletic director role.
The district also announced the hiring of Clarke Ricks, a new athletic trainer. Ricks has three years of athletic training experience under her belt, Washington said.
Barr was hired in May as the football coach and athletic director at Scott’s Branch High School in Summerton. Scott’s Branch went 5-3 in a COVID-shortened season and missed the playoffs.
Barr previously coached at Wilson High School for eight years in Florence, where he was school’s baseball coach and assistant football coach. He was an assistant on the Tigers’ state championship football team in 2007.
Barr spent three seasons as coach at Overhills High School in Spring Lake, N.C., before helping turn around the Lower Richland program.
Barr spent four seasons at Lower Richland and led the program to a pair of region titles. After going 0-10 the first season, Lower Richland was 20-17 the next three years including 8-5 this year.
Lower Richland made it to the second round of the playoffs this year and third round in 2017 after upsetting Myrtle Beach. Barr was named The State Newspaper’s Coach of the Year in 2017.
The 2017 season was LR’s best season in 26 years. The Diamond Hornets won seven games after winning just seven combined from 2013 to 2016.
Barr’s “Keep Chopping” mantra became a signature phrase of the program and and he wanted his players to keep fighting in all aspects of life, on and off the field.
This story was originally published January 12, 2021 at 2:13 PM with the headline "He turned around Lower Richland’s football team. Now, he’s headed to Jasper County."