Irmo High School names new varsity basketball coach

Lexington-Richland School District Five has named Alex Quillen as the new head basketball coach for Irmo High School. He will replace Tim Whipple who is retiring.

Quillen is an Irmo High School graduate who played on the 2011 and 2013 State Championship basketball teams. He currently serves as the head junior varsity basketball coach and the assistant varsity basketball coach.

“I am honored to have the opportunity to take over the Irmo High School basketball program,” Quillen said. “This is and always has been a dream job for me. Being an Irmo graduate, I have seen first-hand how amazing this community can be and how special this basketball program is. We want to win at the highest level and prepare these young men to be successful on and off the floor. I look forward to continuing the tradition of excellence we have here at Irmo.”

Quillen earned his bachelor’s degree of science in physical education from the University of South Carolina and masters degree in sports pedagogy from Gardner Webb University. He has been in School District Five since 2020. He has coached at Irmo High School and Lakewood High School. He also worked as a volunteer coach at Irmo High School from 2015-2017 and a graduate assistant at Gardner Webb University from 2017-2019.

“Irmo Athletics is excited to announce one of our own as the next Head Varsity Boys Basketball Coach at Irmo High School,” Irmo High School Athletics Director Paul Calvert said. “Coach Alex Quillen has prepared his entire career for this moment and will lead the program into the future with all of the tradition and history in mind as well as a passion for continuing the championship culture developed by Coach Tim Whipple.”

Coach Tim Whipple added, “I am so excited about the future of the Irmo basketball program under the leadership of Alex Quillen. Alex is an energetic, hard-working and talented young man who has earned this opportunity to be the next head basketball coach at Irmo High School. Alex has a tremendous relationship with the student-athletes and cares deeply for them both on and off the basketball court. He has been instrumental in much of the success enjoyed by our program in the past decade. I have invested forty-three years of my life in the Irmo community, Irmo High School and the Irmo Basketball Program. I can say with great Irmo Pride, there is no better person to carry on the Tradition of Excellence in our basketball program and school than Alex Quillen.”