Bennett named first district Director of Athletics
June 21, 2016
LEXINGTON, SC – During a special June 3, 2016 board meeting of the Lexington County School District One Board of Trustees, the board approved the promotion of David Bennett to the newly created position of Director of Athletics.
Bennett, current athletic director and head football coach at River Bluff High School, coaches his final football season as RBHS head football coach this fall. He assumes full-time duties as director of athletics for the district once the season concludes.
Bennett’s duties will include developing a district athletic calendar, reviewing and revising the district athletic handbook, assisting schools in developing annual athletic budgets, and meeting regularly with school athletic directors to discuss the challenges, successes and needs of school athletic programs.
Bennett has served as RBHS’s inaugural head coach and athletic director since 2013. The Gators football team totaled a 22–11 record and upset the top seed in the first round of state playoffs in 2014.
Under Bennett’s leadership, RBHS teams have earned two state titles (competitive cheer and men’s varsity soccer) as well as numerous region championships, region coach of the year awards and all-star player selections. Additionally, 45 students have signed national letters of intent to play college athletics upon graduation.
Off the field, Bennett helped design a student leadership program for elementary schools called Gators Reaching Out with Wisdom and was recently honored by the Lexington County Fellowship of Christian Athletes with the Dal Shealy Coach of Influence Award. Bennett was also named the 2016 5-AAAA Region Athletic Director of the Year.
Bennett started his coaching career in 1987 as assistant football coach at Goose Creek High School in Goose Creek, South Carolina, before moving on to be assistant football coach at Newberry College in 1988.
Catawba College in Salisbury, North Carolina, offered Bennett the job of assistant football coach and assistant athletic director in 1990. He later worked as head golf coach from 1991 to 1995 and was promoted to head football coach in 1995.
A member of the Catawba College Sports Hall of Fame, Bennett left Catawba College in 2001 with a 63–17 record and became head football coach at Coastal Carolina University from 2002 through 2011. While at Coastal Carolina, he helped establish a FCS-level football program and was named Big South Coach of the Year in 2004 and 2010. Coastal Carolina won four conference championships in nine years.
As part of the Big South’s 30th Anniversary celebration in 2013–2014, the Conference created its first-ever All-Decade Teams. Bennett was named head coach of the Big South’s All-Decade football team in recognition of his record at Coastal Carolina.
He spent one year as athletic director for Socastee High School in Myrtle Beach before being hired by Lexington District One in 2013 as athletic director and head football coach at RBHS.
Bennett holds a Bachelor of Science in history and social studies from Presbyterian College and a Masters of Education in guidance and counseling from Clemson University.
