PHS’s Freeman announces retirement
March 25, 2015
LEXINGTON, SC – Lexington County School District One Superintendent Karen Woodward announces that Ben Freeman, athletic director and head football and strength coach for Pelion High, plans to retire effective June 30, 2015.
PHS Principal Clark Cooper said, “Ben Freeman has been a tremendous leader for PHS and the Pelion community for over 20 years. His success as a football coach and an athletic director has been quite impressive. Moreover, his character, integrity and his service as a role model for both students and coaches are the traits that should truly be noted. Coach Freeman is first class.”
Freeman, who has 33 years of experience in public education, began his career in 1982 as a social studies teacher and assistant football coach, head boys varsity basketball coach and head golf coach at Brevard High School in Brevard, N.C. after playing football at Wake Forest University.
In 1985, he came back to South Carolina as head football coach and athletic director at Denmark-Olar High School in Bamberg School District 2. He joined the Fairfield County School District as head football coach at Fairfield Central High School in Winnsboro in 1986.
In 1990, Freeman joined Lexington County School District One as head football coach and athletic director at Pelion High School. After 25 years at PHS, Freeman says one of his favorite memories is of the undefeated regular season of 2000 and coaching the Shrine Bowl of the Carolinas this past December. Coaching his son, Dalton, now center for the New York Jets, who was the first player from Pelion High School to sign a Division 1 football scholarship and earn All American status, was also high on the list.
Coach Freeman has been a region coach of the year five times, region athletic director nine times, WLTX Coach of the Year, the S.C. Athletic Administrators Association Coach of the Year and statewide Athletic Director of the Year, S.C. Athletic Coaches Association Charles Arthur Stewart Athletic Administrator Award recipient, National Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association State Award of Merit Award recipient (only S.C. coach to win two times).
Past president of the S.C. Athletic Coaches Association, S.C. Athletic Administrators Association and S.C. Football Coaches Association, Freeman holds a Bachelor of Arts in social studies education from Wake Forest University and is certified in middle and secondary social studies.
