Bailey Jackson steps down as Clover boys basketball coach, will remain Blue Eagles AD
Clover basketball will look a bit different next year.
Only a few weeks after longtime Clover High School head girls basketball coach Sherer Hopkins announced her retirement from coaching, the Blue Eagles’ head boys basketball coach announced that he’s doing the same.
Bailey Jackson is stepping down as Clover’s boys basketball coach, the district released on Wednesday. He told his coaches of his decision on Wednesday morning and his players later Wednesday afternoon.
Jackson will remain the athletic director at Clover.
“It has been an honor to watch an individual so skilled in his craft,” Clover principal Rod Ruth said in a statement. “First and foremost, Coach Jackson has positively impacted the lives of so many young people and has used the game of basketball to teach life lessons that extend far beyond the court. He has demonstrated to his players that commitment to a goal larger than the individual brings with it a mandate for determination and perseverance, and that the fulfillment of those goals creates success and excellence.
“During his time, he has lifted a state championship trophy, but more importantly lifted his profession, his community and his players.”
Jackson told The Herald Wednesday that he decided to step down because he “just felt like it was time.” He also added: “As Clover grows, so does the job of Clover athletic director.”
Jackson is a Clover native and a 1991 graduate of Clover High School, but he made a name for himself as a coach in high schools across South Carolina.
After graduating from Clemson in 1996, Jackson spent several years coaching basketball at Buford and Chesnee high schools before finding himself at Fort Mill High ahead of the 2003-04 year. He would then spend the next eight seasons with the Yellow Jackets, going 128-76 and guiding his 2007 team to a state championship — the first state title for the program since 1974.
In 2011, Jackson accepted an academic/administrative assistant position at Clover High but knew he wasn’t done coaching. A year later, he was promoted and succeeded Dudley Lybrand as the Blue Eagles’ head coach.
“This is where I’ve wanted to be since I first started coaching,” Jackson said at the time, according to a story published in The Herald in 2012. “It’s special to be taking over for someone I respect and trying to build on what has been created by Coach Lybrand. It’s a win-win situation for the program and the school and I’m looking forward to getting the ball rolling.”
He then saw more success. As Clover’s coach, Jackson finished with a 138-111 record in 10 seasons and has an overall record of 334 wins and 245 losses.
Jackson is also an accomplished athletic director, and he’ll continue to be that for Clover.
He was the AD at Fort Mill — and was named the Class 3A Athletic Director of the Year by the South Carolina Athletic Administration Association in 2010-11 — and was named Clover’s AD in 2016.
Since then, he has helped cultivate Clover into a Class 5A power in all sports.
Jackson hired Clover football coach Brian Lane, who took the Blue Eagles to never-before-seen heights in 2019. He witnessed the Clover girls basketball team win the program’s first state championship in 2021 and saw the school’s baseball team win its first region championship earlier this week.
He also has done his part to ensure Clover athletics represents the Clover community well. On a Friday night this past February, the Blue Eagle basketball teams honored the legacy of Roosevelt High School, the only high school Black students in the Clover School District could attend during segregation. Both Clover teams wore special uniforms for the occasion — the front read “Roosevelt,” the back read “Tigers.”
“I was on a committee to do a plaque (honoring Roosevelt High School) for the stadium to reveal next year,” Jackson told The Herald on that February night, “and I just started thinking about all the people who had been my teachers. My coaches. People who knew me in the community. People who still come to our games who were all a part of Roosevelt. ...
“I thought it was overdue. I thought it needed to be done, and we have the resources to do it. So we did it. And we’re going to do it every year.”
Clover will begin searching for its next boys basketball coach right away, per school district spokesperson Bryan Dillon.
This story was originally published April 20, 2022 at 4:27 PM.
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