Perry Woolbright leaving Clover High football for another in-state job
Head coach Perry Woolbright is leaving the Clover High School football program after three seasons.
Woolbright is headed back to North Myrtle Beach for his second stint as Chiefs’ football coach. The move was made official at Monday’s Horry County Board meeting. He replaces Greg Hill, who resigned in November after four seasons.
Woolbright said it was a difficult decision to leave Clover, a place where his father Marty was head coach from 1993-97 and won 10 games in the 1995 season. Perry also graduated from Clover in 2001. He also had family members who teach or go to school at Clover.
But going to NMB made sense now because his parents live in North Myrtle Beach and won’t have to drive back and forth to Clover on Friday nights for games.
Woolbright said Monday night that people from NMB community reached out a while back but didn’t really start considering it until after Christmas break.
“When I took Clover, I had no plans to move, but, you know, opportunity to kind of get closer to my parents, be in the area I’ve been in before, a school I’ve coached at before. That doesn’t really happen too much,” Woolbright said. “If something was going to happen with me, it needs to be now and so it’s kind of the timing.”
Woolbright went 22-13 during his three seasons at Clover and made it to the playoffs in each of his three seasons. He won the Region 3-5A title in his first season and made it to the second round of the playoffs twice.
This year, Clover went 5-6 and lost to Blythewood in the first round of the Class 5A Division I playoffs. The Blue Eagles are dropping down to Class 4A for 2026-28.
Woolbright was the Chiefs head coach from 2010-13 and had a nine-win season in his final year and a trip to the second round of the playoffs. That was NMB’s most victories in a season since 2002.
After North Myrtle Beach, Woolbright has worked at Batesburg-Leesville, Lexington and Clover, where he has been since 2023. He led B-L to a pair of region championships and Class 2A title game in 2016.
Woolbright said he will meet with the team on Tuesday and start the process of putting together a coaching staff. He said he will go back and forth between Clover and NMB for now.
“Hopefully, I can keep my job here for a long time and be here, for a while and kind of get this program back on track,” Woolbright said. “You know, keep it as a consistent program, year in, year out.”
SC Football Coaching Openings
School — Former Coach — New Coach
AC Flora — Ken Floyd — TBA
Belton-Honea Path — Russell Blackston — TBA
Chapin — Ryan Cole — TBA
Clover — Perry Woolright — TBA
Colleton County — Adam Kinloch — TBA
Conway — Josh Pierce — Jody Jenerette
Goose Creek — Jason Winstead — TBA
Green Sea Floyds — Patrick Martin — TBA
Lake Wylie — (School opens in 2026) — N/A — Nick Pelham
Liberty — Paul Sutherland — Bobby Ruff
McCormick — Leroy Collier — TBA
Marion — Brian Hennecy — TBA
May River — Richard Bonneville — TBA
Ninety-Six — Matthew Bennett — TBA
North Myrtle Beach — Greg Hill — Perry Woolbright
St. James — Tommy Norwood — Stephen Cagle
Sumter — Mark Barnes — TBA
Union County — Quinnon Isom — Bryan Robinson
Wagener-Salley — Blaze Gillespie — TBA
Whale Branch — Willie White (interim) — TBA
White Knoll — Nick Pelham — TBA
This story was originally published January 26, 2026 at 5:20 PM.
