There will be new faces on the sidelines during next fall’s football season. 

Chapin and White Knoll each filled their head coach openings last week, opting to go with a leader who possesses previous experience coaching in the state.

After one of the best five-year runs in program history, Timberwolves head coach Nick Pelham stepped down to take the same job at the newly opened Lake Wylie High School. 

To replace Pelham, White Knoll turned to Victor Floyd. He was previously the head coach at Chester and led the team to a 3A state championship in 2018. 

Floyd said leaving Chester was hard. He was there for 15 of his 33 years as a coach during two separate stints. The opportunity to coach 5A football for a program knocking on the door was hard to pass up.

“ It was a little tough to leave, but like I told the young men when I talked to them, we prepare them for opportunities. We have to do the same for ourselves,” Floyd said. 

Outside of Chester, Floyd has coached at Columbia’s C.A. Johnson High School, Georgia’s Brunswick High School and North Carolina’s Dudley High School. 

White Knoll has been a consistent threat in 5A for the past few seasons. The team had an undefeated run to the championship game in 2023 before losing to rival Dutch Fork in the final. The past two seasons, the team has advanced in the 5A Division II playoffs before running into a different rival in Irmo. 

Floyd is hoping to sustain the competitiveness of the past, but also achieve that breakthrough moment. 

“ The season theme is the next step,” Floyd said. “I look at this program and the great job that coach Pelham did and the position it's in right now, that's the only thing left is the next step.”

Floyd’s system will be built on what he dubbed “the wolf way”. It is five core principles his team must play with to be successful: commitment, discipline, sacrifice, toughness and unity.

 ”It starts now with the pillars, those five principles,” Floyd said. “ A lot of that comes from confidence. Confidence comes from winning. So I think once you get to that point now, you just basically battle the challenges of kids being complacent, which that's the easy part to me.”

A few miles down I-26, White Knoll’s region mate Chapin also made their hire, choosing a familiar face to fans of Lexington County football. 

Pelion’s Cory Helms is making the jump to 5A football after one year with the Panthers in 2A. Helms replaces Ryan Cole, who stepped down to take an administrative role. 

“This is a job that I have wanted since I got into coaching,” Helms said. “Chapin is a special place and has the opportunity to become a premier football program in the state of South Carolina. There is not anyone who will work harder to achieve that than I will.”

Helms has been known to help struggling programs turn things around in his short coaching career. 

He led Pelion to five wins this past season, their most since 2014. Before that, he coached at Cardinal Newman and led that program to a 16-18 record over three years for its best stretch since the ‘90s. 

Chapin could use a turnaround after a disappointing 2025 season saw the team finish 0-10 and miss the postseason for the first time in five years.

“Coach Helms is going to bring renewed energy to the Chapin football program,” Athletic Director Billie Williams said. “He believes in accountability, hard work, and discipline, while also placing a strong emphasis on building meaningful relationships with our players. I’m excited to watch him help our student-athletes buy into a true football culture. Cory has spent the last several years helping programs grow into consistent competitors, and I’m confident he will do the same at Chapin High School.”

Prior to getting his first head coaching gig, Helms was an assistant at Gray Collegiate. Before that, he was a college grad assistant at South Carolina. 

Helms played college football for the Gamecocks before a brief stint in the NFL with the Cincinnati Bengals and New Orleans Saints.