The Irmo boys basketball team is entering the 2024-25 season under the guidance of a new head coach for the first time since 1981. 

Legendary head coach Tim Whipple, the second-winningest coach in South Carolina history, retired last May, leaving behind a legacy of excellence at Irmo. Whipple led the Yellow Jackets to six state championships and had his team in the postseason every year but three. 

Filling Whipple’s shoes will not be an easy task. To do the job, Irmo turned to someone familiar with the culture he established and hired Alex Quillen as the school’s next head coach. 

Quillen is an Irmo alum and played for two state championship-winning teams under Whipple in 2011 and 2013. Since graduating, Quillen got into coaching and has been on Irmo’s staff under Whipple. He was on staff for Irmo’s 2023 championship, making him one of the few people who played for and coached a championship-winning team at the same school. 

“I've been kind of preparing for it for a while. Going to school here too, it's just kind of been a job that I've really always wanted,” Quillen said. “I'm just excited that we're finally getting rolling. The anticipation has been kind of killing me.” 

Whipple has played a huge role in Quillen’s career development. After graduating from the University of South Carolina, he joined Whipple’s staff as a volunteer assistant and got his coaching career started.

“I would not be here right now if it wasn't for everything he's taught me. I mean, I've spent hours and hours and hours sitting in the office with him talking,” Quillen said. “He's kind of been an ear for me to just get some stuff off my chest and he'll give some advice. But one of the big things he's taught me is how hard you have to work on the coaching. How much you have to prepare for practice, how much you have to organize practice, how much you have to watch film and spend extra hours over the two hours of practice that we have every day.”

In 2017, Quillen took a graduate assistant position at Gardner-Webb before returning to the area and becoming a JV coach at Lakewood and then Irmo. This will be his first stint as a head varsity coach. 

Quillen is inheriting a program that just two seasons ago won a SCHSL 4A state championship. However, last season was a bit of a down year for the Yellow Jackets. The team finished the year 5-21 and 2-8 in region games. Irmo made the playoffs but was bounced in the first round after a 53-42 loss against Wilson. 

Despite the turbulent year last season, Quillen is sure it was an anomaly and the team can get back on track. 

“I think people look at last year and they're like ‘Oh, they had a struggling year’ Well that was kind of an anomaly,” Quillen said. “People forget, we just won a state championship two years ago. So, I think this is a group that buys into this culture and is ready to go.” 

Quillen knows what it takes to build a championship-winning team. Being part of three of them under Whipple showed him a lot and helped him understand not just the dedication it takes from the players, but the coaches as well. 

“I've seen what it takes, and I kind of reiterate that to the guys. It’s a lot of work,” Quillen said. “Every single day, teams that also know what championship culture is like are doing those things to get there. So we kind of put that in their ears every day that it takes a lot. It takes every day. There's not a day where they can just feel like they don't want to practice or feel like they don't want to be here. It’s an everyday thing.”

Quillen retained a few of the other coaches from Whipple’s previous staff. Ricky Bouknight is one of the assistants he made it a priority to keep, saying he “wouldn’t survive” without him. Other coaches on staff include Dre’von Sweat, Anton Greer, Diargo Summers and Riley Thomas.

“I have a good mesh of different coaches that have different experiences and bring something different to the table,” Quillen said. 

It will take a diverse group with different ideas to mold this Irmo team into the competitor Quillen wants it to be. This version of the Yellow Jackets is very young, featuring nine players who are either freshmen or sophomores. It will be important these players develop as the season progresses. 

Sophomore Jeremy Anderson is one of the players Quillen is excited about. He is a returning varsity player who averaged about six points and five rebounds as a freshman. 

Senior Matt Hopkins and sophomore Tanner McCray will split the ball-handling duties. Junior Jaden Rivers will see a lot of minutes as one of the team’s main bigs. 

“I think we got a group that works really hard and is excited about what we got going on,” Quillen said. “I think we got a chance to surprise some people this year with how fun of a group this is.”

On the court, Quillen will have his team running a lot of the same schemes and sets that Whipple had them doing. But that doesn’t mean it will be a copy-and-paste version. Quillen said he will incorporate his knowledge from all of his previous coaching stops. 

“I'm a strong believer in coach Whipple's defensive system,” Quillen said. “Offense, you just kind of got to adjust to the team you have, so that kind of goes almost year by year.”

This upcoming season will be Irmo’s first season in its new 5A region. While it is a new classification, the Yellow Jackets are familiar with their new rivals, having played them many times in the non-region slate the past few seasons. This gives Quillen confidence his team can compete. 

“I think we got a region that anybody can beat anybody at any given night,” he said. 

Irmo’s season began right before the Thanksgiving holiday with a tournament game against Laurens. The Yellow Jackets will start its non-region schedule Dec. 3 with a game against Lower Richland. 

From the jump, the team will look to stack wins and prove to everyone Irmo is still a team to be reckoned with. Quillen wants his team to focus on one game at a time and keep a winning mindset throughout the season. 

“I want them to have the mindset that we're going to get first, whether that's each game we're going to get first, the region we're going to get first and everything else from there,” he said. “If you wake up every day, and you think we got to get first, then you're going to play and act like that.