Swansea High School announces Brent Wilder as new head football coach

Swansea, SC - “It is great to welcome Coach Wilder back to Swansea High School,” commented Mr. Shaun Jacques, SHS principal. “As an alumnus, Coach Wilder has a passion for the Swansea program and has deep roots in the Lexington Four community. His focus on the success of our student athletes both in the classroom and on the field reflects our school’s vision to create empowered citizens who demonstrate both leadership and service. We look forward to Coach Wilder’s energy, organization, and vision of building one team, one family, and one Swansea.”

Wilder currently serves as offensive coordinator and assistant athletic director at Saluda High School in Saluda County School District One, where he also teaches English. Wilder’s Saluda offense helped the Tigers achieve a 42-12 record over the past four years including winning two region championships and reaching the semi-final round of the SCHSL AA state playoffs in 2015, 2016, and 2017. Wilder’s offense has demonstrated diversity with individual school records for rushing yards (2,132) in 2015 and rushing touchdowns (34) and scoring (40 points per game) in 2016. This year Saluda reached the third round of the playoffs and averaged over 30 points per game. Wilder’s 2018 passing offense set Saluda records for passing yards (2,866) and touchdowns (35) with five wide receivers each catching 20 or more passes.

Over the past ten years as a member of the Saluda athletic department, Wilder has coached on both the offensive and defensive staffs while also serving stints as head coach of the varsity baseball and junior varsity baseball programs. For three years prior to joining Saluda, Wilder coached offensive and defensive line and was the head varsity baseball coach at Strom Thurmond High School in Edgefield County.

A 1998 graduate of Swansea High School, Wilder began his teaching and coaching career at Swansea in 2003 as an assistant football, JV baseball, and JV basketball coach. He is excited to come back to his hometown, proclaiming, “Serving as head football coach at Swansea High School is a dream come true and I cannot wait to get started! I look forward to serving our players, students, school, and community in the years to come. Go Tigers!”