AC Flora’s choice for new boys basketball coach is former local, Clemson standout
Ed Scott is coming back to the Columbia area to continue his coaching career.
The former Lower Richland and Clemson basketball standout will be the new boys coach at A.C. Flora High School. The move was approved at Tuesday’s Richland 1 school board meeting. Scott replaces Joshua Staley, who left to become the new coach at Ridge View.
“A.C. Flora has a great tradition of basketball,” Scott told The State. “They have been very successful and coach Staley has done a great job there. It is a top-level school, and they have a real high standard of excellence across the board in athletics and education.”
Scott has been the head coach at Lakewood High School in Sumter for the past three years. The Gators went 15-10 this season and made it to the third round of the Class 3A playoffs before losing to Oceanside Collegiate.
Despite coaching in Sumter, Scott still lived in Columbia and commuted there every day, so the move gets him closer to home. He was a standout at Lower Richland High School and was part of the 1999 nationally-ranked Diamond Hornets state championship team.
“Being back in Columbia is a perfect fit and perfect timing,” Scott said.
After LR, he went on to play at Clemson in college and then professionally for seven seasons in Europe. Scott was a two-time all-ACC selection at Clemson and was part of the ACC Legends Class in 2017. He still ranks second in Tiger history with 595 assists and was third in the nation in assists per game in 2001-02.
Scott began his coaching career as an assistant at River Bluff and was at Richland Northeast. He was the founder and coach of the S.C. Tigers AAU program.
A.C. Flora is coming off a trip to the Class 4A championship game in which it lost to Wilson. It was the Falcons’ third title appearance under Staley since taking over the program before the 2014-15 season. A.C. Flora lost in the 2015 3A championship game before winning it all in 2016.
The Falcons will have several pieces from last year’s team coming back, including CP Parker, but they will be without star player Collin Murray-Boyles. The rising senior forward announced that he will be playing his senior year at Wasatch Academy in Utah.
This story was originally published May 11, 2022 at 9:58 AM.
