New Lexington charter school turns to veteran Midlands coach to lead football program
A longtime Midlands high school football coach has been hired by the new American Leadership Academy charter school in Lexington.
Robin Bacon will be ALA’s first football coach and the school’s Dean of Students.
Ray Canady was previously announced as the school’s inaugural athletic director. Canady was head baseball coach at Irmo for 20 years before becoming the Yellow Jackets’ athletic director in 2017.
Canady said the school will announce more hires in the next few weeks.
“The biggest thing is the core values and the things I was raised on and what I think you have to be a successful program is what this school is all about,” Bacon told The State. “Their whole thing is building leaders and having great character and obviously building a great football program.
“I’m really excited. When people Google the school and see what it is about and what we are trying to do, I expect a lot of numbers to come to the school.”
American Leadership Academy, which is based out of Arizona and has schools there and in the Carolinas, is a public charter school that will open for the 2023-24 academic year and has been approved to be a member of the S.C. High School League. ALA will begin with at-large membership and then be placed in a region the following year. The school’s football team will play a combination of a JV and varsity schedule, but details are still being worked out.
Bacon said the team’s games will be on the road for the first year as they are in the process of getting the facilities and stadium built. He also is in the process of putting together his coaching staff but wasn’t ready to announce who some of his coaches will be yet.
American Leadership is one of two new charter schools opening this coming year that will compete in athletics in the S.C. High School League. The other is Atlantic Collegiate Academy — which is run by by Pinnacle Charter School Management Group — and is opening in the Myrtle Beach area.
ALA also plans to open a school in Greenville for 2024-25. Mountain View Prep, which is run by T2 Charters (pronounced T squared) is opening in Spartanburg next year as well.
Bacon was the head coach at Spring Valley High in Northeast Columbia from 2015 before stepping down following the end of this season. He has been a coach for 32 years.
Bacon was an assistant at Spring Valley before taking over the top job after Jerry Brown left. Prior to Spring Valley, he was head coach at A.C. Flora, athletic director at Lower Richland and an assistant at his alma mater of Richland Northeast.
He was the head coach for the winning South squad in the Touchstone Energy Cooperatives Bowl this past year and said following the game that he was looking at his options to coach again. He was a finalist for the Heathwood Hall football job earlier this year.
“I love this game. It is emotional. This could be the last game,” Bacon said in postgame comments on Dec. 10. “And the players when they heard that, they said they would put me out a winner. I don’t know what to say. I’ve got to get back into football.”
Now, Bacon is back in football and has the chance to put a stamp on the program by building it from the start.
“Yeah there is going to be challenges, but there is going to be a lot of good things,” Bacon said. “You are going to create a culture there. The fact that we are a K-12 school, those kids will be understanding what we want.
“But I think the coaches we are bringing in, the facilities, it’s going to bring a lot of excitement to the Lexington community.”
This story was originally published May 12, 2023 at 1:15 PM.
