David Bennett, viral Coastal Carolina football coach, to retire from local AD job
David Bennett is stepping down as Lexington One athletic director.
Bennett has been at his position since 2016 after a long career in high school and college football coaching. His last day will be in December.
Bennett said he thought about retiring last June but was asked to stay on for a few more months.
“Twenty-eight years in college coaching and around 12 in high school. That’s 40 years so it is time to do something else,” Bennett told The State on Friday. “I will miss the relationships and being around kids and athletics.”
Bennett said he has no immediate plans but will probably do some speaking and spending time with his family. He spoke to the Sumter County Touchdown Club on Friday.
Bennett, a former athlete at Presbyterian College, began his coaching career as a grad assistant at Clemson in the mid-1980s and then got his first head coaching job at Division II Catawba where he won 63 games from 1995-2001.
After a successful run at Catawba, Bennett was named the first head coach in Coastal Carolina in history. He went 63-39 at CCU, led the Chanticleers to the playoffs in the school’s fourth season and was inducted in the school’s hall of fame in 2022.
Bennett also was known for his one-minute rant during a CCU press conference in September 2011. His “Cats and Dogs” commentary challenged his players to be tough like dogs, saying: “We don’t need a bunch of cats in here, ‘Meow!’ looking in the mirror, ‘Do I look good?’ ... Be a dog. We need more dogs.”
People still ask him about it more than a decade later. A YouTube video of his comments has more than 2.5 million views.
Bennett still remains close to his former Coastal players and coaches. He played golf with some of them this week and attended Coastal’s game at Appalachian State on Tuesday.
“Those relationships get more special the older you get,” Bennett said.
After he was fired at Coastal, Bennett took over as athletic director at Socastee High School before being named the first head coach at River Bluff High School when it opened in 2013.
Bennett went 22-11 in his three seasons as Gators’ football coach. One of the highlights of his tenure at River Bluff was when it defeated No. 1 Goose Creek in the 2014 Class 4A Division I playoffs as a No. 16 seed. In state history, it’s not often a No. 16 seed beats a No. 1 seed.
As Lexington One athletic director, Bennett has worked with the district’s 27,000 athletes and more than 450 coaches.
“You are kind of the mediator between coaches,” Bennett said. “We helped improved our facilities in the district and get the salaries up. There are still things we can do though. We need to separate our athletic director and football coach positions. There are some things I will suggest before I leave, and I always will be available.”
This story was originally published October 13, 2023 at 6:24 PM.
