Lexington state championship basketball coach resigns. Here’s the latest
A year after leading the Lexington boys basketball team to a state championship, coach Elliott Pope has resigned from his position.
Pope, who has been at the school for six seasons, posted his resignation on his X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday afternoon. He said he plans to pursue a master’s degree in educational administration at South Carolina.
In his post, Pope thanked current and former Lexington administrators for his time at the school.
“Thank you Lexington High School, former players, co-workers and supporters for an unforgettable six years,” Pope wrote. “I look forward to supporting the team and community as I embark on this next chapter.”
In an interview with The State, Pope said it would’ve been difficult to pursue his master’s degree while being a head coach at the same time.
Pope hopes to become an athletic director or assistant principal when he gets done with his master’s degree and emphasized he had a great experience with Lexington.
“Lexington helped me grow as a coach, teacher and a dad,” Pope said on Thursday. “The people here cared about you as a person. But right now with all the hats I was hearing, it was impractical for me to fully service those kids.”
Pope plans to remain in the Midlands and will teach middle school in the area.
There’s speculation that Pope could land at Gray Collegiate’s new satellite campus in Irmo and possibly on Dion Bethea’s staff as an assistant with the War Eagles basketball program. Bethea recently returned as Gray Collegiate’s coach after a one-year absence to coach collegiately at Georgia Southern.
Pope replaced Hall of Fame coach Bailey Harris at Lexington in 2019 and led the Wildcats to five winning seasons in six years, including a pair of 20-win seasons and two region championships in 2023-2024.
Lexington made it to the state semifinals in 2023 and then won the Class 5A championship in 2024 when it defeated Byrnes, 67-48.
It was the program’s third state title and first since 2000.
After the game, Pope took a sledgehammer and broke a cinder block that had been placed in the middle of the locker room — an idea the coach had to symbolize the Wildcats finally breaking through with a championship.
Pope won 92 games during his time at Lexington and also coached Cam Scott, the school’s all-time leading scorer. Scott won back-to-back SC Gatorade Player of the Year and signed with South Carolina before announcing this week he was transferring after one season with the Gamecocks.
Before coaching at Lexington, Pope was the head coach for two seasons at West Davidson in North Carolina. Pope also was the head coach and athletic director at Mountain Lake Academy in Charlotte.
This story was originally published April 3, 2025 at 3:02 PM.
