How a small Midlands charter school landed one of SC’s top baseball coaches
Andy Hallett didn’t think a conversation six years ago would end up being a life-altering career move.
Fast forward six years, Hallett is leaving the AC Flora baseball program, which he built into a state power in his 29 years there, to become the head baseball coach and athletic director at Midlands STEM, a pre-kindergarten-12th grade charter school that opened in 2014 in Winnsboro and which is known for its academics but not yet its sports teams.
Midlands STEM hopes to change that with the addition of Hallett, who was introduced at a press conference on Saturday. He will finish the season at AC Flora and the move to Midlands on a full-time basis July 1.
“My road at AC Flora ended. It was a great journey,” Hallett said. “But I am so excited to start a new road.”
Making the move to Midlands STEM
Hallett was introduced to Justin Coleman six years ago, when Coleman was looking for Hallett to give his son some hitting lessons. Coleman had taken lessons from Hallett when he was in high school more than 20 years ago at Fairfield Central in Winnsboro.
Hallett gave Coleman’s sons the lessons and eventually branched out starting the Midlands Mavz travel ball team for young players in the Columbia area. There was one similar in the Upstate as well.
Hallett said he was burnt out on the high school travel ball circuit so starting a program for young players was a much-needed change.
Coleman and Hallett’s friendship continued to evolve over time. Coleman eventually joined the school board at Midlands STEM and started to throw the idea to Hallett possibly making the move.
Coleman said it was a “team effort” as he began talking with others at the school, including chairman Kevin Thomas and CEO Lionel Kennedy about the possibility of getting Hallett to come on board at Midlands STEM.
Hallett said conversations started around November about being baseball coach but eventually added the athletic director part. He eventually signed his contract just before AC Flora began its season in March. Word of Hallett’s hire was kept quiet, but it started to trickle out in recent weeks that he would be leaving the Falcons’ program.
“It sets us apart athletically and academically,” Coleman said of Hallett’s hire. “He is a believer of what you learn on the field helps support what you learn in the classroom,
“Everybody’s goal is to compete at the highest level athletically and academically. We are making a big push here to allow both facets, athletics and academics, to scratch each other’s back. At the end of the day it is about serving kids the best you can.”
Resetting Midlands STEM athletics
Hallett built AC Flora baseball from the ground up which he says will help him as he tries to get the Mavericks’ athletics programs going.
Being an athletic director, Hallett will have his hand not only on the baseball side but the whole aspect of Midlands STEM athletics. One of his first duties included changing the school’s colors from red, white and blue to burnt orange, similar to the University of Texas. The new colors and logos were on display during Saturday’s press conference.
Hallett said that the change in color is part of the school’s rebranding and commitment to athletics.
“We are going to build a pride that people from Winnsboro and around the Midlands area are going to associate burnt orange with that charter school in Winnsboro,” Hallett said. “We are going to want them to drive up the highway or down the highway to be here. We are going to want their child to be part of something that is great.”
Midlands STEM has an enrollment of 250 students, with 66 in grades 9-11, according to the 45-day ADM numbers that were used for 2026-28 S.C. High School League realignment.
Under Hallett, the athletics department will be hitting a reset button for varsity sports, except for cross country and volleyball. Those two sports will compete as at-large members of South Carolina High School League while the school builds up its other sports in baseball, softball, boys and girls basketball. The school doesn’t have football.
In the next two years, the school’s other sports, including baseball, will play a B Team (Grades 7-9) schedule so they can build a foundation before transitioning back to playing on the varsity level. The school competes on the Class A level (smallest in SC), but Hallett hopes to move them up to Class 2A when they return to varsity play.
“By starting in the seventh, eighth and ninth grade, we are going to start growing this tree from the ground and build a foundation,” Hallett said. “We are going to build something that is going to be highly competitive by the time we are ready to go back to being a varsity sport.”
Hallett is in the process of adding some new coaches. Mason Padgett has been hired as the new boys basketball coach, and a search continues for a girls basketball coach.
Hallett hopes to have members of his AC Flora baseball staff join him with the Midlands STEM program.
Hallett touted his commitment to discipline and building things the right way during his press conference. He has a big vision for Mavericks athletics, which is building an on-campus baseball field and facility first on the list. The field is expected to be done by January of 2027. It will include a turf infield, a clubhouse on the home dugout and indoor facility. No other area school has a turf infield.
The school also will be building an on-campus softball facility.
This comes on the heels as the school moved into a 46,000-square-foot building and added a gymnasium in 2024.
Telling Flora goodbye
Hallet’s job at AC Flora isn’t complete as he gets his team ready for the playoffs.
Hallett said he was a wreck and lost sleep in the weeks following accepting the job before telling his colleagues and his team that he would be leaving.
After all, Hallett has been a fixture at the school and baseball across South Carolina since moving from Upstate New York to the Palmetto State.
Hallett won his 600th game as Falcons coach on March 31 and built the program into a powerhouse, winning seven state championships, including three straight from 2012-14. No team above the Class A level had won three baseball titles in a row before the Falcons did it.
That made telling his players even harder. Hallett said he gathered his team in the outfield at practice a few weeks ago to break the news.
Hallett said it was emotional with he and players shedding tears during the 45-minute meeting.
“I’m 58 years old, and 29 years of my life has been at one place,” Hallett said. “It wasn’t easy. … It was devastating. I couldn’t get the words out. It was awful. It was sad and still sad. As exciting as today is, it still is a sad time in my life. After 29 years, that road is going to come to an end. But to their credit, they were outstanding, and they (the team) handled it like men.”
This year’s Flora squad is 18-5 heading into this week’s final week of the regular season. The Falcons lead York by one game in the Region 3-4A standings, and the two teams play each other this week.
Hallett says the group has a chance to possibly add title No. 8 to the trophy case before he leaves.
“It would be a fairytale ending I guess you could say. The slipper would fit,” Hallet said of possibly winning a state title. “We know that is a tough task and there are really, good schools in 4A that we will have to run through.
“... To be honest with you, I couldn’t ask for a better group of young men to go out with. We are a team that is going to be a mix before it is all said and done.”
This story was originally published April 25, 2026 at 4:31 PM.
