Westwood’s Rodney Summers leaving to coach at May River

Rodney Summers helped build the football program at Westwood High School when it began four seasons ago.

Now, Summers will have a chance to do the same at May River High School in Bluffton when it opens in the 2016-17 school year.

Summers was named the football coach at the new school. Summers posted a picture of the Sharks logo on his Facebook page Wednesday. The Sharks will be in Region 8-3A.

Summers went 29-19 in his four seasons at Westwood, including a 9-4 mark this past season. His best year was in 2014 where the Redhawks won 11 games and advanced to the second round of the playoffs before losing to Greenwood. Westwood made the playoffs in three of his four seasons.

Prior to coming to Westwood, Summers was an assistant at Richland Northeast, Ridge View and Conway.

The Redhawks will be losing several key players for next season, including four of their five offensive linemen. Westwood will return running back Rudy Mitchell, who rushed for 1,953 yards last season, and quarterback Jalen Smith.

Westwood will be moving to Region 3-4A next year under the South Carolina High School realignment and will be in the region with Ridge View, Richland Northeast, South Pointe, Lancaster and York.

Westwood is one of three teams in the Midlands looking for new football coaches. Swansea and Lower Richland are the other two. The Diamond Hornets are beginning interviews this week of potential candidates to replace Darryl Page.

Westwood athletic director Jason Powell said they will open the position up for about two weeks and begin the interview process soon after that. He hopes to have new coach in place before spring break starts.

This story was originally published February 17, 2016 at 1:25 PM with the headline "Westwood’s Rodney Summers leaving to coach at May River."