Midlands basketball coach leaving to take over national powerhouse Oak Hill
Yerrick Stoneman helped build Ridge View basketball into one of the top high school programs in South Carolina. Now, he’ll take over one of the top programs in the country.
Stoneman will be the new coach at Oak Hill Academy in Virginia next season, he confirmed to The State. The school officially announced the news Wednesday afternoon. He will replace Naismith Hall of Fame coach Steve Smith, who has won more than 1,200 games and turned the rural Virginia boarding school into a national powerhouse in his 30-plus years as head coach there.
Smith announced last week that this would be his last season at Oak Hill. Stoneman informed his Ridge View team and parents of the move Tuesday night and called it a very “emotional meeting.” He will stay on through the end of the season and move to Virginia in the summer.
The Blazers began the playoffs Wednesday with a 63-38 win over Boiling Springs. Ridge View will host Riverside on Friday in the second round.
“I didn’t have to think twice about it because coach Smith called me and told me he would like for me to take over,” Stoneman told The State. “If he has the confidence in me to do it, I think I can get the job done. I’m never going to replace him. You aren’t to replace someone who has done that for so long and done it so well.
“... It is going to be a challenge but something that I really want. I’m definitely going to be missing my guys here and the family I have built here within the Ridge View community. I have to thank the administration here for giving me the chance to come here and coach these young men, and my players for being successful. It is not about what I have done but what people have done for me.”
Stoneman said the move was in the works since the summer when Smith told him this would likely be his last year. It also is a move for Stoneman to be closer to family. He and his wife are both from Virginia.
Stoneman was an assistant coach from 1996-2007 at Oak Hill, which is regularly ranked among the top high school teams each year and is No. 8 in the latest ESPN’s Top 25 high school basketball poll. He coached under Smith and worked with 58 Division I players at Oak Hill, including future NBA players Kevin Durant, Carmelo Anthony, DeSagana Diop, Brandon Jennings, Rajon Rondo, and Josh Smith.
Stoneman came to Ridge View from Galax High (Virginia) in 2016 and turned the Columbia-area school into a championship contender. His record at Ridge View is 114-44, including an 18-2 mark in the playoffs. The Blazers won a region championship every year since his arrival and won three straight Class 4A state championships from 2018-20.
The 2020 title was the toughest as the program dealt with the loss of Jason “Crow” Anderson, running backs coach for the Ridge View football team and father of former basketball player Ja’Von Anderson. The Blazers trailed in each of their final three playoff games that year, including a 19-point deficit in the upper state finals against Wren.
“I can’t believe it,” Stoneman said after the 2020 championship win over Myrtle Beach. “The good Lord puts you in position to be successful. Sometimes he closes the door to open another. He closed a door that I was comfortable with but put me down here in a situation where I could make an impact on the youth of the Ridge View community.”
After the 2020 title, Ridge View moved up to Class 5A and has been ranked in the top 10 in both seasons in the state’s highest classification. The Blazers are one of the favorites to make it to the championship game this season.
“From the first group until the group I have now is just the family bond we have had that makes you want to be successful,” Stoneman said. “They challenge every day just like I try to challenge them. The biggest difference is, I wasn’t being challenged. But when I came here, my kids challenged me to help them get better. And I have challenged them to get better not only as basketball players but people in the community.
“I want people to remember it wasn’t about the championships but developing young men to better people within our society.”
Fourteen players from Ridge View have gone on to play college basketball since Stoneman’s arrival, with three more seniors on this year’s team likely to keep playing on the next level. Junior GG Jackson, Rivals’ No. 1 ranked player nationally for the Class of 2023, is a lock to be another. There is speculation that Jackson could follow Stoneman to Oak Hill for his senior season, but nothing has been decided yet.
With Jackson on the roster, the Blazers have played probably the most challenging schedule in school history with trips to Las Vegas and New Orleans, plus playing in the hometown Chick-fil-A Classic and The Bash against top-notch competition. Ridge View also played at Oak Hill last month.
This story was originally published February 16, 2022 at 11:34 AM.
