Camden, North Central fill football coaching vacancies with former NFL players

Camden and North Central filled their football vacancies with a pair of former NFL players.

Brian Rimpf was hired at Camden, while Tyronne Drakeford will be the new coach at North Central. The moves were approved Tuesday at a Kershaw County Board meeting.

“Both of these gentlemen bring a great level of experience and accomplishments to these positions,” Kershaw County School District Superintendent Frank Morgan said. “But, more importantly, they have a passion for ensuring that our student athletes are not only successful on the playing field and in the classrooms but also in their communities.”

Both coaches also will be their school’s athletic directors.

Rimpf replaces, Jimmy Neal, who stepped down after 19 seasons. Rimpf spent five seasons as head coach at Jack Britt. He went 42-23 with a trip to the Class 4-AA championship game.

Before coaching at Jack Britt, he played at East Carolina and in the NFL with the Baltimore Ravens, and then in the Arena Football League.

Camden went 5-6 this past season and set several school offensive records.

“Camden’s a very historical school that’s been around a long time, with a lot of community support behind it,” Rimpf told the Fayetteville Observer. “I was told a long time ago that if you could ever get to a school that was named after the town that it’s in, then that would be a great place to be.”

Drakeford takes over for Louis Clyburn and is a former North Central standout. He was a second-round draft pick by the San Francisco 49ers in 1994. He played eight seasons in the NFL, won a Super Bowl his rookie season and finished his career with 16 interceptions.

Since retiring from the NFL, he was an assistant Kettle Run High in Virginia and at Cordova High School in Cordova, Tenn. Since 2014, he was the executive director of the Boys and Girls Club in Prince William County, Va., since 2014.

Drakeford also was the athletic director as well as the executive director for the Boys and Girls Club of Greater Memphis, Tennessee.

With those two vacancies field, the openings left in the Midlands are A.C. Flora, Blythewood, Lexington, Richland Northeast and C.A. Johnson. Blythewood and RNE are expected to name their coaches next week after they are approved at the Richland 2 Board Meeting on Tuesday.

This story was originally published February 7, 2017 at 8:17 PM with the headline "Camden, North Central fill football coaching vacancies with former NFL players."