Former Charleston Southern QB to be named new football coach at A.C. Flora

A.C. Flora appears to have found its next football coach.

Former Charleston Southern standout Collin Drafts will be the Falcons’ new coach, according to sources with knowledge of the situation. The move is expected to become official at Tuesday’s Richland One board meeting.

According to the Orlando Sentinel, Drafts resigned his position as head football coach at East River High School near Orlando, Florida, to take a head coaching job in Columbia, but he wouldn’t publically say which school it was.

Drafts replaces Reggie Shaw, who left to become the coach at Byrnes High School in January.

The Beaufort native and former Charleston Southern standout was head coach of East River last season. Before that, he spent five seasons as offensive coordinator at Olympia and West Orange high schools in Florida, under head coach Bob Head.

In three years at West Orange, Drafts’ offenses averaged 42 points a game and ranked in the top five in the state in scoring.

The 31-year-old Drafts turned East River around in just one season, going from 1-9 to 6-5 and a trip to the postseason.

"It’s just one of those things that is definitely a little bittersweet ," Drafts told the Orlando Sentinel.

“It’s just one of those situations where an opportunity presented itself and it was an offer that I couldn’t turn down.”

Drafts founded Quarterback Nation and coached or worked with FSU quarterback Deondre Francios, Auburn’s Woody Barrett and BYU’s Hayden Griffitts, among others.

Drafts was a four-year starter at quarterback for Charleston Southern and was Big South Player of the Year in helping the Buccaneers to a share of the conference title in 2005. He finished his career with 9,768 passing yards and 73 touchdowns.

After college, Drafts played two seasons in the Arena Football League for the Orlando Predators. In 2011, Drafts was inducted into the Charleston Southern Hall of Fame and will be part of the next class for the Big South Hall of Fame.

A.C. Flora went 6-6 this past season and went to the second round of the Class 4A playoffs after knocking off No. 2 Myrtle Beach. The Falcons will be graduating several key players from last year’s team, including college signees Lane Botkin, Cory Riley, Garrett Whetstone and Celestin Haba.

With A.C. Flora’s vacancy filled, Batesburg-Leesville and C.A. Johnson are the only two Midlands schools left with openings. There will be 10 new football coaches in the Midlands next season.

This story was originally published March 10, 2017 at 9:34 AM with the headline "Former Charleston Southern QB to be named new football coach at A.C. Flora."