Blythewood goes to North Carolina to fill football coaching vacancy

Blythewood went to North Carolina to find its next football coach.

Hickory Ridge’s Jason Seidel will be the Bengals’ new football coach. The move was approved at Tuesday’s Richland Two school board meeting.

Seidel is meeting with his players Wednesday.

Seidel replaces Brian Smith, who was fired after one season. He is the seventh coach in 12 seasons of varsity football at Blythewood.

Seidel also interviewed for the Stratford coaching job, according to sources.

The New York native went 23-6 the past two seasons at Hickory Ridge and led the Ragin’ Bulls to a school-record 12 victories in 2016 before losing in the fourth round of the 3A playoffs. This year, Hickory Ridge moved up to Class 4A and went 11-3 before losing to Vance in the third round of the playoffs.

“We are very pleased to welcome Coach Seidel and his family to the Bengal family,” said Blythewood

athletic director Barry Mizzell. “We’re excited about the energy and enthusiasm Coach Seidel will bring

to Blythewood High School and are looking forward to the many outstanding contributions he and his

staff will make to Bengal Nation. We’re very fortunate to have Coach Seidel leading our program on the

field, in the classroom, and in the town of Blythewood.”

Prior to coaching at Hickory Ridge, Seidel was an assistant coach in North Carolina at Wilmington’s Laney High School, Mount Pleasant High, Charlotte’s Phillip O. Berry Academy and at Ashbrook High in Gastonia.

Under Seidel, Hickory Ridge’s offense averaged 32.2 points a game this season and 448 yards of offense.

Blythewood is coming off a 3-7 season and missed the playoffs for the first time since 2008. The Bengals didn’t score a touchdown in their final four games.

Blythewood returns talented QB Quentin Patten, who missed most of the season because of an injury, running back Jaylon Boyd and defensive end Patrick Godbolt.

With Seidel’s hire, that leaves two Midlands high schools — Heathwood Hall and Eau Claire —without football coaches.

This story was originally published January 22, 2018 at 4:26 PM with the headline "Blythewood goes to North Carolina to fill football coaching vacancy."