White Knoll football coach resigns
White Knoll High School is looking for a new athletic director and football coach.
Dean Howell “has decided to resign his position as AD/head football coach to spend more time with his family,” Lexington 1 announced Wednesday afternoon.
White Knoll Principal Ted Daughtrey said in a statement, “It has been a pleasure to work with Dean over the past five years. For his 26 years coaching football, he positively impacted hundreds of young men’s lives. His dedication to White Knoll High School has enabled our students to have a wonderful high school experience both in and out of athletic competition. We’ll miss the Howell children running footballs out to the officials during football games and are happy that Dean will be able to spend more time with his family.”
Howell told The State on Wednesday that being away from football in the spring because of the COVID-19 shutdown opened his eyes to life outside of sports. But he definitely plans on coaching again in the future, he said.
“I’m very thankful for the leadership of Lexington 1 affording me the opportunity to serve White Knoll High School these last eight years,” Howell said. “We made some great memories and hung some banners that no one can take away from us. Don’t know where we go from here but I know it will be something where I can eat more suppers at my own table than I do in my car or in my office.”
White Knoll went 0-5 this season and had its year cut short because of COVID-19 issues that forced the Timberwolves to cancel their final two games.
Howell, who was hired at White Knoll in 2013, had his best season in 2016 when the Timberwolves went 8-5 and made it to third round of the playoffs before losing to Dutch Fork. White Knoll was 4-4 at one point in that season before winning four straight games, including playoff victories over Wando and Lexington.
“A lot of lesser teams with lesser character would have quit when we were 4-4. … But they kept battling and turned it around and had one of best seasons in history of the school,” Howell said in 2016.
Howell won a school-record 47 games at White Knoll also has been an assistant on the Shrine Bowl and North-South coaching staffs.
Before White Knoll, Howell had a successful run at A.C. Flora where he led the Falcons to a 37-12 record. A.C. Flora reached the Class 3A Lower State championship game in 2011 and won a school-record 12 games.
In addition to being a head coach, Howell spent time as an assistant at Chapin, Richland Northeast and Brookland-Cayce.
White Knoll is the first coaching opening in the Midlands this year. According to Lexington 1, the job will be posted Thursday at joinlexington1.com.
This story was originally published November 11, 2020 at 4:44 PM.
