Sports

New EHHS coach will have 'immediate impact,' principal says

By Lightning Reports, Published: June 3, 2021

East Henderson High School announced that it has hired Bobby James as its new head football coach.

Bringing more than 20 years of collegiate coaching experience to the Eagles football program, James will have an immediate impact on an Eagles program that has struggled to compete, EHHS Principal Brandon Scott said.

“I am so excited about Coach James joining our school and athletic department,” Scott said. “Coach James has coached college football at the D2 and D1 level for 20 years. He has contacts up and down the eastern part of the country, which will benefit any of our football players that want to play at the next level.” 

James began his coaching career in 1995 at Bloomsburg University in Pennsylvania, where he had set school records for punt returns and kick-off returns, was a two-time All-Conference selection in the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) and All-ECAC Selection. As Bloomsburg’s assistant football coach, James contributed to three straight league championships and one bid in the NCAA Division II playoffs.

At Lenoir-Rhyne University in Hickory, James served as the Secondary/Strength and Conditioning Coach and recruited in the south, west, and junior colleges, before returning to Pennsylvanis to take the defensive coordinator position at Wilkes University in 1999. In James’s two years at Wilkes, the team played for two ECAC Conference Championships, winning one and leading the conference in every defensive statistical category during both seasons. 

Wilkes coached as a defensive coordinator at Drake University in Iowa and University of New Haven in Connecticut before leading Susquehanna University in Penn. as assistant head coach. From 2007-2012, he coached at Wingate University, leading the team to its first-ever South Atlantic Conference Championship win in 2010.

In 2012, James was hired to start the Division II football program at Limestone College in South Carolina, which produced two freshman All-Americans in its first year and a ranking as the No. 1 kick-off team in the nation its second season. In the past five years, James has continued coaching at the collegiate and high school levels, and most recently as Prisma Health’s Sports Performance head coach in Greenville, South Carolina.

“Coach James is going to have an immediate impact in not only our football culture, but our school culture,” Scott said. “His energy, work ethic, and passion for students and athletes is second to none.”