After more than 40 years roaming the sidelines of the Lowco, the circle has closed for Dave Adams.
The legendary Lowco coach announced his retirement Thursday, stepping down after six seasons as the head football coach at Hilton Head Prep, which is where it all started — in a roundabout way.
Adams came to the Lowcountry in 1978 to join longtime HHP coach and athletics director Rich Basirico at May River Academy, which later merged with Sea Pines Academy to form Hilton Head Prep.
But Adams’ reach went well beyond, as he spent 18 seasons at Hilton Head Island High School, splitting time as the offensive and defensive coordinator under the legendary Dan Utley, before becoming the first head football coach and athletics director at Bluffton High School in 2004. He coached the Bobcats for three seasons and remained as the AD for nine more.
After a winless inaugural campaign, Adams earned the first win in Bluffton history to open the 2005 season against Jasper County and closed out that season with two region wins to make the playoffs for the first time.
Adams’ career came full circle when he retired from the public school system in 2016 and took over a football program in transition at Prep. It wasn’t an easy task with the balance of power in area SCISA football having shifted toward Hilton Head Christian Academy and a new program building at John Paul II.
The Dolphins’ roster has lacked depth throughout Adams’ tenure, and this year’s team boasted only 20 players at its high-water mark, finishing with 16 suited up for a first-round playoff loss at Williamsburg Academy. But the Dolphins outperformed expectations all season, winning six of their first eight games before a series of key injuries sent them to a three-game skid to end the season.
Nonetheless, it gave Adams his first winning season during his second tenure at Prep. That’s not what Adams expected.
“This was a special group,” Adams said. “This was my least amount of numbers and we didn’t have a whole lot of talent.”
By the time the Dolphins were sitting at 6-2, fans and alumni were openly asking Adams, “How?”
“I had no answers for them,” Adams said. “It was just one of those special groups. I always dreaded the day when you finally make up your mind to do that, but I can walk away and look back on this season and feel like it’s a great way to walk away.”
It was the last in a series of special occasions for Adams over a decade that spanned more than four decades and multiple generations of Lowcountry families. He coached numerous kids of players he had coached earlier in his career and can hardly leave the house without running into a former player.
For as much as he saw the game change, he finished his career running the same offensive and defensive schemes he employed in 1978 at May River Academy.
“We had this guy called the tight end and one called the fullback,” Adams laughed. “You don’t see that too much anymore.”
Adams won a state title at May River Academy in 1981, then spent two seasons at Wilson Hall before returning to the Lowcountry. He has been a fixture here ever since, helping shape generations of young men.
Now he’s ready to spend more time with his four grandchildren and work on his tennis game.
“The first thing I want to do,” he said, “is turn off my alarm clock.”
By Justin Jarrett
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