After a legendary 55 years of basketball coaching, teaching, and mentorship, Jerry Faulkner has called it a career.
Faulkner told his Hilton Head Prep team Tuesday that he will step down from his head coaching role and announce his retirement, ending a 10-year run at the helm of the Dolphins’ program.
An extraordinary leader, mentor, and basketball mind, Faulkner began his coaching career in 1967. He built a powerhouse program in North Carolina, spending 23 years at Charlotte Latin School and winning five state championships before coming to the Lowco to become the head coach at Hilton Head Christian Academy.
After a brief stint with the Eagles, Faulkner stepped away due to health concerns and returned to coaching in 2012 at Hilton Head Prep where he captured a SCISA 2A state title in 2019. In his storied career, Faulkner has accumulated nearly 900 wins with nine state championships while maintaining a winning percentage of over .700. He earned the right to coach the East team in the McDonald’s All-American Game in 2001.
Alongside his outstanding work as a coach, Faulkner has served as a mentor and motivational speaker at venues across the country while writing books about coaching and leadership, and he continues to serve as an umpire for the Bluffton Youth Sports rec baseball league.
The move represents the end of an era for Hilton Head Prep athletics, as Faulkner will retire from his position at Hilton Head Prep just six months after longtime Lowco football coach Dave Adams hung up his cleats. Adams moved to Hilton Head Island in 1978 to join Rich Basirico in Sea Pines, who stepped down as Hilton Head Prep’s athletic director at the end of the 2020-21 academic year.
By Wes Kerr / Photos by Justin Jarrett
