Hillcrest football coach Bennett Swygert has resigned after three seasons to take over the high school program at Clover, he confirmed on Feb. 9.
Swygert led the Rams to an 8-4 record in 2025, including 5-2 in Region 2-5A and a 35-14 win against Riverside in the SCHSL playoffs. Hillcrest lost to Indian Land, 40-10, in the second round.
Hillcrest went 26-11 overall and 11-7 in region games under Swygert. He took over for Anthony Frate, who went to Wren. Swygert will replace Perry Woolbright, who left Clover to coach at North Myrtle Beach.
Hillcrest was Swygert’s first head coaching job. He had been an assistant at Dorchester in high school, and Newberry and South Carolina State in college.
Swygert is a former quarterback at South Carolina and Western Carolina. He played for legendary coaches Lou Holtz while with the Gamecocks and John McKissick at Summerville High.
Hillcrest’s 10-3 record in 2023 under Swygert was the Rams’ best since Greg Porter took them to that mark in 2017. Porter led Hillcrest to the 2014 Class 4A state championship before going to Greenville and is now at Laurens. The Rams had not had a winning record in 14 seasons before going 11-2 in 2013.
Westside coach Brian Lane was at Clover from 2017-22 and took the team to a 12-1 record and a Class 5A state quarterfinals appearance in 2019. The Blue Eagles went 5-6 in 2025 and were 22-13 in three seasons under Woolbright.
Todd Shanesy covers high school athletics for the Greenville News, Spartanburg Herald-Journal and Anderson Independent Mail in the USA TODAY Network. Contact him by email at [email protected]. Follow him on X, formerly called Twitter, at @ToddShanesySHJ.
This article originally appeared on Greenville News: Hillcrest SCHSL football coach Bennett Swygert resigns after three years