Coaching staffs for 2022 Touchstone Energy Bowl announced

The Touchstone Energy Cooperatives Bowl, in conjunction with the South Carolina Athletics Coaches Association, has named the respective coaching staffs for the 2022 event. Chapin High School’s Justin Gentry and Spring Valley High School’s Robin Bacon will serve as the head coaches for this year’s game, to be held Saturday, December 10, 2022 at Doug Shaw Memorial Stadium in Myrtle Beach.

Gentry will coach the South squad while Bacon will be the head coach of the North team.

Gentry has served the head football coach at Chapin since 2010. Prior to taking over the Eagles, he was the head football coach at Lake City High School. He has also served as the head football coach at Williston-Elko High School and as an assistant at Wagener-Salley High School and Marlboro County High School. Gentry, voted his respective Region Coach of the Year six times, was an assistant coach for this game in 2011.

Bacon has served as the head football coach at Spring Valley since 2015 and the team’s offensive coordinator for five seasons immediately prior. He has also been the athletics director at Lower Richland High School and the head football coach at A.C. Flora High School. In his career, he has had 36 players named to either All-America or state All-State teams. Bacon was an assistant coach in this game in 2008.

Gentry’s staff will be rounded out by the following coaches: B.J. Payne (Hilton Head); Roosevelt Nelson (Crestwood); Justin Danner (Lee Central); Scott Cook (East Clarendon); Gene Williams (Bamberg-Ehrhardt, assistant); and Marco Thompson (Manning, assistant).

Bacon’s staff will be rounded out by the following coaches: Chris Liner (Greenwood); Robert Mustar (Powdersville); Demetrius Davis (Fairfield Central); Brian Smith (Ridge Spring-Monetta); Larry Poole (Pelion, assistant); and Gil Cade (Abbeville, assistant).

South Carolina’s electric cooperatives have been the primary sponsors of the Touchstone Energy Cooperatives Bowl since 2013. Previously, the event was known as the North-South All-Star Football Game, an event that began in 1948. It is one of the oldest high school all-star events in the country.