Gilbert moves to Class 4A. How will Indians football, other sports fare with change?

It was a new era in Gilbert athletics Friday as the first official day of fall sports practice began across the state.

The Indians football program hit the practice field around 6 a.m. under new coach Ozzie Exume. Exume takes over for Chad Leaphart, a Gilbert alum and the program’s winningest coach. Leaphart resigned last December to become athletic director for Lexington One School District, which includes Gilbert.

Exume is the first Black head football coach at a Lexington One high school. He has been Gilbert’s offensive line coach since 2016.

The coaching change isn’t the only thing new at Gilbert. In all sports, the Indians are moving up from Class 3A to 4A with the S.C. High School League’s realignment for 2024-26. It’s the first time the school has been in Class 4A.

Gilbert has been in Class 3A since 2012 and was in 2A from 1988-2011.

“Growth is good. We are a community that is seen as small and country for so long,” Exume said last month at S.C. Prep RedZone Media Day at Airport High School. “We are growing and people want to be in Gilbert because Gilbert is a special place.

“From a football standpoint, it is the next challenge. Life is about challenges and football is about life lessons everyday. I think playing some new teams, some bigger teams, some bigger schools is actually going to be fun. In terms of sports as a school, everything has the same mindset. There will be some tougher regions, tougher teams, tougher games, but it is the next challenge where we want to take Gilbert High School. It is the next step. In two or four years, if we are 5A, then that is the next challenge.”

Realignment happens in the state every two years and is done to level the competitive playing field among schools. This year’s realignment is based on 45-day enrollment numbers from grades 9-11. This year’s formula also featured an out-of-zone multiplier for the first time.

That multiplier took each student who lives outside a school’s assigned attendance zone and counted them as three for total enrollment purposes.

Gilbert will be one of the smaller Class 4A schools. According to last fall’s 45-day enrollment numbers, Gilbert was at 1,027 students. Only eight schools in Class 4A had a smaller enrollment than the Indians.

But Gilbert’s number figures to grow with the growth of the population in Lexington County. It isn’t out of the question that Gilbert could move up to Class 5A in the near future, either in the 2026-28 realignment or more likely in 2028-30.

“The growth is here,” first-year Gilbert athletic director Nicole Amick said in February. “... We are not planning for 4A because we know that isn’t a stopping point. We are planning for 5A because we know that is where we are going.”

Gilbert has been placed in Region 4-4A with Midlands schools Airport, Brookland-Cayce and Gray Collegiate as well as Aiken, South Aiken, Midland Valley and North Augusta. Gilbert has been in a region with B-C, which is also moving up from Class 3A to 4A, since 2020 but hasn’t played Airport or Gray in football since 2019. It has only played Aiken, South Aiken and Midland Valley each a handful of times and has never faced NA.

“It will be a feeling-out process as far as scheduling, traveling. Good thing is at Gilbert through the years we have played some bigger schools, some 5A schools in every sport. That will help us adjust to the new change,” Exume said. “We got to get a feel for how these new teams do things. That’s the next thing for every sport, not just football to learn.”

On the football field, Gilbert should be a contender in the region and looks to maintain the growth it showed under Leaphart. The Indians didn’t have a losing record in his eight seasons and won more than 10 games five times.

The Indians return some firepower on offense with seven starters back, including 1,000-yard backs Trevon Williamson and Jaylen Jay as well as Marshall tight end commitment Connor Gooding and receiver Krew Morris. The Indians only have three starters on defense but return leading tackler Wynn Meetze.

In addition to the defense, one of the biggest questions will involve replacing North-South quarterback Drake Braddock. Cooper James is expected to get that duty.

The Indians lost two key assistants in defensive coordinator Mark Cagle (Northside Christian) and quarterbacks coach Greg Woerner (Saluda).

The Indians open the season against county foe Lexington in a WACH Fox Game of the Week. In football, Gilbert won’t play an opponent that isn’t in Class 4A or 5A this season.

“Football is football whether it is Class A or 5A. We got to make sure we don’t take anybody lightly and we will be prepared to attack every week,” Exume said. “It has been going great. We have definitely been growing as a team. Biggest thing is teaching different changes that we will have on offense and defense.

“We are putting kids in different places. We have a lot of athletes, lot of toys. So my job is to get them fed and equal touches. So we are going to move some guys around.”

Moving Up

A list of area schools jumping up in classifications as part of 2024-26 realignment.

Class 4A to Class 5A: Irmo, Lugoff-Elgin, Ridge View, Westwood

Class 3A to Class 4A: Brookland-Cayce, Camden, Dreher, Gilbert, Lower Richland

Class 2A to 4A: Gray Collegiate

Class 2A to Class 3A: Keenan, Newberry