Johnston, SC – Drew Towery knows what it takes to build a strong, successful varsity baseball program. He’s seen it happen and he’s lived it, first as a high level prep player and later as an assistant coach. Now he’s taking the next step.

As a former all-state player and state champion under Midlands baseball coaching legend, Charles Assey, Sr., at high school baseball powerhouse Brookland-Cayce High School, a collegiate player coached by Russell Triplett at Newberry College, and later as an assistant with Coach Assey, he’s experienced the highs and lows of the game and everything in between.

Injuries derailed his playing career, but Towery overcame that adversity and kept hold of his passion for the game through coaching, which he will continue as the new head baseball coach of the Strom Thurmond High School (STHS) “Relentless” Rebels baseball program during the 2026-2027 school year. Towery will also teach English at STHS.

“My first memory of Strom Thurmond (high school) actually came on the football field in 2013 when I was at Brookland-Cayce and they came up to (Class AAA) and into our region, and we scored the first touchdown of the game and we didn’t score again,” said Towery. “Then, of course, we played them in baseball in the spring and over the years I’ve just seen the success they’ve had here. Being a head coach has always been one of my goals in coaching and when that’s one of your goals and the opportunity to coach at a place like this opens up I think you really have to go for it. It was perfect timing.”

Towery, whose hiring was approved by the Edgefield County School District’s (ECSD) Board of Trustees during Monday’s (5/18) regular meeting, has served as an assistant baseball coach at White Knoll High School, Cardinal Newman School, and Saluda High School. He also served as the head baseball coach of the American Legion Post 7 (Lexington, SC) for six seasons.

“This is an attractive place, just historically, and a place where you can have a lot of success,” Towery said of STHS. “That’s why the opportunity here really stuck out, maybe more so than some other opportunities.”

Towery says he’s excited to build upon the solid foundation and tradition of “Relentless Rebels” baseball put in place by former STHS head coaches, and its most recent head coach and current STHS assistant principal, Nate Horton.

“Being around a group of kids twenty four seven, some people may call you crazy, but I enjoy it and I enjoy the grind,” he added. “Baseball is obviously my life, and the journey is just really getting started on this second chapter (of coaching).”

Courtesy ECSD Public Information Office (PIO) by email at ecsdpio@edgefieldcountyschools.org.