Nearing 30 years at Conway, Jordan has no plans to retire any time soon

Chuck Jordan came back from his holiday break like he’s done so many times before.

It’s a trend that doesn’t sound like it’s going to end any time soon despite questions about retirement.

Jordan, the Conway football coach and athletics director, is midway through his 29th year at the school. He’s surpassed 250 coaching victories, orchestrated plenty of non-football hires and helped countless student-athletes move on to the next levels of their lives and, in some cases, their playing careers.

By all indications, it appears as if his 30th year is a no-brainer.

“I want to retire on my terms, and not someone else’s,” said Jordan, who turned 55 on Thanksgiving and has already fulfilled the requirements for the state’s education retirement package. “The question becomes, when is the timing right? That’s the universal question. You can’t tell until you get there.

“I’m at the stage of my career where I get that question. I answered it [last week]. I haven’t even thought of it.”

One thing’s for certain: Jordan still has the attitude and passion to keep him going.

The longtime coach still gets fired up talking about football. Next fall, he expects to have a lineup revolving around quarterback Mykal Moody that could give him another deep run in the Class AAAA playoffs.

At the same time, he’s remained a character.

Jordan will joke with the best of them, and a local car commercial ends with his the coach dropping the political quip “I approved this message.”

It’s part of the attitude he’s developed over the years. After all, when you’re a coach that embedded in the community, the arrows fly as often as the praise.

Jordan’s obviously got a lot of football left in him. Many believe he’ll end his career at Conway, where he’s already compiled a 251-111 record. And while he certainly believes that is a very real possibility, he’s also seen many of his coaching brethren suffer from foot-in-mouth disease and doesn’t want to get drawn into it.

“I think you never say never,” Jordan said of taking another job. “It would have to be something I’d want to do for an awfully long time.

“My philosophy has always been that I didn’t want to go to a place where I couldn’t see myself there forever.”

He’s more than fulfilled his obligation already at Conway, despite having serious discussions with other football programs over the years. He was most notably one of the finalists for the first coaching position at Coastal Carolina that ultimately went to David Bennett. He’s also talked with Clemson and Presbyterian at differing points.

By his decision or that of others, though, Jordan’s stayed put.

“I have all these collegiate coaches come through. These are guys that called on me five jobs ago, six jobs ago, seven jobs ago,” he said. “Most of those collegiate guys are envious about that kind of job that you can keep for that amount of time.”

Region hoops

By the end of this week, every area team will have played at least one region game.

Serving as the ultimate push for playoff positioning, every team is in the hunt for the postseason, and early wins can be the difference in terms of earning spots and playoff tiebreakers.

Here are six key matchups to keep an eye on this week:

•  Carolina Forest at West Florence (boys), Monday: The Panthers are going to be in a dogfight with the two Florence schools and Sumter this year. In back-to-back-to-back games, Carolina Forest coach Brian Brunson will have to play all three in succession, starting with Monday’s road game.

•  Myrtle Beach at Socastee (girls), Friday: The Seahawks are still the class of the area, but there’s little doubt that Socastee has improved dramatically over last year’s low region finish. A victory here would be huge for the Braves, and even a respectable showing could get Ginger Ford’s team into the next level in terms of confidence for the rest of the way.

• Myrtle Beach at Socastee (boys), Friday: Myrtle Beach got thumped in the Beach Ball Classic, but not before a successful run in the Carolina Forest Panther Classic. With seniors Tramond Wilson and E.J. Goings – who the Seahawks hope to have back from an injury this week – firing on all cylinders, the Seahawks will be tough matchup for all region opponents.

•  North Myrtle Beach at Wilson (girls), Friday: Everything we’ve seen so far points to Myrtle Beach, North Myrtle Beach and St. James playing it out for the top three spots. However, Wilson has put together some quality wins and played some tougher competition close. The Tigers are certainly the early wild card.

•  Georgetown at St. James (boys), Friday: The Bulldogs have already exceeded their win total from all of last year, but they’re looking for more. Georgetown senior Tevin Johnson and junior Anthony Blair have each had big seasons already. St. James will counter with guard Caleb Duggan, who recently dropped 28 on Andrews.

•  Johnsonville at Carvers Bay (boys), Friday: One of these two teams is more than likely going to win the Region VIII-A championship. It will be up to the Bears’ one-two punch of Dashaun Aiken and Teondre Bromell to make sure this one goes Carvers Bay’s direction.

State hoops rankings

Two area girls teams were included in the state’s top-10 basketball rankings released last Thursday.

Myrtle Beach and St. James, two members of Region VIII-AAA, were Nos. 2 and 9, respectively, in Class AAA.

No. 1 Dreher was the lone team ahead of the Seahawks, the two-time defending Class AAA champions.

No other boys or girls teams in The Sun News coverage area were in the top 10 of their respective divisions.