Dan Jones Retires as Gaffney's All-Time Winningest Football Coach

South Carolina coaching legend leaves with 140 wins and five state championships

Gaffney Head Coach Dan Jones during the fourth quarter of State Class 5A football playoff game with TL Hanna High at Gaffney High School in Gaffney, S.C. Friday, November 29, 2024. / Ken Ruinard / staff / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

After the conclusion of every high school football season, coaching positions become available.

One of the most coveted jobs in South Carolina is open with the retirement of longtime Gaffney coach Dan Jones.

Jones is retiring as Gaffney’s winningest coach with a 140-53 record and two state championships. And he has been Gaffney through and through. Jones played for Gaffney and spent 18 years on the staff as an assistant coach for the Indians.

The Indians were 10-2 in Jones’ final season, reaching the third round of the Class AAAAA Division 2 state playoffs, where they fell 58-40 to eventual state champion Northwestern.

This was no surprise. Jones had announced months before the season even began that 2024 was going to be his last.

“It’s just my time and I’ve been blessed to do it, with so many great assistants,” Jones told WSPA TV last February. “It’s not about me, it’s about the kids.”

Gaffney has long been one of the top programs in South Carolina and Jones maintained the Indians as a perennial state title contender.

Perhaps his greatest feat was in 2021 when the Indians ran the table in a 15-0 season that saw them topple three-time defending champion Dutch Fork en route to the Class AAAAA state championship. That’s the only season in the last nine in which Dutch Fork hasn’t won the state championship.

Gaffney also won the 2012 state championship and was runner-up in 2011.

Jones won 10 or more games six times during his 15 years as head coach. He had three seasons with nine wins. Jones had one losing season, in 2014 when the Indians were 4-8.

During his 18 years as an assistant coach at Gaffney, Jones won five state championships in 1992,1997, 2003, 2005 and 2006. 

Prior to the Indians’ second-round state playoff game with T.L. Hanna, Jones brought his seven state championship rings to practice on Thanksgiving to motivate his team. The Indians won 21-7 on the following Friday.

Gaffney’s season and an era came to an end in the third round with a 58-40 loss to Northwestern.