Laurens Academy hires Nibert as boys hoops coach, AD
Former Presbyterian College head basketball coach Gregg Nibert has been named athletic director and boys basketball coach at Laurens Academy.
Laurens Academy finalized an agreement Tuesday morning to hire former Presbyterian College men’s basketball coach Gregg Nibert as its athletic director and boys basketball coach.
Nibert, who had retired in 2025 after a stint at Spartanburg Day School, succeeds Travis Plowden in both roles.
“I’m just really excited about getting back into it – and being so close to Clinton and Laurens in Laurens County,” said Nibert. “It couldn’t be a better fit for me, and I hope it is for Laurens Academy as well.”
He added that retirement just didn’t suit him.
“There is only so much time you can spend watering the plants and playing golf,” said Nibert, who will turn 69 in July. “I even got a puppy last year, but that doesn’t take up all the time either. . . . So, I still watched a lot of basketball and go to a lot of games. (Coaching) is all I can do, really, and I’m thankful for Laurens Academy. I don’t care what level it is – NAIA, Division II or high schools or private schools or whatever, it’s coaching and being around kids and making them better, not only on the court but off the court. I think I still have some things to do, and I want to keep doing it.”
LA Headmaster Todd Kirk said after sitting down with Nibert for several hours Tuesday morning, he had to “pinch himself” to believe the hall-of-fame coach was coming on board at LA to coach both the varsity and middle school boys programs.
“He’s more than a basketball coach,” Kirk said. “He was at Presbyterian and in Clinton for a long time, and he fit into the community and embraced, and I have no doubt he will hit the ground running and embrace the community here.”
Gregg Nibert
Nibert spent 28 seasons as head coach at PC, winning more than 400 games with the Blue Hose. He is PC’s all-time leader in coaching victories, and the court in PC’s Templeton Arena bears his name.
He was inducted into the Laurens County Sports Hall of Fame in May and elected to the South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame in 2015. He received the state hall’s Felix “Doc” Blanchard Athlete/Citizen Award in 2015 in recognition of the contributions he and wife Peggy have made as foster parents.
Nibert also led Spartanburg Day to the SCISA Class 2A state title in 2022 and was named SCISA Class 2A Coach of the Year in the wake of the championship.
Kirk said he initially called Nibert for suggestions on potential candidates when LA launched its search for a new boys basketball coach and was shocked when Nibert told Kirk that he would be interested in the job himself.
“He still has a burning desire in his life to coach basketball and be around kids, and he told himself if the opportunity ever came up, he would like to look at (coming out of retirement) again,” Kirk said. “I consider us blessed and lucky to have him at LA. He has an awful lot of life left and a lot of coaching left in him.”
Nibert will be a part-time employee at LA as coach and, for the first time, as an athletic director.
He takes over a boys basketball program that made it to the SCISA state Class 2A semifinals this past season. Beginning this fall, the Crusaders will be competing in Class 1A in all sports after two years in 2A.
Nibert said he knows he will be “wearing different hats” in his new roles at LA, but he welcomes them.
“I could see myself doing this for four or five more years or I could see myself doing it for another 10 years,” he said. “It’s really what you say about being a ‘lifer’ in coaching, so I’ll do it until it’s not fun anymore. I realized that sitting on the sidelines isn’t that much fun for me either.”
