LUMBERTON — Former West Brunswick head coach Kelly Williamson was approved by the Public Schools of Robeson County Board of Education to take over as the head football coach at Lumberton High School on Tuesday.
Williamson takes over for Mike Setzer, who was fired in December, after a 2-9 season in 2017. In the four years under Setzer, the Pirates were 17-28 with one playoff appearance.
“We’re excited to have a veteran coach like Coach Williamson coming in and we return a lot of good players on offense and defense and the jayvee team wasn’t bad,” Lumberton Athletic Director Mackie Register said. “We’re just excited to have him in place and getting things started.”
Williamson has history with Lumberton as his mother runs Quik Print in Lumberton. He coached West Brunswick this year in the 21-14 loss at Lumberton and has coached the Trojans in all three of the Battle of the Carolinas jamborees hosted at Lumberton.
His position at the high school is something that Register said will have to be discussed with Lumberton principal Larry Obeda.
The Trojans are coming off a 4-8 season in 2017 under Williamson. During his tenure in Shallotte, he posted an 18-19 record, including a 9-4 season in 2016 for the program’s first winning season since 2009.
Williamson resigned from his position in January.
His approval came at the school board meeting after the board initially adjourned the meeting. After coming out of the closed session, the board reconvened to announce the hiring of Williamson.
After the announcement, board member Craig Lowery spoke about his disapproval for the application process.
“I do not like the application process for the football coach. Nothing against the person, but I can’t support the process,” he said.
