Phil Savitz with his son, Zach, following Irmo’s State Championship win in 2013. File Photo
The 2024 high school soccer season is quickly winding down. So too is the career of legendary soccer coach Phil Savitz.
Savitz will call it a career after 44 years. He’s coached for two schools during that time, 33 years at Irmo High School and the last 11 at River Bluff High School. He’s won 821 games and coached in 24 state championship games, winning 15 of them.
Fate brought Savitz to soccer. As a child he played every sport but soccer and tennis. It wasn’t until his senior year at A.C. Flora High School he decided to take up those sports.
“I had a friend, Fick Price, who played soccer the whole time he was at A.C. Flora,” Savitz said. “He encouraged me to come out. Thank goodness he had faith in me and convinced me to do it.”
Luckily for Savitz, he attended one of the few schools that had a soccer program at the time. He played forward and scored a few goals before a hip injury ended his season at the midway point. Even while he was sidelined, he continued to learn more about soccer. He began reading books about it and gathered as much information as he could.
Phil Savitz taking in his last few weeks as head boys soccer coach at River Bluff High School. Photo by Josh Cruse
“At the time I didn’t know if I wanted to be a coach,” Savitz said. “I knew I wanted to keep playing soccer. I remember how much I loved the game. Soccer is a players’ sport. Once the game gets going, there aren’t a lot of stoppages. That appealed to me. I didn’t know a lot at the beginning, but I wanted to learn.”
Following his time at A.C. Flora, Savitz went on to play club soccer at the University of South Carolina. The Gamecocks didn’t have a varsity program until Savitz’s eligibility was done. During his time at South Carlina, Savitz realized coaching was the best avenue to continue his soccer career.
“When I started South Carolina, I studied accounting,” Savitz said. “I realized quickly it wasn’t what I wanted to do. Then I moved onto computer science. That didn’t work out. Then I went into business administration because my father ran a business and I thought I could take it over one day. However, it didn’t float my boat. It wasn’t what I wanted to do.
“Midway through my sophomore year, my sister-in-law, Jennifer, who is a psychologist, advised me to come to her office and do a battery of tests, career aptitude type of testing. When the results came back, I sat down with her. Of the four or five things that rated high for me, teaching and coaching were two areas that I seemed to have an affinity for. I had not considered either of those at the time. I applied to the school of education. Once I got in, I started loving my classes and connecting with them. It felt right.”
As his time in education went on, Savitz began considering what he wanted to do with it once he graduated. One possibility was to teach physical education, since many coaches were also PE teachers.
When his time at South Carolina was coming to an end, Savitz had already been accepted to the University of Massachusetts for a graduate assistanceship in exercise science. Around the same time, the Gamecocks hired Mark Berson to coach the men’s soccer program. Berson reached out to Savitz, first about playing and then about coaching. Savitz informed Berson about his plans. Berson encouraged Savitz to reconsider and, after taking time to think about it, he did.
For two years, Savitz served as Berson’s grad assistant. However, once his time as a grad assistant was up, Savitz had to look for other options as South Carolina didn’t have a full time assistant position available.
While Savitz was applying for college coaching positions, Irmo High School was looking for a new boys’ soccer coach.
At the time, Yellow Jackets’ head coach Nicky Joseph was leaving the program to get into business. Joseph had just guided Irmo to back-to-back state championships in 1978 and 1979.
His departure in the middle of the 1979-1980 school year would have left Irmo in a bind. Neither Berson or Savitz knew of anyone for Joseph to contact to be his replacement. Finally, Berson suggested Savitz take the job. Along with coaching the boys soccer team, Savitz was offered a six-to-eight week stint as a PE teacher, filling in for the regular teacher who was out on maternity leave.
Savitz brought with him the lessons he learned from Berson.
“He gave me so much insight,” Savitz said of Berson. “He was organized. He was a good administrator and a good coach. The way he ran things offered me the opportunity to take mental and physical notes.”
Along with inheriting a state-championship winning program, Savitz learned about the Irmo Soccer Association.
At the time, club soccer wasn’t a common option for soccer players. Joseph helped to start the program, which offered players a chance to play soccer year-round. As a result, Yellow Jackets’ players came to the varsity team more developed than some other soccer teams around the state.
Even though Savitz’s first season with the Yellow Jackets was on a part time basis, he still guided Irmo to a state championship appearance. The Yellow Jackets came up short to the Sumter Gamecocks. They would return a year later, Savitz first as the fulltime head coach. Once again, Irmo came up on the losing end, this time to the T.L. Hanna Yellow Jackets.
As Savitz approached his third year at Irmo, a fan commented that he had already coached in two state championships in his first two seasons, where some coaches don’t even get one opportunity.
“I started to wonder if I would ever get another opportunity,” Savitz said. “I wondered, ‘ What if this was it?’”
It wasn’t, as the Yellow Jackets made their third straight state championship appearance in 1982, this time defeating the Spring Valley Vikings for the title.
“It felt like validation,” Savitz said. “Then I knew Irmo could win a state championship with me as the head coach.”
Irmo wouldn’t advance that far against until the 1987 season. Along with what would become the beginning of a dominant run for the Yellow Jackets, Savitz was also celebrating the birth of his daughter, Erin. According to Savitz, she takes credit for the 26-year run as his good luck charm.
During that stretch, Irmo won four state titles in a row and 13 titles altogether. The Yellow Jackets played in another nine.
“ What we always tried to do was insist on the culture being strong,” Savitz said. “We wanted a team that had good character. Academics had to be important. We wanted the players to represent themselves as an Irmo or River Bluff soccer player 24/7. We tried to set the bar really high. I felt that as long as we could get good people in the program, we could help them become good players. If you get a bunch of good players who aren’t good people, you’re never going to fulfill your potential.”
Savitz’s final championship came in 2013 when Irmo defeated Lexington. At the time, Savitz had as much going on off the field as he did on it.
River Bluff High School was scheduled to open in 2014. Two years prior, Gators’ principal Luke Clamp contacted Savitz. The two had known each other since Clamp’s time at Irmo. Initially, Savitz wasn’t interested and thought Clamp should go after a younger coach. Clamp stuck with his first choice and convinced the Hall-of-Fame coach to change schools after 33 years at Irmo.
“I knew I needed to take the opportunity,” Savitz said. “I talked it over with my wife, Jan. The family was shocked. I still love the soccer program at Irmo. We had 14 sophomores coming back that had state championship experience. Something about the timing felt right. To get a chance to start a program, not everyone gets that chance.”
Savitz took his philosophy family atmosphere and culture and built River Bluff’s soccer team quickly. In his first year, Savitz guided River Bluff to the Upper State championship before falling to Eastside.
Two years later, the Gators captured their first, and only, state championship with a 5-nil win over the Clover Eagles.
While Savitz has only won one title at River Bluff, he’s had plenty of success. There have been three other seasons where the Gators have finished with 20-plus wins. River Bluff has also captured at least a share of eight region titles.
“There has been a lot of pride and tradition in this program, too, even though it’s had a shorter time in existence,” Savitz said. “I’m just proud of the buy in we’ve had.”
Another highlight of Savitz’s time at River Bluff came on March 31, 2023 when a 2-1 win over Lexington gave the longtime head coach his 800th win.
“What’s really cool is that a lot of these milestones aren’t about me,” Savitz said. “To me it’s about all those parents, coaches, players, and administrators who helped me along the way to get to 800 wins. Those aren’t my championships. Those aren’t my wins. Sure they have to attach a name to them, but it means so much to me that collectively so many people have been a part of this journey and take pride in it. My family is obviously at the core of it. They are the core, the nucleus. But it branches out to so many people.
“When people reach out to me, none of them talk about a championship. They talk about some unbelievable memories they have or how I’ve made them a better person or how I’ve filled a void as a father figure when they were in a time of need or bringing them out of a hard time and showing them the way. They talk about how I’ve helped make them a better father, a better husband. Those are the things that I’m hearing now, and it warms my heart.”
River Bluff’s biggest postseason adversary has been the Wando Warriors, who have beaten the Gators in five of their eight postseason appearances. River Bluff even had to get past Wando during its championship season. The Gators knocked off the Warriors in the second round of the 5A playoffs last year, before losing to Ashley Ridge in the quarterfinals.
“The level of competition in the state is so good,” Savitz said. “There are several years if Wando wasn’t there we might have won a few more titles. There are other good teams like Lexington, Chapin, Clover, Nation Ford, Stratford, and Socastee. You don’t see as many repeat winners as you used to.”
Savitz has known retirement was coming sooner rather than later. Over the last few seasons, he’s been asked multiple times how much longer he will coach. He’s self-evaluated every October to see if he wants to coach another season.
For many seasons, the answer has been yes. That changed this past October.
“After doing something as long as I’ve done it, to do it the way I want to do it requires a lot of energy and time,” Savitz said. “I have a high standard for myself. I have to do things the way I have always done them or I don’t want to do it.”
Jan, who Savitz met during his first year at Irmo, has been retired for 11 years. His son, Zack, once played and coached with his father. Eventually Zack, had to give up coaching, but he still attends as many River Bluff games as he is able. Savitz has two grandchildren in Charlotte. All of that, along with his desire to travel more, not be tied down to a set schedule, and to work out more led to his decision in November that the 2024 season would be his last.
“I turn 69 in July,” Savitz said. “It just felt right. I talked with my family. After some convincing and some crying, they got on board.”
He told River Bluff principal Jacob Smith and former athletic director Blair Hardin before announcing his decision to his team.
“When I told the AD and the principal they were a little disappointed and sad, but they were very supportive,” Savitz said. “I wanted to do it early to give the school some time to process it and look for the next best candidate.”
River Bluff has since announced that Thad Miller, who played and coached with Savitz, will take over the Gators’ program next year.
“I’m so happy for Thad and the continuity he brings,” Savitz said. “He’ll keep the staff together. He will do things his own way, but he realizes if it’s not broken, you don’t have to go out and change everything and fix it. I think things will stay on track and keep moving in a positive direction.”
All that’s left for Savitz is to finish out the remaining couple of weeks. River Bluff is currently 15-2 overall and 6-1 in Region 4-5A.
“I have called this a season of lasts,” Savitz said. “What I started noticing was that I didn’t want to put too much pressure on myself or the team. I didn’t want them to play for Coach Savitz’s last season. Everyone knows it. I wanted it to be this way. I told the seniors, there are ten of them, that we would be the “Senior 11,” because we are all going out together. It’s been heartwarming. Some of the away games, the teams have done brief tributes to my career. It’s all about memories and relationships when it’s all said and done. It’s been a great year so far.”
The 5A playoffs begin April 29 and wrap up Friday, May 10 at Memorial Stadium. Despite the unsure nature of the postseason, Savitz said his message to his team won’t change.
“The next game is always the most important one,” Savitz said. “The difference in the playoffs and the regular season is in the playoffs you either win and move on or you lose and go home. I want them to be as prepared as they can be every single game. I want them to take it one game at a time, and I want them to play so they have no regrets. No matter what the outcome is, I want them to look at themselves and their teammates and say we gave it everything we have. That’s the message every single game. We want to respect every opponent and fear no one. We want to embrace the opportunity and the moment.”
Regardless of when the season ends for River Bluff, Savitz’s legacy will be the impact he had on South Carolina high school soccer. For him, he wants that legacy to extend beyond the pitch.
“I hope it is that I gave every ounce of myself to both programs I was a part of, whether I was teaching or coaching,” Savitz said. “I was fair. I was honest. I made someone a better person, not just a better player. That’s what I hope my legacy is, and it’s all about family, culture, memories, and relationships.”
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