Every year, rabid Gamecock fans across the state eagerly await the start of fall football, but nowhere more so than in Columbia. This year, all eyes are on the new HBC, Coach Shane Beamer. We are very excited in this issue of CMM to introduce you to the Beamer family as our community welcomes them back to Columbia after a 10-year absence. To learn about how Emily and Shane met and the trajectory that has now brought their family to Columbia for a second time, read Julie Turner’s article on page 56. 

Standing in the horseshoe before the rest of the family arrived for the photo shoot, I was able to chat with Coach Beamer for a few minutes about his coaching philosophy, inspiration, and about being back in Columbia.

Q. What are you and Emily most excited about with being back in Columbia?

A. When we were here before for four years, we made a lot of good friends, so it’s great to reconnect with them. Columbia was a fantastic city then, but it has changed in so many ways to be an even better city now. We’ve lived in a lot of different places as a married couple because of my job, but this is the one place we have always wanted to come back to.

Q. How has your father’s influence shaped you as a coach?

A. I had a chance to play for him for four and a half years when I was in college and to coach with him for five years. And he’s been my dad for 44 years now, so I have seen him from such different perspectives. I learned so many lessons from him as a coach, obviously, but so many of those things also carry over to being a husband and dad — the day in and day out consistency that he has in his life, the steadiness of not getting too high or too low.

Q. How do you hope your family will interact with the players, and how do you plan to incorporate not only your family but the other coaches’ families in what you are doing here at Carolina?

A. With this job, the hours are long. It’s a lot of time away from your family, so it’s really important to me that I am able to integrate my family into what I am doing where they feel part of it. I want Emily and our kids as well as our coaches’ wives and kids to feel welcome to come to practice and be around the team. I think it’s great for the players to see us not just as coaches but as husbands and fathers too. I want to have a family feel anytime anybody comes into our football facility.

Q. How do you foster a sense of community on your team?

A. The community part of it is just trying to do as many things together as a team that we can — spending time with each other, eating together, and just being around each other outside the practice field. And not just players in one position knowing their position group but knowing everybody on the team. So far so good, and hopefully that will continue to grow.

Q. What do you find to be your biggest motivators and sources of inspiration as a coach?

A. I really love seeing the young men that we are coaching have success. I have been invited to the weddings of guys I recruited out of high school and heard about the birth of their first children. We all coach because we love the game, and ultimately, you are judged by wins and losses. I get it. I am motivated by that, and I love to compete myself. We talk about competing all the time and looking for that in recruits. But then also to see a guy come in as a 17-year-old, coach him through a critical period of his life, and then watch him graduate, become a man, and have his own family is pretty neat as well.

From all of us at CMM, we wish the Beamers a warm welcome and best of luck for a successful first season!

Sincerely,

Margaret Clay