21 YEARS AGO, Don Frost made Riverside football believe again.
After years of Riverside being perennial minnows in a stacked Class AAA, Don Frost was hired as the school’s football head coach and athletic director in 2001.
Frost’s first three years in charge of the program? Just four wins and 26 losses.
On the surface, it looked like more of the same for the Warriors. But within the program? The culture was shifting. Things were changing for a Riverside team desperate to compete with the big dogs.
The work was being put in. And that hard work began to bear fruit, beginning with the 2005 season. That 2005 campaign saw Riverside improve and finish 5-5, headlined by a 20-16 upset win over Union County. That put the Upstate on notice — and for good reason.
The next two seasons saw the Warriors play some of their best football in program history. Riverside finished 8-5 in 2006 and advanced all the way to the Class AAA state quarterfinals. In 2007, the Warriors finished 9-3, claiming a historic co-region championship.
Frost’s teams sent dozens of players to play high-level college football and helped bring Riverside into a new era of football relevance in SC.
After Frost departed Riverside in 2008, he was hired as the head coach of Christ Church. He would soon go on to become one of the most successful modern-era coaches in the state.
Frost captured four consecutive state championships with Christ Church from 2011-2014. He led the Cavaliers to a 55-game win streak, a mark that still sits alone as the longest in SC history.
Frost would eventually stop coaching after suffering cardiac arrest in a Memphis, TN airport in 2019.
He remains one of the greats, largely for what he accomplished at Christ Church. But he looks back upon his time at Riverside — and that 2005 season — with a smile and heart full of gratitude.
“Those guys, and those [Riverside] seniors in 2005, they built the foundation for what was to come,” said Frost. “To love and play for each other, that was the job.”
21 days until high school football is back.
