A Lexington County school will celebrate reaching the century mark this year.

Gilbert High School has reached 100 years as an accredited school, going through mascot, name and campus changes to get where they are today.

According to Chad Leaphart, school alum and the current athletic director and head football coach, the town has experienced a lot of growth in the last 20-30 years, leading to the relocation of the school in 2002.

The small town that neighbors Summit in the western part of Lexington County had nearly 600 residents as of the most recent U.S. Census estimates.

“I would say it is a community school, it's still a family atmosphere, being such a small school.” Leaphart said. “Everybody's kind of one big family, one big community, everyone supports one another, everybody goes to football games on Friday night, they support our athletics, they support our extracurriculars.”

“The school is really the focal point of the community.” he added.

While the school itself isn’t holding a large celebration, Deana Keisler, athletic secretary for the school, shared that different groups associated with it will be. She reported that football will be bringing back alumni players, former members of homecoming will be returning and the cheer squad has worked in honoring the school’s longevity into their routine. 

According to Keisler, the school has been around longer than the accreditation it received in 1923, with its operation dating back to 1876.. To put the growth into perspective, she told the Chronicle that enrollment in its first accredited year was 52 – now, the school has 1,147 students enrolled.

“It's not so much that we need that growth. I just think that we welcome a lot of that growth,” she said. “Some people might not, they like our farming community, they'd like it to be small Gilbert, but still, it is small Gilbert.”

“Everybody, once they enter the building, and no matter where they're from, they all leave here with that same sense of community,” Keisler added.

The town, along with its schools, has experienced multiple name changes since its establishment. The town was originally named Gilbert Hollow before a brief switch to Summit Point from 1872-76 before changing back to the original. The reasons for these changes are unknown.

In 1886, the town switched names again, this time to Lewiedale – after the Lewie family, one of the most prominent families during that time. According to Keisler, that name didn’t last long, as the railroad hated it due to the three similar sounding stops of Leesville, Lewiedale and Lexington being so close to each other.

The name lasted until 1899, when the town took inspiration from its original name and officially became Gilbert.

Name changes aren’t the only changes the school witnessed

Sometime in the 1950s, the school changed its school colors and its mascot. Keisler told the Chronicle that they were originally the Lions, with blue and gold as their colors, but the eventually changed to being the Indians, with red and black as their colors.

While the official cause of the switch is unknown, it’s rumored that the sports teams needing new uniforms was the instigating factor, and getting the replacements from Newberry College sealed the deal for the colors and the mascot. Newberry’s mascot was the Indians from 1909 to 2008, according to the school’s website.

Leaphart told the Chronicle that the school's sports have grown to include everything but lacrosse. He said that the school's football team existed in the 1930s before basically being disbanded due to World War II. The team reconvened in the 1970s, and sports like volleyball were added during this time. 

The school welcomed a new football stadium in 2008.

The coach added that with the growth of the school and community, the football team is now on the edge of being 4A.

“It's a good time to take a minute and remember where you came from, where you've been,” Leaphart said. “I think that’s of significance.”