Before I get too far into this blog, this isn't a Behind the Music type of thing, especially since only one of the members of this blog was ever a member of a band, right Travis? Anyways, with it being a few weeks into high school football season it's getting to that point in the season where I'm either standing on the field or sitting in the press box and we start getting into the type of conversations where people are comparing players we're watching currently to a player that used to play there and the conversation always ends with "You know I wonder where _________ is now." It's kind of crazy, living in Spartanburg County I've had the honor to watch a lot of great players play football in this county and often times there are so many players that play at the next level it gets hard to keep up with where everyone is playing now. When Jason Gilmer wrote his book a few years ago he titled it "Where Champions Play: Spartanburg County Prep Football" but he could have easily titled it "We Have Truckloads of College Football Players: Spartanburg County". Alright, that second title may not be quite as catchy but it's very true because at my last count there are currently 94 players from Spartanburg County's nine public schools playing college football. I know I didn't include the private schools but we have a guy that covers them and when he decides to write his next blog he may let you know about those. As I type this on my computer I already know there is someone I am missing and when you look at this list and if you realize that someone is missing please let me know so that I can include them. The next time I get asked the question "You know I wonder where _______ is now?" I hope that I can answer that question. Without further ado, here is my list of current players that I know of from Spartanburg County that are playing football collegiately and once you read the list of these players go check out the college websites and see how all our local kids are doing on the next level, I imagine there are a lot of college coaches glad that they've recruited this county over the years.
BOILING SPRINGS Eddie Gordon Louisiana-Lafayette SR OL Noah Green Clemson FR OL Collin Reed Appalachian State FR TE Jason Hill Wofford FR WR Ethan Ray Charleston Southern FR LS Daniel Thompson Elon SO QB Shaquan Burney North Greenville SR LB Jalene Kennedy Tusculum FR DB Phillip McDowell Carson-Newman FR OL Mason Sanders North Greenville JR WR BROOME Nick Taylor Wofford SO OL BYRNES Shuler Bentley Old Dominion JR QB Chavis Dawkins South Carolina FR WR Rashad Dillard Troy SR DE John Guthrie Air Force FR OL Isaiah Hill Miami of Ohio RS FR RB Avery James South Carolina JR DB Lyrics Klugh Towson SO DB Shaedon Meadors Appalachian State JR WR Tavin Richardson Kentucky SO WR Braylin Collins Gardner-Webb RS FR WR Noah Dawkins The Citadel SO LB Jaylan Foster Gardner-Webb FR WR Dallen Jones Coastal Carolina SO OL Colton Korn Charleston Southern SR WR Tyriek Lyles Wofford SO DB Sydney Martin The Citadel RS FR OL Isaiah Pinson The Citadel JR OL Shane Samuels Western Carolina RS JR DB Ben Clark Carson-Newman JR OL Thomas Cook Limestone FR K DJ Crosby Wingate FR S Tyson Holcomb Central Missouri RS JR DL Tyler Jenkins Limestone FR OL Zach Talley Carson-Newman FR DB Micah Young Carson-Newman FR QB Ray Miller Campbell FR LB Di'Shawn Browning Dean College FR LB CHAPMAN Malik Gray East Carolina JR WR Debo Samuel South Carolina RS SO WR Drew Copeland Wofford FR DL DaShawn Davis Presbyterian SO WR McArthur Scott The Apprentice School FR DL Michael Scott The Apprentice School JR LB CHESNEE Chase Mills Wofford FR DL Bobby Foos North Greenville SO TE/P Cameron Stepp North Greenville RS SO OL Keon McCallum Campbell FR WR DORMAN JJ Arcega-Whiteside Stanford SO WR Collin Hill Colorado State FR QB Brandon Pinckney Appalachian State JR DB Caleb Batchelor Charleston Southern JR DL Caleb Brannon Charleston Southern RS FR OL Zach Cooper Presbyterian RS SO OL Ross Hammond Wofford SO LS Johnathan Jackson Elon JR DL Trey Robinson Furman SR S Aron Spann The Citadel SO DB Dalton Sullivan Wofford RS FR OL Shanard Bain Limestone FR RB Keshaun Gray Mars Hill FR DB Rodney Landrum North Greenville FR DB Bobby McBride Mars Hill FR DL Jordan Pryce Carson-Newman JR DL Wesley Robinson Limestone FR DB Azariah Vasquez Carson-Newman FR DL SPARTANBURG Tavien Feaster Clemson FR RB Cedarius Rookard Troy SO S Austin Scott Eastern Kentucky FR QB Justin Bridges-Thompson Charlotte SR LB Dequan Means-Campbell Charleston Southern RS FR WR Adrian Kollock SC State JR QB Mike Murphy Western Carolina FR DB Alex Thompson Charleston Southern RS SO OL Caleb Bynum North Greenville FR TE Simeon Byrd North Greenville SR RB Jeron Dawkins Wingate FR S Travante Jackson Limestone FR DB Rashaad Miller North Greenville RS SO DL Jaquille Oden Newberry SR DL Louis Rogers Wingate FR DL JT Wynn Limestone FR OL WOODRUFF Blake Bone Kentucky JR WR BJ Johnson Georgia Southern RS SR WR DJ Jones Georgia Southern SR DB Bryan Bailey Hampton SR QB Javarius Leamon SC State JR OL Caleb Smith Gardner-Webb RS SR OL Caleb Adkins North Greenville SR DL Ken Drummond Tusculum SO WR Devario Holly North Greenville SO OL Chris Leamon Mars Hill JR LB Demajiay Rooks North Greenville SO WR Braxton Peavy Palmetto Prep SO WR
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On Friday night I got an opportunity to do something I don't get a chance to do a lot during football season and that was to just go watch a football game without having to worry about reporting the game. I'm not complaining about reporting games, in fact I love getting to do that, but when you are reporting a games you can tend to get caught up in reporting a game and sometimes you don't get to appreciate the performances that you are seeing.
On Friday night I decided to go and watch the Chesnee at Broome game, it has almost become my Week 0 tradition as my Bulldogs rarely play that week. As I was on my way to the game I had an idea of what type of game I would see, a game that would last about two hours and I would be meeting everyone at Papa's Breakfast Nook by around 10:00, and boy was I wrong. A game that I was expecting to be a quick low scoring game turned into a 47-42 scoring fest. The game that I watched had two outstanding performances from Chesnee quarterback Isaiah Ellis and Broome's D'Marco Jackson. I am sure you have all heard about the performance from Ellis this week as he has won a lot of local player of the week awards, and deservedly so, but the performance I want to talk about is that of Jackson. I have been told a lot by people that I trust that Jackson, an Appalachian State commitment, is a player that I needed to go see play a football game. When I went to watch the game I was expecting to see Jackson running the ball well but it was his overall performance that amazed me the most. First of all, watching a lot of 4A (now 5A) football over the years I am used to players playing only one position in a football games and you rarely see the type of players that people have often referred to as an "ironman" type football player. An ironman football player is one that plays both offense and defense and rarely sees the sidelines during a game. D'Marco Jackson is one of those type players. On Friday night Jackson not only started at running back but he also started at linebacker on defense. A lot of times you see this happen because a team doesn't have enough players to be competitive without a player doing this but with Jackson it seems he is such a great player on both sides of the football that it would be tough to justify not having him on the field. After the game Friday night I knew that Jackson's numbers would be impressive but when I figured the stats up I had to double check my math to just make sure that my Boiling Springs math was correct. Jackson on Friday night rushed for 244 yards on nineteen carries with five touchdowns plus twenty yards receiving and if his offensive performance wasn't great enough on its own, on defense he also had sixteen tackles, two sacks and one interception. SIXTEEN TACKLES!!! The performance on offense or defense would have been worthy of player of the week honors but the ironman performance he displayed on Friday night was one of the best performances I've seen in a while and this was just Week 0. If this performance was indicative of what Jackson is going to do this season, then the Broome fans have a lot of great performances ahead of them to look forward to. In fact, if Friday night was a precursor to the football I'm going to get watch this season I can't wait to see how this season plays out. Football season has officially begun and if its anything like Week Zero, it's going to be one heck of a season!!! |
JamesBoiling Springs native, lover of sports and food. 15x SC Press Association Award Winner. I do some sports writing and radio every now and then. Archives
April 2020
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