Neither rain, nor snow, nor dark of night nor a crazy-a$& kamikaze deer running into my car will prevent me from offering my playoff picks this week. The latter of those things did prevent me from authoring a look back at last week, for which I’m sorry…but you’d really need to take that up with the deer. I’ll have some thoughts next week on some action and inaction on realignment and competitive balance at the League level, but right now, on with our third-round Class A playoff picks!
Ridge Spring-Monetta (8-4) at Blackville-Hilda (9-2) The Trojans went on the road last week and picked up a very hard-fought win over a game Whitmire team 38-30. Blackville-Hilda. Blackville-Hilda, after a bye week, thumped McBee 36-12. That was a telephone-pole sized mental hurdle for them, since they lost to those same Panthers in the second round of the playoffs last year. These two teams, being region mates, have already played one another this year, with B-H taking a convincing 42-14 victory. I don’t expect this game to be that kind of a blowout, but I do expect the same outcome. Both teams have very good, very athletic QBs (Remedee Leaphart at RS-M, Adonis Davis at B-H) both of whom have unbelievably awesome names. RS-M throws it a bit more, but I’d rank them pretty close to even on that side of the ball. However, RS-M lost a ton of starters on defense last year. They aren’t bad by any stretch but when they’ve played good teams, they have given up points. That includes 30 to Whitmire last week, 40 to Wagener-Salley…they gave up 25 to Williston-Elko and 20 to Denmark who don’t necessarily fall into the “good teams” category. On the strength of a defensive that has been a bit more stingy this year, give me the Hawks… The Pick- Blackville-Hilda Lamar (9-2) at Wagener-Salley (11-0) The boys from Chitlinville completely shut down the young, but very formidable offense of McCormick last week in a 44-0 junk-kicking. If a 44-point margin is a “junk-kicking” then I’m not sure how you’d characterize Lamar’s 64-0 win over Ware Shoals. Like really vigorous, repeated junk kickings in ski boots or something? I’ll have to work on that. So now we get the matchup we’ve all pretty much anticipated since the first week of the season. These are the two best teams in the upperstate and it’s a shame they aren’t meeting in the upperstate title game. Lamar has not only been here before, they’ve been here repeatedly. They’ve played for four straight state titles and would have a longer string than that if they’d not had to contend with several private schools in the years prior. They have a dominant, senior-laden offensive line, an athletic, gamer of a QB in Cam Galloway and an array of backs whose skill sets fall somewhere between “will step on your head” and “you ain’t catching him, Hoss.” They’ve also begun to toy with a spread in the past few weeks, sometimes flexing Galloway into the slot or at RB. Now, coach Chad Wilkes WANTS to run the spread, but with the talent on hand it just made sense to bludgeon people into submission every week. MAYBE they’ve tinkered with the spread to give Wagener-Salley something else to prepare for (they’ve both known this matchup was coming for a long time) or maybe they feel like the Chitlinburg 11 are so dadgum good at running the ball, controlling the line of scrimmage and stopping the run that they need to at least present the threat of a passing attack to beat them. Maybe they’ve looked at recent history and seen W-S pillaging and marauding through the regular season only to get boat-raced by teams that throw the ball in the post-season. Wagener-Salley has not really played in a competitive game this season. Their closest contest was a 42-20 win over Fox Creek. In region, Blackville-Hilda kept it close for a half before falling 49-12. The thing is, aside from Blackville and Ridge Spring-Monetta, they really played anybody. Out of region they faced a Fox Creek team that turned out to be in for a down year, and Pelion and Eau Claire who, to be polite, turned out to be Pelion and Eau Claire. Region III was very good, but man was it top-heavy. They haven’t played a team of Lamar’s caliber this year. The Silver Foxes, meanwhile, are battle-tested, having played Gray Collegiate, Cheraw, Lake View, Pageland and AAAA Darlington. They didn’t win them all, but their two losses were of thee close and last minute variety. A lot of people have Wagener penciled in as no worse than the upperstate champion and there is no doubt they have the talent to do that. They are well-coached and have been growing towards this exact moment for five years…BUT, I don’t think it’s a minor point that they’ve barely broken a sweat this year. That obviously means you’re good, but it also means I have no indication of how you can deal with someone punching you in the mouth. And Lamar is GOING to punch you in the mouth. Maybe the torch gets passed tonight, but what fun is it to do a silly football and meat BLAWG without a picking an upset here and there. I’ll take experienced, battle-tested and blessed with scary, large school children in the trenches to pull out a squeaker. The Pick- Lamar C.E. Murray (8-2) at Green Sea-Floyds (9-1) There are some who think that the Trojans are a prohibitive favorite to not only make it back to state but to repeat as Class A champions. I was probably among those, until I really thought about it. Now, GS-F is LOADED with talent. You know the names by now (QB/Quarter-Mile Dirt Track Driver Bubba Elliot, RB/Cheetah Jaquan Dixon) and know they are liable to hang half a hundo on anybody. The defense gets overshadowed by the gaudy stat-wagon that the offense has become, but it shouldn’t, having allowed 100 points in 10 games, with 36 of those coming in a competitive loss to a AAA Aynor team that went unbeaten in the regular season. In six games against fellow Class A competition, they’ve yielded 28 points. This is what I started thinking about, though…C.E. Murray has operated just a hair under the radar this year, but they have just clicked right along, physically mauling most everyone they’ve played. They have one of the best defenses in the state with the 84 points allowed in 10 games not even really telling the story, since lots of those points come with games well out of reach for the opponents late. Offensively, they run the ball and run it very well. I’ve thought for a few weeks now that C.E. Murray is the only team in the lowerstate who can beat Green Sea-Floyds precisely because they play real, big boy defense and have the potential to keep the Trojans on the sidelines with long, ground-based drives. Having said that, being capable of beating someone is different than actually beating them. Green Sea’s big-play potential and stifling, downhill defense that is particularly effective against the power running attack the Eagles favor makes them tough to beat and gives them a slight edge I’m only picking one upset this week, but I might be picking the wrong one… The Pick- In a “closer than everybody thinks” special…Green Sea-Floyds Cross (7-4) at Lake View (8-4) I’ll be succinct here. Major hat tip to Cross for bouncing back from a winless 2018 to earn a winning record and two playoff wins. They are a tough, physical team with an offense that has come around in the past few weeks after struggling all of last year and most of this one. Lake View, though, is teeming with young talent, they make lots of big plays and LAW MERCY did they give a good Branchville team a grade 1 toolin’ last week (it was 60-6). The Wild Gators pull away late to advance to the lowerstate title game… The Pick- Lake View Overall playoff pickin’ record- 15-1
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Ridge Spring-Monetta (7-4) at Whitmire (6-4)
The Trojans picked up an impressive victory last week over Great Falls by a 47-0 count. They put a pretty good Red Devils team away early, leading 25-0 a play or two into the second quarter. They actually did a lot of their damage through the air, with Remedee Leaphart (I don’t know if it’s possible to have a more awesome name than that) throwing for nearly 300 yards. D.B. Harris had a big night catching the ball and, it being RS-M, they certainly ran it well with Collier Sullivan scoring on an 80-yard run. The shutout they pitched was impressive too, because Great Falls has some field-stretching weapons (D.J. Adams, Xavion Moore and others) and teams from this region sometimes get bitten early in the playoffs by teams that stretch the field a bit, because it’s not something they see a whole lot of. Whitmire enjoyed a bye last week. They will not spread the field…they will mostly line it up in ultra-tight formation and slam it down your gullet with a scrum attack. If they get three or four yards, they’re happy, because then they just want three or four more, then three or four more. They piece together crazy-long drives that drain the clock and you’re your soul and will to compete at times. Coach Charlie Jenkins does a great job, obviously. The Wolverines were mired in the state’s longest losing streak when he took over several years back, now they are winning region titles. He takes a lot of chances, but I don’t see them as gambles. I think he makes it incumbent on the opposition to not make mistakes and to stop them from doing what they’re good at. So, they go for it on fourth down frequently and attempt an onside kick on every kickoff. You night end up with good field position, but they also might get a recovery right after a six-minute drive, then follow it with another six-minute drive. Your defense gets gassed, they pull a rabbit out of their hat and make a whole quarter disappear and suddenly you’re behind the eight ball. They aren’t going to throw the ball a lot because they aren’t good at it. What they are gonna do it ram it right down your gullet with a bevy of speedy backs and 240-pound fullback (Chandler Crumley) who is like a moose on a skateboard going down a hill with the ball in is hands. Whitmire is certainly capable of or winning this game…they are capable of being a handful for anybody, really. I think the schedule of each is a good barometer of this game. RS-M’s four losses came to two really good AA teams (Saluda and Batesburg-Leesville) and two really good Class A teams (Wagener-Salley and Blackville-Hilda). They also had a blowout road win over a good Class A opponent…that was Whitmire, back in early September. This one will be closer but I think the end result is the same. The Pick-Ridge Spring-Monetta McBee (3-8) at Blackville-Hilda (8-2) This a rematch of last year’s second round that saw the 3-7 Panthers score a massive upset on the road of the 8-2 Hawks. We have exactly the same scenario this year in terms records. Essentially, you have to toss McBee’s record out the window when sizing them up because they played one of the biggest, big-boy schedules imaginable. They opened with four OK to very good AA teams, then played Green Sea Floyds, then Lake View, then another tough AA opponent in Blacksburg. They then won two of three games in region play (just like last year) with the only loss being to Lamar. They aren’t a spread-y as they were last year in Johnny Kline’s first season at the helm. They go with multiple-back sets and use tight ends some. They are primarily a running team. They’ll ride the legs of Elijah Williams and Jaheim Wright heavilyIf you know nothing else about McBee, know this…they have a judgy sign that points at you in an accusatory way about speeding, and an endless supply of running backs named Wright. They beat Dixie last week 30-0, but that wasn’t much of a surprise. The Hornets didn’t have much to match up with the Panthers athletically-speaking. B-H had a first-round bye, but when last we saw them, they were busy absolutely mopping the floor with five straight opponents, including a very good Ridge Spring-Monetta team. They throw it a little more than in past years and have an excellent trigger man in Adonis Davis, another awesomely-named, duel-threat 1A quarterback. They have three or four legit, frontline RBs, including Daylon Dickerson, a good O line and a defense that played well all year but really excellend down the stretch. It is worth mentioning that the Hawks are the only team to give Wagener-Salley much of a challenge, standing toe-to-toe with the crazy, chitlin’-slinging man-beasts for a half. McBee can go in loose, playing with house money and the knowledge they pulled this upset last year. They’ve played top-level competition, but it has to be mentioned that when they’ve played REALLY good teams, the results haven’t been or real close. They are capable of winning this one again…but I think the safe money is on the Hawks, who are as good defensively as last year but with a more explosive and diverse offense. The Pick- Blackville-Hilda Ware Shoals (4-7) at Lamar (8-2) The only game I missed in last week’s slate was Ware Shoals’ win over HKT. I’m not sure what happened to HKT, a squad that was playing well before getting violently diddled in the regular-season finale by RS-M, then losing last week. Someone reminded me that in 1A, one injury can sometimes wreck you. If your QB gets hurt, he’s probably also a starting safety and kick returner and probably punts too. So, it could have been something like that. Credit to Ware Shoals, though. Their three regular season wins came against a non-SCHSL private school and a pair of opponents with two combined wins. Their defense had struggled all year, but they totally shut HKT down. I’ve been a fan of Demarius Goodman since seeing him play in person last year. I didn’t see his name mentioned in any write-ups, but Jake Calvert threw a touchdown pass and ran for another score. That’s great and it’s a nice step forward for a program that has been struggling in terms of wins-and-losses for a decade. Any future steps in the right direction will have to come next year, though. Lamar is a legit contender to win the whole thing. They have a nasty, senior-laden line that seems to enjoy pummelling opposing school-children, they have a dynamic, playmaking QB in Cam Galloway and they’ve started mixing in some spread concepts the past few weeks to compliment a “shove it up your bucket” running attack they’ve always had. It is also worth mentioning they gave up one offensive score in region games and that came late in the fourth quarter against Great Falls with a running clock and backups on the field. They win and win big. The Pick- Lamar McCormick (5-6) at Wagener-Salley (10-0) The Chiefs advanced by beating Williston-Elko 56-35 last week. IN fact, if you look only at their 1A competition this year, McCormick has scored, 41, 41, 44 (in a loss), 42 and 56 points. They are doing that with the all-freshman backfield of QB Suderian Harrison and RB A’Chean Durant, who runs and plays very much like a bullet in shoulder pads. If you’re a Chiefs fan, just think about the possibilities in the future as those two supremely talented skill players get bigger, stronger and more mature. As long as they have a decent line in front of them, I think this is a team to watch starting next year…but it will totally be next year. The boys from Chitlinville can physically mash most anyone who wants to have a tater-kicking contest with them (huge up front on both sides), but they can also throw it a little bit now, they seem more adept defensively against the pass and you’re not running it on them, which is sort of McCormick’s bread-and-butter. If my picks hold, we get Lamar v Wagener-Salley next week. The Pick-Wagener-Salley Lake View (7-4) at Branchville (8-2) This is about the only game this week that gives me pause and causes a little indecision. Lake View, coming into the year, was replacing 20 starters, so my expectations were not especially high. Instead, they won six games in the regular season, gave Dillon, Marion and Lamar decent to very good games and absolutely slaughtered Denmark-Olar last week. Really, the only non-competitive game they played all year was against defending 1A champs Green Sea Floyds. This is a run-heavy team and they have Swiss Army knife, do everything, cheetah/robot football ninja in Adarrian Dawkins. I’ve seen film of him at pretty much every skill position on offense and he can go the distance whenever he touches the ball. I’m told by a few people they will be the team to beat next year in 1A (depending on what happens with realignment, obviously). Branchville was off last week but had one of its best regular seasons in recent memory. It starts with their excellent senior quarterback Zach Wiles. Go look at his senior highlight film and you’ll see why Branchville is sitting at 8-2. He’s a big, mobile kid with a heck of an arm. He’s sort of the X factor here. However, you start looking at their schedule and you see a lot of wins against teams with two or fewer victories. They did beat Whitmire and narrowly got by Cross, but they also got crushed by C.E. Murray and lost to Denmark-Olar. Teams that really get physical have given them problems and the Wild Gators can sure do that. The Pick, in a close one-Lake View Scott’s Branch (3-8) at C.E. Murray (7-2) Brian Smith goes against the team he coached last year…and honestly that’s about the only interesting angle you’re getting in this one. C.E. Murray already beat Scott’s Branch badly a few weeks ago, the road team here has three wins against teams with a combined three wins, the Eagles are playing top-level defense and they’ll roll into the third round where I think we’ll get a state championship level matchup. The Pick- C.E. Murray St. John’s (4-6) at Green Sea Floyds (9-0) St. John’s is another team you need to keep in mind when you start looking toward 2020. They have young talent on offense (freshman QB) that is going to get better. They won a dog-fight over The Mr. T Haircuts last week 6-0. That says quite a lot about how hard and well their defense played. They’ll give it everything they’ve got this week, but man Green Sea is so good on both sides and has SOOOOOOO many weapons. You really start looking at their schedule, you realize they had one close win and one close, competitive loss to the unbeaten AAA team that later beat Dillon. The Trojans roll and set up a great one with C.E. Murray next week. The Pick- Green Sea Floyds. Last week’s record- 7-1 Great Falls (5-4) at Ridge Spring-Monetta (6-4)
The Red Devils got in the playoffs with a gutty win last week at Timmonsville. They broke out an entirely new offensive attack, going with a wishbone for the majority of the game. That allowed them to mount a long, time-consuming drive late in the game. They scored the game-winning touchdown with under a minute to go. Great Falls, at one point, was on a roll, winning three-of-four and moving into the Class A top 10 rankings. The defense was making stops for losses in bunches, the team was starting to find a running game to compliment their spread passing attack…and then they had a three-week layoff. A game with Camden Military was cancelled, then came the planned off week, so they went 21 days without a game right before hitting the region slate. Having your routine thrown off for that long is deleterious (and also a giant bowl of suck), and it hurt. They did not look like themselves in a blowout loss to McBee (though McBee certainly had something to do with that too), they looked a bit better against Lamar (in another loss) then took another step forward last week against the Whirlwinds. They aren’t deep, but they are good up front and have some big-time playmakers in D.J. Adams, Kell Brown, Xavion Moore et al. Ridge Spring-Monetta had four losses, all by wide margins, but it’s sort of relevant to note those came against a couple of top end AA’s (Batesburg-Leesville and Saluda) and two REALLY good 1A region teams (Blackville-Hilda and Wagener-Salley). They finished the year, though, with perhaps their best game of the year, absolutely CRANKSMACKING a good HKT team 54-6. They have an awesomely-named and productive QB in Remedee Leaphart (18 total TDs) and uber productive RB (Collier Sullivan). They throw it OK, but their bread-and-butter is still trying to try to step on your face in the run game. Often times, teams from this region have some trouble when they run into spread-y teams. Because their region is so large, they only get three out of region games…of those three, only one spread it and chunked it much, then almost nobody in their region does. So, they are unaccustomed to what Great Falls brings to the table. If RS-M forces turnovers like they did last week (they had SIX!!!!) then this will be a runaway. If Great Falls takes care of the ball, can get their athletes in space and put the Trojans behind the chains, they’ve got a legit shot. In the only first-round game that features two teams with winning records squaring off, I’m going to lean to the experience, depth advantage and mostly mistake-free offensive philosophy of the Trojans. The Pick- Ridge Spring-Monetta. Dixie (1-9) at McBee (2-8) I’ve already held forth in another BLAWG entry about teams with one and two wins being in the playoffs so I’m not going to trod upon that path again. I’ve seen Dixie in person. They have good size up front, actually, but those guys are really young and they really just don’t have any team speed. McBee’s eight losses came to five AA teams, Lamar, Lake View and Green Sea Floyds. That’s a big-boy schedule right there. The thing is, they were 2-8 last year against the same schedule and ended up in the third round of the playoffs. They do have team speed in the form of, um, several people with the last name “Wright” (as per usual in McBee. They might go on a run similar to last year’s and I don’t think this game will be especially close. The Pick- McBee HKT (6-4) at Ware Shoals (3-7) The steaming barf bucket that is preset brackets gives us a 6-4 team at a 3-7 squad. HKT was playing really well, to the point that I thought they might give Ridge Spring-Monetta some trouble last week. I was wrong and dumb and wrong. They experienced a bit of a pants-poopin’ in that one, turned it over six times and lost by a seven-touchdown margin. Truthfully, unless they have that sort of performance in back-to-back weeks, they should cruise in this one. Ware Shoals’ three wins came over Calhoun Falls Charter (to whom they also lost this year), one-win Dixie and Miss Linda’s Finishing School or somesuch. I’ll continue to sing the praises of Jermarious Goodman, who at times looks like the offspring of Tecmo Bowl Bo Jackson and a bottle rocket. You can put him at any skill spot on either side and he’ll thrive, but he won’t be enough here. The Pick- HKT Williston-Elko (3-7) at McCormick (4-6) This is a tough one to decipher. W-E posted its worst regular season record in more than 15 years. My understanding is the school enrollment has dropped and thus the number of athletically talented school children on hand has dropped. They did finish with wins in two of their last three games, though one of those was against North. The thing is, they played three good to holy crap great AA teams out-of-region (Allendale-Fairfax, Silver Bluff and Barnwell), then lost to the good teams in their region and beat up on the bad ones. So what are we actually looking at them? It’s hard to tell. Tres Rimes (Class A has the most kick-ass named QBs) has better than 1,500 yards passing, most of which has gone to AJ Chandler, so they’ve got some talent. McCormick has an all-freshman backfield in QB Suderian Harrison and super-stud RB A’Chean Durant. They played some big boys out of region and accounted for themselves pretty well. This one is kind of a coin flip to me, but I say in one turns into a high-scoring game (both defenses have struggled at times) the best overall player on the field, despite his age, makes a big play late to win it. I think that player is Durant. The Pick, in a close one- McCormick Cross (5-4) at Military Magnet (1-7-1) Cross is a physical team that, while a bit limited offensively, plays some serious, tater-kicking defense. That will be more than enough to advance to the second round. The Pick- Cross Denmark-Olar (4-6) at Lake View (6-4) I didn’t know what to think of the Wild Gators coming into the year, what with them having lost 20 starters from the year before. The young guys came along quickly, obviously, and I’ve had a coach tell me they might the team to beat the next two years. Their only losses this year came to Green Sea Floyds, Lamar (in OT), a good AAA team in Marion (in a close one) and Dillon. So, not much to knock them for there. Their MO is to run the ball and they can do that in the “neener neener can’t catch me” manner or the up-the-gut, blunt force trauma method. Adarrian Dawkins is a threat to score it whenever he touches it. Denmark-Olar started off well, but limped down the stretch a bit. They are capable of hanging in there in this one, but I kinda don’t see that being a thing… The Pick- Lake View NOTE: Hemingway (0-11) lost to Scott’s Branch Thursday night. Given that whole 0-11 part, I think you can accept that I woulda gone with Scott’s Branch. Bethune-Bowman (2-8) at St. John’s (3-6) The Mr. T Haircuts managed to sneak in with an at-large berth. They have one of Class A’s best players in RB Jesus Benjamin but outside of him they don’t have much to scare you offensively and their defense has had a rough go of things. The Islanders are very young on offense and had a tough time against a rough schedule but they’ve got some thumpers on defense and I say they earn the right to go face the defending state champs at Green Sea Floyds next week. The Pick- St. John’s. First of all, my apologies for the lack of previews and reviews the past week-and-a-half. I would certainly have preferred to be breaking down Estill or Green Sea or making extraneous CRANKSMACK references than covering a trial, but sometimes duty calls. I’ll give my previews and picks for the first round of the Class A playoffs tomorrow, but there are a few other matters that need to be discussed first.
I’m sure you’ve heard by now about the situation The OC (Oceanside Collegiate) finds itself in. In the course of thumping Phillip Simmons 70-0 the other week, they inserted a few JV players into the game. That would be fine had those players not also taken part in a JV game the night before. The South Carolina High School League did away with the eight-quarter rule a few years ago, which allowed athletes to play in a JV game on Thursday and varsity game on Friday (ideally as a back-up or special teamer). The OC’s head coach (Chad Grier) said he misunderstood the rule. He claims he believed that players were allowed four quarters of participation, which could be spread out over JV and varsity games. Now, I’m not going to question his integrity or honesty here…I think he was in North Carolina when the eight-quarter rule was abolished in our state. However, the primary thrust of the rule was player safety and built on the concept of recovery time between games. Recovery time is precisely why the rule was changed. I’m a nimrod blogger and newspaper scribe and I know that. It is part of a coach’s job to understand the rules he is playing by. If neither he nor anyone on his staff knew the intent of the rule, that’s completely on them and with player safety being of paramount importance in the eyes of the SCHSL, running afoul of that should bring a stiff penalty. To the League’s credit, they delivered one. They ruled that The OC had to forfeit four games (JV players apparently dressed but did not play in three other games) and were slapped with a $16,500 fine. That’s significant, but this is where the laws of unintentional consequences come into play. On the field, The OC was 9-0, won a region title and the number one playoff seed that comes with it. Had they stayed at number one, they would’ve faced Latta (a six seed) in the first round. Had they won, they would’ve then faced a stiff test from either Bamberg-Ehrhardt or Mullins. Moving on from there would likely have meant a third-round showdown with scary, unbeaten, holy-crap-are-they-awesome Barnwell. Surviving that one would have gotten them to the AA lowerstate title game. Instead, they dropped from a one to a four seed, so they get a much tougher first-round game than they would have otherwise (against one-seed Andrews, the Region VII champion), but if they win that one, they’ll play either Whale Branch (a four seed) or a Phillip Simmons team that is only a two seed because the forfeits imposed on The OC moved them up from third in their region to second. The OC, as already noted, gave them a 10 touchdown flogging already. If they win there, it’s then Woodland/East Clarendon/Johnsonville or Calhoun County (good teams but not in Barnwell’s class), then a perspective matchup with ONE of the heavyweights they’d have had to run the gauntlet of if seeded first. No knock on the teams in the lower end of the bracket, but their path got considerably easier thanks to their punishment. We also need to examine how any of this is fair to Andrews. They followed the rules, won a region title and by all rights should be playing an actual four seed in the first round, not a one seed dropped to a four because of forfeits. I know some folks are of the “well, you gotta play ‘em sometime” school of thought and that’s fine, but there’s an angle those folks don’t consider. Andrews would likely have dragged the rightful four seed from Region VI (a three-win Burke team that got one win via forfeit from The OC), then moved on. If they now don’t get out of the first round, they stand to lose a considerable amount of gate revenue that would have been generated. A loss in the first round that wouldn’t have been a loss otherwise hits them in the wallet. Oh, and aside from the second round, The OC, if they keep winning, will be at home until state, which they wouldn’t have been otherwise. So, while I appreciate that the league put some actual heft behind their talk about how seriously they take player safety, I don’t believe they went far enough. Let’s not forget that The OC has already gotten their wrist slapped this season for hitting with shields on the first day of practice. So, combined with the four games in which they violated the four-quarter rule, they essentially have five rules infractions on their resume in about a three-month span. Actually, if you look at each instance of a player who dressed on Thursday and Friday as a separate violation, The OC is guilty on dozens of counts. Much as it would suck for the kids and despite what they actually did on the field, The OC should have been hit with a playoff ban. There is certainly precedent on that front. Blythewood, in 2007, (as memory serves) ran afoul of rules about when they could go with full pads when practice started and had an earlier infraction in spring practice. They were banned from the playoffs. Boiling Springs, from what I’ve been told, got a playoff ban a few years back for having an eight-grader take one snap in a spring game. And we all remember Goose Creek getting hit with a playoff ban for VERY limited use of one ineligible player. This isn’t any different…in fact, I’d argue that this is considerably worse since it violates what is now considered the most important tenant of League policy; that being player safety, health and well-being. Athletic-centered charters like The OC already get a gigantic leg up on traditional public schools when it comes to attendance area, getting to cap their enrollment (thus deciding which classification they will compete in), having a greater percentage of their student body made up of athletes and non-traditional school days (half of their day is dedicated to athletic training and practice). That doesn’t even touch on coaches that don’t have to teach. Now, on top of all that, they have run afoul of League rules multiple times and still get a playoff slot. The League’s website used to be emblazoned with the saying “A champion is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules.” I guess that doesn’t apply anymore. Back in 1A there is a problem with who made the playoffs as well, but it has nothing to do with breaking the rules. Of the eight teams competing in the first round of the upperstate bracket (multiple teams have byes), three of them have winning records (and two of those play one another). In the lowerstate, there are two. Now, 1A teams will generally have worse records than those from larger classifications because they often play AA and AAA team out-of-region, teams that have a built in advantage in terms of number of athletes walking the halls. But we aren’t talking about 4-6 teams with three “up” losses on the ledger. Dixie, at 1-9 is in the field. Ware Shoals and Williston-Elko, each at 3-7, are in the field. Military Magnet made it with one win and Hemingway, winless 0-10 Hemingway, is not only in but hosting a game. We have this situation for a number of reasons. First, in the last realignment, the SCHSL made Class A too small. I’ve held forth on this at length on many occasions, but I think they did so to give the tiniest schools in the state (Calhoun Falls Charter, North etc.) some kind of puncher’s chance at being competitive. Unfortunately, there isn’t a classification you can draw up that will make schools with 100 kids competitive in much of anything. Many Class A schools, at this point, are small charters and academies that essentially play a sport or two and don’t field football teams. That’s not healthy for the class as a whole come playoff time in most sports. There’s also the issue that Class A schools are the most likely to have teams fold for lack of participation (the baseball and softball playoff brackets featured some two-team districts for that reason, which is ridiculous) or have schools closed down altogether (Lincoln, Creek Bridge). For that reason alone, Class A needs to be larger. Then we have preset brackets, which are total, steaming garbage piles. If you’re unfamiliar with the concept, that is where it is decided ahead of time “OK, Region I, you get X number of teams in the playoffs, Region II, you get X many” and so on. It’s also decided in advance that the number three seed from this region hosts the number four team from this region in the first round. Not to pick on a young Hemingway team I’m certain will be considerably improved next year, but with Creek Bridge closing, Region VI has four schools and only three of them play football. The “top three” from that region (so, every team) make the playoffs. The number one seed gets a first-round bye and each of the other two host. So even though Hemingway did not win a game, they not only get a playoff game, they host it. One solution is for Class A to be made larger in the next realignment (which I sadly don’t see happening). Failing that, the structure of the playoffs needs to change. It’s ludicrous to assign playoff bids based on “well, you play in this region, so congrats, Bo.” We need to go back to a points system, which rewards a full body of work and puts the best teams in the field. This year, there would still have been a glut of teams with losing records in the field, but, just for example, Timmonsville could have gotten in instead of Hemingway. Granted, Timmonsville was only 2-8, but that’s two more wins than Hemingway had (and one of those two was against Hemingway, incidentally) and one more than Military Magnet or Dixie. But they aren’t in because their four-team region gets three bids and Hemingway’s three-team region gets three and Dixie’s five-team region gets four. It also wouldn’t hurt my feelings if, minus making Class A larger, we went to 16 playoff teams. Right now, 24 of the 29 football-playing schools get in. That’s watered down worse than a liquor drink at Applebees. To me, a playoff bid should be a reward for a good season and pit the best against the best. It’s hard to say we’re getting that under the current system. |
TravisI am Travis, the king 0f SC 1A Football Archives
November 2021
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