Whitmire- 56
Calhoun Falls Charter- 6 Ware Shoals- 41 Dixie- 13 St. Joe’s- 55 Ware Shoals- 20 Lamar- 70 Timmonsville- The Whirlwinds failed to score in this football contest. McBee- 56 Great Falls- 7 Blackville-Hilda- 37 Estill- 6 Hunter-Kinard-Tyler- 26 Denmark-Olar- 22 Willison-Elko- 46 North- Not as many as Williston. Let’s not pick on North. Wagener-Salley- 40 Ridge Spring-Monetta- 6 Baptist Hill- 79 Charleston Charter Academy for Snack Cake design and tadpole studies- 6 St. John’s- 31 Military Magnet- Love. Love sounds nice. Cross- 36 Bethune-Bowman- 14 C.E. Murray- 44 Branchville- 18 Green Sea Floyds- 42 Lake View- 6 Columbia- 25 Hemingway- 7 Breakdown- There has been a bit of perception this year that Class A is a three-team race between Wagener-Salley, Lamar and Green Sea Floyds. Now, those are certainly three of the big favorites to win it all, but I think some other teams merit consideration for that top tier, led by C.E. Murray. They laid it Branchville pretty good Friday, beating them 44-18 in a game that as I understand it wasn’t actually that close. Branchville was 7-1 coming in and though they only had one game I would put into the “quality win” category (a blowout of Whitmire), they have a good QB, can score a lot of points and had played alright on defense. The War Eagles rolled them, much like they did a tough Cross team their previous time out. They have a stud two-way player in Antonio McKnight, who in addition to being a North-South All-Star is a frightening manbeast who is better at football than most opposing school children. He’s far from a one-man show, though. They play real defense in Greeleyville,(have allowed 54 points all year) have proven they can run the ball on anybody and match up favorably with almost anyone physically. Their two losses came by a combined four points to Mullins (a AA team that stands 6-2) and Lee Central (also AA, 5-2). There’s almost no scenario shy of a plague of locusts descended on the lowcountry under which they aren’t going to win out against Scott’s Branch and Bethune-Bowman, claim a region title and a number one playoff seed. Now, the one from that region gets a bye, plays a home game, then probably goes to Green Sea,. That will be an absolute war… Speaking of those other three dominant teams, they all demonstrated why they belong in that category by doling out savage, awful diddlings to their outmanned prey. Wagener-Salley easily dispatched RS-M, the last team on their regular-season schedule with much of a prayer of offering even mild resistance. They are absolutely owning a deep, good region. They are physically just much better than everyone they have played. They’ll win the region, get a bye, then be home out in the playoffs, with the only bump in the road being a likely third round matchup with Lamar. Much like C.E. Murray-Green Sea, that is a semifinals-caliber matchup and one I can’t wait to see. Lamar drilled Timmonsville, which wasn’t much of a shock, though the depth and vigorous nature with which they holed out the Whirlwinds was a bit. Timmonsville had hung in their and at least kept things somewhat respectable most weeks. My understanding is that the Silver Foxes, for the first time, showed some spread looks and actually moved Cam Galloway around a bit, including at WR. Maybe they’ll start incorporating that stuff a bit more into the offense or maybe its one more thing to make Wagener-Salley look at and prepare for. They have Great Falls and McBee left. Lake View, who has put up a good fight against almost everyone (including Lamar and Dillon to an extent) just got buried by Green Sea. That game was about over before it even started, with Jaquan Dixon ripping off a 70-plus-yard TD run, followed immediately by a lost Lake View fumble that led to a quick, short-field score. The GSF offense is basically a giant with a tiger head and razor claws and a bazooka in a fortress with a snake-ridden moat and flamethrowers. Yeah, it’s exactly like that with Dixon and Bubba Walalce and Anwain Graham. So, if you start giving them freebies, you’re pretty much done. Much like C.E. Murray and Wagener-Salley, they’ve pretty well sewed everything up with their only game remaining being against winless Hemingway. They’ll claim a region crown and number one playoff seed and likely wait for a third-round showdown with C.E. Murray. Quick hits- Not many this week what with the smaller slate of games with region action ongoing, but anyone else notice that Whitmire has cracked off four straight wins? They will be playing for a region title and number one seed this week against a McCormick team that has proven more than capable against fellow Class A teams. It’ll be rocking behind the wall, next to the public course in the Pearl of the Piedmont Friday night….If we’ve established who the favorites are (and I think we have) who has the look of a dark horse? I’m going to offer HKT (who is on a nice little run at this point) and possibly McBee. The latter of those rolled over a pretty good Great Falls team last week after going 0-7 against one of the toughest schedules in Class A. Keep an eye on them… There are a couple of items away from the field that need to be discussed. First, the competitive balance committee formed by the SCHSL to study the athletic imbalance between traditional public schools and their private and charter counterparts, has sent an initial list of ideas on how to level the playing field a bit. You can read a full story on it right here, but the basic ideas are as follows… Option #1-Use a multiplier that vary from 1.35 - 2.0 for Private, Charter and Magnet Schools. This would bump the non-traditional schools into higher classifications. Option #2- Competitive Balance Factor (CBF). The CBF takes effect when a private, charter, or magnet school achieves a threshold level of points based on the team’s overall finish for the two previous seasons; if the total number of points exceeds that threshold (which could vary among sports) then that team could be bumped up one classification. The CBF has no ceiling so a team could potentially ascend one class every reclassification. Option #3-In the smaller classifications(Class AAA, AA, A) separate the private, charter and magnet schools from the traditional public school for the playoffs. This will allow everyone to compete in a region but have separate playoff brackets for State Championships. Option #4-You see no need to change what we currently have in place. I’m not going rehash my position on privates and charters (if you are so inclined you can read those here, here and also here) but basically, the current system is inherently unfair, slanted against traditional public schools and needs to be fixed. I’d love for number one to be instituted but it has ZERO chance of passing. That idea has been floated before and legislators from Greenville and Charleston (can’t imagine why they piped up on the issue) basically threatened to disband the SCHSL and put prep athletics under the State Department of Education. Also, some of the private schools reminded everyone that the children of powerful lawyers walk their hallways. Option two is interesting, but to me it doesn’t address the root of the problem. It waits for the problem to manifest itself more fully, then takes punitive action. It almost says “now, y’all better not be TOO good.” I like and have previously endorsed option three. There are enough non-traditional private schools now to have a competitive and robust playoff bracket in almost every sport. That way, they are still present to balance out region where needed and get to compete in the league, but they compete for TITLES with other folks who follow the same rules they do. It is encouraging that the committee has been formed and that this is finally be discussed, but there’s a big difference between discussing the matter and nutting up and actually taking action on it…action that might spark cage-rattling and legal threats. The other issue is the situation at Oceanside Collegiate (or the OC as I like to call them). According to multiple outlets, there is an allegation that they violated the four-quarter rule last week. You probably remember that the league did away with the eight-quarter rule a while back, which allowed kids to play both JV and varsity games in a given week. Citing player safety and the need for recovery time, the league decided a player can EITHER play JV or varsity in a given week, but not both. The complaint filed against The OC is that they had players participate in both games against Phillip Simmons. I wonder… The OC won that varsity game 70-0. They’ve won most every week by blowout, so, is this the first and only time this has happened? I don’t have an answer, but it’s an obvious question to ask. One angle I’ve heard is that they misunderstood the rule and played kids in two quarters of each game. Again, just speculating here, but it would seem doubtful, would it not, that they suddenly misconstrued the rule eight weeks into the season? I’ll withhold further judgment until the SCHSL investigates the matter. If they are guilty of this infraction, however, the League has to issue STIFF punishment, and that view has nothing to do with my stance on private and charter schools. If every measure has to be taken in terms of player safety, folks who fly in the face of that (intentional or not) have to be punished, otherwise the “WE HAVE TO PROTECT THE KIDS) stuff is all empty words and crappy PR. It would also be the school’s second infraction of the season, with the first happening in the first day or two of practice. The last time I recall a program (and if I’m forgetting one, someone please let me know) getting two infractions of this kind in a season, it was Blythewood in 2007. They were defending AAA state champs and they got themselves a playoff ban. IF The OC gets a second one, it’s hard to see how the SCHSL can justify doing anything but a postseason ban. Seems like precedent has been set… Poll Time! As per usual, the S.C. Prep Media Class A top 10, followed by my ballot… 1. Wagener-Salley (7) 2. Green Sea Floyds (4) 3. Lamar 4. (tie) Blackville-HIlda, C.E. Murray 6. Lake View 7. Branchville 8. Hunter-Kinard-Tyler 9. Whitmire 10. Ridge Spring-Monetta Others receiving votes- Baptist Hill, Cross, Denmark-Olar 1. Green Sea Floyds 2. Wagener-Salley 3. Lamar 4. C.E. Murray 5. Blackville-Hilda 6. Lake VIew 7. Branchville 8. Hunter-Kinard-Tyler 9. Ridge Spring-Monetta 10. Whitmire
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
TravisI am Travis, the king 0f SC 1A Football Archives
November 2021
Categories |