I'm a big fan of football polls. Granted, they really only represent the opinions of my booze-addled, overworked sports media brethren, but it's fun to argue over them or get indignant when my team of choice isn't ranked as highly as I think they should be. Prep polls are pretty tough to do, frankly. They are voted on by the aforementioned sportswriters who do a good job but also can't possible see every team they are voting on. It isn't feasible to think an upstate guy who covers mostly 4A and 5A schools has seen or had time to do research on 1A Baptist Hill way down yonder in Hollywood. So they go based on record, how the team did last year, tradition etc. Then, a template is kind of set and it's hard for teams break into the poll if teams above them do just enough to keep being ranked. Which is why you see C.E. Murray, which is tucked in a rural corner of the state without much media presence and who hadn't had a winning record for 10 years going into last season, not ranked in the final regular-season poll despite being 9-1. I couldn't fill out 4A and 5A polls worth a dang, to be honest with you, since I don't cover any as part of my job. I do pay close attention to Class A, though, am a self-described expert on the subject of small-school football and will now be offering up my own weekly poll. Actually, "a poll" indicates the opinions and votes of multiple individuals were tabulated into one final result and this is totally JUST ME BABY! So I may have to think of a different name (Travey's Whimsical 1A Edict...I don't know, if you have suggestions leave them in the comment section) but I'll try to do this every Wednesday.
Now, I won't be married to what I offer this first week. The way a lot of polls work (with college football mainly), if a team starts off highly ranked, keeps winning, but looks unimpressive in doing so, they often maintain their position. Why? Because the folks doing the polls decided the team was good, put them at number five and actually consider them the fifth-best team in the country until given hard evidence (a loss) to the contrary. That's sort of the foundation upon which the next week's poll is built. They keep them there even at the expense of a surprise team, that started the year unranked, but is clearly playing better than that ranked team. The team not expected to be good has to battle expectations and the perception of superiority that other teams have just because of that initial ranking. Well, I'll toss somebody out of my top 10 at the drop of a hat. Seriously. I'm going to try to make each poll a snapshot of the week...of who I think are actually the 10 best teams, based on body of work, that week. I'm also NOT going to punish a 1A team that plays a manly schedule. Lamar will obviously be ranked highly in this initial poll. They play a good AAAA squad in Darlington this week. A loss there doesn't suddenly mean that McBee or Lake View is better than Lamar. It means a tiny school played a very big one and lost. That isn't coming with a penalty. I'm not going to just give you 1-10 and be done with it, either. You see, part of my sordid, nomadic media past includes a long stint as a disk jockey. My first job was working two, six-hour shifts every Saturday at WGCD in Chester. Among my duties was playing Casey's Top 40 and I'll admit to long being a fan of countdown type shows. I like the way the tension and anticipation would build...Hey, that sappy Bryan Adam's song from the Robin Hood movie has been number one for seven weeks. Can it make it to eight, or will PM Dawn move to the top? PM Dawn's scorching up the charts y'all! Casey sold the sizzle, boy. He'd also read a request and dedication every hour and play a song that had almost nothing to do with the sentiment of the letter he'd read. "Dear Casey, my name is Melvin. For a long time, we had a pet bird named Pete. Pete was a funny bird and could even talk. We also have a cat named Snowball and I guess cats like to eat birds, because one day Snowball tooted and some feathers came out and Pete was gone. I really miss my bird and was hoping you would play a song for him. Thanks, Melvin. Melvin, here's your request and dedication to your dearly departed Pete...it's 'Freak Me' by Silk." Huh? Anyway, I did a Casey's Countdown 1A poll last year (IT WAS HILARIOUS AND YOU CAN READ IT HERE), so I don't really want to do that again. I'm not one to completely repeat myself, but I do like to milk the good idea cow more than once if I can. So, let's go to my next radio stop...a country station where one of my first jobs was, you guessed it, to play American Country Countdown every week. So, in true countdown style, we'll start at 10 AND WE WON'T STOP TILL WE REACH THE TOP! We're also going to subject you to the most horrible mid-90s country music imaginable. ENJOY! 10. Bethune-Bowman OK, it's been a really long time since the awesomely-named Mohawks have been on anybody's top 10 list...if by "a long time" you mean "never." Since consolidation formed this school of just 181 students over a decade ago, it has never enjoyed a winning season. The last semblance of giridiron success in the area was a 6-5 record by the now-defunct Bowman High School in 2004. I'm a sucker for these kinds of stories...a long-struggling program starts to turn things around. We've seen that story play out at C.E. Murray and Whitmire in the past year. The Mohawks are 2-0, having routed Military Magnet 32-0 in a half in the opener and followed that up with a 32-6 victory over Denmark-Olar last Friday. Braxton Wedgeworth looks like a good athlete with a strong arm at quarterback and 5'8, 225-pound Makiah Simmons looks like the kind of running back who steps on other children's faces...maybe stands there for a second so they can see what a cleat up the left nostril feels like. Defensively, they've given up six points in two games. There will be some challenges down the line, but look for the Mowhawks to get to 3-0 this week as they pick up a win over North. Speaking of pick-ups...Joe Diffie is up three notches on the countdown this week! 9. Baptist Hill The Bobcats aren't just 2-0, they've doled out the kind of whippings where you take all the beer out of the dude's fridge and call his wife "sweet thang" on the way out the door because he's not going to do anything about it. They routed Branchville 50-6, then took out AA Garrett Middle College for People Named Bob (or whatever their official name is) 36-14...the same Garrett that went 5-5 last year and beat Baptist Hill 34-nam. In that game last week, per David Shelton (who you can follow on Twitter), QB Corey Fields had 500 yards of total offense. Remember, that didn't come against some weenie internet school, it was against AA competition. Keep an eye on this bunch...they have two winnable games in the next two weeks and could be on roll by the time they face Cross September 16. Colin Raye isn't on as much of a roll...here in Little Rock, where he's down five notches to number 9. 8. Hunter-Kinard-Tyler The Trojans are 1-1, but are playing a growed-up man's schedule. They opened with a very good AAA team in Fairfield Central, then played a not-great one (Edisto) and took them to the woodshed...for a while, grabbed some hickory switches and really worked up a sweat (it was 46-15). DeVante Scott is one of the many great dual-threat quarterbacks in Class A, having thrown for 1,200 yards and run for 1,600 last year. They are off this week, but other killer match-ups with Calhoun County and Wagener-Salley await...much like Rick Trevino still awaits his first trip to the top of the country and western charts. 7. Cross I'm almost giving the Trojans (lotta Trojans in the top 10...moving along now) an incomplete because they've only played one game and that was against a not-very-good Burke team. Still, Cross's only loss to a Class A team last year was against a powerhouse Lake View team in overtime in the second round of the playoffs. The Trojans pounded it on the ground against Burke, with four different backs rushing for over 50 yards (Nate Walker led the way with 143 yards and a pair of touchdowns). They have quite a bit of returning talent, though they aren't particularly deep this season. They face a tall order in Timberland this week but for the long haul, I'm sold on their talent...and the lady in the second row, just like John Michael Montgomery. 6. C.E. Murray The War Eagles are 1-1, having taken down AA Kingstree in the opener and lost to a good AA team in Bamberg-Ehrhardt this past Saturday. Often times when a school as small as C.E. Murray loses several college-level talents, the drop-off is significant. Coaches I talk to don't see that happening because Brian Smith is a good coach and still has plenty of talent to work with ( like dangerous skill guys Darius Rush and Carlton Robinson ). The odd thing is that the War Eagles are stuck in the middle of a two-week break because of a scheduled off-week and the unexpected closing of Lincoln High, which left a hole they were unable to plug. They'll come out of it, though, rested and ready to burn the competition like a girl does her daddy's money...here's Ricochet! 5. Lewisville The Lions have some of the top individual talent in Class A. You've heard of Josh Belk (who is proving totally worth the hype) but Jene Thompson, Daryl Manning, Trey Keels, Mike Hill, Johnny Courtney, Keilan Renegar and others are some of the best at their position in the classification. They've melded into a solid team now too, a product of playing together for years and maturing as a group. They're 2-0 with both wins over AA competition, including this past week over Blacksburg. Thompson was lost in pre-game to a finger injury and Keels was out with an banged-up ankle suffered in the opener. No problem, Quentin Sanders flipped from running back to quarterback, had over 200 yards of total offense and accounted for three touchdowns. The Lions had multiple opportunities to give the game away or quit and might have when the roster was younger. They didn't...making plays in crunch time to win it. Watch out for this team...and this boogie woogie choo choo train being engineered by The Tractors! 4. Wagener-Salley This may be a tad high, but count me among the believers in the Stump Whooped All-Stars (a ridiculous name I just made up for this team). I don't know how good the Whitmire team they shut out 36-0 in the opener is and I do know how not good the Pelion team they smacked 50-14 is, but that match-up was a very small Class A vs. a big AAA. You could kind of see this coming as the team went from a tire fire 1-9 in 2014, to a competitive 4-7 last season. They simplified their offense, going from a spread to a Wing and it clicked. Nothing fancy, just athletic backs running behind a big ol' offensive line. Looking at their roster, they might not be quite as big up front, but Lawdy does the "athletic backs" part still apply. Tre Davis ran for 144 yards last week and converted wide receiver Tyquaun Williams had 214 and two touchdowns. The team also has good numbers out this year. They're off this week, but we'll see how accurate my prediction is when they face Bethune-Bowman and HKT the following two weeks. You might be compelled to say "Eugene, you genius," like Brian White does at number four this week on the countdown. Or you might not, since my name isn't Eugene. 3. McBee The Panthers not lonely lost talent from last season, they lost some special players in guys like Jordan Fair, one of the best athletes regardless of class in South Carolina last year. Still, tackling Deshonnell Wright and preventing him from scoring touchdowns still appears to be problematic for other high school children and McBee just keeps trucking along. True, they got ripped for 45 points this past week, but that was against the very potent passing attack of Chesterfield and if you score 52, it doesn't really matter if you give up 45, now does it? Tack on the biggest "playing up" scalp of any Class A team this year (beating AAAA Lakewood badly) and it's hard to see how you can't have the Panthers high on your list. BOY HOWDY, are they good. 2. Lake View Regular readers of this inane hillbilly meat and football blog know that I have a well-placed, anonymous, low-country pigskin informant. He knows of what he speaks and one of the teams that causes worry for him where his beloved Lamar Silver Foxes are involved, is Lake View. He said their size up front, their active defense and their stable of stud hoss backs are going to make them a contender this year. They returned most everyone from last year's squad that lost in the lowerstate finals on a last-second field goal. They beat a good AA Latta team in the opener and took it to the sausage people (Johnsonville) last week. They don't have a really challenging schedule the rest of the way, so look for them to enter the post-season undefeated. You might start to hear chatter about them going undefeated on the radio, provided there ain't nothing wrong with it. Lady and gentlemen, South Carolina's own Aaron Tippin! 1. Lamar This requires very little explanation. They are the defending state champs, they returns nine starters from a crap-kicking defense of last year, they've given up three points in three games dating back to last year's state title game and they physically whipped Pageland Central at their place Friday. They are the big one...just like this song about pootin' in church from Confederate Railroad, which moves up to number one in the country!
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November 2021
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