Dixie-61
Calhoun Falls Charter-22 Fox Creek-34 Ware Shoals-7 McCormick-18 Ridge Spring-Monetta-14 Southside Christian-16 Christ Church-13 Lamar-49 Lewisville-6 Wagener-Salley-28 Blackville-Hilda-20 Bamberg-Ehrhardt-27 Allendale-Fairfax-20 Estill-18 Bethune-Bowman-10 Timmonsville-18 East Clarendon-14 Lake View-54 Latta-41 St. Joe's-34 Whitmire-14 Gray Collegiate-40 Great Falls-0 Calhoun County-62 Hunter-Kinard-Tyler-OWW THAT HURTS 12 Denmark-Olar-40 Branchville-Not nam Cross-30 Baptist Hill-0 Military Magnet-20 Burke-Nern St. John's-62 Lincoln-26 Hannah-Pamplico-23 Scott's Branch-22 Carvers Bay-28 Green Sea-Floyds-0 Breakdown- Right off the top, a hat tip to everyone involved in enacting a one-week extension for all fall sports. The devastating storms and subsequent flooding have decimated some areas of our state. There are at least 15 confirmed deaths, over 300 roads closed and over 150 bridges shut down. I talked to one coach in an affected area whose schools was being used as a shelter...many of his now-homeless players are staying in that shelter and many more were stranded in their homes. Some coaches in his region live on islands now...not like James or Kiawah, places that were formerly landlocked that are now flooded and without safe, drivable roads. Obviously, people in those circumstances have things to worry about other than when they might get a ballgame in...and didn't have the means to play even if they wanted to. Some teams were facing the prospect of playing three games in 10 days (or in one case, four in 12) which runs completely counter to the SCHSL's move of ending the so-called "eight-quarter rule" a few months ago. Players need recovery time and having little or no buffer between games is not in the best interest of players, the SCHSL said. Hard then to justify compacted schedules. The one week extension made sense and was welcome when it passed yesterday. It must be noted, though, that it took entirely too long for that idea to come to pass and I would also question the real reason behind the extension. A release from the SCHSL said it was in the best interest of student athletes and whatnot. Fine, but last week the SCHSL said the season for Class A, AAA and AAAA (AA had a bye week built into their playoffs, making the week extension easy) could not be extended. Iron-clad, unbreakable contracts with the venues hosting the title games, they said. Now, they moved the big Class A title game back at least a week last year while allegations of player ineligibility were examined. So what's the difference? Class A coaches attempted to force a vote on extending the season a week and were flatly shut down in their effort. The SCHSL said it didn't even the power to move the season back. Now they have. Coaches were angry, felt they were being ignored and some were talking about a coup d'etat or about pulling out of the league altogether. It's like when you're a kid...your behavior is often shaped by not wanting to face consequences, not because you are trying to do what's right. You don't eat cookies before dinner, say bad words or poop in your sister's sweater drawer because of the whoopin', the timeout or the loss of privileges that will come as a result (yes, I remain terrible at analogies). I don't know whether the extension was made because it was the right thing to do or because it was expedient and shut up coaches, critics and the folks who kept tweeting #OneWeekExtension at the league. Whatever, at least the end result is what was needed. My only unsolicited advice on the matter is that some better communication and PR would behoove everyone involved. Just say at the outset "we're dealing with some unusual and difficult circumstances, give a few days to come up with a fix." Onto the game...Southside Christian's narrow overtime win over Christ Church feels an awful like a statement victory of sorts. I believe it was the first win for the Sabres over the Cavs and it extends the progressions that Southside Christian athletics has made in general in recent years. Their baseball and basketball teams have made deep playoff runs recently and the football team may be ready to join them. This also highlights that there has been a bit of a dip at Christ Church. They are still good and could very well turn around and beat Southside Christian in the playoffs, but they've now lost two games this season after not losing one for four years. I don't know that either will beat McBee, but it sure feels like two of those three will be your upperstate finalists. Interestingly, a coach who has already started working on playoff points thinks because of their AAA win, Christ Church might still end up ahead of Christ Church (though not ahead of McBee, barring some upsets). I figure up the points myself and can't believe it's time for that...GAH, with the math and crap and numbers and whatnot. In the race to see who might end up facing McBee/Christ Church/St. Joe's in the state title game, the leader in the clubhouse appears to be Bamberg-Ehrhardt. The Raiders are undefeated and took out formerly undefeated Allendale-Fairfax 27-20 last week. The impressive thing is that B-E actually trailed 20-0 in the second half before storming back, with a pair of fourth quarter touchdowns from Keyshawn Orr making the difference. As with Christ Church-Southside Christian, the two might meet again and the first game was so close, the outcome cold be different the second time around. Quick hits-I'm pretty sure Whitmire is 0-3 since I dropped that big feature story on them, so coaches IF YOU CAN'T WAIT FOR ME TO WRITE A PIECE ON YOUR TEAM, HIT ME UP WITH YOUR CONTACT INFO IN THE COMMENT SECTION!...I'm starting to think McCormick is legit. When they won their first few games, I thought the competition level wasn't much to get excited about and that they'd struggle against better teams. Well, I'm not terribly bright, since the Chiefs now have a winning record and knocked off a good RSM team 18-14. Mataeo Durant may be one of the best freshmen and best-kept secrets in the state. He ran for 170 yards and three scores in that win...I'm Dumb Part II- Remember how I said a few weeks ago Calhoun County was undefeated, but it was from playing a collection of orphanages and cosmetology magnet schools. Well, they administered a vicious rootin' to HKT last week and have been curb stomping folks in general since my misguided comments. The Saints apparently are very good and balanced, since the running game led the way this past week with Tavaris Ellis running for 170 yards and three touchdowns IN THE FIRST HALF!...I was ready to write off Lamar after their loss to Andrew Jackson but that would have been premature. I assumed since McBee set their scary drill to "burrow through mountains" and beat AJ 84-14, Lamar would do much the same. Well, AJ, judging from their scores and outcomes since the McBee shellacking, have improved as a football team. Lamar also didn't find out until around lunchtime on Thursday that their game with AJ had been moved up. They also turned the football over in that game which is a huge equalizer. It was a bad night but they atoned for that with a 49-6 beating of Lewisville. Trey Ceasar had over 200 yards, he always has over 200 yards I think, it's sort of his thing. Suggested Reading OK, OK Calhoun County, you're good, we got it! Bamberg-Ehrhardt rallied for a big win and might be the team to beat in the lowcountry...UNLESS IT'S CALHOUN COUNTY. YES WE SEE YOU RAISING YOUR HAND OVER THERE. I WAS WRONG. Southside Christian made a statement Friday...and that statement was "Nyah, nyah we beat you Christ Church." Wagener-Salley has two things...an abiding love of chitlins and and a winning football record for the first time in a while. Dixie ran for a metric buttload of yards to pick up its first win of the year.
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TravisI am Travis, the king 0f SC 1A Football Archives
November 2021
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