For the rest of the story, pick up a Hometown News publication!

For the rest of the story, pick up a Hometown News publication today!

Broome High School’s softball team hosted a “Paint the Park Pink” event last Thursday night for their game against Woodruff. Money was raised for Breast Cancer Awareness and the team sported pink uniforms.

Photo by Jed Blackwell

The state’s 2A athletic classification could be crowning two football champions next fall.
If a proposal passed last week by 2A athletic directors is ratified by the Activities Committee and Executive Committee of the South Carolina High School League, the 2A class will join 1A and 4A in splitting into large and small schools on the basis of enrollment numbers and will contest the playoffs and championship in each division.
More importantly, the division will provide every school with an 11th game, as every 2A school in the state would automatically qualify for the football playoffs, regardless of record.
"There will be two divisions with 24 teams in each," Broome High School Athletic Director Skip Frye said. "You’ll have 12 teams in the Upper State and 12 teams in the Lower State in each division. We’ll use region records to seed the playoffs, with the top four seeds in the Upper and Lower state bracket in each division getting a first-round bye."
Based on enrollment numbers used to determine the current SCHSL classifications, the split would put Spartanburg County’s three 2A teams in different brackets, with Broome and Woodruff participating in the larger division and Chesnee in the smaller. The split would only affect the playoffs, with the regular season taking place as normal.
Frye said the split would benefit smaller schools, as well as schools who have historically struggled in the playoffs.
"In the past, we’ve had some really small schools end up playing much bigger schools in the first round of the playoffs," he said. "Take for example Dillon and Mullins, where there’s a huge difference in size. It’s an odd thing to have everybody in the playoffs regardless of record, but in the past we had the bottom seed traveling to a #1 seed. Under this proposal, the bottom seed would play #5. You feel like you’re giving everybody a better chance."
The 2A classification has a 357-student gap between the biggest school, Swansea, and the smallest, Academic Magnet. While the number might not seem staggering, it puts the largest schools at nearly double the size of some of the smallest. While the plan would move toward evening the playing field, even some of its architects have reservations about it.
"Philosophically, I’m not necessarily in favor of all of it," said Joey Mangum, head coach of the reigning 2A champions at Pageland Central and one of the proponents of the plan. "I drew up a lot of it, and I still don’t know that putting everybody in the playoffs is the best thing to do, from a competition standpoint. But with the way things are now moneywise, this would give four teams a chance at a state championship payday. There would be 8 teams with a chance at Upper and Lower state. It basically doubles the opportunities for teams to make a run at a championship and to make some money in the process."
Mangum said that realignment and the current playoff system have hurt schools financially. Further, he feels that the 2A playoffs, under the current system, have become a bit predictable.
"You go back 25 years and look, and you’ll see Pageland Central, Woodruff, Batesburg-Leesville, Silver Bluff, and Dillon," he said. "There are some exceptions, but the state championship comes down to the same teams a lot of the time. We feel like this is giving other teams a better chance. It kind of gives you a little hope."
Since 1986, the five teams named by Mangum, in addition to Abbeville and Swansea, have won 21 2A state titles and played for a championship on 17 other occasions. In addition to opening up the playoff bracket, Mangum agrees with Frye that the teams at the bottom of the bracket will have a better chance to advance.
"You look at a team like Woodruff, how good they are up there," Mangum said. "I’d hate to think I was going to finish fourth in a region and have to ride up to Woodruff in the first round. Now that’s not the case. You still have to travel, but you go to a lower-seeded team in the first round. Woodruff’s got the bye, so when you win, you still have to face them. But now you’re in the second round. You’ve won a game. You’ve built a little momentum, not just for the playoffs but for your program. We’ve been in that situation. It’s something we’ve dealt with, and you can’t stress how important it is for the kids to take that step. Winning even one playoff game is huge in building a program, and this gives more teams the opportunity to take that step."
Despite the competition factors, Mangum said the proposal was largely financially-driven.
"Everybody is guaranteed an 11th game under this system," he said. "In round one of the playoffs, all that money goes to the schools. The League doesn’t get a cut like it does later in the playoffs. We are in a position where a lot of the schools desperately need a payday. Even if we don’t like everything about the proposal, we have to do what’s best for everybody."
Mangum said 2A would follow the same 15-week schedule, and that the site for a championship had not been determined. Benedict College, Clemson University, and the University of South Carolina have bid to host the 2A title games.
Mangum said he’d eventually like to see across-the-board changes in crowning state champions.
"In the future, I’d love to see every class have two divisions somewhere down the line," he said. "North Carolina has eight champions every year. It works. Ideally, we could send four divisions to Carolina and four to Clemson, and alternate the state championships between the two. I think that would be a great system."

There weren’t any major surprises  in the county during last week’s National Signing Day.

Instead, there were only smiles.

Seven local football players signed letters-of-intent to play at  Division I BCS or FCS schools, with most making good on commitments made several months ago.

Woodruff’s B.J. Johnson offered the day’s only surprise, and that was a rather mild one. Originally committed to Western Carolina, Johnson was swayed by his visit to Georgia Southern, and signed with the Eagles. The change was not a last-minute decision, though, as Johnson made up his mind in the past few weeks.

“It just felt like a good place to me,” Johnson said of Georgia Southern. “I liked it a lot, they have very nice facilities, and they’re making a lot of upgrades. I think if I work hard, I can play early.”

For the rest of the story, see this week’s Hometown News, Section B, February 9, 2011.

A number of local wrestling teams will take to the mat this week in the hopes of winning a state championship.
Duals meet playoffs will begin on Wednesday, as the team portion of the state championship gets underway.

Three local 2A teams qualified for the playoffs, and two brought home the top two seeds.

For the rest of the story, see this week’s Hometown News, Section B, February 2, 2011.

Two local high school baseball teams will begin their seasons with targets on their backs.
Byrnes and Chesnee each led their respective classifications’ pre-season polls last week, as the South Carolina Baseball Coaches Association has ranked Byrnes as the #1 4A team and Chesnee as #1 in the 2A classification.

The Rebels, last year’s Upper State Champion and State runner-up, come in ahead of defending champion White Knoll.

For the rest of the story, see this week’s Hometown Section B, February 2, 2011.

Broome’s Greg Honeycutt drives past Woodruff’s Javarious Leaman during Friday night’s game. Honeycutt and the Centurions downed Woodruff 76-59 to remain unbeaten in Region II-2A.

The Broome boys’ basketball team has excelled as road warriors this season.  The Centurions picked up their third consecutive region win in as many games, all on the road, by defeating the Woodruff Wolverines 76-59 on Friday.  Broome (10-7, 3-0) jumped ahead to a 9-0 lead in the first quarter, and never trailed en route to the win.

Chase Henry paced the Broome offense, scoring five points in the opening minutes of the game.  His three-pointer punctuated the Centurions’ 9-0 run to begin the game, and Broome held a 19-14 lead after one quarter. 

For the rest of the story, see this week’s Sports Section B in your local Hometown Newspaper, Jan 26th issue.

Photo By Stan Olenik
Spartanburg’s Elijah Greene tries to break free from a Woodruff opponent during the finals of the 215-pound weight class at the Armstrong Rebels Invitational at Byrnes last week. Greene won his weight class and helped the Vikings finish fifth in the tournament.

The team championship at the Armstrong Rebel invitational wrestling meet at Byrnes High School was never in doubt. West-Oak dominated the competition taking a commanding victory at the tournament. However area wrestling teams gained some important experience and a little success as they get ready for the real start of the high school wrestling season this week.

While West-Oak finished on top of the team standings the Boiling Springs wrestlers had their best meet of the season. The Bulldogs finished as the runner-up in the meet and did that without winning an individual weight class title.

For the rest of the story, see this week’s local Hometown News, B section. Jan 5, 2011 issue.

Andre Brewton and the Byrnes Rebels bounced back from a 2-2 start to claim the program’s 10th football state championship with a 34-14 victory over Dorman.

1      Byrnes back on top
Despite heavy graduation losses and early-season struggles, the Byrnes football team returned to the top of the state rankings in 2010. The Rebels started 2-2, including losses to national power Hoover (Ala.) and rival Gaffney, and barely survived an early region matchup against Mauldin. From that point, though, the Rebels put everything together, and behind a senior-laden offensive line and a stingy defense, Byrnes beat Dorman 34-14 for the 4A Division I state championship in December. The title was Byrnes’ seventh in the past nine years.

For more of a year in review, see this week’s Hometown News Sports section, Dec 29th issue.