When Akierrian Gilliam was 14 he found something that he not only loved but also something he was great at—wrestling.  The 5ft 4”,  calm - mannered and incredibly athletic Gilliam always loved basketball, but his cousin Derek Royster made a suggestion.

“I was about to try out for the basketball team and my cousin Derrick was like,  ‘man you are too small to play basketball, you need to get into wrestling,’” says Gilliam.
Gilliam decided to take his cousin’s advice and as they say,  the rest is history.
Only weighing 90 pounds as a freshman, Akierrian went 16 - 6  in the 103 lb. weight class.
“It was the first year that Coach Westmoreland came to Woodruff and he started teaching me everything about the sport.  I just loved it,” says Gilliam.
The next year as a sophomore, Gilliam went 37 - 4 and it became apparent that greatness was on the horizon for the 103 lb wrestling phenom.

For the rest of the story, see the Woodruff News.

Woodruff’s Akierrian Gilliam prepares to take down Dorman’s Patrick Vonxay in the Spartanburg County Championship match.

On Monday March 8th, embattled Woodruff realtor Terry Lanford, appeared before the Woodruff Municipal Court and  was finally dismissed as th owner of record of the  Old Northside School Building on E. Peachtree St. after showing transfer of ownership to Tab Patton and paying $8,740 in fees.

Since February 16, Lanford has been charged $1,092.50 a day for every day that the Northside property is not in compliance with the Property Maintenance Code as stated in a court order issued by Judge Smith at a December 3, 2009 hearing, which gave Lanford until February 15, 2010 to secure the permits to bring the property up to code.  In another hearing on February 22, Lanford was found in contempt of court for not complying with the court order and was charged $1,092.50 a day from the 16th till the official transfer of ownership from Lanford to  Patton.

For the rest of the story, see this weeks Woodruff News.

A 9mm handgun was also stolen from one of the vehicles. Most of the cars were unlocked. According to Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Maj. Dan Johnson,  20 cars have been reported broken into and one car, a champagne - colored 2001 Buick Lesabre, was stolen.

Mike and Jeanie Kellett of 382 Valley View Drive said they’ve always left their keys in the car and the night of Monday, February 22 was no exception. The only exception was that their car was not there when they awoke the next morning. Mrs. Kellett said she never imagined something like this would happen but added that she and her husband were not going to live in paranoia because of recent events.

“We never thought anything like this would happen,” Jeanie Kellett said. “There’s such a sense of safety and comfort here and everyone looks out for each other. I’m not going to live in fear because I’m a Christian. I trust in God and I’m not going to let a stolen car scare me, but we’re definitely going to be more vigilant and cautious from now on.” 

For the rest of the story, see this week’s Woodruff News.

After a delay of nearly two weeks, the Wolverines will take to the mat Thursday at 7 p.m. at Ridge View High School. Woodruff will face the Loris Lions in the state championship match.

Loris originally lost the Lower State final to Hanahan, but was declared the winner when Hanahan was found to have used an inelligible wrestler in the match. Hanahan appealed that ruling to the South Carolina High School League’s Executive Committee.

For the rest of the story, see this week’s Woodruff News.

When Woodruff senior Jeremy Phillips pinned his opponent in the next to last match in Wednesday’s upper-state title match against region 2 2A foe Palmetto, an already raucous Wolverine crowd erupted into pandemonium.  Phillips (125) dispatched the Mustangs’ Vincent Espinoza midway through the second period, capping off the Wolverines’ come-from-behind victory that sent Woodruff to the state championship match for the second time in three years.

The Wolverines, however, had to work for this victory.  The Mustangs came out on fire, and stole the show in the opening matches.  Gavin Holliday (135) and Adam Frazier (140) won by pinfall and technical decisions respectively, and Palmetto was on top 11-0 before the home crowd had even settled in. 

Marquis Williams (145) got the Wolverines on the board with a decision over Donald Keith, but it was followed by a decision from Palmetto’s Victor Morales (152) for a 14-3 advantage.  Woodruff responded when Cole Lawson (160) defeated Jeff Attaway by pinfall late in the second period.  The Mustangs answered with a pinfall victory in the 171 pound weight class, but its 20-9 lead would be its largest.  Now the Wolverines were ready to roll. 

For the rest of the story, see this week’s Woodruff News.

A fight last Wednesday between two sixteen-year-old juveniles caused a chaotic scene at the Woodruff Public Library. 

According to Woodruff Police reports, officers were dispatched to the library last Wednesday in reference to a cell phone being stolen.  Upon arrival, officers were talking to the complainant when they noticed two juveniles walking around the library’s computers while staring at officers.  The two subjects then walked toward the exit of the library and out of the officers’ view and began fighting. 

When officers got in view of the fight, the two subjects were punching each other in the face. 

For the rest of the story, see this week’s Woodruff News.

Around midday on Monday, February 1, a meth lab was discovered in a house on 220 Park St, which is in close proximity to the Church of God. Woodruff Police were assisting the Laurens County Sheriff’s Office in serving an arrest warrant on James T Koon and during the service of the warrant officers noticed several drug paraphernalia items in plain sight.

When police asked Koon if he was the person who rented the property,  he responded yes. Koon also gave consent when asked by officers if they could search the house.

Police then discovered a small plastic bag, which contained an off - white substance that tested positive for meth. A hand - rolled cigarette containing a leafy green substance believed to be marijuana was also found in the same room.

Further searching uncovered another small bag containing the same off - white substance. Officers on the scene then discovered what appeared to be a meth lab and at that point Lt. Harris with the Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office was contacted. Lt. Harris determined a meth lab was indeed present and contacted the Drug Enforcement Administration who sent a clean - up team to dispose of the hazardous materials associated with the lab.

James T Koon, age 34, 220 Park St, Woodruff, SC, Scotty Bryan Collier, age 43, 59 Wofford Shoals Rd, Fountain Inn, SC, and Lisa Ann Long, age 33, 45 Carary Dr, Kinard, SC, were arrested on the scene.

For the rest of the story, see this week’s Woodruff News.

The pastor of Cedar Shoals Baptist Church and two church members cycled to Columbia last Monday, January 18 in fulfillment of a promise made to the congregation.

In an effort to encourage the church to give sacrificially for 2009’s Lottie Moon Christmas Offering, an annual offering collected at all Southern Baptist churches for international missions, Pastor Stephen Cannon challenged the church that if they raised $15,000 for Lottie Moon then he, Music Minister Kyle Owings and Chairman of Deacons Tim Davis would cycle all the way to the Columbia to deliver the check personally to the SC Baptist Convention Building.

“I wanted a big goal for the church and a sacrificial offering on our part,” Pastor Stephen Cannon said. “A goal that people would say ‘man,  that’s a lofty goal for a small church.’”

In 2008 Cedar Shoals raised $10,000 for Lottie Moon.

Through a lot of hard work and several fundraiser initiatives, Cedar Shoals was able to meet the goal which left Cannon, Owings, and Davis to fulfill their end of the bargain.

“I don’t think Kyle and Tim actually thought the church would meet the goal when we made the promise,” Pastor Cannon said,  with a laugh. 

For the rest of the story, see this week’s Woodruff News.

The entire eighth - grade class of Woodruff Middle School,  to the tune of about 250 young people,  boarded five buses last Friday to embark on a tour of three colleges in the Spartanburg area: Spartanburg Community College, Wofford College, and University of South Carolina Upstate.

The purpose of the tour was to give students their first small taste of college life and to let them know that college is possible regardless of their individual circumstances so that they can go into their ninth - grade year next fall with the ambition and motivation to work hard during their high school years.

“We have a high percentage of people in this area that don’t earn bachelor degrees, and there are many angles to approach that problem,” District Four Assistant Superintendent Dr. Glen Carson said.  “And we’re hoping that if we can get students on a college campus as eighth - graders and make them familiar with the college atmosphere and how different it is from what they experience now in middle school that they’ll have that goal to go to college while they’re in high school.”

For the rest of the story, see this week’s Woodruff News.

The year 2009 was a successful one for the Woodruff Police Department.

“First of all, I would like to thank all of my officers for all that they do and the sacrifices that they made in 2009,” Said Dawkins after being asked to reflect on last year.

Through hard work and the leadership of third - year police chief Darrell Dawkins, officers of the Woodruff Police department continued to successfully wage war on Woodruff’s biggest problem, drugs.  Operation “Snowflake”, an undercover operation that involved two months of controlled buys of crack cocaine lead to twenty-one arrests.

“Our central focus is drugs.  They stand in the way of our youth and we are committed to getting them out of our community.  I have always said drugs are like fire ants, they will always exist but you can do things to ensure that they aren’t in your yard,” said Dawkins.

For the rest of the story, see this week’s Woodruff News.