Sports Report for Thursday, 7-18-2024

Local Notes

Coaching News…. Catching up on some area coaching news:

• Laurens HS
  • Travis Langford Selected for SCBCA Hall of Fame… Former Laurens Raider as well as Ware Shoals and Hickory Tavern basketball Travis Langford was one of 4 basketball coaches to be selected by the South Carolina Basketball Coaches Association to be inducted into their Hall of Fame this year… Coach Langford coached at Ware shoals in the early 80’s where he was assistant on the boys’ team and later head coach of the girls…. He is mostly remembered for his tenure at Laurens High School… Starting in 1997 his Lady Raider made it to the Upper State Finals 5 consecutive years and again in 2001… His teams also won 5 region titles in 1984, 1998, 1999, 2000 and 2008… The State Championship was also captured by the Raiders in 1998, 1999 and 2001… He was voted the Region Coach of the Year on multiple occasions and won other state-wide awards… He has even came out of retirement a few years ago to help coach basketball at Hickory Tavern for a short period of time… He will be honored by the association on July 23 at their banquet in Greenville… For more information on him and the others who will be inducted that night click here… Congratulations to Coach Langford!
  • Daryl Smith Lands in Saluda… As you may or may not recall, former Laurens HS football coach Daryl Smith was named as the head football coach at Thornwell Charter Schools… Also as you may recall, since then Thornwell has decided not to field a varsity football team this upcoming season due to lack of interest… That fact caused Coach Smith to step down as the coach of the Saints… Caught up with him recently and I am glad to report that he is now the defensive coordinator for the Saluda Tigers… That title is one that he held prior to coming to Laurens and when he first came to Laurens… Good Luck to him and the Tigers!

• Thornwell Charter… The Thornwell Saints also made a couple of hires just before the end of the school year so let’s remind you of those.
  • Justin Dawkins… Coach Justin Dawkins will be guiding the Saints Boys basketball program this season as he takes over coaching the varsity boys… Dawkins is leaving School District 55 where he has been coaching various levels of basketball where most recently he was the varsity boys’ assistant coach… He also has AAU coaching experience… He has also done well in the classroom as a teacher where he won a Golden Apple Award and the National Citizenship Education Teacher Award in 2023… He will be teaching math and science to grades 4 and 5 at Thornwell… Click here to see the Thornwell announcement.
  • Michael Hogan… The Saints will also have a new girls basketball coach this season… Coach Hogan has years of experience mostly in the lower part of the state and some of that was in sports other than basketball… He most recently coached basketball at Fox Creek… He actually began teaching social studies back in February at Thornwell… Good Luck to Coach Hogan and Coach Dawkins!

• Ware Shoals
  • Christopher Dodson Hired as AD (Again)… Also recently Christopher Dodson was named the Athletic Director at Ware Sholas HS… As you may or may not recall, Dodson was named as the new Athletic Director and Head Football Coach at Ware Sholas over a year ago but had the AD title removed in May of 2023 because of self-reported violation of SCHSL rules which caused the Hornet football team to suffer sanctions last year… At that time he lost the AD title but continued on as football coach… Chad Roper was hired as the AD and baseball coach… Recently Roper resigned to return to BHP… Because of his work and dedication to the Hornet athletic program over the past year, Coach Dodson had the AD title added back to his job description… Click here for more information about this… Good Luck to him and the Hornets!

Clinton HS

•  CHS Athletic Booster Club… It’s not too early to think about joining the CHS Athletic Booster Club for next season… To learn more about the booster club and its benefits, click here… That will carry you to a form where more information is available and you can also print out and use that form to join the booster club… They really do help all the sports put the “Go” in Go Big Red!

College Sports: For any game mentioned below, click on the score for more details if available.

 College Football

• Swinney Explain Not Moving South Carolina Game to Friday… As you may recall a few days ago I mentioned that ESPN and the ACC asked Clemson to move the South Carolina game this year from Saturday to Black Friday (Nov. 29) and Clemson turned down that request much to the consternation of ESPN and the ACC…  In a news conference this past Tuesday Dabo Sweeny explained why that decision was made and to me it made sense… Basically he said that Saturday games in the Valley were special and a huge recruiting tool and that is something he did not want to miss out on plus it would be a hassle for recruits and their families…. Also he mentioned that to ask students to come back to campus the day after Thanksgiving was asking a lot as they would miss time with family and friends… He also was thinking of the Clemson businesses which really count on the revenue from a full day of football related sales… That might not be the case on Friday as some folks might be off on the Black Friday Shopping Tradition… All makes sense to me… Click here to go to an article in the Greenville News and what he actually said.

SEC Football Media Days… Starting Monday and going through Thursday, in Dallas Texas at Omni Hotel, the SEC will be holding its annual Football Media Days where the commissioner and all the football coaches will talk about the upcoming football season where the SEC welcomes Texas and Oklahoma to the conference… The activities will start at 10 am ET and it can be seen on the SEC Network… Monday commissioner Greg Sankey spoke first then coaches from LSU, South Carolina, Ole Miss and Vanderbilt will take center stage… To see not only the schedule for each day click here. .. Remember the event can be seen live each day on the SEC Network…. If you miss it there, you can also click here where there is a list of the attendees and links to some quotes by each of the.

• Thursday, 7-18… The teams / coaches that are due to speak today are: Arkansas / Sam Pittman, Texas A&M / Mike Elko, Auburn / Hugh Freeze and Kentucky / Mike Stoops that order
• Wednesday, 7-17… The teams / coaches that are due to speak today are: Alabama / Kalen DeBoer, Mississippi state / Jeff Lebby, Florida / Billy Napier and Texas / Steve Sarkisian in that order
• Tuesday, 7-16… The teams / coaches that are due to speak today are: Georgia / Kirby Smart, Tennessee / Josh Heupel, Oklahoma / Brent Venables and Missouri / Eli Drinkwitz in that order.
• Shane Beamer… If you would like to hear Shane Beamer’s remarks click here…

Pro Sports: For more information on the game(s) below, click on the scores. 

 Atlanta Braves…

Up Next… The Braves will not be back in action until Friday the 19^th when they start a 3-game series with the Cardinals in Atlanta.

• Season Schedule… If you would like to see the Braves season schedule, click here… It should also show where the game will be televised if it is televised.
• Standings… To see the MLB Standings click here… Once you get there you will see the standing by league (American or National) and also by division.

Major League Baseball Draft… Now for you casual baseball fans in case you missed it, Major League Baseball held its annual draft earlier this week… The #1 pick was Travis Bazzana who was selected by the Cleveland Guardians (Indians)… He is the first Australian born player to be selected #1 and he played at Oregon State… For much more on him click here.

• Draft Tracker… One of the best ways to find out who was drafted and when is by clicking here to go to the MLB website where they have their 2024 Draft Tracker… Once you go there, you will find several different filters at the top of the page you can use to see information displayed… For example you can pick state and choose South Carolina to see college and high school players that were selected.
• PC Has Two Drafted… PC had 2 of their players drafted… Right hand pitcher Daniel Eagen was picked in the third round as the 102^nd overall pick by Arizona… Outfielder Joel Dragoo was also selected by the Phillies in the seventh round by the Phillies as the 222^nd overall pick… If you click on their names it will carry you to the PC website where there is a lot of information about these two players.
• Clemson Has Five Drafted… The Clemson Tigers had a total of 5 players drafted… They were Blake Wright (106), Austin Gordon (110), Will Taylor (145), Tristan smith (150) and Rocco Reid (462)… If you click here it will carry you to the Clemson website where there is an article about the first four players and if you click here you will also go to the Clemson website where there is an article about Rocco Reid
• South Carolina… The Gamecocks had 4 players drafted and they were Cole Messina (77). Eli Jones (218), Garret Gainey (276) and Trent Hodgon (509)… If you click here you will go to the Gamecock website where there are a few postings about this.

Greenville Drive…. The Greenville Drive finished out their 6-game series down in Rome, GA with the Emperors over the weekend… As a reminder they had won 2 of the first 3 games.

• Up Next… The Drive now have a 4 day break in action and will not take to the field until Friday 19^th when they start a 3-game series with the Bowling Green Hot Rods at Fluor  Field.
• Schedule… If you wish to see the Greenville Drive schedule and results of completed games, click here.

• Standings… To see the standings for the South Atlantic League (SAL) click here.

NASCAR

• Ryan Blaney Wins at Pocono… This past Sunday Ryan Blaney won the Cup series race at Pocono picking up his second win of the season… He took the lead on a restart with 44 laps to go and then slowly pulled away from Denny Hamlin who finished second… Pocono just happens to be where Blaney picked up his first Cup Series win in his career…  Click here to go to the NASCAR website where there is much more about this including the final race results.
• Standings … Chase Elliott moved up a spot to #1 with 703 points while last week’s leader Kyle Larson is very close behind with 700 points… The rest of the top 5 are Tyler Redick (688), Denny Hamlin (683) and William Byron moved up a spot to # 5 with 646 points… Click here if you would like to see the entire driver standings and once at the NASCAR site you can also click on links to see the standings in Xfinity and Truck Series using tabs in the upper right corner of the posting.
• Schedule This Week… This week the Cup Series, Xfinity Series and Truck races will be at the Indianapolis Speedway… The Truck Series race will be at 8:30pm on Friday, the Xfinity Race will be at 3:30 pm on Saturday and the Cup Series Race will be at 2:30 pm Sunday… All times are Eastern Time… To see the schedule for practices, races and TV viewing click here.
• NASCAR on TV this Week… NASCAR has several things being televised this week including race practices and qualifying, the race itself and assorted other things… To see the TV schedule for each day of the week click here.

This & That:

 Basketball Camp…. The LDHS varsity basketball staff and players in association with the City of Laurens Parks and Recreation Department will be conducting a basketball for youth age 9 through 8^th grade July 22-25… The camp hours will be from 5:30 pm to 8:00 pm each day… This will be an excellent opportunity for the young player to improve their skills and basketball knowledge form experienced coaches… The first 3 days (Monday-Wednesday) the camp will take place at The Ridge and the last day (Thursday) the action will move to LDHS… You may register for the camp at The Ridge and if you have any questions contact them at 681-7275.

If you have any comments, suggestions, or want to report scores, please contact me via email at: sports@wlbg.com or text me at 864-981-3470.