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!
Laurens Academy
- Football Schedule… Recently the varsity football schedule for the Laurens Academy Crusaders was released… The Crusaders will again be under the direction of Coach Jolly Doolittle… They will have 5 home games and 6 road games… They will open on the road at Cambridge Academy on August 16th and host their first game on August 30th when the Wardlaw Patriots visit Todd Kirk Field…. Their schedule is as follows and games with an asterisk (*) are region games:
Date School Location Time Notes
8/16 Cambridge Academy Away 7:30
8/23 Newberry Academy Away 7:30
8/30 Wardlaw Academy Home 7:30
9/6 Oakbrook Prep Home 7:30
9/13 Richard Winn Academy Away 7:30
9/20 WW King Home 7:30 Grandparents Day
9/27 Newberry Academy* Home 7:30 Homecoming
10/4 Wardlaw Academy* Away 7:30
10/11 Oakbrook Prep* Away 7:30
10/18 Bye Week
10/25 Richard Winn Acad.* Home 7:30 Senior Night
11/1 WW King* Away 7:30
College Sports: For any game mentioned below, click on the score for more details if available.
College Football
- ACC College Football Kickoff… Last week the SEC had their SEC Football Media Days out in Dallas… This week it is the ACC’s turn to take center stage as they start their ACC Kickoff event up in Charlotte, NC… The event will start at 1:00 pm with Commissioner Jim Phillips speaking… After that Georgia Tech, Florida State and SMU will be featured… For you Clemson fans I’ll mention that Dabo Swinney and the Tigers do not get their chance until the last day which is Thursday at noon… To see the entire schedule click here… The entire event can be seen on the ACC Network and if you do not have access to the ACC Network you can also watch it on the above mentioned link.
- SEC Preseason Media Polls Released… The SEC released its Preseason Media Polls and All-SEC Team Preseason List last Friday… Georgia was selected by the media to win the SEC Championship with Texas finishing second and Alabama third… South Carolina was predicted to finish ahead of only Arkansas, Mississippi State and Vanderbilt… Click here to go to the SEC website where there is a posting about this and also the list of plyers who made the All-SEC Teams as predicted by the media. …
Pro Sports: For more information on the game(s) below, click on the scores.
Atlanta Braves… The Atlanta Braves were scheduled to host the Cardinals this weekend and they did but the Friday game was postponed until Saturday due to rain in Atlanta Friday.
- Saturday, Game 1: Braves 3 – Cardinals 2… In the first game on Saturday the Braves fell behind 2-0 and tied the game scoring 2 runs in the 7th inning on a 2-run homer by Eddie Rosario (9)… The game remained tied until the bottom of the 10th inning when with 2 outs Ozzie Albies hit a sacrifice fly to drive in the winning run.
- Saturday, Game 2: Cardinals 9 – Braves 5… In the second game the Cardinals turned the tables and took a 9-5 win outhitting the Braves 14-9… The Braves got within 1 run (6-5 Cards) in the 6th inning when Austin Riley (13), Marcell Ozuna (28) and Eddie Rosario (9) all had solo homers… Ozuna also had a solo homer in the 4th inning.
- Sunday: Cardinals 6 – Braves 2… On Sunday the Cardinals took the series win by taking a 6-2 win over the Braves… Both teams had 9 hits but 4 of the Cardinals 9 hits were homers while the Braves had only a single solo homer by Jarred Kelenic (11).
- Up Next… The Braves will now host the Reds in a 3-game series starting tonight.
- Brave Injuries Continue to Mount Up… The Braves had had their share of injuries already this year and this weekend Max Fried and Ozzie Albies were added to that list… To read more about why click here.
- 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.
- Other Scores… If you would like to see the scores of other MLB games click here.
- 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.
Greenville Drive… The Drive played host to the Bowling Green Hot Rods over the weekend and they also had the Friday game rained out and made it up on Saturday.
- Saturday, Game 1: Drive 5 – Hot Rods 0…In the first game the Drives outhit the Hot Rods 7-3 while taking a 5-0 win… One of the reasons for the Drive win is that they out-homered the Hot Rods 2-0 with Mikey Romero (3) and Jhostynxon Garcia both had solo homers.
- Saturday, Game 2: Hot Rods 5 – Drive 4… In the second game Saturday, the Drive outhit the Hot Rods 6-5 but that’s not what counts as the Hot Rods took a 5-4 win… The Drive trailed 4-2 going into the bottom of the 7th inning where they scored 2 runs to tie the game 4-4 and send it into extra innings… There the Hot Rods scored a single run in the 8th inning and blanked the Drive in the bottom of the inning to take the win.
- Sunday: Drive 6 – Hot Rods 5 (10)… On Sunday the Drive took the series win by defeating the Hot Rods 6-5 but it took them 10 innings to do it… Bowling Green scored a run in the top of the 9th inning to tie the game 4-4 and then scored a single run in the 10th inning to go up 5-4… In the bottom of the 10th inning with 1 out, Ronald Rosario hit his 4th homer of the season scoring Miguel Bleis ahead of him to take the walk-off win.
- Up Next… The Drive have the night off wand return to Action tomorrow night as they travel to Hickory to start a 6-game series with the Crawdads.
- Season Schedule… To see the Drives season schedule, click here… Once you are there you can go back to look at scores of past games and also see what lies ahead for the Drive.
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 8th 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.