Local Notes
Clinton HS
- Football Season Tickets… Season tickets for Red Devil football are now on sale through this Friday (August 9th) at the ticket office in the gym at Clinton HS… A season ticket will cost you $70 and will include a reserved parking pass… The ticket will let you get into any regular season football game and that includes varsity, JV and middle school games… Ticket sales will start at 8:30 am each day and conclude at 1:30 pm… Senior citizens age 62 and above may also pick up their senior passes at those times also… If you have any questions call Mrs. Kathy Schumpert (864-938-1981) or Louie Alexander (864-938-1982)…. Click here to go to the CHS website where there is more information about this.
- Red Devil Football Scrimmages and Jamborees… The following is a list of dates that the Red Devil football team will be involved in a scrimmage or jamboree:
- August 8th… Scrimmage at home vs. Byrnes and BHP starting at 6:00 pm.
- August 12th… Scrimmage at Chapin starting at 6:00 pm.
- August 16th… Clinton will travel to Chapin to participate in a jamboree taking on Blythewood at about 7:30 pm… Look below for more information.
- Chapin Jamboree Information… Advance tickets for Clinton’s participation are on sale at the Clinton HS ticket office in the main gym at Clinton HS and they are only $5.00 each with Clinton getting to keep all the ticket sales money… You can also buy them at the gate the night of the jamboree but they will be $7:00 each and Clinton will get only a small part of those proceeds… Obviously it will be better for Red Devil fan to get their tickets ahead of time… For more information on this, click here…. Go Big Red!
- 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 HS
- Raiders Previewed Last Thursday… Every year WSPA TV channel 7 does a short preview of area football teams… The Laurens Raiders were featured Thursday (8-1) on their 6 pm newscast… If you missed seeing that, click here to go to the WSPA website where the text and video of that preview is located…The Clinton Red Devils will be featured on Friday, 8-16 in their 6:00 pm newscast.
- Raiders at Union… The Raider football team will be in action on Thursday, August 8th as they travel to Union to play a half of football… They will take to the field about 9:00 pm against the hometown Union County Yellow Jackets… This will be your first opportunity to see this year’s team under the direction of Coach Greg Porter… We had hoped to be able to bring you this half of football here on Real Radio WLBG but the weather forecast for rain may not stop the jamboree (that is to be decided Thursday morning) but it is not good for electronic equipment and we have been informed that we would have to set up outside as there is no room for us in the press box due to McDonalds taking up several rooms as sponsors of the event… See below for more information on tickets…
- Ticket Information for McDonald’s Kickoff Classic at Union… Tickets are available for $10 each today at Chris Callahan State Farm on Main Street in Laurens and students and staff can purchase tickets during lunch break today at LDHS… A clear bag policy in in force at the stadium and there are some other things you need to know about before you go… For more information about the McDonalds Kickoff Classic click here.
- Meet The Raiders August 9th… Another sure sign that we are getting closer to the start of school and football season is close is that the 3rd Annual Meet the Raiders will take place on Friday, August 9th at KC Hanna Stadium and will run from 6-8 pm… The cost is free and in addition to the to the parade of athletes there will be music by the Raider band, Raider gear for sale, food trucks and other activities taking place.
- Century Club Membership… The Laurens District 55 High school Athletics Booster Club is now taking applications for new Century Club membership of renewal of old memberships for the 2024-2025 school year… Asa quick reminder, joining the Century Club gets you two reserved-seat season tickets to Raider regular season home football games (during playoffs your seat is reserved but you must to get in because of SCHSL rules), a reserved parking pass and an “All-Sport” athletic pass that admits two to any Raider regular season home contest in any sport (again SCHSL rules require payment for playoffs). There are other things available to Century Club members… For much more information about the Century Club and who to contact if you have questions, click here… If join quickly you can pick up your membership packet at Meet the Raiders on August 9th… If you would like to join electronically, click here… This is the best way to show your support for the Raiders!
Laurens Academy
- Crusaders in Jamboree August 9th… The Crusader football team will be participating in a jamboree at Wardlaw Academy on Friday, August 9th… The Crusaders will be taking on Cathedral Academy out of Charleston and kickoff is scheduled for 6:30 pm… I’m sure the Crusaders would love to have a large number of fans follow them down… The address for Wardlaw is 1296 Columbia Rd, Johnston, SC 29832… Go Crusaders!
2024 Summer Olympics… The Paris Summer Olympics actually started with some preliminary events on Wednesday, 7-24-24 and will continue through Sunday, 8-11-24…. They official opened with the Opening Ceremony on Friday, 7-26-24… If you would like to go to the official website for the Paris Summer Olympics where there is a wealth of information about the Olympic Games in Paris click here.
- Schedule of Events… On the Olympic website there are several ways to look at the schedule of events… If you click here it will carry you to a posting where you can select the day you are interested in or you can select a sport and see when competition will be taking place in that sport… Either way if you check for earlier dates it will give you the results of the completed contest… One thing to remember, Paris is 6 hours ahead of our time…Example: if it is noon here it is 6:00 pm Paris time.
- Viewing Schedule… NBC is primarily responsible for the viewing of the Olympics on TV… They have a posting on their website that list the viewing schedule not only for “over the air” viewing but also internet or other network viewing of various contest or ceremonies… Click here to go to that posting.
- Medal Count… Also on the NBC Olympic website is a posting that gives the medal count for each country… To go there click here… When you get there you can expand it to see what sport the country won the medals in… The total medal count for the top 3 countries as of 5:00 am this morning… Click on the link above to get more details.
- USA: 24 gold, 31 silver, 31 bronze for a total of 86
- China: 22 gold, 21 silver, 16 bronze for a total of 59
- France: 13 gold, 16 silver, 19 bronze for a total of 48
- Some Other Olympic Notes… USA Today is doing a pretty good job of covering the Olympics and if you click here it will carry you to their website where Olympic news is covered… Once you get there, you will find a number of stories about the games and results but also “back stories” from the Olympics about the athletes competing.
College Sports: For any game mentioned below, click on the score for more details if available.
College Football
- Pre-season USA Today Coaches Poll… Let the rakings begin… Monday (Aug. 5th) the first (preseason) FBS USA Today Coaches Top 25 Poll was released and top 5 (with the number points they received) are: Georgia (1364), Ohio State (1302), Oregon (1228), Texas (1223) and Alabama (1077)… Clemson checks in at #14… If you would like to see the entirety of the poll click here.
- FCS Poll… Another poll that was released Monday (Aug 5th) was the Stats Perform FCS Top 25 Poll… Now the top 2 teams in that poll are natural rivals as South Dakota State and North Dakota State were picked number 1 and 2 respectively… The only team in the state of South Carolina to crack the top 25 was Furman which checked in at #12… To see the entirety of this poll click here.
Pro Sports: For more information on the game(s) below, click on the scores.
- Brewers 10 – Braves 0… The Braves started a 3-game series with the Brewers in Atlanta last night on a very sour note as the Brewers bats pounded out 16 hits compared to the Braves 6 hits as they rolled to a 10-0 win over the Braves… The Brewers scored 6 of their runs in the first 3 innings off Braves starter Brice Elders who was called up from Gwinnett to start the game for the Braves to give the Brave starting pitchers an extra day of rest… Matt Olson was the only Brave to get more than one hit as he went 2 for 4 with a double… Willy Adames had a pair of 2-run homers for the Brewers.
- 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.
- Dash 9 – Drive 4… The Greenville Drive started a 6-game series with the Winston-Salem Dash in North Carolina last night with a 9-4 loss to the Dash… The Dash scored 3 runs in the 5th inning and 4 in the 6th inning to take the win… The Dash outhit the Drive 13-9 and the Drive did have a couple of errors that hurt them as 2 of the Dash runs were unearned… Ryan Galanie (7) had a 2-run homer for the Dash in their 4-run 5th inning.
- 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.
NASCAR
- Standings … Kyle Larson (749) now leads the standings for the Cup Series Drivers with Chase Elliott (739) second… The rest of the top 5 are Tyler Redick (734), Denny Hamlin (706) and Ryan Blaney moved up 2 spots to # 5… 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… NASCAR is taking a 2 week break I guess for the Olympics and the next racing is scheduled for the weekend of August 10-11 at Richmond.
- 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:
Laurens YMCA Soccer League… Registration is now open through August 21st for a Youth Soccer League at the Laurens Family YMCA which is being sponsored by Angela Marlett State Farm… The League will be for youth ages 3 – 12 in appropriate age groupings… The cost is $75 for Y members and $90 for non-members… For more information or answers to any questions you may have, contact Haley Queen at 864-984-2626 or email her at: hqueen@lakelandsymca.org.
Fall Baseball at City of Laurens Parks and Recreation… Registration is now open through August 23rd at the City of Laurens Parks and Recreation for Fall Baseball… There will be three age groupings: 5-7 coaches’ pitch, 7-9 kids’ pitch and 9-11 kids pitch… The cost for each registrant is $50… You can register can the City of Laurens Parks and Recreation offices at The Ridge on Exchange Drive in Laurens during their normal business hours… If you have any questions call them at 864-681-7275… Batter Up!
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.