lowcountry football inferier?

[Onion Rings]

and I'm sure I left some stuff out, that was just off the top of my head

[Penguin]

The Beaufort County School District and the Board Of Education, for that matter, view athletics as nothing more than a necessary evil. Our tax base is one of the highest in the state, and making money from sports is not even a consideration. This results in relatively lower coaching salaries, and even lower coaching staff salaries.

When a coach has success in our area, they are soon long gone to someplace willing to pay more and demand less. A few years back, our local School Board mandated that all Beaufort County teams must play one another. The 50 plus point poundings of the 2 smaller schools soon were eliminated from our schedule because of the embarrassments that resulted. This was all done under the guise of saving on travel expenses and creating larger gates for games.

As much as I despise Bluffton, when that school was opened, Beaufort would lay 50 on them regularly. But, as that community grew, so did the quality of that program and a lot of that had to do with their hiring of a good head coach. A few years of great success, and he flew the coup for the promise of more dollars and less demands. Now, back to square one for the Kats, and of course things will now be much more difficult because of the opening of May River.

It was mentioned that the opening of new schools and the following dilution of talent was also a factor. In 2005, Beaufort High was bursting at the seams with over 1850 students. Thanks to the opening of Whale Branch and a reduced permanent military presence in our area, Beaufort High now has roughly 1350 students. Those 500 kids make a huge difference when trying to put together a competitive football team with zero to very little assistance from the School Board and the School Administration. I suppose that we are lucky to have what we have, and should be happy, but I, for one, am already looking for the other shoe to drop and relegate us back to non-factors once more.

[Ddub14]

Historically the lower state has always had less quality and depth of teams . Outside of Summerville there have been few examples of prolonged successes. Every once in a while someone will rear their head. I think the biggest thing is just an overall attitude. Let’s face it most of the people that reside on the coast are there for a very specific reason. To sit back and relax . There’s not the daily grind . Most of the upstate towns are also very cohesive, not transient families who moved to that area to live near Charleston or Hilton head etc etc. They honestly don’t have as deep of a connection to that small town school you get in the upstate. Those town lines are hardcore and everyone knows where they stand . Of course there are examples of individual fans like those in this message board that are as passionate about their team . But in general it’s not the case. The prime example of this in the upstate is Greenville county. Very similar to Charleston now. It’s rare to meet someone who is actually from Greenville now and knows the roots here. There was already an apathy towards football with the exception of Greer . They can take it or leave just as long as the cross country and tennis teams are doing well.

[Damefan]

Historically the lower state has always had less quality and depth of teams . Outside of Summerville there have been few examples of prolonged successes. Every once in a while someone will rear their head. I think the biggest thing is just an overall attitude. Let’s face it most of the people that reside on the coast are there for a very specific reason. To sit back and relax . There’s not the daily grind . Most of the upstate towns are also very cohesive, not transient families who moved to that area to live near Charleston or Hilton head etc etc. They honestly don’t have as deep of a connection to that small town school you get in the upstate. Those town lines are hardcore and everyone knows where they stand . Of course there are examples of individual fans like those in this message board that are as passionate about their team . But in general it’s not the case. The prime example of this in the upstate is Greenville county. Very similar to Charleston now. It’s rare to meet someone who is actually from Greenville now and knows the roots here. There was already an apathy towards football with the exception of Greer . They can take it or leave just as long as the cross country and tennis teams are doing well.

What you are saying I have to agree that there is an element of truth. I have lived in 7 different parts of the state and seen it on both ends. I have seen the same communities that were white collar and blue collar that had two schools where one excelled in only Football and the other in Tennis, Golf, and Baseball. The splits hurt the community from the days when they were one school and could pull for the one team. It also hurts when it comes to fundraising too. Don't get me started if it is a Charter school or Private school cause that brings in another element (RECRUITING, but that never happens)!! Coaching is a lot different from 30-40 years ago when you just had a handful of sports.

[Fortfor5]

https://www.postandcourier.com/sports/o ... 4e1bd.html

Yes and no!!! Doesn’t mean the kids in the LowCountry aren’t better than midland/upstate kids....Refs, coaching, injuries, bad grades, girlfriend breaking up....etc..etc...all sorts of variables add up during the week and determine the outcome of games.

If FD plays River Bluff again this Friday...who would you pick? Its not like RB blew FD away...14-12.

An old proverb "Iron Sharpens Iron" applies here. Unfortunately, there is plenty of talent here in the Charleston/Low Country area but they don't play enough talented teams to sharpen the metal to a razor's edge. They have diluted the talent pool down splitting the schools up to the point that everyone has a little bit of someone but not enough of anything. They have got to go outside the area to get battle-tested if they want to be ready for the upstate wars. Just my opinion but it seems to work for the upstate teams. Albert Einstien once said, "You can't expect to get different results from doing the same thing all the time".

Agree we did schedule dorman and myrtle .covid got us.
Id like to drop wando.
I hate pkaying stall but they are region.id love to pkay df
Dorman gaffney .it will do nothing but help us.

[Onion Rings]

spot on Ddub!

[Fortfor5]

i would always pick against demon players, possessed and taunting you that would steal the pennies of you bass weegins, even your dummy buddy is only camped out there till jr graduates and he will be back at mckissick park on the puke yellow turf, yuck,
ugly ass colors I almost threw up in my mouth.

Man i had to laugh at that

[Rebel-Fan-74]

The prime example of this in the upstate is Greenville county. Very similar to Charleston now. It’s rare to meet someone who is actually from Greenville now and knows the roots here. There was already an apathy towards football with the exception of Greer . They can take it or leave just as long as the cross country and tennis teams are doing well.

And baseball...

Hillcrest and Mauldin will get a good team, maybe two or three times they will compete with the likes of T L Hanna for a Region Championship and then get a team that puts all the pieces together like Hillcrest a few years ago, but they are back to 5-5 or 6-4 depending on non-region games. Bottom line, like Beaufort's situation described above, they leave from greener pastures.

I think we all see many different reasons for this as mentioned in the posts:

Money, lack of community cohesion, i.e. Booster Clubs or should we say lack of Booster Clubs, and tradition plays a part as well. You don't build a tradition easily. Riverside is a good example, I do not remember a Riverside team that has had a winning record in football. I've seen some good coaches go there and never even make a difference. They may have a team that is fired up and excited in August, but they just can't seem to get anything going. I'd bet 75% of the student body not on the team or the band has never been to more than 3 football games. There is no interest. Maybe a more open concept of Regions could help. Size as the only factor really used to determine Regions just condemns the Warriors. From a school like Riverside with no football history or enthusiasm to have to line up against Dorman, Byrnes, Gaffney, Boiling Springs like they have recently is not going to get them out of the dungeon.

Maybe an opportunity for teams like this to compete in a division like they do with colleges... Division 1, 1A, II, III and allow teams the ability to move.

[Newcatntown]

The Beaufort County School District and the Board Of Education, for that matter, view athletics as nothing more than a necessary evil. Our tax base is one of the highest in the state, and making money from sports is not even a consideration. This results in relatively lower coaching salaries, and even lower coaching staff salaries.

When a coach has success in our area, they are soon long gone to someplace willing to pay more and demand less. A few years back, our local School Board mandated that all Beaufort County teams must play one another. The 50 plus point poundings of the 2 smaller schools soon were eliminated from our schedule because of the embarrassments that resulted. This was all done under the guise of saving on travel expenses and creating larger gates for games.

As much as I despise Bluffton, when that school was opened, Beaufort would lay 50 on them regularly. But, as that community grew, so did the quality of that program and a lot of that had to do with their hiring of a good head coach. A few years of great success, and he flew the coup for the promise of more dollars and less demands. Now, back to square one for the Kats, and of course things will now be much more difficult because of the opening of May River.

It was mentioned that the opening of new schools and the following dilution of talent was also a factor. In 2005, Beaufort High was bursting at the seams with over 1850 students. Thanks to the opening of Whale Branch and a reduced permanent military presence in our area, Beaufort High now has roughly 1350 students. Those 500 kids make a huge difference when trying to put together a competitive football team with zero to very little assistance from the School Board and the School Administration. I suppose that we are lucky to have what we have, and should be happy, but I, for one, am already looking for the other shoe to drop and relegate us back to non-factors once more.

Damn.....You must have taken your meds....Excellent post Richa....wait...Penguin!

Cribb ( the head coach not mentioned in above post) was the catalyst for bringing Bluffton to the stage for 4 years running.

2 Region titles

3 consecutive semifinals ( 1 in 4-A D2 in our first year in 4A ball)
1 state final appearance at Death Valley
2011...anyway...all due to what has been said in this thread already.
He worked the halls...got parents and community involved....hell... I was painting endzones and sidelines until well past dark and had the lights on the field....(which I wouldn’t trade anything for those special times)!
Ok... Im done reminiscing.....great thread guys!

[DFOLDMAN]

Come on folks... snap out of it. The Lowcountry is just as successful over time. We talk about "prolonged" success... and folks say outside of Summerville there is not one. The upstate references programs like Byrnes (relatively recent success), Dorman, Spartanburg(most of that during the Davis run), and the championship city Gaffney (the majority of their titles came before the advent of face masks on helmets).

Lowcountry does fine...Summerville and Berkeley yes, Goose Creek had success, Stratford and most recently Fort Dorchester. The Upstate believes the Big 16 and now 5A titles belong there …need to prove it now instead of complaining about it.