lowcountry football inferier?

[DFOLDMAN]

I-77 corridor seems to be a hot spot...Columbia to Charlotte....teams like Flora, River Bluff, Blythewood, Ridge View, Northwestern, South Pointe, think Irmo is regaining traction- Spring Valley is a solid team, and of course Dutch Fork. Rock Hill is the best winless team in the state, but their schedule was rugged.

[Onion Rings]

I-77 corridor seems to be a hot spot...Columbia to Charlotte....teams like Flora, River Bluff, Blythewood, Ridge View, Northwestern, South Pointe, think Irmo is regaining traction- Spring Valley is a solid team, and of course Dutch Fork. Rock Hill is the best winless team in the state, but their schedule was rugged.

right. you're naming upstate and midlands teams

[CITYSLICKER]

DAME FAN, DONT NORMALLY AGREE WITH ANYTHING YOU SAY BUT I AGREE, WE CAN HANG FOR AWHILE, BUT 40 TO 50 PLAYERS IS NOT ENOUGH FOR 5AAAAA, BUT I ALSO AGREE WITH THE ADMIN FOR SAVING MONEY ON THOSE CRAZY RIDES TO BUFART, HILTON HEAD, AND BUFFTOWN AT TIMES. NOT IN FOOTBALL BUT OTHER SPORTS AND YOU ARE RIGHT, PLAYING EACH OTHER IS LIKE KISSING YOUR COUSIN, YOU KNOW EACH OTHERS MOVE. WHEN OUR COACH PUT RIVER BLUFF AND SUMTER ON THE SCHEDULE TO TOUGHEN US I THOUGHT HE WAS CRAZY BUT ALAS THE PANDEMIC SHUTTLED THOSE PLANS FOR 2020FOR THE 10 GAME RUN, MONEY VERSES EASIER. U PICK.

[Fortfor5]

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.

We are feverishly trying to build our booster club.
We are locked on oneside until all the oldfarts in the ville die off.they aint giving us anything.the influx of yankees.
Who the hell calls the dnr on a gator in a pond.
Bastards git more right here than thier azz.
Anyways we are working at it.plus we have 8 10 andc12 u patriots now.
After mine finishes playing i may hang around a bit and
Help out .someone has to start it.see if we can get and keep traction in the community support dept.

[Damefan]

DAME FAN, DONT NORMALLY AGREE WITH ANYTHING YOU SAY BUT I AGREE, WE CAN HANG FOR AWHILE, BUT 40 TO 50 PLAYERS IS NOT ENOUGH FOR 5AAAAA, BUT I ALSO AGREE WITH THE ADMIN FOR SAVING MONEY ON THOSE CRAZY RIDES TO BUFART, HILTON HEAD, AND BUFFTOWN AT TIMES. NOT IN FOOTBALL BUT OTHER SPORTS AND YOU ARE RIGHT, PLAYING EACH OTHER IS LIKE KISSING YOUR COUSIN, YOU KNOW EACH OTHERS MOVE. WHEN OUR COACH PUT RIVER BLUFF AND SUMTER ON THE SCHEDULE TO TOUGHEN US I THOUGHT HE WAS CRAZY BUT ALAS THE PANDEMIC SHUTTLED THOSE PLANS FOR 2020FOR THE 10 GAME RUN, MONEY VERSES EASIER. U PICK.

Maybe we will bump into each other tonight at the Oceanside game.

[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.

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!

Thank you. I will just say this to you...........You take things that I say waaaay too personal and if you knew me better then you would understand that I really enjoy getting under people's skin. You really get to know a lot about a person when they are mad. Way more so than when they aren't. Emotions cause people to react instinctively, and their true self comes out. Stop over and say hi tonight. I can't get up and down the stands like I used to could. Peace.......