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Stags improve to 3-0 in region with triumph
Moncks Corner – One of the top AAAAA baseball programs over the last five years has been Landy Cox’s Berkeley High program. The Stags have one state championship, in 2022, but have contended in several other recent seasons. The 2024 Stags look to continue that string of Lowcountry dominance but, as Cox says, this team is quite different than Berkeley’s most recent powerhouses. “It’s definitely a different group, different strengths and weaknesses,” Cox said. “We have lost some really good talent over the last few years. This team has some talent for sure but we lack experience in a few spots. I’m concerned with our pitching depth. In year’s past, pitching has been a strength and we’ve had depth. We are having to count on a lot of different arms this year.” Berkeley opened the season with a 2-2 record in the International Paper Classic but rattled off a string of victories to move near the top of the state’s AAAAA rankings. The Stags hit a bump in the road just before spring break, losing two of three region 6-AAAAA games to Wando. Berkeley has region series remaining with Stratford and Cane Bay but will need some help if they hope to win another region title. While Berkeley’s pitching staff lacks experienced depth, Cox has one of the state’s top right-handers, Cole Greer, anchoring his staff. Greer is headed to the University of South Carolina in the fall, taking with him a low 90’s fastball and devastating breaking ball. “There is no doubt, we can beat anyone in the state with Cole on the mound,” Cox said. “He will battle and compete like no one else. We know what we’re going to get from Cole every time he walks to the mound.” Senior Connor Barham is a returning pitcher with significant experience but has not been fully healthy of late. Gavin Gaskins, a transfer from Timberland, is an effective starter with a very good changeup. Senior Reid Driggers also has helped on the mound with junior Hunter Morris working in relief. Aiding the pitching has been a solid defense. The Stags field the baseball at a very high percentage, committing just seven errors in the first 12 games. “We have been good defensively and we’ve had to be,” Cox said. “Offensively we just have to work for every little thing we get. We have to be a team that plays hard and does all the little things. That has not changed over the years.” Anchoring the defense are senior shortstop Gavin Edens and sophomore second baseman Hudson Clark. Cox calls Edens “one of the best defensive shortstops I have coached.” Returning behind the plate is veteran senior Mason Salisbury, a fixture on the varsity since his freshman year and a Lander signee. Senior McCrae Driggers is a returning starter in centerfield and junior Ryan Richardson is a returning starter in right. Senior Brant Ford has been working in leftfield and senior Bodhi Leeson is the designated hitter who also sees time on the mound. While Cox admits his 2024 team is not as talented or as deep as some recent teams, a tradition of success keeps the Stags pressing to improve. “Sure, I think tradition certainly helps us,” the coach said. “Our kids have high expectations of themselves because the bar has been raised. At the same time, we have a target on our back and we’re going to get everyone’s best shot. We can’t ever relax or let up. Someone is always coming for us.”
Stags beat highly regarded Greenbrier Christian Academy 4-3
Moncks Corner – After doubling up on the victory total this winter, it’s safe to say the Berkeley High boys basketball program is thriving after two seasons with Matthew Mullins as head coach. Mullins came to Berkeley prior to the 2022-23 season after making the Colleton County program a winning commodity. His first season led to nine wins as Mullins was patient in establishing his culture and getting a very young team to buy in. That buy in continued this season, in a big way. The Stags contended for the region 6-AAAAA championship this winter, finishing in second-place behind Cane Bay. Berkeley posted a 17-9 record in year two of the Mullins program, a good positive step in the right direction. “The biggest thing we did last year was make our players understand what my expectations were,” Mullins said. “They did a good job of understanding what type of program we wanted to be and it carried over into the summer and preseason. “We had a pretty good season. We were still a pretty young team but they had a year of experience. Now we want to move forward and continue our growth. We will have some guys who will be third-year starters next season and I am pretty excited to have an older team on the floor. It’s going to be nice to have experience. The offseason, the summer, will be very important for us.” Mullins says the team is still learning how to play winning basketball. His hope during the offseason is to see players develop their overall skill level and be able to play several positions on the floor. “We need to become more well-rounded as players,” he said. “We need a guy that may be a wing or a forward to learn to play away from the basket. We need guys to develop mid-range stuff, regardless of what position they are called.” The two key ingredients for this year’s team, and for the next few years, are rising junior forward Deuce Kinloch (6-6) and rising sophomore guard John Cleveland. Cleveland led the team in scoring, averaging about 13.5 points per game while Kinloch averaged 11 points per game. Both were all-region selections and both were starters last season as well. Mullins feels both players will be among the top players in the Charleston area next season. Mullins is looking to junior Jordan Livingston to elevate his game as well. “I’ ve seen a big jump from him each year and I feel like next year could be a big year for him,” Mullins said. Point guard Cam Palmer will be a senior next season and has shown great potential, according to Mullins. Another player who the coach hopes can take a big step is Jehoava Williams, a bullish forward and football player who can be a solid defender and rebounder. Overall, Mullins is seeing growth at in the sub-varsity programs as well. He is looking forward to the new crop of underclassmen that are on the way.
Moncks Corner – The starting lineup for the 2023-24 Berkeley High varsity girls basketball team would likely be one of the top junior varsity lineups in the state. However, coach Crystal Peace is playing those youngsters on the varsity, as starters. As it turns out, that young lineup also is a pretty good varsity team. Peace has a starting lineup consisting of a sophomore, two freshmen, and two sophomores. Another sophomore and an eighth-grader are off the bench. The results have been surprising. Berkeley enters play on Feb. 6 with a 16-5 overall record and a 5-2 record in region 6-AAAAA. The Stags are sitting in second-place in region six with both of their losses coming to region leader Goose Creek. ‘I’ve never been afraid to use young players if they can contribute but I’ve never had this many on the floor so much,” said Peace, a former two-time all-state player at Berkeley now in her 14 th season as head coach. “At times, we play like a team that is as young as we are but they’ve been pretty good for the most part. They work hard. They are serious about the game. They work with trainers outside of school. They want to be good.” Though a freshman, Amani McCray already owns veteran status among the team. McCray has been a contributing varsity performer since the seventh-grade. She is currently leading the team in scoring ( 9 ppg) and rebounding (9.1 rpg). McCray averaged 7.5 points and 6.5 rebounds last season. Berkeley finished11-3 overall and placed fourth in the region. “She is capable of being our leader,” Peace said. “Age doesn’t matter. She has been around but sometimes it’s still hard for a freshman to be a leader.” Eighth-grader Alaina Carter is averaging 7.8 points and 2.7 assists per game this season. Freshman post Imani Levey (5-11) is adding 7.5 points and 5.8 rebounds per game. Sophomore Madison Thomas adds 6.8 points per game and eighth-grader Kennedy Caldwell is adding 5.9 points per game. Rounding out the roster are seniors Jazmyne Fields and Jordan Watson; juniors Christiana Robbins, Ta’lia Porchia and Riley Guerry; sophomore Parris Capers and eighth-grader Kaelynn Caldwell. Peace took her team to camp at Liberty University, where she played collegiately, last summer and saw the potential for a solid season. Berkeley has won 16 games twice under Peace and this year’s team has an opportunity to top that win total this season. Berkeley went 21-62 in the first four seasons under Peace but has 118 games since those rebuilding years. “If you work hard and stay true to your beliefs, good things come in time,” Peace said. “You have to experience certain adversity in order to grow. I talk to these girls all the time about that very thing. We’re young and we’re going to make mistakes. But if we continue to work and try to learn from the mistakes, winning will take care of itself.”
Moncks Corner – Year two of the Matthew Mullins coaching era at Berkeley High School is off to a good start. Mullins took over as the boys basketball coach at Berkeley prior to last season. The program he inherited had struggled mightily since playing for the AAAAA state championship in 2019. But Mullins guided the Stags to a respectable 9-14 record last season. As of Dec. 16, the 2023-24 Stags are on a much better win pace. Berkeley won seven of their first nine games of this season and entered the Class AAAAA top 10 as the holidays approached. Mullins, who came to Berkeley from Colleton County, is pleased with the way his team has started but also understands there is work to be done. “I’m glad the guys have experienced some success early. That helps in terms of confidence,” the coach said. “But we have to understand that we can’t make the playoffs with what we do in December. The region games are when we have to be playing our best. We’re on the right track and my job is to keep them focused and improving. I am excited to see what this group can do.” Mullins lost five seniors from last year’s team but returned a solid cast that saw considerable playing time a year ago. The top two players this season are sophomore Deuce Kinloch and freshman John Cleveland. One or the other is often the team’s leading scorer and both are regulars in double figures. Cleveland averaged 9.5 points per game as an eighth-grader. “Those two are often among the top scorers but we have had a lot of different guys contributing so far,” Mullins said. “We encourage guys who get hot to shoot. We want other teams to have to defend all five guys on the floor. It doesn’t matter who scores the most as long as the team wins.” Seniors John Hazelton has been a regular starter and a solid contributor as a small forward. Seniors Lonnie Harrison and Jove Rouse, along with juniors Cam Palmer and Jehoava Williams have performed well in their roles. Harrison is the ‘glue” as the starting point guard, according to Mullins. “This team has good chemistry and they play well together,” Mullins said. “They want to win and they are unselfish. What I need to see more of is consistency. We have to be more disciplined at playing to our standard for four quarters. We have yet to put a full game together. We have had issues coming out in the third quarter and we have to focus on being better after halftime.” Berkeley will stay busy during the holiday break. The Stags will play in a pre-Christmas tournament at West Ashley High and will participate in the Carolina Invitational in the days after Christmas. “Lot of opportunity to get better over the next few weeks,” the coach concluded. As for region 6-AAAAA, early returns show that the league could be wide open for the taking. Goose Creek remains a solid favorite but Mullins feels Cane Bay, Wando and Stratford are solid clubs as well.
Moncks Corner – When Eric Lodge was hired as the head football coach at Berkeley High, he spoke often of how important it would be to establish a new culture within the program, Berkeley is considered a prime job for any coach that wants to have community support and athletes on his side. Lodge fully expected his team to compete in 2023 but wins and losses were never a major focal point in year one. “We knew it could be some tough sledding this year but regardless of how many games we won, we wanted to come in and be competitive and build this in the right way.” Lodge said. “We certainly wanted to win as many games as we could but we never set a goal as to how many wins we wanted. We didn’t say well we need to win five or six or whatever the number. We wanted to build a program, from the b-team on up. We wanted to install our system at every level and get everyone on the same page. That was the big goal.” Mission accomplished. Not only has Lodge been able to compete but the Stags found success along the way. While far from world beaters, Berkeley went 5-5 during the regular season and opened the Class AAAAA Lower State playoffs with a home win over Conway. The second round has Berkeley visiting top-ranked and 11-0 Summerville for a second time this season. Summerville won the early season matchup with relative ease but this group of Stags is better and healthier than they were in early September. “It’s still a big challenge because Summerville is so talented and well-coached, but we are in a better place than we were then,” Lodge said. “Getting to the second round is a big accomplishment for as young as we are but we like to think we’re not done yet.” Young is an understatement. The 2023 Stags have a bevy of underclassmen in the starting 22. The junior varsity team went 5-4 this season but most of the top players were starting on the varsity. Freshman Henry Rivers has been the starting quarterback since day one and has lived up to his early season hype. He is closing in on school records for passing yards and total yards, having topped 2,300 yards through the air and more than 400 on the ground. “He still makes freshmen mistakes but the talent is evident,” Lodge said. “He’s a talented young man who is only going to get better and better as he learns more.” Two juniors, Kayden Bash and Kevin Boone, are the top two receivers. Boone is nearly at 1,000 receiving yards with 11 touchdowns while Bash has more than 700 receiving yards. Senior Tavon Frazier has more than 40 catches as well. Working in the run game have been senior Josh Smalls, sophomore K’den Foxworth and freshman Jesse Brown. Perhaps the most improved area on this year’s team is on defense. The Stags gave up tons of yards and points through the season but have steadily improved as the season wears on, Sophomore linebacker Marcus Henderson is now over 110 tackles on the season. Two other sophomores, Kevin Rivers, Jr., and Gehad Snead, are playing more consistently. Sophomore noseguard Landon Jackson also has improved his play. “The front seven, as a unit, has been playing better of late,” Lodge said. “We have a lot of youth on defense but I am excited to see them develop and mature physically.” Berkeley’s b-team posted a 7-2 record this fall, giving Lodge plenty of reason for optimism.
Moncks Corner – There have been a few coaching legends within the athletic department at Berkeley High School over the long tradition of successes. Though he may not have the general notoriety outside of Moncks Corner, everyone within the city that follows Stags athletics knows the important effect that coach Joe Harnage has had in the sport of tennis. Harnage has been a fixture on the courts at Berkeley for more than two decades. With the school refurbished the tennis facility, they also named the courts after their long-time coach. Harnage has established a competitive girls tennis program through hard work and dedication to the sport. He coached at Berkeley for five seasons during the 1990’s before taking a break. He returned as coach in 2004 and has been a mainstay since. Harnage also has coached the boys program for several seasons, off and on, including the last two seasons. The coach feels his 2023 girls team can be a viable contender in the upcoming Class AAAAA state playoffs. Entering the last week of September, Berkeley’s lone loss came to perennial power Wando. “We are having a great season,” Harnage said. “We have been working really hard this year and I can see improvements in all of our players.” Berkeley’s top five singles players are returning from last fall. Hannah Giannelli, a sophomore, plays No. 1 singles. Sister Rachel Giannelli, a senior, plays No. 2 singles. A third Giannelli, eighth-grader Esther, is playing No. 5 singles. Junior Reese Watson plays No. 3 singles and Camryn McCutchen plays No. 4 singles. Harnage says two teams are working to solidify the No. 2 doubles slot in the lineup. Senior Sofia Ferez and junior Rileigh Ballentine form one team while sophomore Kaylen Bradshaw and freshman Caroline Guerry form the other duo. Harnage says other significant contributions have come from Veda Driggers, Addison Metts, Macy Myers, Charlotte Mueller and Vedika Patel. “We have tremendous potential on our team,” Harnage reports. “We have 25 players and almost all of our players joined the team when they were in middle school. Since we do not have a public tennis facility in Moncks Corner, many girls get started on their tennis skills when they try out as middle-schoolers.” Harnage also credits assistant coaches Miller White, Richard Jackson, Jay Guerry and Courtney Salisbury for developing many of the younger players. “I have been blessed with great administrators over the years that have allowed us to grow this program into something special. A major asset is that we have our own on-site courts. As far as high school facilities go, they rank pretty high.” Another building program at Berkeley is the girls golf program, coached by fourth-year coach Jeremy Colley. The program qualified for the AAAAA state tournament last fall and have their sights set on another trip this season. The top five performers this season include Hailey Singletary, Alyssa Archer, Emily Moon, Tori McCay and Jenna Kate Hoffman. Rounding out the roster are Sullivan Giavelli, Taylor Wohlschlag and Emily Hodgdon. “Our season is going very well, our girls have hit personal best scores in several matches,” Colley reports. “Our goal is to make the state tournament. We made it for the first time last season, and expect to be there again. Our main strength of our team is never being satisfied. Regardless of winning a match, or shooting a personal best, we are always looking to improve.”
Patriots score on first seven possessions as former coach, athletic director is honored
Moncks Corner – While hardly a thing of beauty at times, Berkeley High’s first-year head football coach Eric Lodge opened his era with a win as the Stags knocked off county rival Timberland, 36-32, on Aug. 18. Lodge, who came to Berkeley from a very successful (32-4) tenure as the head coach of Seminole High in Florida, inherits a young but athletic team this fall. He also inherits a program that managed just five wins over the last two seasons. With the youth, Lodge says expectations may be lowered by some on the outside. That is not the case in the Berkeley locker room. “With my background, it will be hard for me to accept that we’re just going to take our lumps this year. That’s not who I am and that’s not the cloth I am cut from,” Lodge said. “Every time we step on the field, we are trying to win. We will try to do everything that we can to do what winners do.” The Stags will start a bevy of underclassmen all over the field this season but the one experienced unit is the offensive line. Seniors Malachi Purdie, Austin Bridges and Tylique Gillians will anchor the front, with junior Denzel Reid and promising sophomore Zion Britt filling out the lineup. “I really believe they will be a good, solid unit,” Lodge said. “They have been working hard to get on the same page, to become a cohesive unit.” That experienced line will need to be solid as they protect a young stable of backfield performers. Lodge has opted for freshman Henry Rivers as the quarterback this fall. Rivers is ultra-talented but is still learning the nuances of quarterback play. In his first game, he threw for 207 yards and four touchdowns while adding a rushing score. Not a bad start. “He certainly has great potential and he’s the guy that earned the job,” Lodge says. The load in the running game will be shared by several backs, including seniors Isaiah Palmer and Kanye Wade-Prioleau, and sophomores K’den Foxworth and Jesse Brown. The receiving corps is talented but a little inexperienced, according to Lodge. Senior Tavon Frazier and juniors Kevin Boone and Kayden Bash are three of the top pass-catchers. Former quarterback McCrae Driggers, along with Josh Smalls and Logan Washington also figure into the rotation. Another key piece offensively is senior tight end Jovan Wigfall, one of the team’s best overall athletes who should be factor in the passing game. The defense will likely start only one senior and the youth was evident in the opening game as the Stags yielded close to 400 total yards. Senior tackle Jove Rouse may be the lone starting senior. Rouse was an all-region performer last season. Others up front include juniors Andre Williams and Ben Tillman, and sophomore nose tackle Landon Jackson. Three sophomore linebackers show plenty of promise. The group is paced by Kevin Rivers, Jr., whose father was an all-state lineman for Berkeley. Marcus Henderson and Kinsey Rowe are the other two starters. Working on the back end is a combination of juniors Jermaine Jackson, Omar Meggett and Gavin Gaskins, along with sophomore Elisha Smalls. While aiming to win every game on the schedule, Lodge also has his goals in terms of the overall development of the program. “We want to install our culture, the right way to do things,” he said. “The way that we do things, all the way down to the b-team level. Everything we do on the varsity, we want those young kids to do the same things. We want to build a total program.”
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