By WORTHY EVANS Columbia - Gray Collegiate Academy’s baseball team finds itself in similar territory, albeit with a different twist without a Region 4-2A schedule. The War Eagles, 11-1 (not counting forfeits) as of March 28, have veteran leadership from six seniors, and young and experienced talent from seven juniors, three sophomores, and two freshmen. “We’re playing pretty well. Our hitting has cooled off a bit right now, but that’s just because of 12 games into the season and we’re playing a lot of good teams with a lot of good pitching,” Gray head coach Charley Assey said. “We’re playing a lot of 3A, 4A, and 5A schools and they do a good job of pitching around certain things that our guys can do.” Last summer, the region’s schools opted to forfeit all games this academic year. The schools felt that Gray’s ability to recruit athletes outside its school zone gave the War Eagles an unfair competitive advantage. Doing so gave all of Gray’s athletic teams region championships, and left the school’s teams to devise their own schedules. The War Eagles schedule features games against 5A’s Spring Valley, Boiling Springs, and Rock Hill, 4A’s Irmo, and 3A’s Dreher and Marlboro County, as well as SCISA powers Cardinal Newman and Augusta Christian, among other teams. Gray’s pitching starts with senior right-hander Blaine Redmond , in his third year with the team. Junior righties Will Magee and Cam Southern . Southern and Redmond are both 4-0 on the mound. Behind the plate is freshman Riley Huggins , unless Huggins is on the mound. In that case junior J.R. Rizo serves as catcher. Sophomore Cole Adams at first base, sophomores Garrett Blankenship and M.J. Hornsby splitting time at shortstop and second base, and junior Zeb Taylor at third base rounds out the War Eagles infield. Seniors Redmond, Conner Holmes , Drew Webber , and Owen McAleenan are outfielders. Among those players, many are top hitters. Senior Designated hitter Trey Craig , who is still recovering from an ankle injury in football, is batting .436 with 17 hits and a team-high five doubles and two home runs. Holmes, with a .425 average, also has 17 hits and five doubles. Redmond has a .526 average with 10 hits, and Hornsby is batting .464 with 13 hits. With a region title already in hand and a schedule that will challenge his team, Assey says he hopes for good things to come, specifically the possibility of going one or two games further than the lower state championship tournament in 2023 and the state championship series in which Gray fell short to 2A state champion Andrew Jackson. “I’m in my 28 th year of doing it,” said Assey, who won state championships at Brookland-Cayce as well as with Orangeburg Prep and Mims Academy. “I still have my health and over the past couple of years I got my 500 th win, but I always want to try to win one more. It puts my feet on the floor in the morning. It’s been a good ride.” Gray Collegiate softball, which won its first state championship in 2022, is 15-2 counting four forfeits. Aspen Boulware leads the team at the plate with a .692 batting average, 18 hits, four triples and six home runs and 6 runs batted in. Maddox Long has a .526 average on top of 10 hits and nine RBI. Kaylan Boudreau is batting .455 with 10 hits, two home runs and six RBI. Na'Veah Matthews has a .387 average on 12 hits with 7 RBIs and 9 runs. Peyton Hendrix (3-0) and Mackenzie Mathis (2-0) are the top pitchers, with Hendrix giving up just five hits and striking out 22, and Mathis giving up 11 hits and striking out 30.

Fort Mill, Catawba Ridge, Hanahan, Gray Collegiate, Southside Christian top polls

Final Top 10 girls and boys ranked below story

Larry Gamble Photo Editor, HSSR Photos from the SCHSL Basketball Tournament, from the Florence Center for the Gray Collegiate vs Oceanside Collegiate boys in the Class AA Championship basketball game on Friday. High resolution prints and digital downloads from this event are available at www.LarryGamble.com by clicking this link to the photos.

War Eagles rally from 16-3 deficit to win 44-40

By WORTHY EVANS Special to HSSR Columbia - With Region 4-2A teams continuing to forfeit games scheduled with Gray Collegiate Academy , the War Eagles girls and boys basketball teams have had to do what the football team did—schedule a range of teams to keep the teams sharp. Boys head coach Dion Bethea didn’t mind being blunt about the alternate to playing non-region opponents. “Better competition,” Bethea, whose boys team have won five state championships including the years 2022 and 2023. “We made up our (non-region) schedule last summer, a wish list of teams we’d like to play. We didn’t put a lot of thought into it. We had to do what was best for our kids.” Bethea added, “We didn’t have to call anyone. We never had to look. People were hitting us up wanting to play. It was teams that wanted to play good games.” The thought of region schools forfeiting games against Gray Collegiate arose before the football season began, and based on the notion that Gray Collegiate’s ability to recruit players outside of their zone gave the school an unfair competitive advantage. The forfeiture applies to all athletic activities in the 2023-2024 school year. The Gray boys are 21-5, a record that includes six forfeits thus far. “They’ve been playing well, we have another great group,” Bethea said. “One of our hashtags for this year was #stillunderconstruction. This is the first year we don’t have a true point guard. It’s by committee, and all the players took up that challenge and we’ve had a lot of success with it.” This year’s team includes Senior Braylin Thomas , who averages 16.3 points, 6.0 rebounds and 2 assists per game. Junior Trey Maddox averages 10.3 points and Senior Ellis Graham averages 5.1 rebounds. Those players have the highest profile on the court, but Bethea notes that junior small forward L.J. Britt makes the team a cohesive unit on the court. Britt averages 8.2 points and 3.7 assists per game. “Our two top scorers have performed well, but you can’t talk about their successes without L.J. Britt,” Bethea said. “He’s the glue holding everything together. It took a while for us to get all three on the same page, but now they’re clicking, and statistically from a defensive standpoint, we’re the best team in the state, but now we’re working hard on the offense.” The War Eagles are doing so using that better competition. They came out of winter break to beat 5A Chapin 80-63 Jan. 5, Pebblebrook (Mableton, Ga.) 58-50 Jan. 6, and Rock Hill’s Legion Collegiate Academy twice, first a 68-34 win Jan. 11 and then a 92-49 win Jan. 23. The Gray boys played Atlanta Hebron Saturday in the Longhorns Classic in Atlanta. “The talent level there is extraordinary every year,” Bethea said. “It’s just a great opportunity to get their eyes on a lot of types of play, and with a shot clock. I love our schedule. It’s a great way to see a lot of styles of basketball and it’s only going to help us going into the playoffs.” The girls, who won their first state championship last year, are 14-7 with six wins that are forfeits. They played the same teams as the boys except for 4A North Augusta , a game that they lost 34-25 Jan. 13. Junior Kadence Walker-Lee leads the team with 13.1 points and 8.7 rebounds per game. Senior Jordan Mintz averages 8.6 points, 1.8 assists, and 1.5 steals per game. Junior Karlee Phelps averages 7.8 points, 5.2 rebounds, and 1.7 assists.

War Eagles will try to defend state championship before moving to AAAA

By WORTHY EVANS The 2023 football season is absolutely one that Gray Collegiate players will remember. No, the War Eagles did not close out a state championship. They fell short in a 35-28 loss to Oceanside Collegiate in a hard-fought 2A state title game at South Carolina State University’s Oliver C. Dawson Stadium Nov. 30. What Gray did do was to stay in football shape when all of its Region 4-2A opponents forfeited their games with the War Eagles, citing that the charter school had an unfair advantage when it came to attracting top-notch student athletes. As a result, Gray collected six easy wins—but had to do something to stay in shape between Sept. 15, the date of the first region forfeit, till Nov. 3, the date of the first game of the 2A playoffs. What head coach Adam Holmes and the team did do was find opponents, wherever they were, and either travel to them, or invite them to Columbia and play on the team’s new field on the school campus. Gray played four out-of-state schools, going 1-3 but gaining a lot of experience along the way. “It’s given our kids the ability to go out and play top-level competition as we move forward into the playoffs,” head coach Adam Holmes said in the runup to the playoffs. “We know that if we can compete against teams like those it’s going to be good for our guys.” Gray fell 42-28 at nationally ranked St. Johns in Washington, D.C. Sept. 16, but beat Portal, Ga. 56-35 at home Sept. 29. The next game was at Clearwater Academy International , Fla., Oct. 6. The War Eagles fell 34-27. On Oct. 19 Gray Collegiate traveled to IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla. The Ascenders won 53-7, but the War Eagles got a chance to play against an offense and defense loaded with NCAA Division I commits. When the playoffs opened, Gray was ready for business. The War Eagles blew out Pelion and Chesnee , held off Strom Thurmond and beat 2A powerhouse Abbeville 27-12 in the upper state championship. Against the Landsharks in the state championship game, Gray took a 14-0 lead before Oceanside rallied and led 21-14 by the third quarter. The game went down to coaching gutsiness and player toughness. Gray tied the game at 21 it with Tyler Waller’s 26-yard touchdown pass to Zion Job at the 4:40 mark of the third, but Oceanside went up 28-21 with a 36-yard Aiden Manavian -to- Gavin Gaspar touchdown connection in the last minute of the third. B.J. Montgomery tied it at 28 all with a 14-yard TD run after that score, but Oceanside drove again and scored on William Virgilio’s 1-yard run with 1:26 to to give Oceanside the lead. The Landsharks defense forced a turnover on downs as Gray was going for a game-tying score in the final minute. “That’s what our team has been,” Holmes said. “We’ve been resilient, we’ve fought through adversity. We came back and tied it up at 28, we thought we would get a stop … We thought they were going to kick a field goal, we called a time out to ice them a little bit, (but) they go for it on fourth down, a gutsy call by them to get it, get the first, and then get a touchdown.” Holmes said his team didn’t start out fast in the second half and it cost the team, but knew that in the closing minutes it would be two great teams battling it out. While the War Eagles lost, Holmes said his team has a lot to be proud of. “Anytime you make it to a state title game, it’s not easy,” he said. “Obviously you want to win. It was a great feeling two years ago, so now to feel the other side, it’s not so great, but it’s still a great accomplishment of our guys, of our team to fight and get through everything we faced to still make it here and play for a state championship. I’m still extra proud of these guys.”

Larry Gamble Photo Editor, HSSR Photos from the Oceanside Collegiate vs Gray Collegiate SCHSL Class AA State Title game on 11-30. In a game that was a nail biter for the entire second half. Oceanside defeated Gray 35-28 under the lights at SC State's Oliver Dawson Stadium in Orangeburg. High resolution prints and digital downloads from this event are available at www.LarryGamble.com by clicking this link to the photos.