By WORTHY EVANS Contributing Writer Beaufort --The young Beaufort girls basketball team has been a bit of a surprise this season. At 7-5 going into Friday night’s (Jan.,4) game against a red-hot Ashley Ridge team, the Eagles have already won as many games as they did last season, when they finished 7-15, and third in Region 8-3A.  “We’re a young team,” said head coach Reggie Jones , in his 10 th season with the Eagles. “We only have two seniors on the team, but this group of girls all played together at our charter schools, H2 (youth basketball), AAU. They’re a very talented young group, so what I did was put them into two Thanksgiving tournaments, which showed them all the top 5A schools: Sumter and Socastee, Summerville and Ashley Ridge. They needed the experience quick.” Freshman point guard Jania Hayward , eighth-grader scoring guard Da’Leah LaBoard , junior guard Zaria Coaxum , junior forward Carson Crosby , and senior forward Davariyah Smith have been the recent starting lineup. Hayward is the leading scorer, averaging 11.5 points per game. LaBoard averages 3.9 points per game, but had five 3-pointers and 19 points in a recent game. Coaxum averages 9.1 points per game, Crosby averages 3.8 points and 5.8 rebounds per game, and Smith averages 4.5 points and 4.7 rebounds per game. With all of the non-region experience that Coach Jones said was designed to get the girls—all individual talents and all on-court leaders—to play together against high-level talent. “When we come back down to our level in the region, we’ll be starting three- point guards, and a lot of people will have to pick their poison,” Jones said. “They’re going to be very good with the ball on the court.” The hardest part, Jones added, has been and will be getting the girls to communicate on the court and share the basketball. “All three of them (the guards) are used to having ball in their hands,” Jones said. “The challenge will be just getting them to share that ball and how they start to trust each other, move the ball around—whoever’s hot, pass it to them.” This season Beaufort is back up to the AAAA classification, placed in Region 6-AAAA that includes Bishop England , May River , Bluffton , Colleton County , and Hilton Head Island . “That juggernaut is always Bishop England, along with May River, Bluffton, Hilton Head, and Colleton,” Jones said. “Bluffton lost four of their starts but they have one young lady there who will keep them competitive. Bishop England is always going to be in the fight for region. That program is next-girl-up. They always have girls ready to play.” There lies the importance of those big games early in the season. The young Eagles lost 36-30 to Socastee and 50-31 to Sumter , and 67-20 to Summerville back in November, and on Dec. 2 fell to Ashley Ridge 87-39. While lopsided losses, Jones said he thinks the girls learned a lot about how a solid team brings intensity to the court. One more game against Ashley Ridge Friday night will help. “We’re looking pretty good, but we have a lot of work to do. Ashley Ridge ought to straighten us out a little bit,” said Jones. “ After that, we open the region at Bluffton Tuesday night, and later on we play Bishop England and Hilton Head, and all of those games will tell us where we’re at.” The Boys team is in a rebuilding phase after losing 11 seniors from last year’s 10-12 effort. This year the Eagles are 1-9 going into Friday’s Ashley Ridge game, and have mostly sophomores and juniors on the roster. Senior Samari Bonds leads the team with 18.4 points and 7.8 rebounds per game. Another senior, Amani Cleckley , averages 9.0 points and 2.0 rebounds per game.

By David Shelton Senior Writer Beaufort – The quest for a region championship in football begins on Oct. 4 and all that happened in the non-region slate of games can be put to rest. Beaufort struggled through the non-region portion of their 2024 schedule, posting a 1-4 record against a tough schedule. Now the focus turns to region play and how the Eagles fare during the next five weeks will determine their playoff fate. Beaufort will do region battle with Colleton County , Bluffton , Bishop England , May River and Hilton Head . Consistency is the main goal for the Eagles as head coach Bryce Lybrand navigates through a few injuries and some inexperience. Leading offensively is senior quarterback Samari Bonds , who has passed for nearly 600 yards and rushed for nearly 300 yards in the non-region schedule. Bonds is the team’s leading rusher with Elias Johnson adding about 200 yards on the ground. Caleb Stephan and Marion Jackson have been the leading receivers. Linebacker Will Codding and Issac Smalls have been the defensive leaders, each averaging about eight tackles per game. The other fall sports teams also are gearing up for a strong finish to the regular season with sights set on making the state playoffs. The state swim meet is set for mid-October and Beaufort has several swimmers that should qualify for a medal opportunity. The girls 200 medley relay team should earn that chance after setting a school record on Oct. 1. Members of that record-setting unit include Susan Cushman , Rebecca Farmer , Amorette Chapman , and Claire Jones . The girls golf team is preparing for their play in the region tournament, hoping to be qualify for the AAAA Lower State tournament later this month. Jocelyn Senna plays the No.1 slot on the team. Kenadie Cole is No. 2 and Lauren Holcombe is No. 3. Rounding out the top five is Saylor Waldorf and Emma Pfeister . Yzeuit Antia anchors the girls cross country team this fall. Savannah Stokes , Savannah Dickerson and Cecelia Terry round out the top four in most events. Clay Dalon is the top runner on the boys team, followed by Ryli Corbin , David Barr , Max Gibbons and Fred Waddell . The girls volleyball team is battling for a top four finish in the region standings as the season winds down. Among the top performers this season have been Alyson Dennison , Selena Duncan , Piper Kennedy , Camille Giblin and Chloe Sampson . Dennison leads the team in kills while Duncan leads the team in digs. Giblin leads the team in assists.

Senior running back Jayden Acosta chewed up a lot of yards for Ashley Ridge on Aug. 16 during the annual Dorchester County Showdown.

New Title

Reclassification has 2 State Champions & 3 Runners Up vying for Class AAAA Title

Beaufort – The goal of every athletic team is to play well enough during the regular season to earn a spot in the postseason. Making the state playoffs on the high school level means an opportunity to win a state championship. Several of the spring sports team at Beaufort High were able to reach their goal of making the postseason. One of the more successful teams during the spring was the boys golf team. Beaufort played in a competitive region for golf but played well enough to garner a spot in the Class AAA state tournament in mid-May. The Eagles were one of 16 teams from around the state to have a chance at claiming the top prize. Winning a state title was not in the cards for Beaufort but the Eagles did have a solid showing in the state tournament, combining efforts to finish sixth in the event with a 36-hole team score of 651. Individually, Beaufort’s top performer in the tournament was Simon McAlister, who posted a two-round score of 154. That effort was good enough for a 10 th -place finish, which garnered all-state honors for the season. Greg Christian was Beaufort’s second low scorer, shooting 161 to finish in a tie for 27 th -place in the individual standings. James Denton carded a 164 over two days, tying for 41 st place. Hogan Wareham tied for 65 th overall with a 173 score and Grisham Stone shot 180 but did not figure into the team scoring totals. Several members of the Beaufort track and field program also qualified for their AAA state championship meet. The girls program produced one individual state champion as Anaiya Houseal won gold in the high jump. She also placed fifth in the 100 meter hurdles and finished 14 th in the long jump. Yzeult Antia earned a silver medal with a second-place run in the 800 meter run, She also qualified for the finals in the 1600 meter run and finished in eighth-place. On the boys team, Eric Smart won the state championship in the 400 meter hurdles while also placing fourth in the pole vault finals. Sprinter Amare Patterson was fifth in the 200 meter run and finished seventh in the 100 meter finals. The baseball and softball teams each made the Lower State playoffs but both went 0-2 in district play. The baseball team finished the season with a 14-14 record while the softball team finished 14-7 overall. Senior pitcher Kylie Rast of the softball team earned AAA all-state honors. Rast posted a 1.07 earned run average in 98 innings inside the circle. She struck out 203 hitters.