By Billy G. Baker Publisher Gaffney — With six state titles on his resume, as a boy’s head basketball coach, Gaffney girl’s head coach Mark Huff (598-232) appears to have a roster full of talented and dedicated players as the Lady Indians have come out of the holiday break at 13-0. The Indians appeared destined for a championship run a year ago until forward Shirah Harris broke a bone in her foot near the end of the season. The team rallied and won the region title on a huge win over Byrnes in the final regular season game. “Shirah is back and 100 per cent healthy,” said Coach Huff. “She is one of our captains and she is just a great kid to have on your team. She plays hard all the time and she is a great rebounder and she goes to the basket hard to score baskets inside.” Through 13 games Harris is leading the team in scoring at 19.1 points a game, 8.1 rebounds, and she is shooting 55 per cent form the field. “When Harris went down last year, Tinah “TT” Hopper picked up where Harris left off and carried us the rest of the season,” said Coach Huff. “She is having a great season for us right now and she and Shirah give us two six-foot players on the inside.”  Hopper is averaging 16.9 points and 9.2 rebounds a game after 13 games of the 2024-25 season. Coach Huff describes sophomore point guard Lauren Mathis as “the quarterback of the team.” Mathis is a third- year starter and is only a sophomore. She is averaging 7 points and 2.1 points a game. Mathis is also an all-state tennis player. Junior small forward Korbyn Lydia was an all-region performer on the softball team this past Spring and she is also an excellent basketball player. Lydia is averaging 10 points a game including 2.9 assists and 2.6 steals a game. The other captain on the team is senior wing player Izzy Sarratt . “She is one of our best all-ball defenders and she has worked hard to improve her scoring this season,” Coach Huff. Sarratt comes into January averaging 7.2 points, two rebounds,3.8 assists and 2.6 steals a game. One of the first wing subs off the bench is freshman Kaylin “ Kay Kay ” Houze . She is averaging five points, 2.7 rebounds and 2.6 steals a game. One of the first post subs off the bench is senior Chiara Terlizzi and she is currently averaging 2.2 points and 2.1 rebounds a game. The rest of the team is made up of senior forward Kymora Pearson who can play forward or in the post. Junior Kourtney Caraway is a point guard and freshman Taylor Smith is a power forward up from the junior varsity. Gaffney began the season on November, 22 with a 70-30 win over Travelers Rest . They went on to beat Wren (72-40), Fountain Inn (60-20), Clover (43-37), Fort Mill (56-39), Wade Hampton (81-13),Fort Mill again (70-49), Eastside (68-17), Greer (76-26), Cross Creek (67-40), East Gaston (72-6), and Irmo (68-36) on December, 30. “Our defense has really improved over last season, and we are playing the girls on defense like I use to with my boy’s teams,” said Coach Huff. “We pressure full-court and play hard the entire game. “This team has a lot of experienced players,” said Coach Huff. “Lauren played 11 games on the varsity as a 7 th grader and TT played 16 games for us in the 8 th grade and Korbyn played on the varsity as a freshman,” said Coach Huff. “Izzy played a lot on the varsity her freshman year also.” One situation did concern Coach Huff in a recent game. “We were playing in a tournament in the Bennett Bennett Memorial at Clover High and we had a 32-8 lead over Irmo at the half,” said Coach Huff. “In the third quarter we had a lull, kike we took our foot of the gas and you hate to see this as a coach. We need to play hard all 32 minutes.” Does Coach Huff feel like this team can win a state championship. “If we can stay healthy, we want to defend our region title and be playing our best basketball going into the play-offs,” said Coach Huff. “We are certainly capable of a state title run but we have a lot of basketball to play.” Speaking of that, Gaffney will play Byrnes and Dorman in early January after Spring break. “I just hope we keep winning and keep playing hard,” said Coach Huff. Coach Huff said he is excited about adding Bubba Price to his coaching staff this season, “Bubba played on one of my state championship teams in 2009 and he decided to come back home to Gaffney this season and he has brought a lot of good ideas with him that we are using.” Coach Huff’s other assistants are Jasmine Kearse and Julian Wright .

Gaffney's Jamarcus Smith, a Shrine Bowler, their leading receiver with 984 yards on 65 catches and 8 touchdowns.

By Billy G. Baker Publisher  Moncks Corner —The region winners in the AAAAA SCHSL football classification all received byes for the first round of the play-offs that started on November, 15 th so if any upsets are brewing involving the top seeded teams in the two divisions we will have to wait until Nov., 22 nd for that to possibly happen. In the Upper State AAAAA D-1 a bye went to number one rated Dutch Fork (9-0) and they will play the winner of the Boiling Springs (6-3) versus Dorman (6-3) in a week two in Irmo. Rock Hill (5-5) received a bye and they will play the winner of the Mauldin (2-8) versus River Bluff (8-2) game in week two. JL Mann (8-2) got a bye and they await the winner of the Blythewood versus Clover (7-3) game on Nov., 15. Number four- rated Spartanburg , fresh off a close game loss with rival Gaffney awaits the winner of Lexington versus Byrnes in week one. In Lower State Div. I Summerville (10-0) has a bye and they await the winner between Fort Dorchester and Stratford. Cane Bay , a winner over Berkeley last week, received a bye and they await the winner between Spring Valley and Ridge View. Carolina Forest has a round one bye and they await the winner between Wando and James Island . Highly regarded Sumter (9-0) has a first- round bye and they will host the winner between West Ashley and Ashley Ridge on Nov. 15. Now, we move on to Div. II AAAAA: In the Upper state number one rated Northwestern (10-0) will host the winner between Eastside and Indian Land on Nov., 15. Greenwood received a first- round bye and they will host the winner of the nation Ford versus Hillcrest first round game on Nov., 15. T.L Hanna earned a bye and they await the winner of the Woodmont versus Catawba Ridge winner in round two. Gaffney , fresh off of a come from behind win over Spartanburg that clinched the region title, awaits the winner of the Greenville versus Riverside game. In the Lower state Div. II AAAAA: Irmo (9-1), fresh off of a loss to Dutch Fork , awaits the winner between Goose Creek and Chapin in week one. West Florence has a week one bye and they will host the winner between Lucy Beckham and North Myrtle Beach in round two. Berkeley has earned a bye and they await the winner between Socastee and Westwood in round one. Finally, Myrtle Beach earned a first- round bye and they await the winner between Lugoff - Elgin and White Knoll from first round action. The HSSR predicts that Dutch Fork and Summerville will emerge as respective bracket winners in Div. I AAAAA and will meet in the gold medal round at South Carolian State University on Friday Dec., 13 at 2 p.m. Tom Knotts , the head coach at Dutch Fork, told the HSSR after his 24-14 big win over Irmo last week, ““I pay attention to Dutch Fork, but now that I’ve played Irmo, these are the two best teams in the state,” said Coach Knotts after the Irmo win. “They’re going to be in the smaller (school size) 5A and we’re in the larger 5A, so thank goodness we don’t have to play them again and they’re probably saying thank goodness they don’t have to play us again. “We like to get to this time of year, the kids behave better, they focus better, they lift better, they meet better,” Knotts said. “This is our time of year. We’re used to it.” Summerville head coach Ian Rafferty shared these thoughts about the play-offs, ““Unfortunately we will have to play some teams we’ve already seen in the playoffs but it is what it is,” said Coach Rafferty. “Against Fort Dorchester we did some uncharacteristic things on special teams and turned the ball over near the goal line, but moving forward the key is the way our guy’s work. We have kind of built a good mentality throughout the season and just work and show up to play on game night. Basically, we just need to be the Green Wave.” The Summerville offense spreads the ball around and the team suffered some key injuries on both sides of the ball this season so a lot of players have seen action and contributed to the second consecutive undefeated regular season. In Div. II AAAA, the HSSR predicts a Northwestern versus Gaffney final in the gold medal round scheduled for 06 p.m. on December, 14 at South Carolina State University. Gaffney head coach Dan Jones told the HSSR after his win over Spartanburg last week, “Coach Jones said that during the bye week Gaffney would stay focused on getting ready to compete in the second round of the play-offs on November, 22. “We will study film and lift weights on Monday but we will have three full practices on Tuesday through Thursday,” said Coach Jones. “We will be hard-at-work getting ready to play wither Greenville or Riverside.” For the regular season, the Gaffney offense produced 1,423 yards rushing and 1,849 yards passing and that defines a balanced attack on offense. Gaffney out-scored teams 275-139. Northwestern , led by veteran QB Finley Polk has dominated teams 514-158 this year. Head coach Paige Wofford has done a great job coaching the Trojans for the past several years and his team is expected to plow through the competition in the play-offs on the way to the finals.

Gaffney's senior DB Jayden Sims

Gaffney's Jaiden McDowell on the carry.

Gaffney Football Team Attendees at the HSSR Media Day

Gaffney High School AD, Malcolm Long

Class AAAAA will crown TWO state champions in 2024!