Realigned for 2024-2026, Area Football Teams Gear Up for Fall

By WORTHY EVANS

Special to the HSSSR

Columbia - It won’t be long before high-school football teams across the Midlands and the state take the field for preseason practice. The 2024 season kicks off in mid-August, which will spark the hopes of many a team to go far in the playoffs and reach the state championship game.

For Midlands teams, the South Carolina High School League’s classification realignment for the 2024-2026 athletic years has made big changes to scheduling. Four Class 4A teams have moved up to 5A, and six Midland teams have moved up from 3A and 2A to 4A. Only three Midlands teams remain in the 3A classification, and six are in Class 2A. One team, C.A. Johnson, remains at the 1A level.

This month we will break down the Midlands SCHSL teams and SCISA teams.

Class 5A

Midlands teams at the 5A level are packed into two regions that promise to be full of fight this fall.

Region 4-5A tops the list as being one of the more competitive regions in the state. Yes, Dutch Fork, with eight state championships in the last 12 years under head coach Tom Knotts, remains as the team to beat. The Silver Foxes lost some 30 seniors from its 2022 state title run, and it showed with a sub-par 2023 start.

“To start like we did, it took a lot out of us,” head coach Tom Knotts said during the 2023 season. “We missed guys like Jarvis Green, you know. Looking at film last year I thought we were pretty good last year. Nope, it was Jarvis Green that was good, Jarvis Green left, Jarvis Green right, takes it and goes score. So once I realized that, I thought oh Lord we’re missing that threat that Clemson’s got right now.”

Dutch Fork went 2-5 before it found its stride. When it did so, it won eight straight games using an improving defense and clutch offensive tactics from quarterbacks Jonathan Hunt and Ethan Offing and an array of offensive contributors. The Silver Foxes faced down a vastly improved White Knoll team in the state championship. While the Timberwolves beat Dutch Fork 17-14 in the regular season, the Silver Foxes clinched their eighth state crown with a 21-6 win at Oliver C. Dawson Stadium in December. 

This fall Dutch Fork returns many of the players who contributed last year, including Ethan Offing and placekicker Justin Welch.

White Knoll (14-1 in 2023) won their first region championship and went into the state championship game undefeated. It was head coach Nick Pelham’s third year as head of the program—he came from Dutch Fork—and he brought the team from a 2-9 finish in 2021 to the state title game in 2023.

“Our kids understand that we’re after perfection, we’re after greatness,” he said after clinching the region championship last year. “We’re not there, we’re not even close to greatness. We’re OK, we’re good, but our kids are disappointed when it’s not perfect, and I love that, because that’s how you become really good or great, you chase perfection.”

In his fourth year, Pelham will contend with the Silver Foxes for the region crown, but will also have to fight Lexington (7-4), Chapin (6-5), River Bluff (5-6), and now Irmo (13-1), which moved up from 4A.

The Irmo Yellow Jackets, which dominated 4A competition and outscored opponents 540-211 in 2023, could become the dark horse of the region. Head coach Aaron Brand, in his sixth year at Irmo, still has the services of his son A.J. Brand at quarterback and several other playmakers on both sides of the football.

Region 5 includes Blythewood (4-7) and Spring Valley (0-10), and as well as Pee Dee area teams Sumter (9-4) and West Florence (5-6, up from 4A). Moving up from 4A are Ridge View (8-3), Lugoff-Elgin (2-9), and Westwood (1-9).

Class 4A

Regions 3 and 4 hold most of the Midlands teams in 4A.

A.C. Flora and Richland Northeast remain at Class 4A, but have moved from Region 5 into Region 3.

The Falcons won the 4A state crown in 2021 and reached the lower state championship game in 2022 but had a down year last year, going 4-7 with a largely young and injured team. For 2024 A.C. Flora will be more seasoned and deeper, with junior Roper Wentzky (2,694 yards passing and 30 touchdowns) at the helm at quarterback. Head coach Ken Floyd is in his third year as head coach.

The RNE Cavaliers (7-5) had an offensive awakening as the 2023 season played out, scoring 40 or more points in seven out of 12 games. They scored 88 points in a win over Bluffton Nov. 3. Head coach Walt Wilson enters his fourth year, and son and quarterback William Wilson (2,337 yards passing, 22 touchdowns) is readying for his senior year at RNE. 

The Falcons and Cavaliers will have to contend with Camden (11-4) and Dreher (5-6), who both move up from Class 3A. Out-of-Midlands teams Lancaster, South Pointe, and York round out Region 3-4A.

Camden, under head coach Brian Rimpf, finished second in Region 6-3A but powered its way through the playoffs to take on Daniel in the 3A state championship game. The Bulldogs battled back from a 14-point deficit late in the game and took the game into overtime. There, they lost 49-48 when the game came down to a failed 2-point conversion run.

“We were going for two,” Rimpf said on the play he called after Jaquarius Mayrant’s 5-yard TD run that got the Bulldogs to within one point of the Lions. “We were going to see what they were lined up in. I thought we had them offsides. They jumped, it would’ve made it a little bit easier to go 1 ½ yards instead of three, but it was gonna be in 15’s hands.”

No. 15 was senior quarterback Grayson White, who played a masterful ballgame until the final play, when he fell short of the end zone.

“We were one yard short,” Rimpf added. “ In the end we were one yard short.”

Rimpf an East Carolina alum who played offensive tackle for the Baltimore Ravens, is in his seventh year as coach of the Bulldogs.

Region 4-4A is an 8-team region that includes four Midlands teams along with Aiken, South Aiken, Midland Valley and North Augusta.

Making the biggest jump in classifications is Gray Collegiate (15-4), which moves up from 2A because the High School League used a student multiplier formula on the charter school.

Gray won the 2A state championship in 2021 and reached the 2A state final last year, falling to Oceanside Collegiate 35-28. (Oceanside, also a charter school, moved up to Class 3A this fall). The War Eagles bid farewell to 9-year head coach Adam Holmes, who stepped down after the season ended. Former Silver Bluff head coach De’Angelo Bryant took over in the spring.

Gray joins Brookland Cayce (11-3) and Gilbert (11-2) who both moved up from Class 3A.

The Bearcats under 13-year head coach Rusty Charpia fell 46-30 to Camden in the 3A lower state championship game.

Gilbert fell to Camden 35-28 in the third round of the 3A playoffs, which was the last game for head coach Chad Leaphart, who stepped down after eight seasons. Leaphart’s offensive line coach Ozzie Exume got the promotion to head coach.

Lower Richland (2-8) moves up from 3A and is in Region 5 with Florence/Pee Dee area teams South Florence, Wilson, Lakewood, Crestwood, Hartsville and Darlington.

Class 3A

The only Midlands teams at the 3A level are in Region 4-3A. Keenan (5-6), Newberry (6-6), and Swansea (0-10). The Raiders, Bulldogs and Tigers will slug it out with non-Midlands teams Fox Creek and Silver Bluff.

Class 2A

Midlands teams fall into Regions 2 and 3 in the 2A classification.

Batesburg-Leesville (5-6), Pelion (3-8), and the new American Leadership Academy are in Region 2 along with Ninety Six, Saluda and Strom Thurmond. While the two Panther teams have been in Class 2A for decades, the Patriots are just getting started.

The Lexington-area school hired former Spring Valley and A.C. Flora head coach Robin Bacon to run its football program, which kicks off the season against Calhoun Falls Charter Aug. 30.

“I’m really excited and it’s neat,” Bacon told the Chronicle. “I studied up and read about it. The way I grew up, I was an army brat, and just kind of reading about the culture that they want to build there and it’s how our football programs have done it at A.C. Flora, Spring Valley, Richland Northeast and other places I’ve been at before. It’s a great academic opportunity for kids and athletic facilities that are gonna be really nice when they get finished.”

In Region 3, Fairfield Central (9-3), Mid-Carolina (2-9), Columbia (3-8), and Eau Claire (0-10) will compete with Chester and Clinton.

Class 1A

C.A. Johnson (6-5) remains the only single-A team in the Midlands. The Green Hornets are in Region 2 along with Lamar, Great Falls, Lee Central, Lewisville, and McBee.

SCISA

In the Midlands, Hammond (11-2) remains the team to beat in all independent school action. The Skyhawks have won their seventh straight state championship with a 28-21 win over Laurence Manning in November 2023, their 21^st state crown in school history.

At least one Midlands school looks to break Hammond’s streak. Cardinal Newman (9-3) came the closest to spoiling the Skyhawks run, but Hammond won 35-20 in a region meeting Oct. 6 and then eliminated the Cardinals 33-20 in the playoffs. Head coach Jon Wheeler is in his fourth year with the team.

Cardinal Newman head coach Cory Helms, a former offensive lineman with South Carolina who was the offensive line coach and strength coach at Gray Collegiate before taking the Cardinal Newman job in 2022, looks to continue improving the team from its 5-6 record in 2022, his first year with the team.

Ben Lippen (5-6) and Heathwood Hall (2-9) are also looking to play up to Hammond. The Highlanders promoted strength coach and JV head coach Tymere Zimmerman to the varsity position. 

Preseason Midlands Top 10 (2023 record)

1.    Dutch Fork (10-5)*

2.    White Knoll (14-1)**

3.    Irmo (13-1)

4.    Gray Collegiate (15-4)**

5.    Camden (11-4)**

6.    Brookland-Cayce (11-3)

7.    Gilbert (11-2)

8.    Hammond (11-2)*

9.    Lexington (7-4)

10.   Ridge View (8-3)

*-State championship

*-State runner-up