SCHSL To Meet Soon To Determine Adjustments To The Fall Sports Season In South Carolins Brought On By The Tragedy Of Hurricane Helene

        Billy Baker

        Publisher

Moncks Corner —  As the HSSR was preparing to go to press with this issue, a very important meeting was scheduled at the SCHSL League on October, 8^th to get feed-back, and likely make a decision, on just what adjustments are needed for the 2024 fall sports season in South Carolina, due to the devastation and hard-ships caused by Hurricane Helene in recent weeks.

Most Upstate high school football teams have now missed two consecutive weeks of the 2024 season. The area around Aiken County was also hit hard by the storm and power outages  are still ongoing in many parts of these areas. If some teams miss a third week, and that is a possibility, it is likely that the SCHSL will have to extend the fall sports season for at least two weeks in most all sports, not just football.

In years past it was mainly the Lowcountry, and the Pee Dee areas of the state that were hard-hit by floods and hurricanes. I will never forget the night mare of Hurricane Hugo’s strong winds blowing shingles off my house in Goose Creek in 1989, as I huddled in the hallway with my family, fearing that the roof of my house might be blown off.

By all accounts, this is the worse damage a storm has done to any area of South Carolina in memory. The strong winds brought down a record number of trees that fell on power lines, homes and cars in record numbers. The power of rushing water, from a record amount of rain-fall created flash floods in many areas never witnessed before. To call the effects of Hurricane Helene a “1,000-year event” would not be an under- statement. Some estimates are that the storm brough down as estimated 5,000 power poles throughout the state.

Saddest of all, is the lost of life to such a powerful storm. A recent report reveals that 39 people in South Carolina have lost their lives due to the wrath of Hurricane Helene, surpassing the 35 people who lost their lives as a result of Hurricane Hugo. Helene is now the deadliest storm to ever hit the Palmetto State.

The HSSR encourages the SCHSL to do what is deemed in the best interest of all its member schools that includes over 100,000 student athletes at the junior varsity and varsity levels. Pushing back the fall sports season, up to two weeks, might inconvenience those schools who have been fortunate to not have missed any games but “we” must be compassionate and understanding towards those schools who were severely hit by the storm.

Our long-time historian, Gerald Doolittle, who is the founder of Doodles Doodles has been hit hard by the storm over in Edgefield County. As of the time of this writing he was still without power in the town of Edgefield and there is a strong possibility he will not be available to update our region standings in this issue, including season football stats to date.

Rest assured; this popular information will be updated on our companion web site at hssr.com as soon as possible. In recent days I have tried to reach out to Gerald, even offering him a chance to come stay at my house, but he has no internet, or power. I am afraid he never got my messages I left for him.

Sometimes we just have to sit back and take a deep breath and be thankful to God for what we have. Many others have been less fortunate, due to this terrible storm, and we should all be mindful of these facts.

I trust the SCHSL will do what has to be done under these unfortunate circumstances, created by the storm of the century in South Carolina. There are never any solutions that satisfies everyone. .