I’m going to miss a unique opportunity to go to my three favorite places in the next four nights.
I’ll be at Paladin Stadium to write about Furman playing Tennessee Tech on Thursday at 7.
I’m going to be at Wilder Stadium to write about Clinton High playing Newberry on Friday at 7:30.
On Tuesday, an old NASCAR sportswriting chum sent an email about several matters, one of which was his suggestion that I should go to Darlington Raceway on Sunday night. He said a lot of folks would like to see me.
It’s too much.
A Thursday-night college game is going to keep me up all night. Ditto Friday night with all the county high schools in action. I’ve been going to Darlington since I was 12 years old until 11 years ago, but 11 years is an eternity in the revolving door that is journalism nowadays. I went to three races four years ago, and the faces were mostly unfamiliar.
“Hey, are you … Monte Dutton?”
“All my life.”
I’ll watch TV with keen interest as Darlington is and has always been my favorite track.
Now to all that has piled up while I’ve been mostly preparing for the Paladins’ season, writing the 36th and 37th chapters of a novel and, most importantly, restringing my guitar. Playing a guitar with new strings is right up there with the Southern 500.
Don’t worry. Be happy.
The Laurens County Touchdown Club is unlikely to have a more worthy Player of the Week than Clinton junior linebacker Brett Young.
The post-game stats don’t include defensive statistics, but as his head coach, Corey Fountain, said after the 49-7 victory over Laurens, he was “all over the field.”
Now that the battle is over and the smoke has cleared, it has been revealed that Young made seven tackles, sacked Laurens quarterback Nick Danciu once and hurried him another time, made three tackles for loss and intercepted a pass.
There is no truth to the rumor that he popped all the popcorn before the game started. Young only does that at Wilder Stadium.
“Brett comes to practice every day with a businesslike mindset and great effort,” stated Fountain. “He is a pleasure to coach.”And watch.
Young is to get his award at the TD Club’s next meeting on Thursday, Sept. 7, at The Ridge.
The guest speaker is Presbyterian College head coach Steve Englehart, whose team is going to be competitive this year in the Pioneer Football League in the unlikely event that I have as much sense as I think I do.
Tickets can be purchased at the door for $15. All meetings are at noon with the food- service line opening at 11:45 a.m.
The Paladins, by the way, are going to be on “The CW,” Channel 62, on Thursday night.They’re wearing chrome domes with black jerseys and pants.
The helmets are to commemorate the 50th anniversary of Art Baker putting Furman in silver helmets during his five-year (1973-77) tenure as head coach.
This is the second straight year Clay Hendrix’s team is opening on Thursday night in black. Last year the special helmets were purple against North Greenville.
I love the purple jerseys and with the white helmets that arrived with Dick Sheridan in 1978, but I try to be thoroughly modern, and the occasional change is fine by me. I would be surprised if the Paladins don’t wear all white on the road at South Carolina on Sept. 9.
It’s only been 41 years since Furman defeated the Gamecocks, 28-23, another of the great days of my life.
We couldn’t wait to get back to Greenville so that we could drive to Clemson, where no one was allowed to pay for a beer. The Tigers, who are visiting Duke Monday night, had defeated the Blue Devils that afternoon, and if I heard it once, I heard 20 times that the biggest roar in Tigertown had been the announcement of the Furman score.
A man can dream.
Elena Davidson expertly took photos for my site last year. Now she’s a Furman freshman working in Hunter Reid’s sports information office, which is yet another source of pride in my alma mater.
I am hardly Elena’s equal as a photographer, but I’m kind of looking forward to taking my own photos during the first half.
I’ve come to love the sidelines.
Clinton High’s stadium is named after Robert P. Wilder, who coached the Red Devils to a state championship. The field is named after Keith Richardson, who won six.
As the stadium is being gradually upgraded, something needs to be named for Andy B. Young, who coached the most recent state title in 2009.
Young also deserves to be in the Laurens County Sports Hall of Fame.
Victor Faaborg Christensen, who you might have guessed is not a local, is the Big South Freshman of the Week after scoring three goals for the Blue Hose in his first college soccer match.
His was the first PC hat trick since Sept. 28, 2019, when Cesar Sancho scored three times against Furman.
Faaborg Christensen is a product of Gammel Holte, Denmark, which is just east of Holte and just north of Copenhagen. Gammel Holte, translated, is “Old Holte.”
The PC women’s soccer team is hosting Navy on Thursday night – I wonder how many times headlines have revealed that someone “sank” Navy – and both teams enter the match with one victory.
The Blue Hose are 1-3; the Midshipmen are 1-0-3.
Brian Purcell is in his 34th season as PC head coach, which means he is “the dean” of Big South coaches.Do deans always last a long time, or just in media releases?
The county’s high-school cross country teams do not always run carrying footballs, as they did before the Clinton-Laurens game.
Lexington High School is not particularly noted for its pelicans, but Clinton finished third of 16 boys’ teams at the Pelican Invitational there. The girls were 10th of 15.
William Reid (fourth, 17:12) and Charlie Cody (ninth, 17:39) finished in the top 10. Elizabeth Reid was 12th in the girls’ race at 21:32.
Saturday is the Eye Opener on the Milliken corporate grounds in Spartanburg. It’s an annual meet. Most folks have an eye opener every morning.
NASCAR’s Chase Elliott is not in the Chase, partly because he broke his leg early in the season and partly because he didn’t win a regular-season race. The second-generation star is a former champion, as was his dad, Bill.
It’s no longer called the Chase, anyway. The “playoffs” begin at Darlington on Sunday night. I think calling it playoffs is absurd because race cars don’t play. They should be the race-offs.
Buddy Baker won the first Southern 500 I attended. Now a Buddy Baker plays virtually every sport at Laurens Academy.
Small world, I reckon.
Buddy Baker and Benny Parsons, now both gone, were friends of mine. I’d probably miss NASCAR more if they weren’t.
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Nightrider's Lament 