By MONTE DUTTON

I have no business taking any role in the hiring and firing of coaches, or, quite possibly, anyone else.

I’m going to miss Daryl Smith. I enjoyed every minute I spent with him. I think the world of him and wish with all my heart he’d won more football games and lost fewer.

Since the season ended, the silence was deafening, and I didn’t know whether District 55 was planning to keep Smith quietly or was just hanging him out to dry.

I still don’t know. All I know is that he’s been dismissed, and in spite of a 2-9 record, it still makes me sad. He was 14-24 in four years, and they were not without their triumphs. Smith’s Raiders won the Region 2-4A top seed, and he was Coach of the Year in 2022.

What’s wrong at Laurens District High? I can’t say. Something is, but when a new coach is hired, some attention needs to go into making it a better place to coach. Something in the culture has to change. Something did in Clinton. District 56 made some big mistakes, and the Red Devils had a dark decade before the powers that be resolved to fix things comprehensively, not with merely a name and a title.

After Belton-Honea Path eliminated Clinton from the Class 3A football playoffs, I was prepared for the worst. I’d been thinking about how harsh a season’s sudden end can be.

I’ve seen lots of tears shed over the years and even once experienced the trauma of a close state-championship game loss myself. It’s tough. But it’s better than not experiencing adversity. How people respond to adversity is what shapes their character.

I may be assigning value that wasn’t there, but as I mingled on the field, the most celebrated Red Devil, Zavarion Johnson, a Cincinnati commit, said something about going to “the next phase,” but I think he meant it two ways. He was talking about his own career and Clinton High School at the same time. He is still a Red Devil even after the final horn sounded. Always will be.

Clinton has reached the third round in each of the past three seasons, and one reached the Upstate finals. Injuries dealt them crushing blows the last two years.

They didn’t take it all that hard because they saw it as just a step in the right direction. Their eyes were misty, but it wasn’t sorrow as much as it was the promise of tomorrow. At the end, they were bloodied but unbowed.

Clinton had no business being as good as it was this year based on all it lost from the 2022 team, yet there wasn’t one player on this team who believed or accepted that. This team was better defensively, more versatile offensively and made the best of what it had at any given time.

It also had heart and a penchant for making big plays.

When Corey Fountain tells them they can get a little better every single day, they believe him. He and his staff have built a marvelous developmental program, and a successful foundation at the middle-school and junior-varsity levels keeps the talent coming.

The best opponent and the greatest performance were the 14-6 victory over Chester on Oct. 20. The Cyclones got six points out of 334 yards. Seldom have I seen a team make more clutch plays in 48 minutes.

This team had plenty of talent but more guts than anything else. Guts make a difference.

I keep hearing that Saturday’s Clemson-South Carolina game is being played for “state bragging rights.” What are these bragging rights about which fans talk? I’ve never known Tigers or Gamecocks fan to refrain from bragging just because of the outcome of the game.

This week I get to have a Thanksgiving. Sportswriters miss a lot of holidays. In 2001, I spent Thanksgiving in Loudon, N.H. Every year was Memorial Day in Charlotte, Independence Day in Daytona Beach and Labor Day in Darlington.

It’s my favorite holiday. Thanksgiving is literally all gravy. Everyone gets along. Sometimes a little pettiness comes out at Christmas.

Clinton’s out. Furman has a first-round bye in the FCS playoffs. I’m looking forward to watching the Tigers and Gamecocks play. I’m trying to get rested up and recovered from some illness that has lasted longer than it should have because I keep going out to ballgames when I’m not quite ready.

Some tell me they intend to make a contribution to keep the site alive. Several have done so recently. I reckon some just don’t get around to it. I used to list an address to send a check (DHK Sports, P.O. Box 768, Clinton, S.C. 29325). I finally got it through my thick head that not that many people write checks nowadays. For example, me. A more convenient means might be sending a reasonable amount to DHK Sports on Venmo. I appreciate it. It goes to giving local sports better coverage.

Support the advertisers, and help keep the site – the game stories, the blogs, the photos – alive by making a monthly donation via Patreon. The Laurens County site is here. The Furman site is here.

Another way I can make a little is if you purchase my books at MonteDutton.net. They’re quite entertaining in spite of the fellow who wrote them. Two of my novels, Cowboys Come Home and Lightning in a Bottle, are available in audio versions. The latest, The Latter Days, is about baseball.

Photo galleries are posted on Instagram @furmanatt and @laurenscountysports.