By MONTE DUTTON

Do you ever live in commercial world?
If I ever go to New York again, I’m not going to the Empire State Building, Yankee Stadium or the Metropolitan Opera. I’m going to find that deck with the Statue of Liberty in the background. That’s where the action is.
Several meds cause an uncontrollable desire to play pickleball.
College football fans drink strictly Dr Pepper.
An auditorium full of school kids would rather talk to a banker than to Derek Jeter or an astronaut. I reckon money means more than I thought.

I feel fortunate to deal with the folks I deal with in Laurens County and Furman.
In my modest career, I have had working relationships with many coaches and athletes. I didn’t always like them. I did my job as best I could. I know of only one reasonably prominent person with whom I do not get along now, and that would change were he even modestly cooperative.
Not only is Corey Fountain a fine football coach. He is a remarkable influence on the young men in his charge at Clinton High School. My observation is that the Red Devils love to play for him, and his staff loves to coach with him.

The same is true of Greg Porter at Laurens High and Jolly Doolittle at Laurens Academy.
Steve Englehart is cut from the same cloth at Presbyterian College. So is Clay Hendrix at Furman University. They talk to me when times are good or bad, and that’s mainly all I ask. The same is true in winter and spring. I’m just turning the corner into basketball season.
There are many odes to come.

Rhett Gilliam, one of many heroes in Clinton’s playoff victory over Chester, is Player of the Week as determined by the Laurens County Touchdown Club.
Gilliam, a sophomore running back, rushed for 165 yards in 20 carries, scoring two touchdowns and average 8.2 yards a carry. Rushing yards were in copious supply in the 48-20 victory over the Cyclones. As a team, the Red Devils netted 432 yards on the ground.
“Rhett is usually the guy blocking for the other backs to explode big runs. However, this week he was carving out big runs versus Chester,” said Fountain. “Rhett practices and hits the weight room hard. His preparation is the reason he was successful on Friday night. Rhett is a great ambassador of our program on and off the field.”

The TD Club will honor Gilliam on Jan. 8th at the Touchdown Club Annual Banquet, 6 p.m. at The Ridge in Laurens. Player of the Week awards are presented by Farm Bureau Insurance of Laurens County.
The featured speaker at the banquet will be former Clemson standout Brian Mance, was the South Carolina Football Hall of Fame’s Humanitarian of the Year in 2023. The TD Club will announce its All-County, as well as Coach of the Year, Player of the Year and the Lakelands Fellowship of Christian Athletes Character Award winners from each high school and Presbyterian College.
Tickets can be purchased at the Laurens County Chamber of Commerce in advance for $20 for the banquet.

Presbyterian College quarterback Collin Hurst is one of 25 finalists for the Jerry Rice Award as the top freshman in FCS football.
Rice, widely considered the greatest receiver in NFL history, played in college at Mississippi Valley State in Itta Bena, Miss.
Hurst is one of five freshman quarterbacks on the list.
Featured in every game while starting 10 times, Hurst passed for 2,382 yards during his first year with PC and totaled 22 touchdowns (17 passing, five rushing). He completed 66 percent of his attempts while averaging 198 passing yards per game.

The winner is to be revealed on Dec. 4 and honored at the Stats Perform National Banquet on Jan. 4 in Frisco, Texas.
It comes as no surprise to many of you that basketball is now being played.
Pretty well, in fact.
Laurens Academy ripped through Westgate Christian of Spartanburg on Monday night, Travis Plowden’s boys winning, 65-33.
Braydon Burke led the Crusaders with 19 points, hitting 7/17 shots (2/6 were triples) and 3/4 free throws. Garrison Vaughan added 14 (5/10 total, 1/1 triples, 1/2 free throws). Chesney Watkins added 9, Elijah Hornberger 8, Tristan Bates 6, Garrett Murphy 4, Hunter Campbell 3 and Micah Strait 2.

Jayden Bullock led the Eagles with 19 points.
The middle-school boys won, 51-12, led by Elias Littleton and Mason Whitaker with 9 points each.

The Crusaders followed up on Tuesday with a 55-53 victory over Cambridge, led by Burke with 31 points. He was 12/32 from the field overall, 6/19 in three-pointers and 1/4 at the charity stripe.

Vaughan added 11.

Andrew Wiley led Cambridge with 22.
After winning over Class 5A Catawba Ridge in the first game of Spartanburg High’s Bob Dillon tournament, Clinton fell to another from three classes up as the Red Devils lost to Byrnes, 54-32, on Monday, then bounced back take third place in the tournament by defeating host Spartanburg, also in 5A, 58-50, on Tuesday.

Balanced scoring marked Clinton in a losing cause against Byrnes. Bryanna Belton led with 9 points, followed by Jakia Burton with 8 and McKenzie Clark and Kemaria Shelton with 6 each.
T’Erika Dowling led the Rebels with 16.

Against the Vikings, Mylayja Thompson led Clinton (2-1) with 13 points, and Belton added 10. Floyd scored 9 and Jakia Burton 7.

Nazaria Sims and Kaylee Nelson led Spartanburg with 15 and 14, respectively.
Laurens edged Chapin, 46-44, in its Monday girls’ game at the Coach Varner tournament in Woodruff, advancing to play the host Wolverines on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
On Saturday, the Raiders clobbered Landrum, 59-26, in its season opener. Nyri Allen scored 21 points, Zoe Young 19 and Keyorie Yeargin 10.

On Monday, Laurens edged Irmo in boys’ basketball, 60-57, in the Impact Invitational at Spartanburg Christian. Spartanburg edged the Raiders, 68-67, on Tuesday.

Clinton’s cross country program set a new standard as the boys finished fourth in the state Class 2A meet in Newberry. The Red Devils were fifth last season.
William Reid made all-state as a result of finishing fifth in the individual race at 16:29.71.
The girls’ team took 11th, led by Elizabeth Reid, 18th at 21:33.06.
Philip Simmons High, of Berkeley County, won both titles.

Ray Harrison, who played two years at Presbyterian and is in his third year at Grand Canyon, has scored more than 2,000 points in his college career. Known as Rayshon at PC, Harrison has played in the NCAA Tournament the past two years.

“And all the time she’s been waiting on him, she’s been waiting on you and me” – Tom T. Hall, “Ravishing Ruby”
Wellpilgrim.com is winding down the fall making a transition to the winter chill.
Times are changing. I am aware of how irrelevant what I do for a living has become and thus how unimportant my efforts are. The readers appreciate them, but there aren’t enough of them. I doubt there ever will be again.

Support the advertisers. They are all fine people who want their businesses associated with honest coverage of local sports.
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Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell has nothing to do with a one-time military policy. It’s a modern version, and the novel is about where corruption – political, business and law enforcement – comes together. People get caught in the crossfire.
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Thanks for putting up with me.