Clinton, South Carolina, Saturday, February 17, 2018, 11:13 a.m. Friday was a day of extremes. It was a day of the anticlimactic and the climactic, the decisive and the indecisive, and the relaxed and the nerve-wracking. Let me explain. By coincidence, the girls' basketball team of Laurens Academy, seeded No. 1 in SCISA (South Carolina …
Category: Sports
A Mere Thirty-Two Years Ago
Clinton, South Carolina, Thursday, February 15, 2018, 12:54 p.m. I'm watching the Independence Bowl of December 21, 1985, on YouTube. Why, you ask? Rickey Foggie, who will be inducted next month into the Laurens County Athletic Hall of Fame, was the game's MVP. He quarterbacked Minnesota to a 20-13 victory over Clemson. I'm waiting on …
Still Something to Write
Clinton, South Carolina, Friday, February 9, 2018, 10:18 a.m. I must be getting old. I haven't seen it all, but I've seen most of it. Perhaps I could estimate with some degree of accuracy all the stock car races and ballgames I've attended and described, but it would be a waste of time and probably …
Toss It Up for a Pair of Tossups
Clinton, South Carolina, Wednesday, February 7, 9:33 a.m. For the second consecutive game night at Clinton High School Gymnasium, both varsity basketball games were decided by the same margin. On Friday, the boys and girls both beat Broome by 11. Last night, the boys won, but the girls lost, both by eight. Coincidence? Definitely. The …
Whoa, Nellie!
Clinton, South Carolina, Wednesday, January 31, 2018, 9:04 a.m. The late Keith Jackson would have called it “a barn burner.” The neighboring rivals Clinton and Newberry played a boys’ basketball on Tuesday night on the Bulldogs’ home floor that was a triumph of determination for the Red Devils. The 53-51 victory locked the two at …
Close Games Are Exciting, but the Occasional Blowout Is Fun for the Home Fans, too
Clinton, South Carolina, Saturday, January 27, 2018, 10:12 a.m. The Red Devils are rallying. Last night many former players and coaches converged on the local gym to watch Clinton swamp Mid-Carolina in both boys’ and girls’ basketball. It wasn’t unexpected. It was a good night to play under the watchful gaze of players from as …
Continue reading Close Games Are Exciting, but the Occasional Blowout Is Fun for the Home Fans, too
Just a Few Little Things I Noticed
Clinton, South Carolina, Saturday, January 20, 2018, 11:10 a.m. Laurens Academy is up on a hill on Highway 49, out in the country a ways, between the highway’s intersections with Interstates 385 and 26. The basketball games began at 4 p.m. on Friday, with middle-school girls and boys, and varsity girls and boys, taking on …
Sometimes You Can’t Win Either
Clinton, South Carolina, Saturday, January 13, 2018, 11:07 a.m. Newberry, a rival of historic significance, won both the high school basketball games played at Clinton High School on Friday night, and I suppose the Bulldogs’ 71-68 victory in the boys’ game was a bit historic in that it ended a 12-game streak of Red Devil …
Love Among the Ruins
Clinton, South Carolina, Wednesday, December 20, 2017, 3:30 p.m. One characteristic of most ivory towers is that they are imaginary. Last night, I was on the top floor of an ornate Greenville building, nibbling away at finger foods and hobnobbing with former football players and coaches who served at the foot of the inimitable Cally …
Some Games Are Monsters; Some Are Dogs
Clinton, South Carolina, Saturday, December 16, 2017, 11:28 a.m. A writer has to write, and, sometimes, be trite. When he accepts an assignment, it must be completed, even if the circumstances aren’t the best. I had a rather sheepish project to complete on Friday night. Ware Shoals, a Class A school, hadn’t much of a …
