"Why do they [write] for their money? Why do they [work] for short pay? They ain't getting nowhere and they're losing their share. They must have gone crazy back there." — Michael Burton (paraphrased)
By MONTE DUTTON Wilder Stadium was already packed at the opening kickoff when Laurens last visited in 2022 (Monte Dutton photos) Click here. Until time changes from Daylight Saving to Standard time, I begin Clinton High School games shooting photos on the visitors side because the lighting is better until the sun goes down. A …
Continue reading County Signs: It couldn’t get bigger … but did
By MONTE DUTTON Lots of flags fly above Wilder Stadium. (Monte Dutton photos) Click here. Have you ever seen a presentation of That Championship Season? It was a play and movie about old teammates getting together. That tale takes a dark turn. Nothing dark happened at Clinton High School on Saturday night. It was all …
By MONTE DUTTON (Monte Dutton photos) Click here. Laurens football would be a question mark wrapped in an enigma, anyway. New coach with big name. Lots of new players, tough schedule. It’s not hard to figure out the Raiders are going to be better. It is to anticipate how much. Laurens has only faced another …
Continue reading County Signs: Raiders, Red Devils from a week’s distance
By MONTE DUTTON (Monte Dutton photos) Click here. CHAPIN – It was good to get out of the house on Monday. I’ve been to Chapin in distant memory – Laurens played in a jamboree, as Clinton will on Friday night – and I remembered there was a barbecue place. It’s open on Thursday through Sunday. …
By MONTE DUTTON Corey Fountain and the Red Devils had their first scrimmage rained out for the second straight year (Monte Dutton photos) Click here. It’s impressive that everyone in the state knows how to pronounce my hometown’s name. Clinnun. Area broadcasters who call the university in Columbia “South Cuh-lina” know how to pronounce Clinton, …
Continue reading County Signs: Not how it’s said around here
By MONTE DUTTON (Monte Dutton photos) Click here. Sometimes I judge television shows on the basis of how well I can work with it in the background. Sports watching isn’t efficient, but it’s convenient. Just bear down on the words until announcers start yelling. Take a break to watch the replays. A writer develops a …
Continue reading County Signs: Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose
By MONTE DUTTON Greg Porter (Monte Dutton photos) Click here. Rollin’, rollin’, rollin’, though the streams are swollen, keep them dogies rollin’, Rawhide! All the things I’m missin’, good vittles, love and kissin’, are waiting at the end of my ride. The herds are being assembled. The trail bosses are Steve Englehart, Jolly Doolittle, Corey …
By MONTE DUTTON Laurens head coach Greg Porter (Monte Dutton photo) Click here. In terms of organized sports, most fields are fallow as we await the opening salvos of Independence 2024. Me? I could use the time. Before long, the hills will be alive with the sound of pads popping. On the county scene, the …
By MONTE DUTTON (Monte Dutton photos) Click here. I washed my face in the morning dew / Bathed my soul in the sun / I washed my face in the morning sun / And kept on moving along Of course, Tom T. Hall wrote it. He didn’t have a morning of 7-on-7s at Clinton High …
By MONTE DUTTON Peyton Spangler closes a parley on the junior-varsity mound. (Monte Dutton photos) Click here. As has been widely rumored and thinly dismissed, Sean McCarthy is no longer head baseball coach at Clinton High School. As has been widely anticipated, Peyton Spangler is head baseball coach of the Red Devils. He is known …
Nightrider's Lament 