"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 (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
(Monte Dutton photos) Click here. On Friday night, there will be football. Honest-to-gosh, bona-fide, counts in the standings, football. It’s eight-man football, and it’s in Greenwood, where Laurens Academy kicks off the whole county season with a visit to the den of the Cambridge Cougars. It’s sort of week double-zero. Clinton and Laurens open thunderously …
By MONTE DUTTON (Monte Dutton photo) Click here. Here’s my prediction for professional football. Because most of the starters play little, if at all, in exhibition games – and that’s exactly what they are, even though the NFL insists on “preseason games” – the beginning of the actual season will be sloppy. The middle of …
By MONTE DUTTON The Raiders were at full song (Monte Dutton photos) Click here. It doesn’t get much better than the Olympics men’s basketball game between Serbia and the USA. I watched the first half, took a shower, dressed in dirty pants and old shoes in preparation for mud, and headed to Honea Path, where …
Continue reading County Signs: Raiders pass only preseason test
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. As another day of chipping away begins, I am relieved that perhaps Debby won’t be as much a downer as was thought. Staff meteorologists tend to get a bit giddy. But my heart bleeds for Thursday. If the weather outside is frightful, it might cost some scrimmages …
By MONTE DUTTON (Monte Dutton photos) Click here. Down in the soccer holler, where the Raiders practice football, it’s exciting. Greg Porter and his staff are agitating a bunch of kids previously aggravated. A whole lot of shaking was going on, not to mention grunting, yelling, cheering and that inimitable sound of pads popping. Porter …
By MONTE DUTTON (Monte Dutton photos) Click here. Based on my experience, some athletes belie their public image and others reflect it. One of the better examples is Bill Elliott, whom I like. Elliott, though, is far from his Huck Finn image. He is one of the moodier athletes I’ve ever known. Sometimes Elliott would …
By MONTE DUTTON (Monte Dutton photos) Click here. It wasn’t hot … yet. It wasn’t yet 8 a.m. when the varsity Red Devils joined the JVs out on the practice field Saturday morning. By the time it ended, sweat was prevalent, even for guys walking around with cameras. They needed to wash their shirts, anyway. …
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
Nightrider's Lament 