"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. Clinton High School’s football schedule opens on Aug. 28 with a visit to Laurens for the county championship game. Three newcomers join the schedule due to the Red Devils being realigned in Region 2-2A. Clinton also visits Batesburg-Leesville in a non-region game on Sept. 25. The region …
Continue reading Red Devils to open football season with Raiders
The Poconos Click here. I awakened on Sunday with a ferocious appetite and immediately jumped into my pants and headed to a drive-through. My dream was tiring. Let’s see. I drove the best car I ever owned – a 2000 Honda I eventually gave to charity -- to Pennsylvania, undoubtedly to cover a stock car …
By MONTE DUTTON Asa Thomas (Furman photo) Click here. This Furman men’s basketball team is an enigma wrapped in a conundrum. To borrow from a nursery rhyme, when it is good, it is very, very good, and when it is bad, it is horrid. The Paladins have mostly weathered their injuries, but the reassembly is …
By MONTE DUTTON Jaylen Peterson skies over USC Upstate (Monte Dutton photos). A hearty band of basketball-playing Blue Hose tacked straight into the coming weather full speed ahead. At Templeton Center on Wednesday evening, the men’s team withstood a late Charleston Southern rally to defeat the Buccaneers, 87-83. Led by the reliable Jonah Pierce, who …
Charles Johnston has seven double-doubles in 12 games (Monte Dutton photo). Click here. Alex Wilkins calmly popped a pair of free throws to nail down Furman’s 75-68 victory over Manhattan on Thursday night in Riverdale, N.Y. This would not have seemed so impressive had not the Paladins missed nine of the 12 free throws that …
Continue reading Paladins solve free-throw distance when it counts
By MONTE DUTTON Click here. Bill Anderson is one of the great songwriters in country-music history. I dreamed I had a conversation with “Whispering Bill” last night. Back in the NASCAR days, I bumped into well-known figures – Michael Jordan, John Prine, Dick Riley, Dick Vitale, Jay Bilas, Barney Frank – at airports. This is …
By MONTE DUTTON Brett Young went deep (Monte Dutton photos). Click here. And then, in the Upstate, there were were four. Four schools, in Class 2A, to decide the representative to play for a state championship: Clinton in District 1, Batesburg-Leesville in District 2, Mid- Carolina in District 3 and Strom Thurmond in District 4. …
Continue reading Devils advance past Chesnee, rain, protest, triple play …
Coleman Coker (Monte Dutton photo) Click here. Laurens remains alive in the Class 4A baseball as a result of Saturday’s 7-4 victory versus Daniel (20-8) in Central, thus atoning fo a 3-2 loss to the Lions on May 6. In between, the Raiders defeated Blue Ridge on May 8. Monday finds Laurens visiting Daniel for …
Continue reading Raiders headed back to Daniel after Saturday win
(Photo courtesy John Clayton) Click here. Laurens kept its hopes alive in Class 4A baseball and softball. Clinton flexed its Class 2A muscles in baseball, while its softball team’s fate depends on a Friday home game against Landrum. The Red Devils lost their playoff opener, 10-1, to Ninety Six. Thornwell is no more in the …
By MONTE DUTTON Click here. Clinton High School, undefeated at 11-0, is playing for the state boys’ tennis championship on Saturday in Cayce at 10 a.m. Red Devil teams have already won the Class 2A state title in football and reached the Upstate final in girls’ basketball. This is always a tall order, never more …
Nightrider's Lament 