By Justin Jarrett
Lowco Media
Apples won’t have to compete against oranges to win state championships in South Carolina high school sports past this school year thanks to the S.C. High School League’s Executive Committee, which last week approved a competitive balance proposal that will level the playing field for traditional public schools competing with private and charter schools who aren’t bound by attendance zones.
The executive committee recently voted 12-4 to approve a “multiplier-times-three” for every student who lives outside of its attendance zone — a policy that will apply across the board, but will have the largest effect on private and charter schools, which have dominated the Class 2A and 1A divisions in recent years.
The ruling corrects an imbalance that has been an issue for some time but has recently become untenable. Schools such as Oceanside Collegiate Academy in Mount Pleasant and Gray Collegiate Academy in Columbia have become powerhouses in Class 2A, competing against small-town rural schools such as Hampton County and Ridgeland-Hardeeville, while the likes of Southside Christian, Christ Church Episcopal, and St. Joseph’s Catholic have racked up titles in Class 1A by dominating tiny rural schools like Whale Branch.
To that point, the best high school football story in the state — if not the country — unfolded this fall in Hampton County, where the Hurricanes parlayed the consolidation of two communities and schools into a perfect storm, roaring to a 12-1 record and earning a trip to the Class 2A Lower State championship game. Combined with Patrick Henry Academy’s run to the SCISA 1A title — the school’s first since 1994 — this football season has provided a much-needed distraction from the tragic and traumatic story that continues to cast Hampton County in a negative light through national media.
But the Hurricanes’ story didn’t have the storybook ending.
Because until next fall, the road to a 2A title still goes through Oceanside Collegiate, the powerhouse Mount Pleasant charter school that is a magnet for high-level athletes throughout the greater Charleston area, which claims a population of around 750,000 (nearly 100K in Mount Pleasant alone). Hampton County’s population is south of 20K. In the entire county.
This Hampton team was loaded with generational talent that has been developed and cultivated by an outstanding coaching staff. The ’Canes were united in a true spirit of brotherhood that cannot be imitated or replaced. They were confident they could win Friday, in spite of the odds.
They took a 21-14 lead in the third quarter, when Mr. Football finalist Zion Dobson broke away for a trademark 72-yard touchdown run, but one bad break swung the momentum back in Oceanside’s favor, and the Landsharks smelled blood in the water.
In a flash, it was 42-21, which was the eventual final.
A similar story played out in the Upper State, where one-time perennial 2A power Abbeville met its match against … you guessed it … Gray Collegiate Academy — another charter cleaning up in Columbia.
Next year, this dilemma will be moot. The new policy will bring new headaches, but if private schools and charters want to play in SCHSL, they don’t get to make the rules.
Justin Jarrett is the sports editor of The Island News and the founder of Lowco Media. He was the sports editor of the Island Packet and the Beaufort Gazette for 6½ years. He has a passion for sports and community journalism and a questionable sense of humor.
