TRAINING
Dataw trainer wins award for excellence
Kevin Ennis, Dataw Island Community Center director and partner at Carolina Sportscare, was awarded the South Carolina Athletic Trainers’ Association’s (SCATA) highest honor, the Fred W. Hoover Award for Excellence.
He will be placed in the SCATA Hall of Fame as one of only 10 trainers to ever receive this award, which honors members who have a long track record of giving unselfishly to the association and its membership.
“Never in my wildest dreams did I ever expect to be counted among people like Fred Hoover,” Ennis said. “I can’t even express what this feels like.
“My dream was to be the head athletic trainer at a high school in South Carolina. I’ve always loved South Carolina,” Ennis said. “My first job after getting my master’s degree was as the head athletic trainer at the 16th largest high school in the state of South Carolina.”
After five or six years, Ennis received an offer from Beaufort Memorial Hospital to begin an outreach sports medicine program. He had children by this time and moving to the Beaufort area meant more time to spend with his family.
In 2001, Mike Konoza founded Carolina Sportscare with Ennis, Jim Denton and Kevin Green. They wanted to put the focus on people instead of billing like so many corporate companies do.
One year later, the Dataw Island Club was in the process of getting ready to build the community center and potentially outsource the management. It chose Carolina Sportscare and Ennis was tasked with the management of the new facility.
MEN’S COLLEGE GOLF
Nimmer qualifies for U.S. Amateur
Clemson University golfer Bryson Nimmer has qualified for the 2016 United States Amateur at Oakland Hills Country Club in Bloomfield, Mich.
The tournament will be held Aug. 15-21.
Nimmer, a Bluffton native, completed 36 holes of qualification on July 26. It will be the first appearance for Nimmer.
Nimmer was the medalist at the tournament at Amelia National Country Club in Fernandina Beach, Fla. after shooting rounds of 66-66 for a 132 total. He won the qualifier by five shots over Calum Masters of Headland, Ala. Nimmer had 16 birdies over the two days to finish at 12-under-par for the two rounds.
Earlier in the year, Nimmer completed a decorated freshman year at Clemson. He was named the ACC Freshman of the Year and was a first-team All-ACC selection on the course and also was named first-team Academic All-ACC.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
The Citadel picked second in SoCon Preseason Poll
The Citadel football team was picked second in the 2016 Southern Conference Preseason Poll balloting by the conference’s coaches, it was announced last week.
The defending Southern Conference co-champions garnered 52 points and one first-place vote in the coaches poll and 208 points with two first-place votes in the media poll for their highest position in the preseason polls since being picked second in 1982.
Last season, with head coach Brent Thompson as the Bulldogs’ offensive coordinator, The Citadel finished 9-4 overall with a 6-1 mark in conference play to earn the program’s first conference title since 1992. The Bulldogs ended the regular season with a 23-22 win at South Carolina and won a road playoff game for the first time in school history with a 41-38 triumph at Coastal Carolina.
Seven Bulldogs were selected to the preseason All-Southern Conference teams, including Dee Delaney, a Beaufort native and graduate of Whale Branch High School.
Delaney started all 13 games at cornerback in 2015 and registered 46 tackles, including 1.0 for loss, five interceptions, eight pass breakups, two forced fumbles, one fumble recovery and one blocked kick. The junior was named a Walter Camp All-American, first-team STATS All-American and a second-team All-American by the Associated Press and College Sports Madness. He also earned the College Football Performance Awards Elite Defensive Back Award and was a first-team All-Southern Conference selection.
The Citadel’s 2016 season opens with two straight SoCon games, beginning at Mercer on Sept. 1 before the home opener Sept. 10 against Furman, which also is the Bulldogs’ Military Appreciation game. To purchase tickets, visit CitadelSports.com/tickets or call 843-953-DOGS (3647).
GOLF
Golf tournament boosts scholarships
More than 30 four-player teams competed recently in the Beaufort County School District’s third annual “Swinging with the Superintendent” golf tournament, with all proceeds going to a scholarship program that pays two years of college tuition to qualified students.
The Building a Better Beaufort Scholarship – dubbed “B3” – covers up to two years of tuition costs at the Technical College of the Lowcountry for Beaufort County high school graduates who have at least a 2.75 GPA.
The tournament was held at the Callawassie Island Golf Club, and prizes were awarded for low team scores, longest drives and closest-to-the-pin. A hole-in-one contest offered a grand prize of a new Lexus.
“Our first three tournaments have raised more than $240,000, and every dime of that money goes directly to college scholarships,” said Superintendent Jeff Moss. “Based on the number of teams and the contributions of our corporate and private sponsors, we had another terrific event this year.”
The title sponsor was Thompson Construction Group and sponsors included iStation, McMillan Pazdan Smith, BrightView Landscape, Hite Associates, Dinosaur Restaurants, HG Reynolds Management, Compass Municipal Advisers, GCA Services, PCG, Sodexo, McNair Law Firm, First Tee of the Lowcountry, Dell Computers, UniSource Mortgage Services, YMCA-Beaufort, Paul Roth and Bill Evans.
Rounds of golf were offered as tournament prizes by Callawassie Island Golf Club, Belfair, Long Cove Golf Club, Oldfield Golf Club, Wexford Plantation, Dataw Island Golf Club, Moss Creek, Hilton Head Lakes, Old South, The Club at Indigo Run and The Club at Savannah Harbour.
Revenues from the golf tournament are accumulating in an endowment fund that supports the scholarship program.
Interested students from the Class of 2017 should apply to TCL, fill out the FAFSA form and apply for the B3 scholarship. For more information, visit www.tcl.edu/b3.
SHOOTING
Willis to enter junior year with Citadel rifle team
Battery Creek High School graduate Raven Willis is set to enter her junior season with The Citadel women’s rifle team. A Beaufort native, Willis has excelled at The Citadel throughout each of the last two school years.
As a sophomore at The Citadel in the 2015-16 season, Willis was a Collegiate Rifle Coaches Association Scholastic All-American. She scored 527 in air rifle at SEARC 3 in her only appearance.
As a freshman in the 2014-15 season at The Citadel, Willis was named a Scholastic All-American by the Collegiate Rifle Coaches Association. She shot a 541 in air rifle at the SEARC Championship on March 7, 2015.
Willis and other members of The Citadel rifle program will make their 2016-17 season debut in early fall. The Citadel men’s and women’s rifle program’s 2016 schedule has not yet been finalized and released.
