BOILING SPRINGS, SC - As Boiling Springs head football coach Matt Reel heads into his first week leading the Bulldogs program he addressed the media at an introductory press conference on Friday morning, one that has been delayed by some weather, where he said that he wants to start building a culture of success with the program by first building relationships.
Reel believes that building relationships with his players and the community will only lead to success for his Bulldogs program. "I want everyone to be one-hundred percent into the program," said Bulldogs head coach Matt Reel. "I think people underestimate how smart kids are and how quickly they can see through people that aren't real with them or if they’re just rah-rah guys with no follow-up to it. My biggest thing is for my kids to know that I'm there for them and that goes for the community as well. I'm a big relationship guy and it's the main reason that I'm a coach as I want to help the young men to be the best versions of themselves. If the kids buy in and give us everything they got along with the community buying in with their support into what we're trying to do, I don't see any way this won't work out." He also knows that it’s going to take time to build those relationships but that's not going to take away from the high standards he’s setting for his team, standards that will be expected from everyone in the program. "A lot of this is not stuff you can get done in day one but it's something you have to build over time," said Reel. "They'll see me being the first and last guy there and they'll know my expectations every day as I'm very verbal and I'm a very loud guy. While I'm a loud guy I love my kids, and I think a reason we're successful is because we set our culture and expectations high. I'm going to hold my kids to a higher standard than anyone else in that building because that's how I believe in doing things and I'm going to hold our coaches to that same standard, so there won't be any gray area of what we expect and what's going to happen." While Reel has gotten the chance to leave North Myrtle Beach for other programs in the past, he said that the reason that the Boiling Springs job ended up being the one that finally made him leave the coast is because of the commitment he’s heard from the administration to do what it takes to be successful, even from his very first interview with them. "The biggest thing for me is the commitment I heard from leadership at Boiling Springs as they all seemed to have the same goal," said Reel. "After talking with everyone up here, from the people on the original committee to Mr Moxie, Mr McQuigg, and Mr Radford, I realized they all had the same vision as to what my vision is for Boiling Springs and they're willing to do everything they can to make it a reality. As a football coach I think the biggest thing is having support from your administration and I have no doubt I'll have that at Boiling Springs." He said that one thing about his football program at Boiling Springs that will be consistent with his other teams he’s coached in the past is that they'll have a physical presence in every aspect of the game. "There's things that we'll do wherever I'm at and one of those things is we're going to run the football," said Reel. "We're going to be a physical at the point of contact type team and have a physical presence in everything we do. I'm not saying we're going to run the ball eighty percent of the time but I'm a big believer in being the most physical team on the field at any time, as it's just part of who I am and I believe that's how you win football games." Reel said that he's only been able to see his new team through game film he’s watched online but the one thing he is happy to see is that there's talent at the school, which is something coaches worry about when heading into new coaching jobs. "I've seen some really good things on film and I've seen some things we'll need to fix," said Reel. "The one thing I notice is that we don't have a personnel deficiency, which I think is something you worry about when you take on a new job. I think we need some development in the weight room and some other areas as it won't be a six-month fix, but I do believe the right pieces are in place and if our kids buy in one-hundred percent I don't see why we can't be competitive and win a lot of games while we're here." Coach Reel says that he's a firm believer that winning starts before you hit the field and that working hard in the weight room is a key to winning on Friday nights. "The strength and conditioning area is one of the facets of the game that has to be taken care of really well and if not, you're just going to be behind the ballgame," said Reel. "My defensive coordinator and I at North Myrtle Beach ran our weight room and it's been a huge piece of what we've done. I take a ton of pride in our kids being the best conditioned team on the field and at North Myrtle Beach we may have been undersized, but our guys packed a punch. It doesn't make a difference about a kid's size but whether or not you can get one hundred percent of their potential out of them. If you run the weight room the right way, it breeds toughness and makes them work through adversity together while building a strong mental toughness. It's going to be a huge part of our success and after talking with Coach Moxie it sounds like those guys have been working hard in there and he's been impressed with their work ethic." In 2022 the Boiling Springs football program will be returning to Region II-5A where they will compete against some of the toughest teams in the state, a region that contains many familiar faces to the Bulldogs like Dorman, Byrnes, Spartanburg and Gaffney. Reel said that he recognizes the toughness of the region but said that if his team puts in the work, the sky is the limit for what his team can accomplish. "I think the biggest thing is that we just have to worry about ourselves and not to worry about anyone else," said Reel. "The first opponent we have to beat each week is ourselves, in how we prepare and how we get ready for that week. After we take care of ourselves then we'll prepare for whoever the opponent is that week. My belief is you can't coach or compete out of fear and you can't be scared of what's there as I look at each game as a challenge. When I first got to North Myrtle Beach I had people tell me you can't win consistently there but we took that as a challenge and with our coaches, kids, and community we tackled those challenges. I know this is a great region we're going into with a lot of historically great programs but I truly believe if the kids believe and we put in the work, the sky is the limit on what we can accomplish and achieve." With the recent weather causing delays in his original schedule, Coach Reel said that the first thing he wants to do is to get in and meet his coaching staff so they can get on the same page of the plan going forward. "Typically, you'd know some of the guys around the program but being four hours away I don't know a lot of these guys yet," said Reel. "I want to sit down and talk to these guys individually and find out the good things and the bad things along with things that need to be changed in their opinion. I want to spend the next couple of weeks getting to know those guys and letting them get to know me as it's always a new dynamic when a new guy comes into the program. I want to make sure we have the right people not only making these guys good football players but also making them good men. I'm hoping a lot of those pieces are already there and in place." Reel wanted to let people know that he's going to be a fixture at Boiling Springs events the rest of the winter and into the spring as he wants to continue to build relationships with the kids and the community. "I'm going to be at all kinds of events throughout the winter and spring because I want people to know this isn't a Matt Reel thing but it's a Boiling Springs High School thing," said Reel. "I think once people see that and get a feel for that, they'll know I'm genuine about what I'm talking about which will only build that relationship with the athletes and the community and allow us to get this thing rolling.” BOILING SPRINGS, SC - The Boiling Springs Bulldogs girls' basketball team used a four-point run over the last thirty seconds of the game on Friday to come away with a 38-35 win over Fort Mill that snapped a region losing streak that dated back to 2019.
"It feels good to get this win," said Bulldogs head coach Dwayne Lytle. "I told our girls that tonight is what good team defense looks like. It's a good win for these girls, who experienced the 0-10 region last season, to get the first region win against a very good Fort Mill team. I'm just at a loss for words because I'm so happy for these girls." Boiling Springs got the game started on a three-pointer from the right side by senior Ansley King to take an early 3-0 lead and start a big night for the Bulldogs senior guard. At the end of the first quarter the Bulldogs held a 6-4 lead after sophomore Kylie McMillan joined King with another three-pointer for the only Boiling Springs points in the quarter. In the second quarter the Bulldogs held a 19-17 lead heading towards the halftime break behind a combined nine points from King and Amiah Ellis but the Yellow Jackets were able to take a 20-19 halftime lead when Natalie Michelow hit a three-pointer from the top right of the court to give her team the lead just before the buzzer sounded. Boiling Springs was able to tie the game at the end of the third quarter at 30-30 after getting a combined eight points from King and Olivia Shirley, giving the Bulldogs a clean slate heading into the final quarter of play. The Bulldogs held a lead for most of the fourth quarter but with thirty-one seconds left in the game it looked like they may have the victory slip from their fingers when the Yellow Jackets Reagan Reyes hit two free-throws to give her team a 35-34 lead. Boiling Springs answered the challenge on the very next play of the game when Kylie McMillan found Ansley King going down the right side of the court with a nice pass that King caught and finished with a layup to give the Bulldogs a 36-35 lead. After getting a turnover on the next Fort Mill possession the Bulldogs went to the line after a foul but weren't able to find bottom of the net but that's when Sarah Ezell came up with her biggest play of the game. When the free throw rolled out, Ezell grabbed the rebound, her ninth of the game, amongst a group of Fort Mill players before putting a shot back up that went in and pushed the Bulldogs lead to 38-35. A final second attempt by Fort Mill to tie the game fell short helping to secure the victory for the Bulldogs. Ansley King led the Bulldogs attack on Friday night as she recorded 18 points along with five rebounds and a steal. Coach Lytle said that the performance by King this year has been impressive, and he hopes that college coaches are taking notice of how she's playing this season. "I hope these college coaches are watching the game films on her because that girl is putting her heart into the game," said Lytle. "She practices as hard as she plays and that's what is showing up in each game. I'm really excited for her because this summer she had doubts whether she could compete at this level, and I told her 'Look at you now girl' and I couldn't be anymore happy for her." Boiling Springs also got key contributions from their whole team as Madilyn Morris added five key rebounds in the first half and Tijah Davis got a key layup in the second quarter along with starting guard Kylie McMillan adding seven rebounds from the point guard spot. Coach Lytle said that he reminded his team the day before that for them to win on Friday it was going to have to be a team effort. "I told them when we left practice on Thursday that this had to be a team effort to get the win and said that anyone coming off the bench had to be focused going into the game," said Lytle. "I challenged them and they accepted that challenge. I told everyone when they came off the bench that there couldn't be a drop off and each person had to be value added. In fact, before anyone checked into the game, they had to look at me and say 'value added' before walking to the scorer's table and I was glad to see that mentality from each of them tonight." Natalie Michelow led the scoring for Fort Mill as she had 14 points to go along with six rebounds on Friday night. In the boy's game a bad third quarter for the Bulldogs led to them falling to Fort Mill 60-41 on Friday night. Fort Mill had three different players score in double figures on Friday night as Will Stumpf led the way with 16 points followed by Kyle Neibch with 15 points and Gabe Tooper with 14 points. Boiling Springs was led by Tre Locklear who finished with 11 points for the Bulldogs. The Bulldogs won't return to the court until next Friday when they travel to Clover for another region matchup before returning home the following week for home region games against Gaffney on Tuesday and Nation Ford on Friday. BOILING SPRINGS, SC - The first Boiling Springs football coaching search in nine years has come to an end and the administration has selected North Myrtle Beach head coach Matt Reel to take over the controls of the Bulldogs football program.
The hiring of Reel, which was made official on Tuesday night after a confirmation vote by the District Two school board, makes him the 11th head coach of the Bulldogs football program since 1959 and the fifth head coach since 2002. ”It’s an amazing opportunity and honor to be named the new head football coach at Boiling Springs High School,” said Reel. “Everything that we will do as a program will be to hold all players to the highest standard on the field and in the classroom, and instill the mentality of hard work and discipline as the pillars of our success. I want our community to know that they will be proud of these young men, who will have amazing character and represent our community well.” Reel, from Marion, NC and a graduate of McDowell High School, takes over as the head coach of the Bulldogs program after serving as the head coach at North Myrtle Beach High School since 2017 where he compiled a record of 42-17 in six seasons, which included a berth in the 4A state championship game in 2020. During his five seasons leading North Myrtle Beach High School, the Chiefs never finished a season with a below .500 record and two of those seasons saw him finish with double digit win totals. The Chiefs berth in the 2020 4A state championship game marked the program’s first appearance in the title game and their first ever lower state championship. He took over the Chiefs program as head coach after serving as offensive coordinator and offensive line coach the three previous seasons where the offense improved from scoring 20.5 points per game in his first season to 36.8 points per game in his third season. Prior to his time at North Myrtle Beach High School, Reel served as an assistant football and baseball coach for seven seasons at McDowell High School. He is also a graduate of Limestone University in Gaffney, SC. He takes over a Boiling Springs program that finished last season with a 1-10 record, which was the final season for long time Bulldogs head coach Rick Tate who had led Boiling Springs the previous nine seasons. According to Reel, Bulldog fans can expect a physical and attacking style team in all facets of the game. ”A never give up mentality is what our fans can expect,” said Reel. “A pure physical, relentless, attacking mentality that will be demanded from our players and coaches. In all three phases: offense, defense, and special teams, we will play a disciplined brand of football and compete for every inch in practice and in games.” Reel said that he and his wife Stacy were drawn to the job because of the dedication by the administration to find the right fit for their vision and being back close to an area they know well. ” I think the first thing that stood out to us was the dedication from the administration to hire the right fit for their vision for the future of athletics at Boiling Springs,” said Reel. “We are eager to start our time here in Boiling Springs as we are familiar with the area having grown up only a hour away in Western, NC. We are excited to get to meet the community members and to begin making a positive impact on our student athletes and families.” BOILING SPRINGS, SC - After letting dropping the lead they held in the first half during the third quarter, the Boiling Springs basketball team used an impressive fourth quarter performance to grab a 47-38 victory over Hillcrest on Friday night to start the 2022 side of their schedule.
"We started out slow tonight," said Bulldogs head coach Curtis Nash. "We talked to them yesterday about playing four quarters and giving us a full game without taking a quarter off which always seems to turn into us falling behind at some point the next game. I told them just now they must just like playing games from behind because we start playing with more passion and intensity when we get down in games. In the fourth quarter I challenged them to play hard and chip away at the lead which they done, and we got some transition points which helped us come away with the win." After holding a 21-18 halftime lead, which looked like it was going to be a six-point lead until the Rams Israel Hall hit a three-pointer at the buzzer to end the second quarter, Boiling Springs saw their lead slip away in the third quarter behind a 10-1 run to start the quarter by Hillcrest. The Rams' run was dispersed amongst five different Hillcrest scorers but was sparked by a three-pointer from junior Tony Williams who led the Rams to a 33-27 lead at the end of the third quarter. Julius Camp Jr was the only defense to the Rams run in the third quarter as he scored all six of the Bulldogs points in the quarter. In the fourth quarter the Bulldogs returned the favor to Hillcrest as they opened the quarter on an impressive 16-1 run, which got started on seven straight points by the Bulldogs. The Boiling Springs run was started on a three-pointer by senior Austin Faile, just seconds into the quarter, as he connected on a shot from the right corner of the court. Dominique Johnson accounted for the next four points by the Bulldogs, including going two for two from the free throw line to put Boiling Springs back in front at 34-33 with over six minutes left to play in the quarter. Three straight baskets by either Camp or Tre Locklear pushed the Bulldogs lead to 40-34 before Charkei Singleton capped the 16-1 run with a three-pointer from the left side to make the Boiling Springs lead 43-34. Faile and Singleton went four of six from the free throw line over the last minute of the game to help seal the victory for the Bulldogs. Along with Locklear the duo also caused lots of problems for the Rams on the defensive side of the ball as they combined to come away with six steals from their pressure defense which Nash says is what they expect from their guards. "Defensively we preach to those guys to put pressure on the ball," said Nash. "For our guys to put pressure on the other team and force them to give us easy baskets." The Bulldogs got another solid night from Julius Camp Jr as he finished the game with a double-double, scoring 17 points while adding 11 rebounds and two steals. Camp's performance over the last two games is something that Nash says they've known he was capable of all season. "I've been proud of JJ these last two games," said Nash. "He's really started to play the way we know he can play and using his athleticism to get rebounds and giving us some points. I'm hoping this play continues as we continue into region play the next few weeks." Hillcrest was led on offense by Michael Henderson who scored 10 points while also getting a good night in the post from Chavis Lee-Carter who added four points, 11 rebounds, and three blocks. Boiling Springs will return to the court on Tuesday night when they travel to Nation Ford to open up region play for the Bulldogs. After a busy holiday schedule, Nash hopes all the experience they got during that time benefits his team as they head into a tough region schedule. "We didn't get a lot of practice time over the break, but we did play a lot of basketball, which getting that live action to me is extremely important," said Nash. "We hope we can take the experience from the tournaments and ride the momentum from this win tonight to pick up some more wins in region play." BOILING SPRINGS, SC - The Boiling Springs wrestling team opened the new year by returning home with victories over Broome and Southside after not taking much of a break during the holiday season.
"We're excited to be back in front of the home crowd tonight as we spent most of the Christmas break at different places and didn't really have much of a break," said Bulldogs head coach Lee Thomas. "We saw some gains over the past few weeks and we're hoping it pays off tonight and going forward the rest of the season." In the first match of the night the Bulldogs defeated Broome 59-15 as they got their night started off with an impressive pinfall victory at 106 to take an early 6-0 lead. After back-to-back decision victories by the Centurions tied the match at 6-6, the Bulldogs retook the lead at 12-6 when Trent Coppola got the pinfall at 126. The Bulldogs got four straight pinfall victories that included victories from Eddie Aleksik (132), Harrison Brafford (138), and Peyton Coulter (145) to push the Boiling Springs lead to 36-6 over the Centurions. Cam Mills added a pinfall at 170 to take a 42-6 lead while Bill Pryor added a 17-1 technical victory at 182 to extend the Bulldogs lead to 47-9 over the Centurions. Jacob Hill (195) and Jason Blackwell at heavyweight both picked up victories in two of the last three matches to help secure the victory for the Bulldogs. The second match of the night saw the Bulldogs get a very dominant victory as they didn't lose a point, coming away with an 84-0 victory over Southside. Of all the decisions the Bulldogs got 10 forfeit victories while Rylee Douglas (126), Harrison Brafford (138), Peyton Colter (145), Cam Mills (170), and Jason Blackwell at heavyweight all came away with pinfalls. The victory by Blackwell at heavyweight is a position that Thomas said his team has seen a lot of improvement from during the holiday competitions. "We went down to May River for a tournament a few days before New Year's and our heavyweight Jason Blackwell made the finals out of 32 teams," said Thomas. "It was an impressive feat and we hope he can carry that into the part of the season that truly matters." With the second half of their season starting, the Bulldogs are now turning their focus towards their road to the playoffs and the upcoming Spartanburg County tournament that will be held on January 15th at Spartanburg High School. "We've been preaching to this young group all year that wins and losses don't really matter but we're now into the part of the season now where it starts to matter," said Thomas. "So hopefully the growing pains they've gone through in November and December will come to fruition where we'll start winning some matches in January and February when it really matters." Boiling Springs will return to action on Friday when they travel to Rock Hill for the two-day Bearcat Invitational. |
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