Bulldogs Boys Basketball Looking To BuildIn June the Boiling Springs basketball program got a shake up when head coach and Bulldogs athletic director Hal McManus accepted a new job at Socastee High School after five seasons leading the team. After the departure of McManus the Bulldogs gave control of the program to Curtis Nash, a Dorman and Wofford graduate, who served as Bulldogs JV coach last season and was formerly the head coach at Woodruff High School. Nash says that his goal this season will be to work on building the team not only on the court but off of it as well. "My goal this season is to focus on building team culture and have our kids enjoy playing basketball," said Nash. "With this group of guys we intend to play with high energy for four quarters and at the end of the year our success will not be measured only by wins but also on how we exemplify character on and off the court." Last season the Bulldogs had a strong out of region record going 9-3 but struggled when they hit region play as they were competing against some of the best teams in the state including defending 5A state champion Dorman. As the Bulldogs enter a new season they will also be entering a new region where they will be competing against a brand new group of teams that include Fort Mill, Nation Ford, and Clover with the only familiar team being Gaffney. Nash says that while the Bulldogs will have a similar look as last year he wants to put his own spin on the team this year. "Coach McManus done some pretty good things that I'll be keeping but I want to put my own stamp on the team," said Nash. "My philosophy this year is to be high energy while causing some chaos and turning that into some turnovers and easy buckets." The Bulldogs will be returning three starters from last season as seniors Corey Johnson and Camden Earls will be back along with All-Region junior Khalil Brown. Johnson was named to the All-Tournament team at the Impact Sports Tournament preseason tournament this past week after averaging twenty-points a game for the tournamentm including a twenty-seven points against Mauldin. They will also look to get key contributions from junior newcomers Ketrone Adams and Julius Camp Jr. along with sophomore Tre' Locklear. "Our lineup isn't full of 6'9" kids but we have a bunch of scrappy kids that play hard and give you all they have," said Nash. "We're going to look to turn that positive energy into some positive offense along with some defensive stops." Nash says that he wants his team to be a hard nosed team which is a philosophy he learned from Mark Freeze, his former coach at Dorman. "I played under Mark Freeze at Dorman and for anyone that knows Mark Freeze he's a hard nosed coach who demands you to give it all you have," said Nash. "I hope to do the same for these kids." When Nash was named the interim head basketball coach at Boiling Springs he set some history in the Bulldogs program as he became the first African-American coach to lead the boys basketball team. With the tragedies and events that have transpired throughout the country over the past year, the weight of this moment isn't lost on Nash as he says being the first African-American coach in the program's history just adds a little more pressure to him this season. "It means a lot with the climate of the world right now and to be the first here at Boiling Springs is a big deal," said Nash. "Just knowing that I'm the first adds that much more pressure on me to do well." Nash says that some of that pressure also comes from the fact that he has a long family history that runs through the Boiling Springs community. "While I graduated from Dorman my parents and family are from Boiling Springs," said Nash. "My mother as well as many of my aunts and uncles all came through Boiling Springs. So to be a part of the history here and what it signifies is real special." The Bulldogs kicked off their season with a 2-1 record at the Impact Sports Invitational preseason tournament just before Thanksgiving where their only loss came against Mauldin, who is the #3 ranked team in 5A. They will start their regular season December 1st when they host Woodruff. Patience Is Key For Young Lady BulldogsThe phrase around the Boiling Springs girls basketball season this year will be patience as the team will only have three seniors with just two returning starters. "We have a very young roster this season," said Bulldogs head coach Dwayne Lytle. "Our word for this season is patience as eight of our eleven players are underclassmen. We are expecting a couple of freshman and a sophomore to play key minutes this year." While the Bulldogs are preaching patience they will still look to be very competitive as they return starters Laisha Labra and D'Marria Glenn, two players that the Bulldogs expect big things from this year. "Laisha and D'Marria will be our two returning starters this year and we will be counting on them to be key leaders both offensively and defensively this season," said Lytle. Labra and Glenn will be joined by fellow returners Ansley King, Maddie Holcombe, and Amiah Ellis as they hope to bring stability to a young team. They will be joined by newcomers Chantel Lyles, Kylie McMillan, and Sara Ezell as they look to attack a brand new region this season. Boiling Springs will be joining Region III-5A this season where they will be a part of a very competitive region that includes Clover and Nation Ford who are ranked preseason number one and number nine in the 5A preseason poll. The other two teams in the region will be Fort Mill and a familiar foe in Gaffney. Even with the high ranked teams being in their conference Lytle expects the Bulldogs to be competitive in their brand new region. "The ladies are putting in work in the gym to get ready for this season," said Lytle. "We are looking to establish our claim as the top team in our new region." The Bulldogs will kick off their season on December 1st as they host Woodruff before finishing out the opening week with a road matchup at Chesnee on December 4th. Young Bulldogs Wrestling Team Looking To CompeteBoiling Springs wrestling will be mixing a lot of youth with some experience in the 2020 season and are hoping that recipe will be the perfect mix for a region title this season.
"We have a large group of freshman this year which is exciting," said Bulldogs head coach Lee Thomas. "We're going to have an overall young group looking to gain some mat experience for the future while still competing for a region title." The Bulldogs finished last season with an 18-10 record where they finished third in the region but will have five starters returning off of last year's team. Two of those returners will be Drayton Wines and Ayden Whisler who both qualified for the state tournament last season. They will also look to get key contributions from newcomers Harrison Brafford, Kohen Sloand, and Eddie Aleksik. Boiling Springs will kick off their 2020 season in a home matchup on December 15th against Chesnee. As everyone prepares for the Thanksgiving holiday the Boiling Springs boys basketball team used this time to prepare for the upcoming season by going 2-1 at the Impact Sports Invitational held at Spartanburg Christian Academy.
“It feels good picking up two wins in this tournament to get the season started right,” said Bulldogs head coach Curtis Nash. “I told the guys to have fun and play with intensity. I knew if we done that we’d get at least one win but to get two is strong.” The Bulldogs only loss of the tournament came on Monday afternoon when they fell to the preseason #3 ranked team in 5A Mauldin by a score of 74-54. While the Bulldogs loss the game they were competitive throughout as the score was only 53-48 in favor of the Mavericks heading into the final quarter before Coach Nash said fatigue caught up to the Bulldogs. ”We played those guys really good for three quarters,” said Nash. “In the fourth quarter fatigue got to us but with the style we’re going to play we have to get better there.” In the second game Boiling Springs defeated Laurens 55-41 and never trailed throughout the game. They got a big game from senior Camden Earls who finished the game with seventeen points and four rebounds. The final game of the tournament saw the Bulldogs face Wren who the Bulldogs defeated 60-58 in a very competitive basketball game. Wren held a 13-9 first quarter lead but the Bulldogs used their pressure defense to outscore the Golden Hurricanes 23-9 in the second quarter and claim a 32-22 halftime lead. Wren was able to shrink the lead to just two with seconds left in the game but strong defense by the Bulldogs and a shot that missed the rim by the Golden Hurricane gave Boiling Springs the win. The Bulldogs Corey Johnson was named to the All-Tournament team after averaging twenty points a game for the tournament including a twenty-seven point game against Mauldin on Monday. Boiling Springs will return to the court on December 1st in a home game against Woodruff to start the regular season. A big first quarter output along with five touchdowns from Chance Black helped lead the Dorman Cavaliers to a 48-0 victory over the Boiling Springs Bulldogs in the first round of the 5A playoffs on Friday night.
Dorman scored on their first four drives of the game with the first score capping off a sixty yard drive when Chance Black ran the ball down the right sideline for an eighteen yard touchdown to put the Cavaliers up 7-0 just two minutes into the game. The Cavaliers started their next drive at their own nineteen yard line before marching the ball eighty-one yards in three and a half minutes and going up 14-0 on a two yard touchdown run up the middle by Ty Lindsay. Dorman's next drive ended on a twenty-yard touchdown pass from Zay Foster to Chance Black on a wheel route down the left side to go up 21-0 with just over two minutes to go in the first quarter. They got the ball right back when Dorman's Cameron Eubanks made an interception on Boiling Springs' second play of the next drive that Eubanks returned to the Bulldogs twenty-yard line. Dorman made their first quarter lead 28-0 just before the buzzer sounded to end the first quarter when Chance Black scored his third touchdown of the night on a one yard run up the middle. After some defensive stops by the Bulldogs kept the score at 28-0 most of the second quarter they weren't able to keep it that way the whole quarter as Black struck again for the Cavaliers with forty seconds left in the half when he took the ball in from twenty-one yards out to make Dorman's halftime lead 35-0 over the Bulldogs. He scored his final touchdown of the game with just under nine minutes to go in the third quarter, after a Bulldogs turnover, when he ran the ball in from six yards out to put the Cavaliers up 41-0. Dorman scored their final points of the game after another Boiling Springs turnover when Emos Dawkins capped off a forty-four yard drive to find the endzone putting the score at 48-0 in favor of the Cavaliers. Boiling Springs ended the night with 145 yards of offense while committing four turnovers on Friday night. With the loss the Bulldogs season comes to an end while Dorman will travel to Northwestern next Friday in the second round of the 5A playoffs. On Wednesday morning in front of a group of family and coaches four Boiling Springs athletes signed to continue their athletic careers at the collegiate level next season with all four athletes committing to play spring sports athletics.
The most well represented team on Wednesday was the Boiling Springs baseball team as Will Holmes committed to play at The Citadel and Jimmy Rosengrant committed to play at Coker University. Holmes has been a member of the Bulldogs baseball team for five seasons and said the chance to play at The Citadel is an opportunity he's always wanted along with the opportunity to join former teammate Ben Hutchins helped make his decision. "The Citadel is somewhere that I've always wanted to go since I was a child and it's a dream come true to get to go there," said Holmes. "Ben and I have played baseball together since we were around eight years old and it's going to be great getting to continue that in our college careers." Rosengrant, who is the Boiling Springs student body president along with also being a five year member of the Bulldogs baseball team, said that the conference Coker plays in was a big part in his decision to choose the school along with the atmosphere on the campus. "I knew that I wanted to play in that conference because it's a very strong D-II conference and when I stepped onto the Coker campus something just felt right," said Rosengrant. "I kept asking my mom every day after the visit if I could go ahead and commit to Coker and I finally convinced her." The Boiling Springs softball team also saw a player commit on Wednesday as Katie Roberts signed to play at Brevard College next season. Roberts said that the coach and the educational opportunities at the school helped make Brevard the place for her. "They're turning both the majors I'm considering, criminal justice and exercise science, into master's programs which will make it where I wouldn't have to transfer to continue my education," said Roberts. "The coach there is also a really good person and I just love spending time around her. I'm just a fan of her method she has in correcting the errors we all are bound to make because she's not a coach who screams at you but just takes you aside to tell you what you need to work on." The Bulldogs track team was also represented on Wednesday as Taylor Lockett signed to compete at Converse University next season. Lockett is a dual sport athlete at Boiling Springs but said the help of coaches at Boiling Springs helped her decide to pursue track and that the extra effort by the Converse coach made that the choice for her. "My coaches here at Boiling Springs helped me choose Converse because they helped me believe in myself and wanted to help me pursue my career in track as this was a great opportunity," said Lockett. "The head coach at Converse really sold me on the school because he would tell me about being at some of my meets without me knowing and to know that he saw something in me enough to offer me, that just really boosted my confidence in myself and my abilities in track." Boiling Springs outscored Spartanburg 20-10 in the second half but couldn't overcome their first half deficit as they fell to the Vikings 30-20 on Friday night.
"We dug ourselves a big hole there in the first half where they just made a few more plays than we did," said Bulldogs head coach Rick Tate. "I was proud of how our guys fought back in the second half and like I told the guys after the game, once we walk out these gates at Spartanburg this game is behind us and we're going to get focused on the playoffs next week." Both teams struggled in the first quarter as neither team could get much going offensively. At the start of the second quarter the Vikings offense got a little help as the Bulldogs fumbled the ball at their own sixteen yard line and Spartanburg took advantage when Paris Ferguson ran the ball thirteen yards for a touchdown over the right side of the offensive line to put the Vikings up 7-0. In the last four minutes of the first half the Vikings outscored the Bulldogs 13-0 and it started with a Drek Carter thirty-three yard touchdown run along the right sideline to put Spartanburg up 13-0 with just three and a half minutes left in the half. Boiling Springs responded to the Vikings score by marching the ball downfield into the Vikings side of the field but the drive was ended when a Bulldogs pass found the arms of Spartanburg's Zyrell Linder, at the Spartanburg thirty yard line, who then raced down the left sideline for a touchdown giving the Vikings a 20-0 halftime lead. After a slow first half the Bulldogs got to work early in the second half using a turnover of their own as Boiling Spring cornerback Kameron Meadows scooped up a Spartanburg fumble at the Vikings five yard line and raced the ball in to the endzone to cut the Spartanburg lead to 20-7 just under two minutes into the half. Spartanburg kicker William Joyce added to the team's lead on midway through the third quarter by hitting a thirty-five yard field goal to put his team up 23-7 with just under five minutes to go in the quarter. As time was counting down in the third quarter Boiling Springs got their first offensive score of the game when quarterback Jalen Dodd ran the ball in over the left side of the line from one yard out to put the Spartanburg lead at 23-14 with just seconds remaining in the quarter. On the first play of the ensuing Spartanburg drive, Boiling Springs was able to get the ball back when cornerback Avery Stewart recovered a Vikings fumble at the Spartanburg forty-one yard line and the Bulldogs offense went back to work. The next drive started with Dodd finding wide receiver Jacob Hamrick on a crossing route that he took to the Spartanburg eight yard line before the end of the third quarter arrived. On the second play of the fourth quarter Dodd found wide receiver/safety Caden Sullivan on a six yard pass to bring the Bulldogs closer at 23-20 with just over eleven minutes to go in the game. Spartanburg took over with just over eleven minutes to go in the game and melted five minutes off the clock before quarterback Raheim Jeter found wide receiver Tilheim Richardson on a thirty-yard screen route to the left side side to put the Vikings up 30-20 with six minutes to go in the game. The Bulldogs were able to march the ball fifty-five yards on their next drive all the way to the Spartanburg twenty-five yard line but were unable to convert a fourth and eight play sealing the game for the Vikings. Boiling Springs will return to play next Friday as they open up the 2020 5A playoffs when they travel to take on their fellow county rival the Dorman Cavaliers. |
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