Hard to believe the chin straps are being snapped, the face masks are getting a tug, and the wide receivers are missing routes. Football on the Grand Strand is back, even if it’s only passing league. At Conway High School eight of the Horry County teams hit the practice field for the Tuesday night test.

Steve Phillips vividly recalls in the mid-1980s the first time he took some Johnsonville High School track and field athletes to the state track meet in Columbia. He had one female distance runner and two male pole vaulters.

If you turned back the clock four years, seeing J.R. Boyd lead Lamar in a spring practice wouldn’t look so out of the ordinary. But after three years away from the position where he won three state titles, you can’t blame Lamar fans if they crack a smile to see him back.

This was another banner season for baseball teams on the Pee Dee and Grand Strand, and the 2008 South Carolina Baseball Coaches Association All-State Teams are littered with local players.

Last year, some of the best high school football players spent a week practicing in Myrtle Beach, sleeping in Myrtle Beach, eating in Myrtle Beach, and then playing the North/South All-Star Game in Conway. That is going to change this year.

Hartsville’s Jordan Lyles was named to the 2008 Class AAAA All-State Team on Tuesday, May 20. 

From the outset, Friday night’s Class 2A baseball championship game between Dillon and Gilbert was anything but pretty. In a contest that saw eight errors, nine wild pitches and a 15-minute rain delay, someone had to win it. 

West Florence junior Bobby Browning is three wins away from a state title. Browning won both of his matches Friday at the Class 4A individual tennis tournament in Columbia.

Conway police are investigating a school bus vandalism that happened overnight. Conway High School’s resource officer says someone vandalized a Spartanburg County School District activities bus that was parked in the bus driveway of the high school’s at the athletic complex.

Mullins Sophomore point guard Eric Smith is focused

FLORENCE — The individual state tennis championships begin today at the Caughman Road Tennis Center, marking the end of the season. And for the West Florence Knights, it also marks the end of an era.

The varsity softball team at Darlington High School won the school’s first-ever state championship with a 3-1 victory over J.L. Mann in extra innings Wednesday night.

The Conway Tiger baseball team failed in to win its first ever state title, losing at home to Boiling Springs 5-1 in the AAAA Championship game. 

GILBERT — Behind three home runs and six strong innings from Travis Murphy, Dillon took game two on the road Wednesday to send the Class 2A baseball state championship series to its final game with a 5-1 win.
The Wildcats tied the best-of-three series at 1-1. Game three is scheduled for 6 p.m. Friday at West Florence High School.

LAKE VIEW — As Leigh Ann Shelley reached back to touch the plate, Lake View softball coach Chad Huggins said he could barely believe what he had just seen.
Huggins probably wasn’t the only one, either.
Capped by Avonlea Cooke’s two-run double, the Wild Gators managed three straight two-out hits in the bottom of seventh inning for a come-from-behind 5-4 win Wednesday against Chesterfield to knot the Class A state championship series at 1-1.