I was driving back home from a Hanahan (S.C.) High School basketball game in 1998 when I started mentally adding up the number of high schools I've covered over the years.
Relax! Counting in my head is safer than talking on a cellphone.
There were schools in Upstate South Carolina like Seneca High School, Easley, Westminster (doesn't exist anymore), Oakway (ditto), West-Oak (guess where that came from), Walhalla, Pendleton, Wren, Carolina, Greenville, Tamassee-Salem (doesn't exist anymore), Pickens, Liberty, Daniel, Hanna, Westside.... And what about Laurens, Greenwood, A.C. Flora (Xavier McDaniel was playing) and some school in Greenville, S.C., nicknamed the Generals (Wade Hampton)? Plus Boiling Springs and Spartanburg.
This is just from my four years in the Upstate of South Carolina in 1979 through 1983. There were others, like Mauldin, some school in Simpsonville that I can't remember, Travelers Rest, Greer.... And still others I can't remember.
Then when I moved to Western North Carolina, there were Hendersonville, Edneyville (doesn't exist; now it's North Henderson), West Henderson (Falcons), East Henderson, Tryon, Rosman, Owen, and a bunch of other schools I can't think of off the top of my head.
But that doesn't count New Hanover, Hoggard, Laney and maybe 30 or 40 more schools around Wilmington and coastal North Carolina. Or Burke, Porter-Gaud, Berkeley, Summerville, Fort Dorchester, Hanahan and other schools around Charleston, S.C. Or dozens and dozens of schools around Winston-Salem, Greensboro and surrounding areas when we moved to the North Carolina Triad.
I've covered plenty of Lions (Daniel), Tigers (Ragsdale, among others) and Bears (New Bern), plus many Bulldogs (including Thomasville, N.C.), Hurricanes (Wren), Bearcats (Hendersonville) and Bobcats (Glenn), plus the Dark Horses (Clinton, N.C.), the Scorpions (North Brunswick), the Wonders (Kannapolis Brown) and some school in South Carolina with the mascot the Golden Tornadoes.
I've even covered two Green Waves, Easley and Summerville, both in South Carolina. (They played for the 1972 state football championship -- Easley won -- but that's another story.)
I've covered the Granite Bears (Mount Airy), plus the Eagles (East Henderson and East Forsyth), the Wolfpack (Whiteville), the Vikings (North Forsyth and Northern Guilford; they played each other) and the Titans (West Forsyth).
It's confusing, all the schools I've covered, including Archbishop Malloy out of NYC.
And that's not counting West Charlotte, North Rowan and other schools out of the Charlotte area.
I didn't realize I'd make high school sports my life. And, to be honest, I haven't. I've written three books about auto racing, four if you count that one was updated with a new title, a rewrite of maybe 10 percent of the text and the addition of nearly 50 percent new text. I've covered college and pro sports, and written comic-book scripts, web-site copy, magazine stories, all kinds of stuff.
Then again, it's true that I've covered Carver and Lumberton and Middleton and Latta and Richmond County and South Stokes, plus West Stokes, North Stokes, East Davidson, West Davidson, North Davidson and Central Davidson. Oh, and North Surry, East Surry and Surry Central.
And that's not even counting golf tournaments, cross-country meets, wrestling tournaments and track meets. Then I could add hundreds of more schools.
It ain't much, but it's a living.
Then there are Parkland and South Brunswick and Topsail and West Wilkes, schools in southern Virginia, and ....
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EDITOR@WORK BLOG ENTRIES
ENTRIES FROM THE DOG BLOG
(a book of great stories about the Intimidator)
(the book of great NASCAR stories)
