Repping the 843: South Carolina’s Coast A Hotbed For Linebackers

When you look at enough players, even at one position, your eyes start to cross. But if you can keep a clear head, you can also witness a trend in action. One of them jumped out to us in early January and we’ve now taken the better part of two months asking “Why?” In this case, why are so many of the state’s top linebackers coming from the strip up and down the easternmost part of South Carolina? We heard all sorts of guesses and reasoning from college and high school coaches, but in short, the best answer we got was based upon competition. Players grouped together - often on the same teams or with the same school districts or regions are pushing each other to be better. And no better place are we seeing that that at the linebacker position. All told between the Classes of 2023, 2024 and 2025, Prep Red Zone currently has 38 linebackers ranked. Of those 38, 21 comes from the 843 area code, the area anchored by Charleston, Florence, Horry and Beaufort counties.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span> That’s a staggeringly high percentage of players from what amounts to a little less than one-third of the state. The best part is that there is no clear-cut blue-print when it comes to what they have to look like. There are big bodies, such as Summerville’s [player_tooltip player_id="262615" first="Steve" last="Simpkins"] (6-foot-2, 210 pounds) and Trinity Collegiate’s 6-foot-4, 185-pound [player_tooltip player_id="272703" first="James" last="Herbert"], but also relatively smaller ones like Myrtle Beach’s [player_tooltip player_id="146360" first="Cam" last="Ward"] (5-foot-7, 170 pounds) and South Florence’s [player_tooltip player_id="263156" first="Trokel" last="Prew"], whose 5-foot-8, 185-pound frame looks much different on paper than in action. And while those four aren’t necessarily leading the charge at the position, three of them are also a perfect example of the competition standpoint. Simpkins ([player_tooltip player_id="227804" first="Jaidyn" last="Penix"]), Ward ([player_tooltip player_id="267459" first="Ricky" last="Escobar"]) and Prew ([player_tooltip player_id="263155" first="Jaylin" last="Davis"]) all have a positional teammate appearing the rankings. That means we’ve seen not only their individual talents, but how well they work as a unit. The same can be said for Bluffton linebackers [player_tooltip player_id="204429" first="Jaquinn" last="Williams"] and [player_tooltip player_id="208337" first="Jeremiah" last="Curry"] and Ashley Ridge’s trio of [player_tooltip player_id="194335" first="Alex" last="Ledford"], [player_tooltip player_id="263162" first="Christian" last="Garland"] and [player_tooltip player_id="91158" first="TJ" last="Wilson"] and the Loris tandem of [player_tooltip player_id="208345" first="Jordan" last="Vancise"] and [player_tooltip player_id="202730" first="Cameron" last="Faircloth"].<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span> We haven’t even mentioned Wilson’s [player_tooltip player_id="91156" first="Joshua" last="McPherson"], yet. Take a look. <iframe src="//www.hudl.com/embed/video/3/13279152/6176aeb84797b3052c66eaaa" width="640" height="360" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen="allowfullscreen"></iframe> The 843 is full of highlight reels that look like this. Want to see more like this, we encourage you to seek out info on all 21. <strong>Class of 2023</strong> [player_tooltip player_id="91142" first="Omari" last="Jenkins"], Timberland [player_tooltip player_id="91158" first="TJ" last="Wilson"], Ashley Ridge [player_tooltip player_id="91156" first="Joshua" last="McPherson"], Wilson [player_tooltip player_id="91146" first="Roshad" last="McAllister"], Lamar [player_tooltip player_id="146360" first="Cam" last="Ward"], Myrtle Beach [player_tooltip player_id="146380" first="Cameron" last="Avery"], Cane Bay [player_tooltip player_id="262615" first="Steve" last="Simpkins"], Summerville [player_tooltip player_id="202730" first="Cameron" last="Faircloth"], Loris [player_tooltip player_id="263155" first="Jaylin" last="Davis"], South Florence [player_tooltip player_id="263156" first="Trokel" last="Prew"], South Florence [player_tooltip player_id="204429" first="Jaquinn" last="Williams"], Bluffton [player_tooltip player_id="194335" first="Alex" last="Ledford"], Ashley Ridge [player_tooltip player_id="263162" first="Christian" last="Garland"], Ashley Ridge <strong>Class of 2024</strong> [player_tooltip player_id="208366" first="Terry" last="Grant"], West Ashley [player_tooltip player_id="140607" first="Kayden" last="Gaddist"], Hanahan [player_tooltip player_id="208337" first="Jeremiah" last="Curry"], Bluffton [player_tooltip player_id="208345" first="Jordan" last="Vancise"], Loris [player_tooltip player_id="267459" first="Ricky" last="Escobar"], Myrtle Beach [player_tooltip player_id="267461" first="Ben" last="Thompson"], Green Sea Floyds [player_tooltip player_id="227804" first="Jaidyn" last="Penix"], Summerville <strong>Class of 2025</strong> [player_tooltip player_id="272703" first="James" last="Herbert"], Trinity Collegiate