Football Standouts Celebrating Spring Sports Success

How often do we need to see evidence that competing across different sports pays dividends? Paraphrasing Orlando Bloom’s character in Pirates of the Caribbean, “At least once more.” Some of South Carolina’s best returning football players for next fall spent their springs doing something other than football. They laces up track cleats and excelled on the pitch and threw a few pitches and even swung a golf club. These are some of the ones that we noticed finding something not only else to do with their time, but crushing it along the way. Blythewood quarterback [player_tooltip player_id="346195" first="Alex" last="Myers"] jumped into our Class of 2025 rankings lately, but he was more focus on helping the Bengals’ baseball squad to the Class 5A Upper State semis. Myers is just seven QBs ranked in his class, a high honor considering he’s got three more years of high school football ahead of him. [player_tooltip player_id="208342" first="McKendrie" last="Douglas"] had a similar impact for the Hartsville baseball team - which finished as the Class 4A runner up. Douglas is among the most notable players on a squad that is expected to enter 2022 near the top of the statewide preseason rankings. The various soccer all-region squads were spotted with football players, and naturally, some kickers. Not long after helping North Augusta to a state runner-up finish and missing most of spring camp, North Augusta’s [player_tooltip player_id="346194" first="Jack" last="Stevens"] knocked through his first 50-yard FG attempt back on the football field.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> </span> The state track meets were full of two-sport standouts. Daniel WR [player_tooltip player_id="204866" first="Jaylen" last="Brown-Wallace"] has been steadily rising up the rankings in the Class of 2023, and he’s not done yet. This spring, he finished second it the Class 3A state track meet in the long jump and triple jump (behind only future South Carolina receiver <strong>DJ Black</strong>). If there was any doubt that [player_tooltip player_id="262552" first="Tyler" last="J Smith"] at Barnwell was going to slack this offseason, he’s put those thoughts to rest with a first-place finish in the Class 2A meet in the high jump. In that same meet, Woodland offensive tackles [player_tooltip player_id="139286" first="Kam" last="Pringle"] and [player_tooltip player_id="336116" first="James" last="Moseley"] each had solid showings. They finished fifth and sixth, respectively, in the discus and Pringle took home the top honors in the shot put. The Class 4A meet was full of returning football players. Hartsville’s [player_tooltip player_id="272699" first="Da’Marion" last="Coe"] and <strong>Justin Canty</strong> were big in the sprint events, long jump and/or relays (the later of which the Red Foxes won). Westside’s [player_tooltip player_id="139296" first="Jimmar" last="Boston"] was the lone non-senior to finish in the top seven in the high jump, finishing second, while Aiken’s [player_tooltip player_id="208338" first="Braylon" last="Staley"] won the triple jump. And Greenville LB [player_tooltip player_id="89334" first="Luke" last="Schuller"] finished first in the javelin, second in the shot and seventh in the discus. Up in Class 5A, Byrnes’ [player_tooltip player_id="204428" first="Miquel" last="Dingle"] won the 110-meter hurdles, where Ridge View’s <strong>Kaleb Kelly</strong> finished sixth. Kelly and Blazers teammate [player_tooltip player_id="202775" first="Zion" last="Agnew"] were also part of the school’s second-place 4x100 relay team, while Kelly was also also part of the runner-up 4x400 squad. Dorman OL [player_tooltip player_id="91355" first="Markee" last="Anderson"] finished second in the shot. Wrapping this up, we wanted to mention a pair of massive standouts who bucked the trend. Beaufort DE <strong>Jack Sumner</strong> (6-foot-4, 225 pounds) and Hartsville OL [player_tooltip player_id="208333" first="Slayton" last="Stokes"] (6-foot-5, 300 pounds) each performed well in the Class 4A state golf meet. Sumner, who helped his Eagles to a state runner-up football finish last fall, fired a two-day 162 in the finals, good enough for a T37 finish. Stokes, who grew up around golf, finished T69 with a 177. Both of them will likely be back on the golf course next spring, as well.