By CT McDonald
The new school year has started, and the games are underway.
After winning 35-7 against Mid-Carolina in last week’s preseason Aun McKay Kickoff Classic at Chapin High School, Irmo’s varsity football team will play host to Chapin Friday in the regular season opener.
Irmo went to the 4A quarterfinals last year before being eliminated in a loss to Greenville, and now head coach Aaron Brand and the team are looking to go further.
The Yellow Jackets want to bring home titles — like region, lower state and state titles. And they have talent that could make that a reality.
Friday’s 7:30 pm game will be the Yellow Jackets’ Hall of Fame Game when inductees into the Yellow Jackets’ Athletic Hall of Fame will be recognized at halftime with a ceremony to follow on Saturday.
Dutch Fork is looking to go further (again), too. The Silver Foxes want to get back into the winner’s circle of the 5A state championship after last year’s loss to Gaffney in the state title game.
Last year was the first time that Dutch Fork did not win the 5A state title. Until then the Silver Foxes had won that classifications’ state championship in all the five previous seasons of its existence. They also won the 4A state title in 2013-2014.
And now the Foxes are on a quest to make it happen again.
After defeating Northwestern in last week’s preseason game, Dutch Fork will take on Hough High School (NC) in the Charlotte Kickoff Night (CKO) doubleheader today, Thursday, to get the season started.
Dutch Fork and Hough play first, and then its Mallard Creek versus Myers Park.
The Silver Foxes will be on the road for the next four weeks, according to the schedule. Next week they will play at Spartanburg, then it’s off to Atlanta to play Creekside in the Cam Newton Classic, then back in the state to play at Stratford, and then at North Augusta before returning home September 23 to play host to St. Frances Academy, of Maryland.
Beyond that, an open date and then the region games.
When Chapin visits Irmo this week to kick off the regular season, the Eagles will look to get the new season off to a winning start against one of their district rivals.
Chapin went to the second round of the 5A playoffs last year before taking a loss against Fort Dorchester. This year the Eagles will be working to go further in a tough region; Region 4-5A.
And they are kicking it off right. First the District 5 rival game Friday at Irmo, and then the annual battle with nearby Mid-Carolina next week. Chapin will play its non-region games in September against Spring Valley, Newberry, Brookland-Cayce and A. C. Flora before starting region competition September 30 against Lexington.
Most other fall sports teams will kick off their seasons within the next week.
