People Will Talk... about High School Football

Wow... Two days in a row. People are gonna start talking.

Anyway, Week #1 of High School Football in South Carolina is tonight, and I thought I'd share a few thoughts on the sport that takes my small hometown of Camden, SC under storm every fall.

Technically it's Game #2 for CHS tonight as they did play and win a "Week 0" game last week. But for our purposes it is officially Week 1 in South Carolina.

Camden opened the season with a 28-21 victory over the Spring Valley Vikings at Zemp Stadium in Camden. This is a series that has been on again-off again since 1970. But it was the first meeting between the two schools since my freshman year of 1997, a game that the Vikings won in Billy Ammons' final season as coach at Camden.

Tonight the Bulldogs will make a nearly 2-hour drive to Ware Shoals, SC (Where?) for a matchup with an inferior opponent. I say inferior... honestly I know nothing about Ware Shoals. I don't even know their mascot believe it or not. But, that's where Camden is going tonight.

Ware Shoals became the second game of the year after CHS decided not to play in-county rival North Central. That was a series I enjoyed, but in reality needed to end. North Central is a very small Class A school in the northern half of Kershaw County. And while it did provide them an excellent opportunity for a large crowd (which means more $$$) the games were blowouts and really did nothing to progress the teams every year.

Camden and North Central interestingly enough never played each other in the regular season until 2006. Yeah I know that's weird - 20 miles apart and didn't meet until NCHS had been around for nearly three decades.

Tonight Camden should pick up win #2 of the season as they look ahead to a matchup with the West Florence Knights next Friday night at home, a game I will be at... as a spectator. It'll be the first time since 1995 that I've actually gone and watched a Camden game as a fan. Very, very weird.

You can hear tonight's game on KOOL 102.7 FM or online at www.kool1027.com.

Yep, I had to get that plug in.