The final minutes of 2018 are slipping away and it’s time to look back at the year and relive some of the moments that made it one to remember.
There were championships galore to celebrate. Some veteran coaches received their due. Dozens of Berkeley County School District student-athletes earned college opportunities.
What follows is not a ranking or chronological retelling but a look back at many of the individual sports stories and moments that were important to the Gazette-area readership.
We’re sure there were some others that meant a great deal to you as well.
Repeat Performance
Eight Hanahan High School senior softball players capped their careers in style in May, completing a climb to the top of the mountain in capturing their second state championship in as many seasons.
The Hawkettes pounced on Palmetto High School in their first two sets of hacks and held on for a 5-3 victory over 200 miles from home in sweeping the Class 3A state championship series in two games. The Hawkettes (31-3) won the opener 2-1 on Monday in Hanahan and had to sit through Wednesday’s rainout before clinching the school’s third softball title. The other came in 2008.
“I’m so proud of them,” HHS coach Katrina Moffett said of her senior group. “They’ve worked so hard. They’ve put in 100 percent every day and played with so much heart. They’ve dedicated so much to the softball program. I’ve grown really close to them. They’ve been amazing ball players and amazing people.”
Moffett’s team scored one in the first inning and four more in the second inning to take control. It was plenty of run support for southpaw slinger Drayton Siegling.
Siegling threw a complete game, working around seven hits and striking out three batters, before heading off to College of Charleston. She was one of six Hanahan seniors slated to play at the next level.
“I’ve been playing ball with these girls since I was 10 or 11,” Siegling said. “To be able to go out on top with them is one of the best feelings, if not the best feeling.”
The defense backed her up with a pair of double plays.
“We may have had just one of those all year,” Siegling said. “To turn two of them in a game like this was huge.”
Shortstop Ashley Meckley, headed to Coker, led Hanahan at the plate with three hits and scored twice from the leadoff spot. The Hawkettes had 10 hits, double the output from Game 1.
Jill Courtney and Siegling chipped in two hits apiece.
Jordan Fabian, headed to USC, said whispers about last year’s team backing into a title motivated the Hawkettes this spring. In 2017, Hanahan edged Crescent in three games.
“This year we wanted to prove ourselves,” Fabian said. “Last year, there were some people questioning it, that we didn’t play very many good teams and that we couldn’t do it again, that it was just a fluke. We wanted to prove everyone wrong.”
The Hawkettes won 61 games over the last two seasons. The 2017 squad was 30-4.
The Hawkettes were the lone team state champions from the Berkeley County School District in 2017-18.
D’Ambrosio breaks through
Cane Bay High School senior wrestler Jacob D’Ambrosio finished a sparkling 49-0 on the year and exited the season with a gold medal in tow.
D’Ambrosio captured the top spot on the podium in the Class 4A 132-pound class in February inside Anderson Civic Center, defeating Eastside’s Ben Maholtz 6-2 in the championship match.
He finished 3-0 in the state tournament, erasing memories of a one-point loss in the 138-pound final in 2017.
“He was going to win,” Cane Bay coach Tim Wash said. “He was going to do what he had to do to be a state champion. He was laser focused. He worked really hard all weekend.”
D’Ambrosio, who finished his Cane Bay career with a 181-14 record, became the first Cane Bay wrestler to win it all at state since Matt Rudy went back-to-back at 195 pounds in 2014 and 2015.
D’Ambrosio was joined in the winner’s circle by another Berkeley County School District wrestler, Timberland’s Cooper Youngblood. Youngblood, a senior, was No. 1 at 182 pounds in Class 3A. He was third in the weight class last winter.
The duo prevented the school district from being shut out at state for the second year in a row. In 2017, no county grappler came out on top for the first time since 2010.
Fast Track
Division I-bound sprinter Quincy Mitchell would have struggled to beat anybody in a race around February and March.
The winner of nine gold and silver state medals in his Hanahan High School career had been reduced to a slowpoke, and nearly shelved, thanks to a hamstring problem.
But the University of Cincinnati signee got well just in time both physically and mentally to climb to the top of the podium again, using a strong kick in the last 20 meters to claim the Class 3A 100-meter dash title in May at Spring Valley High School.
“My heart was going just like this,” Mitchell said, beating on his chest. “I just kept thinking what if I lose, what if this happens. There was a lot going through my mind but I had to keep myself straight.”
Mitchell posted a 10.68 and claimed the gold by two-tenths of a second over runner-up Marlin Davis of Indian Land. He hadn’t moved that swiftly in at least a couple months.
Davis was looking strong near the wire but, showing his grit, Mitchell flagged down Davis, winning his fifth high school gold medal.
“Just because you come out first, it doesn’t mean you’re going to win the race,” Mitchell said. “You’ve just got to keep working. When I got to 60 or 70, I had to kick in more speed to get up there and it all worked out.”
Two additional athletes from the Berkeley County School District struck gold. Philip Simmons High School runner Noah Ward won the Class 2A 1600-meter run in 4:19.64 and PSHS sprinter Najhiyai Watson won the girls 400-meter dash in 57.41.
Besides the three golds, it was a day of close calls for many other local track and field standouts. Below is a list of silver winners:
Berkeley — DJ Chisolm, 200-meter dash, 21.53
Hanahan — Quincy Mitchell, 200-meter dash, 21.89
Hanahan – Girls 4x400 relay, 4:11.34
Berkeley — Jaquoia Williams, Long jump 18-03
Hanahan – Emily Lood, pole vault, 10-0
Cross – Boys 4x100 relay, 44.19
Cross – Koby Lisbon, 400-meter dash, 51.17
Field of Dreams
This is how special an evening it was: Debra Tolar smiled often.
Admittedly not a natural while cheesing for photos, the former Stratford High School softball coach found a grin easier to wear on April 12.
Joined by dozens of friends, family and former Stratford players and coaches, the legendary Tolar, retired since 2016, was bestowed her highest honor yet.. Moving forward, Stratford softball players will pursue their dreams on Debra Tolar Field.
Tolar’s 728 career wins make her the second winningest coach in South Carolina history.
“It’s one of those things you maybe dream of or you’ve heard of,” Tolar said, “but it’s not something most people, definitely not me, think would happen.”
Her last bunch on Crowfield Boulevard conjured up some magic to win the state championship in 2016, besting Byrnes High School in a winner-take-all showdown in Columbia after the squads split the first two games of the series. The Lady Rebels had lost just two times all year. Stratford’s 10-3 loss in the series opener was its 12th of the season.
But the Lady Knights won Game 2 of the series, 2-1, in nine innings and clipped the Lady Rebels 3-2 in the finale. She announced her retirement after the game.
“It’s like the ultimate walk off,” Tolar said. “It was like it was meant to be.”
Tolar’s teams won two state crowns – 1996 was the other one -and played for three others (2003, 2005, 2008).
“I lived a good life,” Tolar said. “I walked out the door at the top of the pile. That was good for me.”
Tolar coached high school softball for 31 seasons, the last 28 at Stratford. She started her career at North Charleston High School and coached one year in Georgia before coming to Stratford in 1989 and building a perennial power. The Lady Knights won 18 region titles.
“I had a lot of help,” Tolar said. “All those years with Bobby (Marion) were huge because he and I fed off each other. We did things differently. And Coach (Tony) Smith started up the JV in 1997. He was a great technician, and he’d get them ready. So many people have helped.”
Former Stratford athletics director and football coach Ray Stackley, who also has a field named after him, said he admired how the Lady Knights always seemed determined to win. Many times he saw them wiggle off the hook over the years.
“She developed a grittiness with her girls’ teams,” he said. “They would scrap. They would fight you tooth and nail to stay in the game. She was a consistent winner. Just look at the number of times they played for state championships and the championships they won.”
Three times Tolar was the state’s coach of the year and she earned a lifetime achievement award by the High School Sports Report.
“I am honored to name our softball field after a local hero who made such an impact on players all across Berkeley County,” Stratford principal Heather Taylor said.
Run Noah, Run
Berkeley County School District thinclads converged on the Midlands in November, aiming for state glory in cross country. One BCSD student-athlete got what he was looking for at the Sandhills Research Center in Columbia.
Philip Simmons sophomore runner Noah Ward, formerly of Hanahan High School, was the top performer for the BCSD, crossing the finish line first in the Class A-AA boys race.
Ward posted a time of 15:40.30, winning a state championship by more than 19 seconds over the runner-up.
Stackley in hall of fame
Two Berkeley County coaching legends were part of the 2018 South Carolina Football Coaches Association Hall of Fame class.
Former Stratford High School football coach Ray Stackley and former Berkeley High School football coach Jerry Brown were two of the 10 coaches who made up the fifth class. The group has combined for over 2,300 wins and 18 state football crowns.
The legends were honored at 7 p.m. on Dec. 7 in Myrtle Beach.
Stackley, who retired after the 2013 season, spent 29 seasons at the helm on Crowfield Boulevard, winning 270 games. Stackley’s teams won a state championship in 1999 and finished runner-up in 2004 and 2013.
“Awards like this are affirmation not just to yourself, but also those on your staff and those kids who played for you that you did things the right way,” Stackley said. “It’s a reflection you were surrounded by great coaches and young people who believed in the same things you did. We had that for years.”
Brown has been a head coach for 30-plus years and is still coaching at Wade Hampton High School in Hampton. He has over 270 career victories and five state championships at three different schools: Spring Valley (1988), Berkeley (1994, 1996 and 2008) and Batesburg-Leesville (2013).
New eras dawn on gridiron
When the curtains were pulled up on the 2018 high school football season in July 27, three new coaches in the Berkeley County School District were standing on center stage.
Jason Winstead, who came to Goose Creek High School from state power South Pointe High School, took over at Goose Creek. Winstead was a winner of five state crowns in seven seasons as defensive coordinator. He took over program with five wins total the last two seasons.
“The kids haven’t had a lot of success the last couple of years but you wouldn’t know it by how hard they’ve been working,” Winstead said.
Winstead is being asked to get the Gators back to prominence. They won a state championship in 2011 and assembled some of the better teams in the state under Chuck Reedy before he stepped down. Chris Candor’s first squad in 2015 advanced to the state semifinal before falling to eventual champion Fort Dorchester.
While Winstead was brought in from outside the Lowcountry, Stratford High School and Hanahan High School promoted from within with Dennie McDaniel and David Morbitzer respectively.
The Knights won two games in 2017 and the Hawks had four victories. Both improved in the win column under their new coaches.
The Knights finished McDaniel’s first season with a 4-7 mark after falling in the opening round of the playoffs at Summerville on Nov. 9. McDaniel said it was a solid start and not far off from what the coaching staff expected realistically. The victory total was one more than the previous two seasons combined.
“As far are our preseason expectations, we knew coming in we’d be outmatched in some games and other times we’d have a good chance,” McDaniel said. “If we played well, maybe we could have pulled out a few other games.”
Year No. 1 of the Morbitzer era on Murray Drive in Hanahan came to a close in the third round of the Class AAA football playoffs against Wade Hampton. The Hawks finished the season with an 8-4 mark, one more victory celebration than the two previous seasons combined.
“I commend them for everything they were able to accomplish,” Morbitzer said. “To win the region championship and make it three rounds in the playoffs sets a good foundation for the future of Hanahan Football.”
It was the first time the Hawks had been past the second round since 2012.
In SCISA, defensive coordinator Ryan Leaver took over the football program at Northwood Academy.
Stoots voted to Charleston Baseball Hall of Fame
Jerry Stoots has been a part of more victory celebrations than any other high school baseball coach in South Carolina history. Along the way, he’s racked up hundreds of memories and various awards.
His trophy case had to make room for one more plaque in late July. The Lowcountry coaching legend added another career achievement to his resume, earning a selection to the Charleston Baseball Hall of Fame.
“I never gave (career awards) any thought,” Stoots said. “I just looked forward to the next year after the season was over. I enjoyed all the seasons. I have had the good fortune to work with a lot of great assistants and had a lot of good kids too.”
A devout Christian, Stoots believes he’s simply been doing what he was led to do. His journey began around a half century ago and is still going through two short-lived retirements.
“People ask why you keep on doing what you’re doing but it’s what I feel like I’m supposed to be doing,” Stoots said. “I turned myself over to somebody bigger than me a lot of years ago. I believe doors just opened and I was invited to come in.”
He’s spent 45 seasons in the dugout, with stops at Stall High School, Northwood Academy, St. John’s Christian Academy and Oceanside Collegiate and has 892 career victories.
He first retired after winning almost 600 games, 15 region championships and one state title in 31 seasons at Stall. The Warriors played in two other state finals.
Two years away from the game, Stoots returned to the diamond to lead Northwood Academy and guided the Chargers for 11 seasons, engineering five straight trips to the state championship series, winning 261 games in all.
Again he retired. Again it lasted two years.
Then-St. John’s Christian athletics director Steve Guerry asked Stoots to head up the Cavaliers’ program and Stoots spent one season in Moncks Corner.
When a door opened to start a program from scratch at Oceanside Collegiate, Stoots jumped at the opportunity. The Sharks have been successful despite having no senior classes to this point.
Shell Camp
Former Goose Creek High School all-American offensive lineman Brandon Shell gave back to his community in July.
Shell, the Gators’ connection to the National Football League, hosted a free three-hour youth football camp on John Fulmer Field. Shell is in his third season with the New York Jets.
His inspiration for cranking up the summer camp was taking notice at the impact other Lowcountry stars have had on the towns they came from. Moncks Corner’s Ellington Elite camp has been a titanic hit, as has events put on by Summerville High School product A.J. Green and a trio of Fort Dorchester High School products.
“Just having Carlos (Dunlap), A.J. Green and those guys do things for their community, I wanted to do something for Goose Creek,” Shell said. “We wanted to let the kids from here come out and showcase their talent. There are a lot of talented kids out there. The way they move at this age, it’s pretty exciting. I’m ready to see how they do when they get older.”
The 26-year-old Shell encouraged a group of about 100 campers to aim for the sky no matter what direction their career path leads them.
“I want to leave y’all with one thing,” Shell said. “Always try to leave y’alls mark on whatever you do, whether it is football, whether it is basketball, whether you’re a school teacher or bus driver, a lawyer or doctor. Whatever you do be the best at that thing. Don’t let anybody doubt you and just keep working.”
He ended the day by signing autographs.
The 2011 GCHS graduate was taken by the Jets in April of 2016 following a standout career at the University of South Carolina.
Williamson achieves a first
Senior Hope Williamson is headed to the Show Me State after graduation.
Former Goose Creek High School wrestling coach Nick Geary believes it’s a fitting destination. She is the first female wrestler in Berkeley County to sign a national letter of intent in wrestling.
He said Williamson has had to show what she is about every day after stepping on to the wrestling mat as a sophomore. Williamson was rewarded for her efforts with an opportunity to wrestle for Lindenwood University’s women’s team.
“When a girl steps onto the wrestling mat of a boys team, they are often met with skepticism, doubt, and even resentment from both boys and girls alike,” Geary said, “but that didn’t matter to Hope. She showed up each day. She worked in the offseason and put time in the weight room. She wrestled with some of the best wrestlers in the state of South Carolina on a daily basis in the practice room and never made excuses.”
Williamson has recruited other girls in the school to join the wrestling team and won an individual state championship in a girls division as a sophomore.
“She encouraged other girls to join the team with her and, that same year, the girls squad placed atop the team standings at the girls state championships,” Geary said.
The Lady Gators finished No. 1 in the team standings Williamson’s junior year, too, as Williamson brought home a silver.
Outside of school, Williamson has spent the last two years traveling with the South Carolina girls’ national team, competing as far away as Oklahoma and Texas.
League Champs
One summer after rebooting the squad and placing fourth in the league, Charleston Post 166 was back on top in the summer of 2018.
Post 166 captured the League 1 crown with hard-fought victories at Walterboro in July 2. The league title was the fifth since 2011 for Post 166.
The club advanced to the second round of the playoffs and finished the summer with a 17-6 mark.
Post 166 coach David Horton pulled players from Cane Bay, Stratford and Summerville high schools to form the squad.
“I’m going to get out there and visit some of these other schools and try to convince them to play with us next year,” Horton said.
Horton said about two-thirds of the roster is eligible to return in 2019.
Lady Gators
Goose Creek High School’s dreams of a Class 5A state title defense died a painful death over two hours from home in February.
The GCHS girls basketball team squandered a 13-point lead in the second half to fall 55-53 against Spring Valley High School in the Class 5A Lower State championship inside Florence Civic Center. Spring Valley went on to win the state title.
A last-ditch 3-pointer from NBA range by Goose Creek’s Cali White was off the mark at the horn after Spring Valley left the door open with a pair of missed free throws on the other end with seven seconds left. It denied the Gators an opportunity to win it all for the second year in a row.
“Heartbreak is what makes you go out and work hard every day,” Goose Creek coach Tim Baldwin said. “You don’t want to experience the heartbreak so you go out and push yourself everyday so you don’t have to feel it. You’ve just got to go back and look at what you did wrong and fix it for next time.”
Wesolek reaches 1,000
Elysa Wesolek needed 12 points to get to 1,000 career points in January and didn’t dillydally.
The Northwood Academy senior basketball player knocked down a 3-pointer from the wing with under a minute left in the opening quarter to reach the scoring milestone in a 69-28 victory over visiting Cross High School. She showcased her versatility in pursuit of the dozen points, scoring on a drive, putting back a teammate’s miss, making free throws and also the one from long range.
Wesolek is now playing at South Carolina.
“The main thing about Elysa is she’s a hard worker,” Northwood Academy coach Ginnell Curtis said. “She’s a gym rat. She comes in early. She really puts the work in and it shows on the court. It’s made her a successful player.”
Wesolek was a key performer since setting foot on campus as a freshman. As a senior, she averaged 18.5 points, 9.2 rebounds, 3.5 steals and two blocks a game to power Northwood Academy to the SCISA Class AAA semifinals in 2017-18.
