Waccamaw High
Warriors’ bus rides getting longer
Waccamaw High School sports teams currently have to travel an average of 66 miles to get to games at the other schools in Region V-AAA.
That average is skewed however, since the region includes Georgetown, which is only 14 miles from Waccamaw. Take out Georgetown and on average its about 79 miles to Dillon, Aynor, Loris and Marlboro County.
That average is about to increase to 85 miles per school for the next two years after the S.C. High School League shuffled its classifications and regions during its bi-annual realignment process.
Waccamaw will move into Region VI-AA starting in August, joining Dillon, Marlboro County, East Clarendon, Lake City and Manning.
Marlboro County will remain the farthest trip at 115 miles from Waccamaw High.
Warriors coach Joel Sapp expects boys soccer games will only take about a quarter of the time it takes to travel back and forth to the other schools.
“Hopefully my players can make use of the time to do schoolwork,” he said. “I hope that the long times on the bus help us create a stronger bond between the whole program.”
Sapp is not expecting a lot of competition from the new region. But that may be a good thing.
“The low level of competition will allow us to grow experience for some players who may not be ready to play the best competition that we face throughout the season,” Sapp said.
The main reason for the region shift is that Waccamaw was moved down from Class 3A to Class 2A, along with Dillon and Marlboro County. Georgetown, Aynor and Loris will all remain in Class 3A.
Waccamaw wrestling coach Alex Rutherford said moving to a new region is always a “scary endeavor.”
“For wrestling it can be tough because some of the schools don’t have teams which means we are losing competition and we know have to work in drive time as well,” Rutherford said. “I am excited for the future though as this region puts us in a position to fight for a title in most sports and find a different level of competition.”
