Odds and Ends
Ware Shoals School Dist 51 to Name Baseball Field in Honor of Lou Brissie… Probably few but the most ardent baseball fans know of the former major league pitcher Lou Brissie who was raised in the Ware Shoals area and attended PC for 2 years…. He actually began playing for Riegel Textile in the old textile league at a very young age… He attracted the attention of Connie Mack and the Philadelphia Athletics in 1941 before he went to PC… After pitching for PC for 2 years he enlisted in the army and was seriously injured during an artillery barrage while fighting in Italy in 1944… He was left for dead but was eventually rescued only to wake up in a hospital bed in with his left leg bones shattered in multiple places… As doctors were about to amputate the leg he pleaded with them not to because he was a baseball player… Penicillin and 23 surgeries saved his leg and after extensive rehab, he went on to have a successful all-star career in the majors retiring in 1953… His story does not end there though as this member of the “greatest generation” went on to serve as the National Director of the American Legion baseball program and even today goes to the VA Medical Center in the Augusta area where he loves not only for treatment but to help counsel and inspire the wounded warriors of today who find themselves there recovering from injuries much as he did all those years ago… There is more I could say but time does not allow… The reason I brought him up is next Monday, Veterans Day at 11:00 am the Ware Shoals School District 51 and the Town of Ware Shoals will turn out at Riegel Stadium to honor their native son by naming the baseball field there the Lou Brissie Field… The public is invited as they honor this veteran and all the veterans he represents… For more information about Lou, click on the following links: Lou Brissie Link 1, Lou Brissie Link 2, Lou Brissie Link 3 … By the way, the monies needed to do this including a permanent plague and new baseball scoreboard honoring him were all raised in a very short period of time from private donations.
Last High School Media Poll of the Season…. With the playoffs beginning tomorrow for all classifications the final media poll was release for high school football in the state… The poll follows:
S.C. PREP MEDIA FOOTBALL POLL
Class AAAA
1. Northwestern, 2. Byrnes, 3. Goose Creek, 4. Spring Valley, 5. South Florence, 6. North Augusta, 7. Stratford, 8. Hillcrest, 9. Dutch Fork, 10. South Pointe.
Others receiving votes: Gaffney, Summerville, Boiling Springs, York.
Class AAA
1. Daniel, 2. (tie) Socastee, Hanahan, 4. Hartsville, 5. Strom Thurmond, 6. Marlboro County, 7. Belton-Honea Path, 8. Orangeburg-Wilkinson, 9. Crestwood, 10. Blue Ridge.
Others receiving votes: Greer, Chapman, Chapin, North Myrtle Beach.
Class AA
1. Fairfield Central, 2. Dillon, 3. Silver Bluff, 4. Chesnee, 5. Batesburg-Leesville, 6. Bishop England, 7. Timberland, 8. Ninety Six, 9. Woodland, 10. Loris.
Others receiving votes: Newberry, Saluda.
Class A
1. Christ Church, 2. Carvers Bay, 3. Lamar, 4. St. Joseph’s, 5. Hemingway, 6. Allendale-Fairfax, 7. Williston-Elko, 8. Johnsonville, 9. Hunter-Kinard-Tyler, 10. Estill.
Others receiving votes: Wagener-Salley.
Local Sports Schedule:
LDHS
9th Grade & JV Football host Greenwood 5:30 / 7:30
This & That:
Laurens County Touchdown Club… The next meeting of the Laurens County Touchdown Club will be tomorrow November 8th at Lakeside Country Club at noon… In addition to the local high school coaches recapping games from the last two weeks they will also bring their standout players from those games… Coach Harold Nichols of PC is also scheduled to be there also bringing players and recapping the recent Blue Hose games… The featured speaker will be Kyle Kallander, Commissioner of the Big South Conference… It is not too late to join the club… Call Marlene Owen at 833-2716 for more information.
Broadcast Reminders:
WPCC: Be sure to join Buddy, Jimmy, Jason and BJ at 6:45 Friday night as they get you ready for all the action from Wilder Stadium as the Red Devils will be hosting the AC Flora falcons in first round action in the Class-AAA playoffs…. A lot will be on the line as the Red Devils will shooting to extend their 4-game winning streak… Also, don’t forget to join them Saturday morning at 8:00 for the Saturday Morning Rewind Show live from Whitefords of Clinton… They will review all the local high school action from the night before and have one the CHS Red Devil coaches on hand to discuss Friday night’s game… They will also talk about college action on Saturday… Then stay tuned at 9:00 am for an encore presentation of the previous night’s game.
WLBG: Be sure to tune into the Friday Night Insider Show with Mike Hughes as your host at 5:30… He will have interviews with the coaches from Laurens Academy, Ware Shoals High and Clinton High about their game Friday night… He will also have the one and only Elmo P. Arbagoogle and his ”predications” of local high school and college contest… Then at 6:05 we will join Stan Olenek for his high school pregame show… After Stan, we will have Stanley’s Stinkers where Stanley tells us who is going to lose…. We will then go live to Greenwood for all the action as the Raiders take on the Eagles of Greenwood High in the final regular season game… A win should give the raiders a home playoff game next week while a loss means we will most likely be on the road…Doug Holiday will do the play-by-play and King Dixon will join him for color commentary while Mike Hughes reports from the side lines and Philip Dean will bring you all the statistics… Be sure to take your FM radio and pick us up on the in-stadium transmitter at 95.7.
Internet rebroadcast of Laurens game… WLBG will also rebroadcast this Friday night’s game on Saturday morning at 7:00 am and again Sunday at 2:00 pm on the internet only… It will not be rebroadcast at 860 am on your radio… You must go to www.wlbg.com and click on the “Listen Live” link just under the top of page banner on the right side..
If you have any comments, suggestions, or want to reports scores, please contact me via email at: sports@wlbg.com or text me at 864-981-3470.