Carolinas Top 25: The top high school football teams in North, South Carolina — in one poll

The starting quarterback, leading running back and top receiver all graduated.

But shed no tears for Dutch Fork High’s football program.

“They’re still the team to beat,” Aaron Brand said last week. “They’re always the team to beat.”

Dutch Fork, South Carolina’s 5A state football champion six of the past seven seasons, is ranked No. 1 in the preseason edition of the new Carolinas Top 25.

Each week this season, with input from The Observer, The News & Observer and The State, we will rank the states’ best teams, open to public and private schools of all sizes. The rankings will appear across all of McClatchy’s publications in North and South Carolina.

In this first ranking of the Carolinas’ best prep football teams, Brand seems like a good place to start.

▪ Two decades ago, he served as an assistant to then-Independence High coach Tommy Knotts as he built one of the nation’s most successful prep football programs.

▪ Brand took over as head coach at Chambers High (then known as Vance) in 2014 and compiled a 55-18 record in five seasons, including a 2018 appearance in the 4AA state championship game.

▪ In 2019, he moved to Irmo High to rebuild the Yellowjackets’ once-powerful program. After a 3-7 start, Irmo has gone 22-11 over the last three seasons.

▪ And Irmo is just 7 miles away from Dutch Fork.

So what about Dutch Fork, and how does South Carolina football compare to its North Carolina counterpart?

“I’ll say this,” Brand began. “I still think North Carolina has a bit better talent bed than South Carolina.”

“But,” he is quick to add, “We get the staffing down here. I get to pay 21 people (coaches). And wages are better than they are, up the road.”

The financial investment, along with good facilities, helps put South Carolina prep football on a more even footing with the Tar Heel state, Brand said.

The first Carolinas Top 25 has 13 teams from North Carolina and 12 from the Palmetto State. Only one — second-ranked Providence Day — is a private school.

Brand said Knotts is probably “a bit more mellow” than he was two decades ago at Independence but said little else has changed on Knotts-coached teams.

“They work hard, and he (Knotts) is great at adjusting to changing circumstances,” Brand said. “Dutch Fork is not easy to beat.”

Brand said the Irmo program had fallen on tough times when he arrived.

“This used to be one of the state’s best football programs,” he said. “When I got here, we had to turn things around.”

The Yellowjackets were 3-7 in 2019 but climbed to 8-4 last year. They’ll be young this year, but Irmo has a college-recruited quarterback – Brand’s son A.J., a junior – and good times appear to be ahead.

Dutch Fork has a number of linemen and several key players off its defense returning. The Silver Foxes’ defense looked sharp last weekend in a 14-14 scrimmage tie with Northwestern, the No. 9-ranked team in this week’s poll.

Brand said Gaffney, ranked No. 5 and the last team to beat Dutch Fork (in the 2021 state finals), Northwestern, Summerville (ranked No. 8), South Florence (No. 10), Fort Dorchester (No. 11), South Pointe (No. 12), Greenville (No. 16) and Spartanburg (No. 17) also are state championship contenders.

Two cross-state meetings of Top 25 teams are on the opening week’s schedule, incidentally.

No. 2 Providence Day faces No. 9 Northwestern on Saturday night at Bank of America Stadium. A short distance across Uptown, at Memorial Stadium, No. 4 Hough will face No. 21 Byrnes.

The Carolinas Top 25

The Carolinas Top 25 is compiled by longtime high school football analyst Chris Hughes with input from high school football writers in North and South Carolina in McClatchy newspapers.