Charter, private schools back in SC football state title games. Change is coming soon

History will be made when Gray Collegiate and Oceanside Collegiate meet in the Class 2A football championship on Thursday.

It will be the first time two public charter schools have played each other for a football state championship. It’s also expected to be the last time they’ll face off for a football title at one of the state’s lower athletic classifications.

Last month, the S.C. High School League executive committee voted 12-4 to approve an out-of-zone multiplier, a formula that will take each student who lives outside of a school’s assigned attendance zone and count them as three for total enrollment purposes.

The move, which goes into effect for the 2024-25 school year, is expected to inflate a school’s official enrollment figure and — in some cases — raise that school up a level or two in classification for athletics.

The landmark decision to add that multiplier is largely in response to fair play concerns in the state’s Class A and 2A classifications, where charter and private schools have had an arguably disproportionate amount of success in winning state championships in recent years.

While the multiplier rule will apply to all schools, it’s expected to directly impact the SCHSL’s charter and private school members. In promotional material from 2020, Gray Collegiate touted its student population as being “comprised of scholars from 14 Midlands school districts.”

In Gray’s case, the change will bump them up at least to Class 3A and possibly Class 4A. Oceanside, located in Mount Pleasant, is expected to at least move to 3A as well. And among the SCHSL’s private school members, Christ Church, St. Joseph’s and Southside Christian will likely move up from Class A, with Bishop England moving up from Class 2A.

Who moves up and what the altered classifications look like will be revealed in the next two months as the S.C. High School League finalizes its realignment process while factoring in the new multiplier rule.

SCHSL commissioner Jerome Singleton told The State on Wednesday that the league hopes to reveal preliminary region and classification placements for 2024-26 to schools in December before the Christmas holiday. Schools can appeal their placements in the weeks after, with the finalized list likely to be figured out in January.

“This is different. I am sure there will be some learning curves to it,” Singleton said. “I’m sure there will be things that we didn’t recognize that will be a challenge that will be a challenge.”

Traditional vs. charter and private debate

This fall, private or charter schools won state titles in Class A and 2A girls volleyball, Class A and 2A girls tennis, Class A and 2A boys cross country and Class A, 4A girls cross country, Class 3A boys and girls swimming, and Class 4A boys volleyball, which was a championship sanctioned sport for the first time with just two total classifications.

The number will increase at least by one with Gray or Oceanside getting guaranteed to win the 2A football title. The two schools played last year in the boys basketball and baseball championships. Gray won basketball, while Oceanside won the baseball crown.

The criticism is from whispers of recruiting tactics that charters and privates can (or do) use to build athletic rosters, while traditional schools are largely confined to pulling students and athletes from their assigned attendance zones.

Christ Church, located in Greenville, goes after its second straight Class A championship on Friday afternoon against Johnsonville.

“Christ Church has got a good football team, and it is what it is,” Johnsonville coach Ken Cribb told The State this week. “But we are going in with the mindset to play hard, play the game right way and see what happens.”

The year 2019 was the last time the Class A and 2A football title games featured all traditional public school teams.

After last year’s Class A football championship, Cribb sounded off on the matter after his team’s 43-20 loss to Christ Church. The comments went viral on social media with both sides of the argument weighing in.

“We are the public school state champs,” Cribb told reporters in 2022. “It is a shame. If this happened on the 4A and 5A level, they would burn the High School League down. It is what it is. I’m proud of my guys.”

Cribb didn’t back away from the comments this week and thinks the multiplier will help things going forward.

“The multiplier is a good start in the right direction and even across the board,” he said.

The multiplier is fair because it it the same for all schools, Singleton said, but it is too early to say which schools will be moving up and where the league will draw the line on how many schools per each classification. There is no talk of expanding from five classifications, he said.

“We will see how the numbers will shake out,” he said. “It can make a difference. It is not isolated and will affect every member school. Any member school that has a student that doesn’t live in that attendance area will be multiplied. ... All of our schools have those types of kids. It will be interesting. All schools are going to be be impacted, so what does the movement look like?”

Gray players ‘deserve this opportunity’

Gray Collegiate football coach Adam Holmes has dealt with the criticism about the school and his team’s program for much of the year, but that isn’t going take away from the opportunity for the War Eagles to win their second title in the last three seasons.

“We are playing for a state championship. That is all that matters here,” he said. “I think the biggest thing is that we have been able to overcome a lot of things this year to get to this point. We played top quality teams out of state and then teams in-state like Strom Thurmond, Abbeville (in the playoffs) to get us ready to play another top team in Oceanside.

“We aren’t going to let anything that people want to say ... take away what our guys have done. They have worked extremely hard, done everything that they are supposed to do. They deserve this opportunity this Thursday night.”

It’s been a challenging and unique year for the War Eagles after teams in Region 4-2A took matters into their own hands and refused to play Gray in football and any other sport this year. Gray football helmets have “TBD” stickers on them as a reminder and motivation after the region schools put “To Be Determined” next to Gray Collegiate on their initial schedules before deciding to not play them.

The SCHSL executive committee voted to let Gray replace those games (which count as forfeits) with other opponents. In football, the War Eagles ended up traveling to nationally ranked IMG Academy and Clearwater Academy, both in Florida. Gray will host IMG next year.

Gray also played St. John’s in the Washington, D.C., area and hosted Portal (Ga.). The War Eagles went 1-3 in those games but were just happy to be playing, especially against quality competition. Holmes and players thought those games and long trips were a chance to build chemistry during the season.

“If we win this, it just builds more for the program,” Gray Collegiate receiver Jamarious Lockett said. “We’ve got a lot of eyes on us and everyone wants us to fail. But we are just going to come out and compete.”

State championship schedule

All games at SC State

Thursday, Nov. 30

—Class 2A—

Gray Collegiate vs. Oceanside Collegiate, 7 p.m.

Friday, Dec. 1

—Class A—

Christ Church vs. Johnsonville, 2 p.m.

—Class 5A—

Dutch Fork vs. White Knoll, 8 p.m.

Saturday, Dec. 2

—Class 4A—

Westside vs. South Florence, noon

—Class 3A—

Daniel vs. Camden, 7 p.m.

Tickets, directions, how to watch championship games

▪ THE ADDRESS: S.C. State’s Oliver C Dawson Stadium is located at 300 College Ave, Orangeburg, SC 29115

▪ TICKETS: $15, can be purchased at gofan.co or through each of the schools before gameday. Gates will open for spectators no earlier than one hour prior to posted game time. Expect delays and long lines getting into the stadium.

▪ PARKING: Parking is $10 per car. Parking pass available through Gofan.co. Vehicles with trailers, pull behind grills and RV’s will cost $20. Parking lots open two hours prior to the first game of the day.

▪ TV: All five games will be carried on Sinclair Broadcasting stations across South Carolina. Affiliates are WMYA (My40 Asheville-Greenville), WACH (57.2/1250/Columbia), WCIV (MyTV Charleston) and WWMB (CW21, Florence/Myrtle Beach). The Dutch Fork-White Knoll game will be broadcast locally on WACH Fox’s regular channel.

▪ INTERNET: All five games will be streamed on www.nfhsnetwork.com. A subscription ($10) is required.

▪ RADIO: The South Florence-Westside game will will be on 96.3 FM in Florence and on the radio station’s Facebook page. WPUB Kool 102.7 FM in Kershaw County will carry the Camden-Daniel game and stream it online.

▪ WEATHER: According to weather.com, Thursday 63 degrees for high, partly cloudy. Friday, PM rain (61 percent chance) and high of 70. Saturday, 97 percent chance of rain and high of 71.