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Wade Hampton to open new fieldhouse this fall

By David Shelton

Staff Writer

Varnville – Forgive Wade Hampton High athletic director Steve Kemmerlin for being a little giddy as the 2010-11 school year begins. He has good reason.

Kemmerlin and the other members of the Wade Hampton athletic staff are excited about the opening of a brand new field house at the school, complete with locker rooms, coaches offices, a training room and other necessary amenities.

“This is a great thing for our school and for our athletes and something that has been needed for quite some time,” said Kemmerlin, who has been the athletic director at Wade Hampton for 14 years. “It’s the first new one we’ve had since this school was built. Our old one was out-dated and we needed to catch up to the rest of the AA world. We suffered some last year with no real facility while this was being built but it was worth it. This is a great new building for us.”

Kemmerlin says the moving in process began this summer and things should be 100 percent operational in time for preseason practices in football and volleyball.

Counting junior varsity and middle school athletics, Wade Hampton will field about 25 athletic teams this coming year. Kemmerlin estimates nearly 300 of the school’s 750 students will be involved in athletics over the next year.

“We have a lot of participation and a lot of interest so we offer as many sports as we can,” said Kemmerlin, who also has been the school’s baseball coach for 26 years. “We give equal respect and attention to all of our sports and all of our athletes. We want them participating in as many things as they can handle and still do the work academically.”

Wade Hampton is adding junior varsity girl’s soccer next spring and has hired Barry Whittington to be the coach.

Kemmerlin’s administrative assistant is Peggy Stanley and the athletic trainer this year will be Jackie Hatfield.

Returning as the head football coach is Jim Shuman, who also coaches boy’s track in the spring. Members of his football coaching staff include I.W Mathis, Robert Gibson, Don Sral, Shelby Strother, Barry Brunson, Harry Sprouse, Eric Scaife and Rob Hanna.  Hanna is a new member of the staff this year.

Strother doubles as the varsity boy’s basketball coach and Brunson is the junior varsity basketball coach.

Sral is the school’s golf coach and Scaife will be the school’s strength coach.

Bert Burch returns as an assistant baseball coach, having worked with Kemmerlin for more than 20 years. Burch runs the junior varsity program and also coaches boys and girls cross country.

Ramon Gray is the varsity girl’s basketball coach while Cassandra Bolden, now in her 28th year at Wade Hampton, is the softball and volleyball coach.

Stacy Strickland is the boy’s soccer coach while Michael Williams is the junior varsity boy’s soccer coach.

Jack Pierson coaches the varsity girl’s soccer team and Myrriah Hanna is the girl’s track coach.

Anthrown Roberts is the junior varsity girl’s basketball coach and Jan Ulmer is back as an assistant softball coach.

Michelle Young will direct the varsity and junior varsity cheerleading squads, at least early on. Kemmerlin will try to add another cheer coach early in the school year as an opening just recently occurred.

 

 

ies in that game, most notably to top running back Dondre Brown. Brown, who rushed for 91 yards in his team's lone win this season, over Estill, benefited from a bye week and returns to the lineup against Barnwell.

In Brown's absence, sophomore Corinthian Williams took over as leading rusher. He's also excelled on defense, leading the team in tackles from the linebacker spot.


Shuman recognized the play of junior quarterback Stevephen Walker, a first-year starter at that position. "He's making good decisions," his coach says. Another player cited for his play is center Austin Jarrell, who's done a "great job" both on the offensive and defensive lines.


Fellow offensive lineman Marion Young also drew praise from his coach. "He's really stood out on the offensive line," Shuman notes.  


Linebacker Carl Stevens, the Red Devils' leading tackler last season and among the team leaders in that category this season, has also performed well at fullback. Meanwhile, five-foot- eight defensive player Jerome Frier doesn't let his lack of size hinder his play.  "He hits and plays hard," Shuman says. "He's aggressive."


That style of play can also be ascribed to Curtis Lawson. His coach says he plays "really, really hard."


As Wade Hampton enters its "second season," Shuman is buoyed by the return of several key players.


"There was no better time to have a bye week," Shuman says. "That allowed us to get healthy again. Being healthy is the key to us being competitive and making a playoff run."