Belton-Honea Path off to solid start under new head coach Chad Roper

Dennis Brunson hssr.com Associate Editor • April 23, 2025

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Bears 11-9 on the season and 5-4 in Region 1-AAA

Honea Path – When Chad Roper returned to his alma mater, Belton-Honea Path High School, to become its baseball head coach, he inherited a team that was almost as new to the BHP varsity program as he was.

“We have a team with not a lot of varsity game experience from last year,” said Roper, a second-round selection of the Minnesota Twins out of high school in the 1992 Major League Baseball draft. “The strength of the team so far has been throwing strikes and making teams put balls in play. The defense has been pretty good so far and the offense has been OK.”

The Bears are 11-9 on the season and 5-4 in Region 1-AAA.

The majority of the innings were spread out among five pitchers. Senior right-hander Boyd Maynard had worked 27 1/3 innings, junior righty Aidan Jenkins 22 2/3, senior righty Ethan McElveen and freshman righty Jud Lowie both had 15 2/3, and senior righty Madox Vipperman 14.

The Bears walked only 40 batters through their first 100-plus innings. Maynard had a 1.28 earned run average, McElveen was at 1.34, Jenkins at 1.85, Lowie at 3.13 and Vipperman at 5.50.

Junior leftfielder Preston Dixon and senior centerfielder Tye Kelley lead the offense. The lefty-swinging Dixon had a .348 batting average, while Kelley had a team high .389 mark.

Maynard was batting .302, Vipperman .294, senior rightfielder Colby Bates .278, senior catcher Eli Satterfield .265, McElveen .200, Lowie .194 and junior second baseman Rhett Turner .188.

BHP SOFTBALL ROLLING ALONG

The BHP softball team, the defending AAA state champion, was off to a strong start. The Bears won 18 of their first 21 games with the only losses coming to defending AAAAA state champion Summerville and perennial AAAAA power Byrnes.

“We’ve had a good 1st half of the season,” said head coach Jarad Jennings. “We have a tough schedule ahead of us to finish up the regular season. We need to get healthy and be playing our best softball by the end of the month to make a run in the playoffs.”

BHP, which opened 4-0 in region play, was hitting just over .300 as a team and averaging seven runs a contest. Leading the way was Emma Jo Evans with a .477 average, while Carsen Foster was batting .355.

Addi Vaughn and Carli Smith have been handling the pitching duties The team earned run average was 2.70.

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First Baptist Hires New AD and Football Coach

By David Shelton • July 30, 2025

By David Shelton Senior Writer Charleston – First Baptist School has new leadership within its football program and athletic department for the coming 2025-26 school year. Kevin Mapp was hired as the new head football coach in the early spring and Jay Godbolt was hired as the new athletic director at the start of the summer. Mapp has extensive coaching experience on both the college and high school levels while also working in law enforcement. First Baptist is his first head coaching position. Mapp last coached defensive linemen at James Island Charter High and has had coaching stints at James Madison, Hampden-Sydney, Georgetown, Marshall, Missouri State and Coastal Carolina. Mapp graduated from James Madison and was a defensive lineman on the 2004 Division I-AAA (now FCS) national championship team. “Coaching has always been my passion,” Mapp said. “Ever since I was playing, I wanted to be a coach. I have always found a way to coach while working in law enforcement. I’ve been fortunate to have had the opportunities to do both.” Mapp has been with the Charleston County police department for the last 10 years. He took some time away from coaching to start a family. “I felt like First Baptist was the perfect fit for me and my family,” Mapp says. “It’s a great opportunity at a great place. The kids here work hard and there is a lot of support from the administration. I’m excited to be the head football coach at First Baptist.” Mapp has hired coordinators on both sides of the ball. Will McCombs , once the head coach of the program, will call the offensive plays. Chris Hart comes over from James Island as the defensive coordinator. “Our numbers are improving and the kids are working hard,” Mapp said. “I feel like we can be a competitive team. It’s year one of the building process.” Godbolt has been a coach and athletic director in the Charleston area for nearly two decades. As the boys basketball coach at Charleston Collegiate, Godbolt coached three state championship teams. He also has been a coach and athletic director at Lowcountry Leadership Academy. Godbolt has more than 450 career victories as a head basketball coach. Current First Baptist basketball coach Antoine Saunders was Godbolt’s assistant at Charleston Collegiate.