Athletic Director Molly Miller has outstanding coaches who believe in the core values of Christ Church and the vision statement for CCE.

Cav’s head coach Quinn Hatfield.

By Neill Kirkpatrick Special to the HSSR Greenville – Some may have expected a drop off for the states premier boys tennis program in 2025 , but the Christ Church Boys and new coach Reverend Wallace Adams-Riley showed that the more things change the more they stay the same as they made it to the AAA upper state championship match in their first year in the new classification. When asked what challenges the first-year coach faced he told the HSSR, “the biggest challenge was the rain.” “I had such ready, steady support from our Athletic Director, Molly Miller, and her Athletic Department team; from Jimmy Burford , my predecessor as coach; from my assistant coach, Rae Sobocinski, who is an experienced tennis coach and player (and the coach of our girls’ varsity tennis); and from the parents of our players, that I’m happy to say things went quite smoothly,” said coach. Coach continued, “Our boys played hard all season, right on up through our match against Clinton in the Upper State Championship game. We had several additions to the varsity team giving us 17 players throughout the season. The teams three captains were seniors Tucker Hendrix, Carson Bowers, and Hutch Lyman. They brought leadership and commitment to the team and they helped show the younger players on the team, the culture of Christ Church boys tennis. Bowers and Lyman were returning top seven players from 2024. This season Bowers played at number two seed while Lyman was the most improved player this year, playing at various times the number five singles and the number two doubles with Bowers. Hendrix returned to the court after a years absence and played at the number three seed. He will head to Clemson next season to play football as a preferred walk on. Krish Patel was a returning seeded player from 2024 and was slotted at the number four seed for the Cav’s this season. Joining Hendrix as newcomers to this years team was the Cav’s top seeded player in Judd Windham. The sophomore also started at forward on the Cav’s boys soccer team that also made the upper state finals. Paul Fraunberger and Omar Rida moved up from the JV team. Fraunberger played at the number five singles while Rida played at number seven. Ellis Trail and Powers McKissick will be back next season. They provided depth this past but will be looking to nab one of the seeds on next year’s team. “The one thing I have loved is the team’s spirit. There’s an enthusiasm that is contagious and I have appreciated their commitment, all of which has continued to develop over the course of the season. One particularly encouraging aspect of the team’s culture is the way they have welcomed in and encouraged the younger players,” said coach. “We had 17 players with us through the season, with another couple of players coming up from our JV team to join us for practices, so I am excited about the future of our team. Next year we aim to make it to the State Championship.” .

 By Neill Kirkpatrick Special to the HSSR Greenville – When you have won the third most boys’ soccer state championship in state history (14) at both the class A and class AA levels expectations are always high because the success has always been there but when you move up another level to AAA expectations may be tapered a bit. However, at Christ Church Episcopal the goals and expectations remain the same. “My expectations have not changed with the move up to AAA,” said CCE Head Coach Russell Shelley . “My first priority is to establish a positive culture, foster positive relations, and to focus on the player and his development. If we are successful in those pursuits the wins will take care of themselves.” Coach continued, “The transition to 3A has been pretty seamless, and I am happy with where we are as a team. I intentionally put together a difficult schedule. We scheduled several 5A schools, and I have been happy with our play against these schools.” The Cavaliers currently sit at 7-7 overall and 5-2 in region 2 AAA after dropping a tough one to region leading Powdersville (15-1/7-0). As coach pointed out, that schedule was difficult as every team they have lost to has a winning record and is competing for a region championship. “We are certainly competitive and want to win but testing ourselves against the best teams we can play is of the utmost importance,” coach Shelley. “We are playing a more attacking brand of soccer and as a result are creating better chances.” What also has been a plus for the Cavaliers is the return of their three senior captains Payne Hornish, Elliott Jeray , and Rodrigo Marques. They have played in back-to-back state championship games so their experience in big games has certainly helped their younger teammates. All three are playing at a high level on the pitch. Hornish and Marques are also returning All State selections at defense and midfield, respectively. While Jeray plays on the defensive side of field alongside Hornish. Mateo Gartner Lavina is a junior forward playing well and is one of the top offensive threats on the pitch for the Cavs. He has an outstanding sophomore season. Junior keeper William Ossman has been solid in net all season. He and the defense have not allowed more than three goals in any game this season despite playing some very good offensive teams. He has five shutouts on the season Sophomores Hudson Temple, Alex Aquino , and Sheamus Schellinger have also established themselves as solid starters. Temple and Schellinger are at midfield while Aquino plays forward. Temple also sees time on the defensive side of the pitch. Freshmen midfielder Sam Sutton is midfield has established himself as our starting 10. Rounding out the Cav’s roster are seniors Alex Montgomery, Garrett Long and William Mims, juniors Bernardo Pompeu, Alexander Schmoll-Nassar, Ludwig Marschner, Ian Tucker, and Julian Monsell and sophomores Judd Windham, and Holden Hughes and freshmen Phen Wunder and Griffin Boyd. The Cav’s have four games remaining in the season with three of them being region contests. Two of the three region games will be against rival St. Joseph’s Catholic School. The teams split their regular season matches last season but St. Joseph’s won the rubber match in the state finals. They will travel Palmetto (region contest) and AAAAA River Bluff. The Cavs can capture the second seed from region 2AAA if they can win their remaining region games. They will be a team to watch come playoff time as they know what it takes to make a deep run.

By Neill Kirkpatrick Special to the HSSR Greenville – Spring sports time in South Carolina is always a special time of year as it starts out when the weather is still cold and unpredictable but as it warms up flowers bloom, the air is crisp and at Christ Church Episcopal they are looking for another state championship in one or more of their spring sports. The Spring Sports at CCE consist of Boy’s Golf, Boy’s Tennis, Boys and Girls Soccer, Boys and Girls Lacrosse and Boys and Girls Track and field and the Cavalier’s have won an incredible 65 state championships in six of those sports and have finished runner ups another 50 times in all eight of those sports. Boys Golf and Tennis have won the most state titles in state history with 20 and 25 respectively while the boys soccer team won a national record 11 consecutive state championships. This spring several of the Cavs sports are having outstanding seasons and looking to make deep runs in the playoffs with an eye on another state championship for the Cavs trophy case. Girls soccer is off to a great start at 10-2-1/7-0 and will looking to play in their fourth straight championship game. They are led by seniors Amelia Spinks and Laura Morgan and juniors Catherine Morgan and Sophia Tzouvelekas and sophomore Sophia Mahfood. The girls Lacrosse team is off to a 10-5/5-1 record and is looking to make another deep run in the playoffs. They are led by senior captains Foster Miller, Kathryn Toomey and junior captain Sydney Shaw. The baseball is currently in fourth place in region 4 AAA play with three more region contests and two out regions games before the playoffs begin. They have played a tough schedule to get them ready for the playoffs. Last year the got hot in the playoffs and made the upper state finals. They are led Carter Phillips , Bo Lowrance, Blake Foral, Brady Cisson and Chris Killian. Phillips is the team’s top hitter with a .484 average while Lowrance is also hitting right at .400. The boys tennis team is breaking in a new coach as well as new several new starters. Krish Patel, Ellis Trail and the doubles team of Carson Bowers and Hutch Lyman all return. Patel was the number three seed last season. The boy’s lacrosse team sits at 7-7 currently with two teams games left before the playoffs. They made the second-round last season. Seniors Will Marquet, Aiden Feltman, Ryan Doherty, JT Harrell lead a young team.

By Neill Kirkpatrick Special to the HSSR  Greenville – The Christ Church Episcopal Lady Cavalier’s lacrosse team has had their season end in the state AAAA semi finals the last two years and they lost 60% of their offensive production so expectations might be tempered heading into the 2025 season, however, head coach Molly Miller has built a program that reloads with the same expectations every year. The Lady Cav’s finished with 12-6/ 4-1 record last season. “While competing for a state championship is always a priority, we try not to look too far down the road so we focus on each game in front of us and what we need to do to get better,” said coach Miller. “Our expectations are always to be better as team each time we step off the field and if we do that everything else will take care of itself.” Coach continued, “We have 17 girls who are great teammates, competitive, hardworking, willing to learn, and committed to improving. You can't ask for much more as a coach. I am excited to see how they come together as team and how far we can go.” The Lady Cav’s have gotten off to a good start to the season at 4-0/1-0 having beaten three AAAAA schools in the process. They are scoring 13 goals a game but the key to the start has been their defense. They have held the opponent to 9 goals or less three times. They host 5-2 AAAAA Spartanburg before they play three consecutive region contest with two being on the road at Oceanside Collegiate and Academic Magnet before they host AAAAA TL Hanna. Seniors Foster Miller and Kathryn Toomey are the team leaders and two of the teams three captains. Miller is a returning second team All State attacker, first team all upper state and All region. She is the teams leading returning offensive threat. Last season she was second goals with 46, second in assists with 22 and second in total points with 68. She is a gifted offensive player when looking to score or trying to find a teammate. Toomey is the teams stopper on defense. She is a returning second team all upper state and an all-region selection. She was second last season in ground balls. Junior Sydney Shaw is returning all-region attacker while fellow junior Amelia Koch was all region on defense. Shaw is the team’s third captain and last season she scored a total of 13 points. She also plays on the basketball team. The rest of the starting line up is made up of underclassmen. Two juniors Lexie Sobocinski and Catherine Easterling are new to the team but have fit in really well with their teammates. Easterling is a starter while Sobocinski adds depth off the bench and is sometime starter. Sophomore starters are Kate Marguet at attacker , Julia Davis at defense , Pearson Glenn at midfield , Mae Hatfield at attacker , JJ Nessmith at midfield , and Maggie Chernez at goal keeper. Hatfield and Nessmith each scored 10 goals last season and finished the year with 12 points each. Each was on the team last year but they’ve adjusted their positions and/or roles for the 2025 season. Chernez is one of the top keepers in the state. As a freshman she had 65 saves and allowed only 8 goals a game. She has been better this season allowing less than 7 goals per contest. Also new to the team and the starting lineup are freshmen Ella Brashier and Adelaide de Brux they have shown a lot of positives in our first few games. They add depth and athleticism to the team. The rest of the Lady Cav’s lineup are sophomores Saddler Fox and Sullivan Cunningham and freshman Alexis Stathakis. Fox is a three sports athlete, also playing basketball and soccer. This past season she averaged six points and four rebounds on the hardwood while Cunningham and Stathakis are two sport athletes. “Experience is something we will gain as the season goes along. We need to continue to build confidence in our young players and that is where senior leadership comes into play,” said coach Miller.

Christ Church looks for continued success in move to AAA

By Billy G. Baker Publisher Florence — Powdersville defeated the Christ Church boys’ basketball team for the third time this season, 58-57, to advance to the AAA state finals against Keenan to be played on March, 7 in the Florence Civic Center at 8 p.m. and this game was highly competitive from start-to-finish. Powdersville head coach Austin Anderson shared his thoughts after the game, “I felt like we played good transition defense, and we made things happen on offense in the second half and it was just an awesome win for our program,” said the coach. “We played Christ Church twice in our region tis season. We won by two the first game and 10 the second game so we have competitive games with them all season. “This game required mental execution and solid defense and a game like this will get us ready to play a well-coached team like Keenan,” said Coach Anderson. “We need to play well against them for sure. “The biggest improvement in this team over last year is that we really pride in our defense,” said Coach Anderson. “We do not always take as much pride in our transition game but we do in our defense. Man, we are just a hungry basketball team and we came into the season with some big goals. “Our key against Keenan is to rebound and execute and keep our defense at a high level,” said Coach Anderson. “They like to control the basketball and they are patient on offense.” Christ Church head coach John Butler, is one year removed from the Class A state champion ship success, and his team came within a point of sending the game into over-time. “I think the difference in the game was they made more free throws then we did,” said Coach Butler. “When you lose a game by one-point you are drawn to that fact. They hit most of their free throws, and we didn’t, and this was the difference in the game. “We had only one senior starter tonight, guard Adam Brown ,” said Coach Butler. “We’ll work hard to keep improving with a goal of getting back to the championship next season.” (To Coach Butler’s point the Cav’s made only two-of-seven free throws while Powdersville converted 12-of-16 free throws.) The game went back-and-forth throughout the contest, and one shot the crowd at this game will never forget, was a 75-foot desperation heave by Christ Church player Jonathan Perry as time expired that swished the net, just one point shy of tying the game!  Powdersville took a 16-12 lead after the first period on the strength of three three- pointers made by bombers Jaleel McGee , Quan Burton , and Micah Williams . Williams was on fire with 8 first quarter points. David Dixon led Christ Church in the opening period with two three-pointers. The second quarter was up-and-down, and run-an-gun as both teams battled to a 32-32 tie at the break. In the second quarter Adam Brown got things started off for the Cavaliers with a three-point shot to make the deficit 19-15. Then the Patriots went on a 7-0 run to lead 23-17 with 6:06 left in the period. In the second period Powdersville was led by Burton’s five points, Landon Sullivan’s five points and McGee’s four points to pace the attack. Christ Church was led in the second quarter by Anthony Atkins with seven points, Perry with seven points, and Adam Brown contributed four second quarter points as the team scored 20 points to get back in the game. Powdersville won the third period 15-11 to take a 47-43 lead into the final period. Christ Church took a 34-32 lead on a put-back basket by Dixon on the first basket of the period. Powdersville scored the next two baskets in the paint, on baskets from Burton and Jaleel McGee, to regain the lead at 38-34. A deep corner three-point shot by Perry gave the Cav’s a 43-42 lead with 48 seconds left in the third period. Powdersville got a three-point shot from Quan Burton to go up 45-43 with 24 seconds left, and they extended it to a four- point lead, when Quan Burton made two free throws in the final seconds of the quarter. The final quarter was physical, intense and both teams left it all on the floor. The first basket of the period came on a lay-up from Cav’s big man Reid Hipp to cut the deficit to 47-45. Powdersville made the next two baskets to go up 53-45 on a three-point shot by Landon Sullivan and a lay-up by Von Burton with 6:03 left in the game. Christ Church did not go away scoring six points in a row to tie the game at 53 with 2:24 remaining. During the 6-0 run the Cav’s got baskets from Atkins, Brown, and Perry. Both teams made one free throw each over the next minute to remain tied at 54 with 1:30 left in the game. McGee hit a short jumper 52 seconds left to put the Patriots up 56-54 and then McGee made two critical free throws with 2.1 seconds left to give his team an important four -point lead at 58-54. Then Perry’s high arcing three- point desperation shot at the buzzer, swished the net cleanly from at least 80 feet, just a point shy of sending the game into over-time. The top scorers for Powdersville included Quan Burton with 15 points while McGee contributed 13 points and Williams had 11. Sullivan scored 8 points while Colton Kregar had two points. Christ Church was led by Johnathan Perry and Anthony Atkins with 17 and 16 points respectively. Dixon was also in double figures with 10 points . Brown had 8 points followed by Reid Hipp with five points and Duke football commitment Jude Hall had two points.

Christ Church Girls hoops building for the future By Neill Kirkpatrick Special to the HSSR Greenville – Christ Church Episcopal Lady Cavaliers Head Coach Jordan Filiatreau knew moving to Class AAA from Class A could be a struggle for his team especially with only two seniors returning from last season’s third round playoff team. “I knew we would be young and we would go through some growing pains. The jump to 3A has been tough and to get us ready we scheduled 4 and 5A competition in the non-conference. While our record may not show it but our team has not given. They continue to get better every day. Our goals for the rest of the season are to steal a game come playoffs and continue to build culture into the 2025-2026 Season,” said coach Filiatreau. Coach continued, “The biggest area that the team has improved is changing the brand of basketball we are trying to play from Iso ball to consistent ball movement. This has cut down on turnovers and gets more girls involved in the flow of the game.” Seniors Linda Rogers and Caroline Johnson have been sold defensively all year and have been the leaders of the team. Johnson, a three-sport star, leads the team in scoring at 9 points per game, leads the team in three’s with 20 and is second in steals with 2.8 per game. She has over 500 career points and has a shot at getting to 200 career rebounds and steals. Junior Sydney Shaw , Isla Boyd , and Emma Blair Jones have been solid all season and have provided valuable minutes in the paint all year. Coach is excited about his sophomore class as they have contributed all over the court and have Gotten better each day. Saddler Fox , Sopia Mahfood, Katy Cox, Cason McCall, Katie Greco, and Ryan Hunt make up the class. Cox is a three-point specialist and is tied for second on the team with 17. Fox also has 17 three’s on the year. She is second in scoring at 6.5 points per game and is second on the team in rebounding at 4.6 per game while Hunt leads the team in rebounding at 5.4 a game. Mahfood is the team leader in steals at 3.9 thefts a game. She is also an outstanding soccer player scoring 16 points as a freshman. Freshman Ava Lanzi has played in every game and has provided solid minutes off the bench.