Gray makes statement before move up to 4A
By WORTHY EVANS
Columbia - In Gray Collegiate Academy’s last year in the 2A classification, the War Eagles did all it could to make the final year count, winning two state championships in softball and girls track and field, a runner-up in boys soccer, and long postseason runs in girls soccer and baseball.
The softball team (33-2) won its second state championship in three years with a 2-0 series victory over Marion.
“It means a lot to win it again,” Gray head coach Doug Frye told the High School Sports Report after the sweep. “We work hard. My girls work hard every day. We don't take days off. We work hard and get after it.”
Gray Collegiate wasted no time getting after the Swamp Foxes. In game one May 20, the War Eagles trounced Marion 9-1, and two days later they took on the Swamp Foxes at their new ballpark on the Gray campus, clinching the best-of-three series with an 8-4 victory.
Freshman Aspen Boulware, who wasn’t a part of the team’s 2022 state title run, was the top slugger on a team loaded with power at the plate. She finished with a .651 batting average, 19 home runs, 10 triples, six doubles, 40 runs batted in and 56 runs scored.
Boulware said the team’s approach was different than last season, when the War Eagles fell short of the state championship with a playoff loss to Mid-Carolina.
“We had that hard loss last year, so I felt like we all wanted to win,” Boulware said. “We came out with a ‘let’s get to it’ mindset. I felt like that carried us a long way to this point.”
Moving up to the 4A classification shouldn’t bother the Gray girls, who have regularly played higher-classification teams over the years, Frye said.
“This team went 33-2,” Frye said with the losses coming to 2-time 5A state champion Summerville and 2-time 4A state champion Catawba Ridge. “You come back and look at our record, look at the teams we beat. They’re all AAAAA and AAAA teams and some of them went deep in the playoffs. This team has showed up. They respect everybody, but they fear nobody."
In track and field, the girls team collected its first state title, scoring 75 points to runner-up Bishop England’s 72 points. Individually, Aubrey Guy won gold in the 100-meter hurdles, Tresta Miller won the 400 dash, and Tamara Steward won the 400 hurdles.
“The good thing is that we won as a team, and it was not just from one person,” head coach Jackie Robinson told the High School Sports Report. “It was everybody collectively, and all season long these ladies have sacrificed, and they did not complain while putting in the work. They came to work every practice and it paid off for them today.
For the boys, Gray Collegiate sophomore Caleb Raysor won individual gold medals in the 110 hurdles (14.81) and the 400-meters (55.92) plus he ran a leg on the winning 4X100 relay team that included Justin Pauling, B.J. Montgomery, and Demarcus Gaither to account for 22.5 points for the War Eagles.
In boys soccer, the War Eagles (27-6-3) reached the 2A state finals for the third straight year. Unfortunately, Gray ran into Oceanside Collegiate for the second straight year, and the Landsharks shut them out 3-0.
“Oceanside’s the best team in the state two years running, to be honest with you,” Gray head coach Kevin Heise said after the state championship game May 11. “We knew we had to play an almost perfect game for us to have success here today.”
Despite the loss, Heise considers the season a great one, with the team fortunate to make it to the state final.
“You don’t know the next time you get back,” Heise said. “Every year is a challenge to get here. You have got to stay healthy. You have got to be a little bit lucky. You have got to be good. I mean, you don’t get to the final without being a good team and having an above-average year. And I think we’ve done that three straight years.”
