By: Scott Chancey Special Contributor MULLINS – The first half of Friday’s season opener did not go according to Pee Dee Academy’s plan. “Early on, it looked like we had not played a game yet and had not gone against anybody since the jamboree in Week Zero,” said Jonathan King , PDA’s coach. “We couldn’t get lined up right at times and made several mistakes.”  Pee Dee Academy’s Judson Martin scored the Golden Eagles’ first touchdown Friday after Florence Christian built a 20-0 lead. Then, FCS pulled back away. “When you are playing a team that is that well-coached and has a really good program, they don’t really need many advantages at all because they’ve got so many advantages,” King said. “They caught us early and made some big plays on us.” King still found plenty of positives after the 33-14 loss to Florence Christian. One was his team’s resilience. “Trailing 20-0 on our home field in Week 1 could have gone sideways for us, and it didn’t,” King said. That resilience is based on an expectation to win. After all, PDA has won two state championships since 2022. “We continued to fight,” King said. “We might not always have the fastest players. But our kids play hard. We continued to battle until the very end.” King certainly praised Martin (5 feet 9, 208 pounds), whose nickname is “Mongo.” “He’s our dude; he’s a senior and he has played a lot of football for us,” King said. “He is the one who really shows up on film. He looks like a football player, and he IS a football player. He runs hard and he is tough to tackle. He has big, strong legs and catches the ball well. He makes good catches out of the backfield and certainly made a couple of them on Friday. He’s a rambler, for sure.” As the Golden Eagles progress after star QB Tristan Heckman’s graduation, PDA is trying to solidify that position after starter Jesse Smith suffered a sprained ankle in the second scrimmage. He has not practiced since. Wide receiver Miles Wiggins , meanwhile, has been to the rescue at quarterback. “He has been a starter all over the field for us since his freshman year,” said King, whose team plays at 7:30 p.m. on Friday at Carolina Academy. “He’s our best defensive back and wide receiver. He was a backup quarterback for us last year, and I can’t say enough good things about him.” Looking ahead, King is confident. “We’ve got to get more in game shape. But I think right now our goal is to stay the course,” King said. “Week 1 was not a region game. Did it go the way we wanted it to? No. But the sky’s not falling. “We’re not treating it like that.” Helping in the process are offensive linemen Gavin McGill , Holden Lane, Walker Trussell, Cadyn Price and Cayden Elliott . And defensive linemen McGill, Lane, Trussell and Rivers Tucker. And also, Brayden Lewis (special teams/linebacker/running back).

Dennis Brunson hssr.com Associate Editor Walterboro – It’s official. The Pee Dee Academy softball program can now say it has been able to bear the title of state champion for the past half decade. The Golden Eagles won their fifth consecutive state crown on Tuesday, beating Colleton Prep Academy 8-1at the CPA field to sweep the best-of-3 SCISA AAA championship series. PDA, which beat the War Hawks 10-0 in five innings on Monday in Mullins , finished the season with a 28-2 record. This is the ninth straight season Pee Dee played in a state title series. It also claimed a championship in 2017. In Monday’s win, senior Maddie Coward tossed a 1-hit shutout. Coward, who has started in the circle for each of those five title teams, struck out nine, walked one and hit a batter. She threw 52 pitcheas, 43 for strikes. Pee Dee scored two runs in the first inning, one in the second, three in both the third and fourth and closed it out with a run with one out in the fifth. Dinah Johnson had a 2-run single in the first inning, while Lilly Grace Rowell had a sacrifice fly that scored Carly Carroll in the second. e The Eagles scored three runs in the third before Addison Hasty had a 2-run double in the fourth followed by an RBI double by Azeleigh Arnette to make it 9-0. The game-ending run came on a triple by Careoll Hasty and Arnette both had two hits to lead PDA’s 8-hit attack. Coward added a double, and Rowell had a single to go with her sac fly. Carroll and Johnson had the other hits. Carolina Academy beats The King's Academy 8-7 to force deciding game in AA Carolina 8 The King’s Academy 7 Florence – Carolina Academy kept alive its hopes of defending the SCISA AA title with an 8-7 victory over The King’s Academy on Tuesday at the TKA field. The deciding game in the best-of-3 series will be played at Florence Christian School on Thursday beginning at 7 p.m. Raeley Frye and Ella Ham did the work in the circle for the Bobcats, who improved to 15-10. Ham smacked a home run, while Paisley Coker had two multiple-run hits. Addison Bescher had 12 strikeouts in the circle for the Lions. Bescher also had 12 strikeouts and allowed just two hits in The King’s Academy’s 5-2 Game 1 win on Monday in Lake City . TKA head coach Jennifer John said Emma Atkinson had a great game catching Bescher, and that Emma Taflinger , Scarlet Rose Rivers and Chloe Ritter backed her in the field with great catches.

Pee Dee softball after 5th straight title; Laurence Manning softball, Hilton Head Christian baseball after 3 in a row.