South Florence's Marlowe never fathomed two state titles in three years

Florence – After completing his first season as the football head

coach at South Florence High School, Drew Marlowe seriously

considered resigning.

“I took over after five straight losing seasons, and it was six

straight losing seasons after my first year,” said Marlowe, who was 2-6

in that first year, 2020. “I thought about resigning because I was thinking

I’m not going to be able to fix this.”

Marlowe had to put things in perspective. That was the COVID-19

season and he didn’t get to practice with the team until two weeks before

the season started. He couldn’t learn players’ names much less develop a

culture within the team.

Four years later, Marlowe is happy he chose to stick it out.

The Bruins have played for the AAAA state title eeach of the

past three years. They claimed their second state title in that span,

beating Westside 42-41 on December 13.

“It’s hard for me to think about everything in its entirety,” Marlowe

said. “Every year you desperately want to go back, and when you get

there you want to win it. Our players expect to play a full 15 weeks.”

This trip to the title game, much less winning again, was a bit of a

surprise. Led by LaNorris Sellers, the 2022 team went 15-0. The ’23

team was 14-0 going into the title game before losing to Westside 34-32.

This year? The Bruins went 7-3 in the regular season and finished

second in Region 5.

“This group was special because it had a little bit of a chip on its

shoulder,” Marlowe said. “They felt like they fell short of what the goal

should be. They felt like last year they should have won it.”

SFHS beat Brookland-Cayce 56-20 in the first round of the

playoffs and followed that with another home victory, 56-28 over Hilton

Head Island. South Florence then had to face Hartsville, which beat it

54-35 for the region title in the final game of the regular season. The

Bruins won 49-21.

They had to go on the road to play North Augusta for the lower

state title, winning 27-20. That set up a rematch with Westside, which

was undefeated and had been dominant all season. Marlowe said his

players were not deterred.

“Truthfully, the kids believed we would win the whole time,”

Marlowe said. “From the start of the week, they didn’t have any doubt

they would go in there and win, which was good. For the coaches,

maybe a little different. But they had confidence and were loose all

week. This was three times in a row, so it was not anything unusual.

They expect to play 15 weeks.

The Bruins had nine players selected to the All-Region 5 first team

and three others to the second team. Leading the way was defensive

lineman Amare Adams, who was named the Region Defensive Player

of the Year.

Adams, a Clemson signee who was rated as one of the top linemen

in the country, had 75 tackles, 13 tackles for a loss, six quarterback sacks

and caused a fumble. He was also a Shrine Bowl selection and was

picked to the South Carolina Football Coaches Association AAAA

All-State team.

Wide receiver Jayden Sellers, another All-Region pick, was also a

Shrine Bowl pick and a AAAA All-State selection. The South Carolina

signee had 59 catches for 1,016 yards and 14 touchdowns while rushing

for 485 yards and 10 TDs on 58 carries.

The other SFHS first team picks were quarterback Messiah

Jackson, running back Tre Leonard, wide receiver Lennix Valarie,

offensive linemen Josiah Mason and Tyler Cockfield, linebacker

Willie Kennedy and all-purpose player Bruce Thompson.

Jackson completed 133 of 222 passes for 2,080 yards and 30

touchdowns while running for 369 yards and 11 TDs on 108 carries.

Leonard rushed for 1,485 yards and 16 TDs on 145 carries while Valarie

had 41 catches for 787 yards and 11 TDs. Kennedy had 110 tackles and

four TFLs.

The second-team picks were offensive linemen EJ King and

Barry McLaughlin and all-purpose player Jayden Granger.

While not selected to the All-Region team, linebacker Cameron

Coe was an All-State pick. He had 88 tackles, six TFLs and two sacks.

Marlowe said the Bruins’ work ethic is why they were able to win

another state title.

“As a whole, collectively, this is really by far the least talented

team we’ve had over the last four years,” he said. “We were able to find

a way to win it in the end. With hard work, resiliency, we continued to

improve and get better, and we were able to end up where we ended up.”