South Florence sits atop High School Sports Report AAAA preseason poll
South Pointe No. 2 with Westside, Hartsville, North Augusta rounding out top five
HSSR AAAA F0otball Ranking
(As of 7-21-2025)
1. South Florence
2. South Pointe
3. Westside
4. Hartsville
5. North Augusta
6. Daniel
7.Bluffton
8. A.C. Flora
9. Camden
10. Wren
11. Seneca
12. Greer
13. Hilton Head
14. Gilbert
15. May River
Sumter – When South Florence High School won the AAAA football title in 2022 with a dominant 15-0 season, many passed off the reason for their success to the presence of one LaNorris Sellers. The quarterback established himself as one of the most dominant players in the history of South Carolina high school football, using his legs and his arm to trigger the Bruin offense.
Sellers graduated following that season and headed off to Columbia and the University of South Carolina, where he is now in the Heisman Trophy conversation as a redshirt sophomore. Most pundits figured South Florence would take a step back. All the Bruins did in 2023 was go back to the title game, taking a 14-0 record into the contest against Westside. They lost 34-32.
South Florence got its revenge last year though, beating an undefeated Rams squad 42-41 to make it two titles in three years.
It’s hard to bet against that kind of success, and High School Sports Report isn’t about to do so. That’s why the Bruins are ranked No. 1 in the AAAA preseason poll.
South Florence head coach Drew Marlowe said there are a lot of factors that have gone into the success that has come the program’s way.
“No. 1, we’ve been blessed with some really great players,” said Marlowe, who begins his sixth season when the Bruins travel across town to take on archrival West Florence on August 22. “We just work as a staff to develop our players into great people and then we do our best to put them in position to make great plays on Friday night.
“We’ve made more good plays than bad plays over the last few years, so we’ve won some big games. Our players have made big plays in big games. I’m just very blessed to be the coach here at South Florence.”
The Bruins lost two more Football Bowl Subdivision players from last year’s squad in defensive lineman Amare Adams, who is now at Clemson, and wide receiver Jayden Sellers, who joined brother LaNorris at USC. South Florence returns five starters on offense and six on defense.
The only returning skill player on offense is senior quarterback Messiah Jackson. He completed 133 of 222 passes for 2,080 yards and 30 touchdowns while running for 369 yards and 11 TDs on 108 carries.
South Florence returns eight players on defense who participated in at least 38 tackles with senior middle linebacker Willie Kennedy leading the way with 110 tackles. The other seven are senior defensive back Amare Reaves, junior free safety Fredrick Cooper, senior cornerback Will Wilson III, senior linebacker Terry Gordon, senior strong safety Gerkiem Hall,
sophomore outside linebacker Jewel Washington and sophomore linebacker Warnell Prew.
Marlowe said the key to success for this unit will be working togethert.
“We will have to play together as a team, complement one another,” he said. “There are no Power 4 (Conference) type guys on this year’s team, but we’ve had some guys who’ve played a lot of football.
“Several players in this senior class have played in 45 football games (posting a 41-4 record) and practiced for around 60 weeks in three years. We should be experienced enough to overcome any talent gaps we may encounter this year.”
South Pointe is ranked second in the poll, just ahead of Westside, the team it lost to in the upper state championship game last season.
Cam McMillon is back for his senior year at quarterback. After transferring from Fairfield Central to South Pointe, McMillon completed 156 of 237 passes for 2,580 yards and 31 touchdowns against just four interceptions in his junior year.
McMillon has his favorite target returning in senior Dalian Duncan. He caught 64 passes for 779 yards and nine touchdowns. Also back is senior J’zavien Currence, who had 17 catches for 243 yards and five scores, and sophomore Kadin Vassel, who had 12 catches for 266 yards and five touchdowns.
Currence is being recruited as a defensive back and has committed to South Carolina. His teammate, senior offensive lineman Anthony Baxter – all 6-foot-3 inches and 330 pounds of him – has also committed to the Gamecocks. Another defensive standout is linebacker.
Westside lost a lot of talent on both sides of the football, including quarterback Cutter Woods, who is now at Carolina. However, there is plenty of talent on the Rams’ roster, some of it just needs to get some experience.
Senior linebacker Jaxx Wilson is the leading returning tackler with 83.
Hartsville is ranked fourth and is coming off a bittersweet 2024 campaign. The Red Foxes, who finished with a 10-2-1 record, beat South Florence 54-35 in the regular-season finale to win the Region 5 title. However, the Bruins returned to Kelleytown Stadium four weeks later and came away with a 49-21 victory in the quarterfinals.
Senior Kylif Miller will return to lead the offense. He ran for 909 yards and 13 touchdowns on 124 carries. Also back are the two leading pass catchers in senior Tristian Spann and senior Dorian Mason. Spann had 27 catches for 502 yards and eight touchdowns, while Mason had 25 catches for 332 yards and two scores from his halfback position.
North Augusta is ranked fifth after reaching the lower state championship game, falling to South Florence 27-20.
The Yellow Jackets return the man their offense was built around last year in senior running back Mike Doe. He rushed for 1,828 yards and 32 touchdowns on 242 carries going over 100 yards in 13 of the 14 games. Doe, who is committed to Gardner-Webb. also caught 32 passes for 405 yards and two more scores.
