The Annual SCACA Clinic IS A Time To Learn, Exchange Ideas, & Renew Lasting Friendships

The Annual SCACA Clinic IS A Time To Learn, Exchange Ideas, & Renew Lasting Friendships



Greenville—With nearly 8,000 SCACA coaches pre-registered for the annual “Coaches Clinic”, under-way between July 27-30 at the Greenville Convention Center, the start of the 2025-2026 school year is about to begin.

Time to jam the torpedoes and forge full speed ahead! 

The process of learning is a never-ending endeavor. The late John McKissick would come to the clinic, sit on the front row, listen carefully, and take notes; clinging to every word that came out of the speaker’s mouths.

Dabo Swinney once commented, “I am a brand-new head coach at Clemson, and I am at the Coaches Clinic giving a talk about Clemson football. There in the front row sits John McKissick taking notes, as if every word I spoke had relevance to him. Moments like that, you don’t forget.”

Coaches gather at the clinic from all 46 counties in South Carolina. They represent over 350 high schools and middle schools, and they traveled roads to get to the clinic this writer has also been down many times, in a 40-year crusade in search of future first round NFL picks, WNBA picks, etc. Sometimes even getting to take note on a second stringer, working hard to be a first stringer, who caught my eye as I noted their name on a yellow legal pad, that reminds me of where I’ve been.

Have you ever visited Gaddy’s Mill, or been to the town of Silver? How many of you coaches road by the famous Peach on I-85 passing through Gaffney on your way to “Clinic Land”. Have you ever climbed on the famous Angel Oak tree on Johns Island, where I lived for a few years growing up? Somewhere on that historic Oak tree you can find my initials carved, many years before the City of Charleston bought it as a tourist attraction.

This is the 39^th year the “High School Sports Report” has been a vender at the SCACA Coaches clinic. I do believe that we might be the only media supporting the SCACA with a booth, smack dab in the vending hall, adjacent to sporting goods Titan, “BSN”.  Also, I get to say hello to my old friend Mike Reeder, who has also been a long time SCACA supporter. Mr. Reeder  shares financial advice with coaches as a clinic speaker. Did you know that Mr. Reeder once played football under Pinky Babb at Greenwood? (small world after-all).

This writer will turn 71 on August, 7^th. I have joked many times that it would be okay for me to die in a press box on Friday night, but only as the game was ending. We feel blessed to have survived through 39 seasons of being the only statewide prep publication in the nation covering all sports.

This might be an ideal time for you, as an athletic director, to stop by the HSSR booth to discuss the possibilities of your hard-working student athletes, in all varsity sports, receiving statewide publicity as the various sports roll though the 2025-26 school year. It is honestly more affordable than you might think to have your school sponsored and plugged into our vast network for a whole year. The fact that we are the only combination statewide print media/web site in the state should have value for sure.

Here are a couple selling points to consider. For example, as soon as the HSSR places a story about your football team, volleyball team, swim team etc. online, google and other search engines picks up the article and makes it available for reading, free of charge. So, a grandmother living in Texas, or college recruiters from Newberry to Notre Dame can read articles relevant to them.  You see, our website has free access. Simply enter hssr.com in your browser and read away!  We pay our bills, and maintain expenses for sustaining our statewide media, through sponsor ads in the printed publication. We feel it is important to keep the web site free as long as possible.

How many times have you tried to read a story online from the majority of daily newspapers, and other websites, and you get to read the first paragraph, and then you got blocked by a pay wall? (It might also say: To continue reading click here to get your online subscription!) Every article the HSSR writes, we also place on our web site at hssr.com. Search engines like picking up free content and sharing the information with anyone in the world who has access to the internet.

In all honesty, if you want colleges, large and small, from all over the nation, to read about your athletes in the state of South Carolina, it just might be the time for you to stop by the HSSR booth and have a chat with us.

Recently, a father called to thank me for our coverage. He said that a small college had recently offered his daughter a softball scholarship, and the contact was made with his daughter’s school after the college coach had read an article at hssr.com about his daughter hitting three home runs in one game! He asked them; How did you find out about my daughter? The college coach informed him that she read a story in the “The High School Sports Report”. 

We also upload our entire printed publication for free down loading at hssr.com every month! Would you believe that hssr.com received one million home page hits last year! Every sponsored school, like Christ Church, Gaffney, Summerville, Dillon, etc. also receive a free school page located under school pages at hssr.com. 

School administrators, or athletic booster clubs, can always get in touch with me directly at 843-200-9555.

In the summer of 1987, the High School Sports Report, walked into the lobby of a Columbia hotel hosting the SCACA Clinic, and passed out 3,000 copies of a special issue about the coaching career of Pinky Babb, a Greenwood High football coaching legend, who had recently passed. We took a wide-angle photograph of literally every coach in the lobby glued to this special issue, focused on the career of a highly respected coaching legend. This special issue was six months in the making.

Wonder if there are many coaches at this year’s clinic who remember reading about Coach Babb’s wonderful career at the SCACA Clinic back in 1987?