The Annual SCACA Clinic Presents Opportunities For All Coaches Across South Carolina
The state's coaches will gather in Greenville July 24-26 for the SCACA Clinic.
The Annual SCACA Clinic Presents Opportunities For All Coaches Across South Carolina
Greenville—The mission of the SCACA is a noble one with these words appearing at the top of their web site: “Supporting, Developing and Honoring Coaches Across South Carolina.”
Thus, the weekend of July 24-26 is the time the state’s coaches gather at the Greenville Convention Center to embrace the aforementioned, as everyone gets tuned up for the competition awaiting their respective teams during the 2026-27 school year.
This SCACA Clinic is the 40th straight year the HSSR has attended this great event as a vendor in support of an organization boasting over 6,650 members (and counting). This is the time to reacquaint with fellow coaches, share or steal ideas, or just relax and enjoy some quiet time as you get ready mentally for what is ahead.
I believe coaches are difference makers, and I want to share such a wonderful and positive story with you that verifies this statement. It is 100 per cent true and it involves a phone call I received from Jerome Singleton, when he was the head football coach at Burke High School in the late Spring of 1991.
The phone call went something like this as I recall: “Hey, Billy Coach Singleton from Burke High here. I need a favor.”
My reply: “How can I help you Coach?”
Coach Singlton: “The other night walking home from the prom, that we held in the Burke High gym, one of our top freshman student athletes was shot at on the street walking home with his cousin. The bullet missed the player, but it hit his cousin, and he is still in the hospital and may not walk again.
“The young man made your all-state basketball team as a freshman and he plays in the band at Burke High with his girlfriend,” said Coach Singleton. “I am trying to get him involved with football because I think he is about to get associated with the wrong crowd if you know what I mean. The bullet was meant for him and it involved a dispute over a girl at the prom.
“I have an idea that might get him to join my football team, where I can keep an eye on him, and help his life move towards a more positive direction,” said Coach Singleton.
My response: “Coach, I am with you. Tell me what I can do to help you.”
Coach Singleton: “In your next issue of the Sports Report I need you to make up a list of your Top 10 rising sophomore football players in the state of South Carolina, and I would like for you to put the name of Zola Davis number one!”
My response, after giving his request some thought: “I have never printed a Top 10 Sophomore list before and he has never ever played junior varsity football, right?”
Coach Singleton: “He has been in the band, so he could not play a Fall sport. He is a great athlete, and he made your all-state team as a freshman basketball player. You doing this will be a key to me getting him out for the football team, but the most important thing is I need to keep him focused on being a good person and avoiding gangs. I promise you he will be a great football player also.”
My response: “Okay, Coach you got it. I am all-in. I might put this list in the back of the paper but it will be in the next issue promise.”
Zola Davis saw his name “number one” a week later in the HSSR. Coach Singleton told me he was excited, focused and ready to go. By his senior year, Davis was a Parade All-American, and he signed a football scholarship to South Carolina. While a Gamecock he caught 164 passes for 2,354 yards and 17 touchdowns. He even played one year in the NFL after college.
In 2014, Davis was elected into the South Carolina Athletic Hall of Fame. Coach Singleton told me a couple years ago that Davis was a regional manager for Walmart, living in Atlanta while leading a highly productive life. (There was a rumor Davis was earning $200,000 a year in leadership role with the retailer).
At the time, I had no idea that Jerome Singleton would eventually become the Commissioner of the South Carolina High School League, and our friendship is still strong even as you read this. We should all be thankful for the truly caring coaches amongst us who occasionally have to thank “out of the box” to help save the future of those athletes they are entrusted to.
From 1987 to the year 2000, the HSSR produced a 96-page issue during football season, each and every week between mid-August and mid-December. We often didn’t know if we were going or coming but that proved our commitment to high school football and other fall sports without a doubt.
Well, Jewell McLaurin of Lake View came up with a novel idea. He would call me every Monday morning for years during the football season to tell me which offensive and which defensive player’s picture to put on the Lake View page, and these two athletes were “The Players of the Week”. He said that his players competing for this honor every week like they were going to be given the key to the local bank. I recall Coach McLaurin won like 286 games, all at Lake View!
In conclusion, let me share with you that the companion web site of the HSSR, known as hssr.com, was recently verified by Google analytics as receiving one million home page views a year between April, 2025 and April, 2026. Google also verified that 40,000 unique viewers go to hssr.com as least once a month for information.
Please do not shed on these facts lightly if your goal is to truly bring recognition and honor to the hard work of those student athletes you are charged to help as Mr. Singleton and Mr. McLaurin did back in the day. We upload our entire sponsored publication to our web site hssr.com every month free of charge with no pass word needed! (Do you know any weekly or daily newspapers doing this in South Carolina?)
If your school is not listed in our sponsored index box on page 71 of this issue, and you are an athletic director, Principal, Booster Club President, or caring head coach, we need to have a conversation.
You just never know where that conversation might lead!
Let’s all work together to further the great potential in all our student athletes. Please contact me at 843-200-9555.
