Footblog

Try to keep up. That's all we in the sports department can do during the busy spring season, and if we have a hard time staying on top of all that is happening on the local sports scene, then we figure you could use an assist, too.

With about 60 high school varsity teams competing in the spring, as well as USCB baseball, men's and women's golf and men's and women's track, the Verizon Heritage and Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf, more local tennis tournaments than you can shake a racket at, and a full slate of outdoors events, we know you need some help keeping up with all the sports news happening around here.

We can help, though.

Note: I already had another column planned for Sunday when the news of Jeremy West's resignation as Bluffton High School's football coach broke Thursday, but I wanted to share my take on the situation. Consider this a bonus column.

***

When I climbed in the metallic blue Dodge Ram three years ago, I knew next to nothing about Jeremy West. Sure, I had read his resume. I knew he had been an offensive lineman at The Citadel and an assistant coach at three high schools in the state, but I had no idea what kind of person he was.

That was the reason I was in the truck to begin with. I had caught a ride to Aiken with Jeff Kidd, our sports editor at the time, so I could make the trip back with West, who had just been hired as Bluffton High School's football coach. West had been making the journey from Aiken to Bluffton twice a week, trying to lay the groundwork for his new job, and he agreed to let me ride along and pick his brain.

When the first rumblings of Tiger Woods' possible visit to the Lowcountry began to filter into my Twitter and Facebook feeds Friday morning, the first thought to cross my mind was, "Lock up the women and children, er, I guess just the women will suffice. (And pay special attention to those women employed in the food-service industry.)"

But the second thing that popped into my head was, "OMG, Tiger is here?!?!" Or something like that. Check my Facebook status for the exact wording.

Strap yourself in, football fans, because this regular-season finale edition of the Saturday Morning Punter comes at you at 75 mph from somewhere on Interstate 26. (Don't worry, I'm in the passenger seat.)

And we have plenty to talk about, because the season came to a fast and furious finish, kind of like my wife's driving (kidding, kidding). Hilton Head Christian Academy wrapped up a region title and the top seed in the SCISAA Class 2-A playoffs with a thoroughly impressive victory at Northwood Academy, Hilton Head High continued its dominance in the intra-county rivalry known as the Bridge Bowl, Beaufort High had the region title snatched away by Summerville (again) and Battery Creek, Hilton Head Prep, Ridgeland and Hardeeville locked up playoff spots.

Another Friday night is in the books and as the regular season winds down, many local teams' playoff fates are still up in the air.

Even the three teams who have already clinched playoff spots -- Beaufort High, Hilton Head High and Hilton Head Christian -- still have plenty to gain or lose in terms of seeding this week, so we'll have a full slate of meaningful games Friday.

I don't know about you, but I learned a lot under the Friday night lights this week -- and most of it contradicted conclusions I had drawn after last week's games, which leaves me a little dazed and confused (or maybe I'm just tired; probably just tired).

Anyway, with some ... shall we say, interesting results last night, some teams improved their postseason hopes, even if that playoff picture moved a little more out of focus in the process.

The thing about unbalanced non-conference schedules -- and we learn it every year in the early part of the college and high school football seasons -- is you never really know what you've got until conference play starts.

Well, everyone in our coverage area now has at least two region games under their belts, so that picture is starting to take shape. We no longer have to rely solely on a game of "Six Degrees of Wade Hampton" to figure out who has the edge for the last two playoff spot in Region 8-AAA -- and much like just about everything else in this world, that game is better with (Kevin) Bacon. We no longer have to use the transitive property, the Pythagorean Theorem or any other mathematical rules to determine the favorite to win the Region 8-AAAA title (though that pesky Class 4-A point system still makes my brain hurt).

To be perfectly honest, I don't know what to write about this morning.

I thought there would be plenty of material, because I had the rare opportunity to take in a high school football doubleheader last night -- swinging by Hilton Head Prep in the afternoon and heading over to Hilton Head High for the nightcap -- and both games had the potential to turn into shootouts between offenses that have been hitting on all cylinders.

Well, folks, they say time flies when you're having fun, and I guess the first half of the high school football season must have been a real hoot, because we're already at the midpoint of the regular season.

I swear it seems like we were just getting started. Heck, it doesn't even feel like football season yet, so it's hard to believe we're halfway done. But here we are, and as I promised in my last Saturday Morning Punter post, I'm here to tell you who has made the grade in the first half of the season.

It's a day the scholars relished and the slackers dreaded; it's time to send out my mid-season report cards. So you overachievers get ready to gloat, while the rest of you better try to beat mom and dad to the mailbox.

I can only come up with one explanation for what is unfolding under the Friday night lights of the Lowcountry this season -- we've stumbled into a bizarro world in which up is down, left is right, and defense is almost non-existent.

How else to explain how two traditionally strong defenses in Hilton Head High and Ridgeland could find themselves in a 49-42 shootout, how Hilton Head Prep could score 50 ... and lose, how only four area teams could have winning records at the midpoint of the regular season ... and two of them are Ridgeland and Hardeeville (which combined for five wins in 2008), and how the longest-tenured sports writer at the Beaufort Gazette and The Island Packet could be in last place in the staff picks competition?