Think you know high school sports in the Rock Hill region? Take our quiz and prove it
High school sports are an institution. A tradition that begins anew each fall, and keeps hometown crowds cheering through cold winters and warm springs.
High school sports have been with us in the Rock Hill region for more than 100 years. So have state championship teams. But how well do you actually know them?
The Herald went to the South Carolina High School League record books with one goal. We wanted to know how many state titles York, Lancaster and Chester county schools can claim. Decades of championships show a rich history for area schools. Some programs are dynasties. Some span generations. Some hung a banner in one magical year that hasn’t been replicated.
Yet the championship story is bigger still. The SCHSL covers public schools, but this region also has a history of private and Christian school excellence. Those historical records aren’t as easy to come by, but Herald archives and several of the schools themselves confirm almost two dozen more banner seasons.
Using that blend of records we’ve created a quiz to let you test your knowledge of area high school teams. Do you know which schools and programs have won the most titles? Or which teams went the longest between titles? How about the area teams that have more state championships than anyone else in South Carolina, in their sport?
Take the quiz here. Just click on the “Play” button to get started. Right or wrong, check out the information after each question to learn a little more about some of the great teams and programs produced in this area. Hint, some of the answers will surprise you.
All of the public school information comes from the Palmetto’s Finest record book kept by SCHSL. It covers 22 sanctioned sports, including boys and girls teams for many. The data for our quiz only covers sanctioned sports in the record book so it doesn’t, for instance, include the new boys volleyball or the recent girls wrestling state championship for Rock Hill High School in a growing but yet unofficial sport.
The data covers both existing and past high schools from our area. It includes segregation-era schools, and public schools that no longer exist or merged into existing ones.
The quiz also covers only team sport titles. There are legions of individual state title winners across sports and decades. There are hosts more team winners in competitions outside of the high school league, from model United Nations to chorales to ROTC units to unfathomably successful marching band programs. All those winners, while impressive, aren’t part of this listing.
Then, there are calendar years and school years. Many historical records list winners by school year but don’t specify — think winter sports that overlap — the calendar year. We’re assigning the winning year for the quiz based on when championships in those sports happen now.
So take a hypothetical team that won football, basketball and baseball championships in the 1970-71 school year (it didn’t happen, but what a year that would’ve been!). The quiz would list football as a 1970 title. It would put the basketball and baseball titles in 1971.
See how well you do. Then, buy a ticket to watch your nearest school play. It might just be more history waiting to be made.
