How Battle at the Rock basketball showcase helps York Co. and the players involved
Moravian Prep’s Shakeel Moore had just stepped out of a Nation Ford High School locker room and was turning toward the exit when he heard his name.
Moore, a 6-1 class of 2020 N.C. State basketball commitment, had just proven his worth on Thursday in his first game at the Battle at the Rock basketball showcase in Fort Mill. He’d taken over in his team’s game against Dream City Christian, another nationally-renowned high school basketball program, scoring 18 points in every way.
The fan who called to him wore a white backpack, a neon beanie and a giddy smile. He had two large, framed pictures in his hands — each one a headshot of Moore taken at a tournament this past summer.
Moore appeared confused, then flattered. He soon shed an innocent smile and took a marker from the fan’s hand. He was signing his first autograph.
“That’s so amazing to me,” he told The Herald afterward, smiling and shaking his head. “Honestly, it just means a lot because growing up, I used to see a lot of players get that treatment, and just for me to be asked to sign something? It’s just so amazing.”
While Moore played in Nation Ford’s main gym, the South Pointe girls team played against Keenan, a team that boasts one of the best players in South Carolina, Milaysia Fulwiley.
The Stallions won, 66-58, and were led by Randi Neal, who scored 30 points in the game.
These two instances — featuring Moore, a face recognized by high school basketball fanatics across the country, and Neal, a name deserving of praise but one that’s rarely hearkened outside of York County — perfectly encapsulates what made the 2019 Battle at the Rock so special:
It was simultaneously — and uniquely — a national and local event.
“Oak Hill wants to come here, but they want to play quality competition, so we put them with Dorman,” said Billy Dunlap, CEO of Visit York County and lead organizer of this event, which is in its second year. “Dorman wants to play somebody outside of South Carolina that’s a high-caliber program, so they play Oak Hill.
“Northwestern gets to play a team who they normally wouldn’t get to play, (AZ Compass Prep). Then we put together a game like (5A) Northwestern and (1A) Great Falls, which is two local teams that won’t play during the season…
“So it’s something for everybody.”
Battle at the Rock scheduling: ‘Ticket sales’
If you’ve followed this event at all, you’ve heard of the win-win benefits the showcase unveils.
It’s good for the players: College coaches come to York County and photographers line the court. Both are measures that expand the exposure of the kids on local teams who wouldn’t be able to obtain said exposure otherwise.
And it’s good for the city: The hundreds of people who come to the showcase also fill York County restaurants, sleep in York County hotels, purchase gas at York County gas stations — all contributing to the local economy.
But planning and scheduling this event so those aforementioned benefits are carried out, as Dunlap candidly explained, required calculation. He and his staff knew that the best showcase featured a balance of local and national teams, and a schedule that kept every game competitive and that drew a crowd — online and in the gym.
“When we put the matchups together, we kind of thought that,” Dunlap said. “We thought: We want Moravian Prep, who has major Division I prospects, to play Dream City, (who has) major DI prospects.
“But that’s not going to generate much ticket sales.”
So Dunlap and his staff facilitated three types of games: national audience team versus national audience team; local team versus local team; and one versus the other.
Each one was critical to the showcase — but served different purposes.
Different kinds of basketball games
When national teams faced off, the draw for the audience was player performances and matchups. People in the crowd would “ooh” and “ah” after a dunk by AZ Compass Prep’s Sincere Parker. They rose to their feet in admiration during Moravian Prep standout and N.C. State commit Josh Hall’s 51-point performance on Saturday.
Fans also enjoyed the pregame layup lines of these teams — which featured players wearing Apple Airpods and pulling out their best dunks.
(Moore hinted at the fact that player matchups are important in showcases that pit two national teams against each other: “This was a big game tonight — with the matchup, obviously, between Josh and MarJon (Beauchamp). That was going to be a good one.”)
In local versus local games, the Battle at the Rock served to put on unlikely-to-be-scheduled games that would attract a lot of fans from the community. South Pointe and Keenan played in front of a packed, loud auxiliary gym audience. Five-A Northwestern and 1A powerhouse Great Falls met on Saturday for the same reason.
And finally, there were the games that mixed classifications: Dorman (public) versus Oak Hill (private); Northwestern (public) versus AZ Compass Prep (private); Byrnes (public) versus Combine Academy (private); and more.
These games gave the community a game unable to be facilitated anywhere else, and it helped establish (yet again) South Carolina’s reputation beyond football.
“I think there are a lot of good players here,” said Combine Academy head coach Jeff McInnis, a former North Carolina and NBA basketball player. “The event is great. We do a lot of stuff in Charlotte and in the surrounding areas.
“A lot of people think South Carolina is football, but it’s basketball, too.”
In year two, ultimately, The Battle at the Rock did what it was expected to do by virtue of a calculated plan. And for some teams, the showcase did more: It gave teams something to strive for.
“It’s good exposure for our kids to see that; a program where you have to get on a plane and go across the country to play,” South Pointe girls head coach Stephanie Butler-Graham said.
“That’s what we ultimately want to build our program to.”
This story was originally published December 16, 2019 at 1:04 PM.
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