South Pointe and Hartsville meet at state championship press conference

For the third time in the last four years Strait Herron and Jeff Calabrese sat at a press conference table at the South Carolina High School League headquarters, flanked by their players and separated by the 4A state championship trophy.

For the third time in four years Hartsville coach Calabrese cracked jokes while Herron navigated questions about how amazing his team was from statewide members of the media who have watched South Pointe dominate opponents from afar.

“They’re a phenomenal football program, and certainly we’re excited to be here, much less playing the nationally-ranked South Pointe Stallions,” said Calabrese. “I think for us it’s a shock that we’re here, we’re so young. But our kids have battled throughout the season and I’m very proud of them for their efforts. We have the opportunity to play them and that’s the exciting thing.”

South Pointe is going for its fourth straight state title Saturday at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia. Hartsville has been a big part of the Stallions’ story, the Red Foxes falling 21-7 to South Pointe in the 2014 championship game, then 51-28 in last year’s final.

“Great tradition there and every time we play it seems to be a very classy event where two teams go hard at each other for four quarters,” said Herron. “What it tells me is they do a great job of coaching because when you look at their roster, they’re a young team. Hats off to them.”

Ranked in several national polls, South Pointe (14-0) batted aside Midland Valley, Belton-Honea Path, Eastside and Greer in the state playoffs, scoring at least 45 points in each game, with the closest margin of victory 42 points. Hartsville (13-1) smashed Orangeburg-Wilkinson and Cane Bay, came from behind to beat Lower Richland in the third round, then held off Berkeley in the Lower State championship to advance to Saturday’s final.

Calabrese, whose team only has 11 seniors, said he wondered like the rest of the state back in August who would beat South Pointe.

“I never in a million years thought I’d be the one sitting here and I’d have to go play them again,” he said. “It’s been very gratifying to see these kids up here, to see how far they’ve come and to have an opportunity like this, it’s pretty amazing.”

This story was originally published November 27, 2017 at 4:16 PM with the headline "South Pointe and Hartsville meet at state championship press conference."