York football’s Will Boggs earns ultimate honor; 17 others named to All-State team

It started at the beginning of region play.

For Will Boggs, his trek to South Carolina Offensive Lineman of the Year started much earlier than that — and it ended at the Coaches Association Palmetto Champions Banquet in Columbia on Dec. 5.

But the information gathering for this particular award, York football head coach Dean Boyd said, began around Week 5.

“They ask for nominations for Lineman of the Year, Back of the Year, Coach of the Year (and Specialist of the Year),” Boyd said. “I nominated Will, and then the Coaches Association watches film and discusses it.”

Boyd said the committee parsed through the nominations during the season and narrowed them down to 10 players for each award — one from Upper State and one from Lower State of each school classification, from 1A to 5A. From there, they met again and announced the overall winner at an end-of-year banquet.

In his senior season, Boggs made the Shrine Bowl and was voted Region Offensive Lineman of the Year before this accolade. He graded out at 88 percent and added 41 knockdowns and one sack in the 2019 season.

Boggs’ father, John, is York’s offensive line coach, and the younger Boggs wants to study engineering in college.

“That’s the good thing about him and (Ashton) Shannon — both of the kids I got,” Boyd said. “They’re such academic kids that they’re not going to let their athletic careers dictate what they’re going to do academically.”

Others on All-State team

Outside of Boggs, several players who played for Tri-County-area schools this season were selected to South Carolina’s All-State roster.

5A

Clover, Northwestern and Rock Hill each had multiple players make the list.

From Clover: JQ Guinn (defensive lineman); Hayden Johnson (linebacker); Jaylin Lane (wide receiver).

From Northwestern: Gregory Johnson (linebacker); Ger-Cari Caldwell (wide receiver).

From Rock Hill: Tylik Edwards (defensive back); Anthony Jackson (defensive back — honorable mention).

4A

South Pointe, Lancaster and York were represented.

From South Pointe: Rontarious Aldridge (defensive line); Kyson Chisolm (offensive lineman).

From Lancaster: Emmanuel Bush (defensive lineman).

From York: Will Boggs (offensive lineman); Ashton Shannon (offensive lineman); Khalil Ellis (tight end).

3A

Defensive lineman Quay Evans and defensive back/receiver Ly’Terrence Mills (honorable mention) represented Chester on the All-State team. AJ Jefferson and Deaveaun Qwiy represented Indian Land.

2A

Demetric Hardin represented Lewisville.

1A

Great Falls’ defensive lineman Scott Blackmon and wide receiver and defensive back, DJ Adams, made the team.

This story was originally published December 10, 2019 at 9:25 AM.

Alex Zietlow

The Herald

Alex Zietlow writes about sports and the ways in which they intersect with life in York, Chester and Lancaster counties for The Herald, where he has been an editor and reporter since August 2019. Zietlow has won nine S.C. Press Association awards in his career, including First Place finishes in Feature Writing, Sports Enterprise Writing and Education Beat Reporting. He also received two Top-10 awards in the 2021 APSE writing contest and was nominated for the 2022 U.S. Basketball Writers Association’s Rising Star award for his coverage of the Winthrop men’s basketball team.