Championship experience a big advantage for South Pointe

South Pointe faces a relatively unknown opponent in the 3A football state championship Saturday, Midland Valley. That’s worrisome to a coach like Strait Herron, already prone to worrying.

But there is one clear and decisive advantage in the Stallions’ corner: championship experience. South Pointe will attempt to become the seventh school and eighth team to win back-to-back 3A state titles. The Stallions have talked about winning back-to-back state titles, but it’s not the focus.

“It wasn’t so much to go back to back, but to just win every game we played,” said standout defensive back Nick McCloud. “I know nobody on our team likes to lose.”

Northwestern and South Pointe’s football teams both made the trek down Interstate 77 to visit Williams-Brice Stadium on Thursday. Many of the players on Strait Herron’s team made the same journey last year, and a number of them are also getting recruited heavily by major Div. I football programs, making visits to giant SEC football stadiums less impressive than usual.

“They just seemed real... comfortable is the best way to describe it, I guess,” said Herron, who also won a state title with the Stallions in 2011.

Maybe they were too comfortable on the way down. Herron didn’t know if it was because some of the players were sleepy but he laughed, saying a couple were downright irritable during the tour around the stadium.

“I’m usually the one that’s irritable,” he said. “Man, what’s wrong with y’all?”

McCloud’s statement on Monday during the state championship press conference may suggest it wasn’t grogginess.

“I think everybody was just in awe that we made it,” last year, he said. “We don’t want to get that far and just lose. I think there is gonna be a lot more focus and competitive practice this week.”

After the tour of the facilities, South Pointe conducted part of a practice in the Gamecocks’ new indoor football facility, before finishing outside in the beautiful weather.

The recently-completed indoor facility was the only new part of the trip.

The championship atmosphere shouldn’t be too overwhelming for South Pointe, after last year’s 21-7 win over Hartsville. And the Stallions went on the road two weeks ago and beat undefeated Seneca in a hostile environment over two hours from home. They also started the season with scrimmages against Gaffney, Byrnes and Independence, and non-region games against Nation Ford, York, Rock Hill, Vance (N.C.) and Northwestern.

They’re tested. And ready.

“I think we just know how to win,” said McCloud. “Playing that good 4A schedule at the beginning of the year, tough teams like that you hit them they don’t lay down, they keep going. So I think that helped us a lot.”

Midland Valley certainly hasn’t been pushed in that way. They opened the season with three games against 2A teams – albeit good ones – and in the playoffs the Mustangs played Beaufort, St. James, Georgetown and Myrtle Beach all at home in Graniteville, near Aiken. That rounded out to an average 185-mile trip – in just one direction – for those four coastal schools.

Saturday will also be Midland Valley’s first football state championship experience in school history. The Mustangs’ boys’ basketball team won the 3A title in March, which will help Rick Knight’s team, no doubt.

“Having the success that they had just wants them to have more success,” he said Monday. Knight said the eight players that played on that team have provided the football team “with great leadership.”

But as Herron noted, many of South Pointe’s main contributors to last season’s state title, especially at the skill positions, “are still sitting in the room.” Where last year’s team drove the Stallions coach nuts with how loose it was, this year’s crew has taken a much more business-like approach. That – combined with fewer nerves than last year – won’t win the game for South Pointe, but should absolutely help the cause.

“Last year, I know I was nervous at the beginning of the game,” said senior quarterback Greg Ruff. “But now, I’m just ready to play.”

The idea of back to back championships hasn’t been discussed much, but it would make for a nice finish to South Pointe’s run in the 3A classification.

“Going back to back would be pretty special,” Herron allowed. “Exclamation point.”

This story was originally published December 10, 2015 at 6:54 PM with the headline "Championship experience a big advantage for South Pointe."