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NORTH AUGUSTA — The wait is finally over for the North Augusta baseball and softball programs.

After a decade of planning and anticipation, the brand-new Jacket Park was unveiled Feb. 13 with a ribbon-cutting before softball’s intrasquad scrimmage. It includes not only new baseball and softball fields, but also new facilities for both teams to use, including practice areas.

And on top of all of that, it’s located just across the street from the school itself.

“It's huge,” head baseball coach Kevin Lynn said. “And it's just something we've never had that we've always looked forward to. We've always talked about it, but now we have our own. So, everybody's excited. We've been over here practicing every day since January.

"So just to have our own field where we don't have to travel across town to go practice, and hope that no one else has been on our field before us. And so just having our own is really big. And I know everybody's excited.”

Principal Casey Rogers cut the ribbon alongside varsity baseball and softball players while members of the community took in the park for the first time.

Riverview Park has been the home of Jacket baseball and softball for decades, through thick and thin. The on-campus facilities have faced setbacks over the years that have delayed its completion, including Tropical Storm Helene, which pushed back its opening by an entire season.

The moment is even more special for the head coaches since they remember growing up in the area and playing themselves at Riverview Park with stories of one day having facilities like these.

“It's almost surreal,” head softball coach Lindsey Jones said. “I played here, and with it being talked about back then, it still gave you something to play for, but to be back here now as a coach and to see the girls that are getting a chance to play on a new field on their campus with their name, Jacket Park, written on it. It's a whole different meaning when it comes to coming out here and fighting for their teammates.”

And it’s that sense of ownership that has made the biggest difference for both teams. At Riverview Park, the fields they used were also used by other teams around the area, and while the signs called it their home, it never really felt like theirs.

It’s even changed how the Jackets practice every day. Before, the teams would have to wait until 5 p.m. so players could get out of school and get down to Riverview, but now, with the fields being a walk away, both can schedule practices for earlier in the day.

“Just finally having something that's ours,” Lynn said. “Something that we can call our home that nobody else gets to use. It's strictly for our baseball players. And they love it. They come here every day. They're excited. I got a great group anyway, but just having our own and knowing that it's right here on campus. And they take a lot of pride in it. I know they enjoy every bit of it. They're soaking it all in. I know that.”

With the new fields and all that comes with them, come new responsibilities for players as well, to keep the facilities nice for all the teams that will come after them. But for them, the extra work is exciting too as they settle into their new environment.

“You can see the pride they have for it,” Jones said. “You can see that they come excited to practice. It is the first time that we've had jobs for the girls, and they're excited to even do those because they know that we want to maintain a good ball field. And to do that, you’ve got to work even harder, and they're all willing to do that.”

Both teams’ seasons will be kicking off within the next few weeks with non-region matchups at home and on the road.

Softball will be the first team to host at Jacket Park, first with a scrimmage against Silver Bluff on Feb.19, then against Strom Thurmond on March 11 in its first official home game of the season. The Jackets open up region play on the road but will return home to face South Aiken on March 16.

“You think about all the players that went through our program that didn't get this chance,” Jones said. “But they still fought for the community and played for the community, and it's finally happening. So, I'm excited for the girls now just to get that chance to feel that pride and joy behind, not just their school, but the community that fought for them to get this as well.”

Baseball will host its first official game at Jacket Park on March 14 against Harlem and will open up region play at home two days later against Gilbert.

Lynn said there are still moments he can’t believe these facilities are finally here and ready for everyone in the North Augusta community to enjoy.

“This is great,” he said. “This is awesome. I mean, I live right up the street. So, when I'm riding by here, and just sometimes still can't believe we finally got it. But it's everything that it's been cracked up to be so far, it's been awesome.”

High school athletes dream their entire lives about getting the chance to continue playing past high school.

And for five standout North Augusta football players, that dream became a reality on Feb. 4.

“That's what it's all about,” said head coach Richard Bush. “We tell them when they come in here as freshmen that if you come in here and you work and you do things the right way, then you're going to put yourself in situations that you're going to be proud of. You're going to have a chance to reach your goals. And this group of guys, this is what they've wanted to do. This is what they've always worked for, and to see them reach their goals, we're excited for them. But at the same time, it just goes back to our program and the way our kids work day in and day out, not just these guys. Everybody that's involved in our program does a tremendous job. So, we're, we're excited for our football program.”

For running back Michael Doe, this day was a long time coming after the high school career he’s had. He made the most of every appearance on the field, which led to a position on the Gardner-Webb football team for the fall season.

The Bulldogs are a Division I team based in North Carolina under the OVC-Big South Football Association. They finished last season 5-7 with a 5-3 record in conference play.

“It feels good because everybody pretty much expected me to be here,” he said. “I expected myself to be here. I always wanted to be here. It's definitely a great feeling.”

And for Doe, the moment means just that much more since it all almost never happened after suffering a ruptured kidney his freshman year. He said that memory is the one that stands out to him the most.

“Probably when I had my first injury for real,” Doe said. “My first real injury. The doctors, they told me I wasn’t supposed to be able to play again after I had ruptured my kidney, but it didn’t matter what they said. I came out here, and I still played my whole four years of high school and I’m ready to keep going.”

He’s left a legacy on and off the field as the Jackets' go-to running back, setting records and helping to lead them to a region championship in 2024.

What set Gardner-Webb apart from other schools was the support from the community and how much interest the staff showed in Doe early on. He said the Bulldogs saw his potential where others didn’t.

He won’t be the only one leaving South Carolina to pursue his dreams. Offensive lineman Seth Short will be heading to Iowa to join the Grinnell football team.

The recruiting process offered a unique challenge for Short as he learned how to advertise his skills to the school in a way that stood out.

“The big thing that stood out to me is how hard it is to really get your name out there,” he said. “Of course, things pop, even if you're a great player; it's really competitive. It's almost like a business. It's really competitive. But it's a great thing to learn how to advertise yourself. And it's really great to see a payoff.”

He said he’s most looking forward to meeting a new set of teammates and the new opportunities moving across the U.S. will provide. And it’s the bonding he’s been able to do with the offensive line at North Augusta that has left the biggest impression as he prepares for the next chapter of his career.

Becoming a leader for the next class of players has also been one of the ways Short has left his mark on the program as a whole. He hopes he can be a leader in the same way at Grinnell.

“Before pretty much every practice, our offensive line would go sit in the corner, and we'd lay on the fricking grass,” he said. “And we'd just look at the clouds, and it might not be football, but it was great just talking to those guys before we'd go and work our tails off for two hours. It was just great getting to sit with them and, and make memories.”

The Pioneers are a Division III football program and finished the 2025 season with a 2-8 record. Head coach Brent Barnes has led the team since late 2019.

Standouts Donte’ Bell, Cam Frazier and Davion McKinnis will be staying close to home at South Carolina schools.

Bell will be going to Division II Newberry as an outside linebacker. The Wolves saw a lot of success in 2025 with a 12-2 finish and an 8-1 conference record.

He’ll be joining several other local players, including former North Augusta running back DJ Curry, on the team. Head coach Todd Knight has been with the school for 17 years and had led the team into the playoffs five times during his tenure.

It was having former North Augusta wide receiver coach Deshun Kitchings on the coaching staff that made Newberry feel like home for Bell.

“The recruiting process for me was, it was hard because I didn’t get my offer until after our season, my senior season,” he said. “And talking to Coach Kitchings from Newberry, being that he coached at our school, it felt like family, the recruiting process.”

Bell really started to make waves during his senior season, but he’s been putting in the work for the past four years for North Augusta. Through coaching changes and other adversity, he felt the group had really come together over the last two years, even if they’ve fallen short of a state championship.

Like Short, it was the time working off the field that left the biggest impact on him when he looks back at his high school career.

“This weight room, really, like every day in the weight room,” Bell said. “Waking up, not doing what everybody else is doing, I wouldn't want to trade it for nothing.”

McKinnis and Frazier will continue being teammates during this next step in their careers at North Greenville University. The Division II school went undefeated in conference play in 2025 under first-year head coach Nate Garner.

The Trailblazers brought home their first conference championship in 51 years in a program that is on an upward trajectory.

McKinnis made waves in his senior year on the defensive line with standout games against teams like South Aiken and Strom Thurmond. He said it’s been a lot of work to develop into the player he is today and to earn a spot on a college roster.

“It's crazy,” he said. “Like my freshman year, it was a long journey to get to where I'm at now. I'll be honest, me working in the gym and working on my speed and technique every day, it just put me to the standard and point to where I wanted to be in life, and so it got me right and I'm going to college.”

North Greenville set the expectations for recruits early on about what would be expected of them as a part of the program. It was them setting that standard that made the Trailblazers stand out for McKinnis.

“It is stressful because when you’re talking to coaches, and you say something wrong, the coaches might just [be like] oh nevermind,” he said. “He said one wrong thing, you’ve got to get him up out of there. But when you find a coach that’s actually looking at you and taking his time with you and talking to you, that's when you know you got the right school.”

Frazier will be joining him as a wide receiver with three schools' worth of experience under his belt. He started out his high school career at Aiken before moving to Silver Bluff and finally closing out his senior year at North Augusta.

That experience is what he feels sets him apart from other players. It was the position coaches at North Greenville that made it feel like the right school.

“Really, the coaches for me,” Frazier said. “I like the coaches. My position coach at wide receiver, I love it.”

Despite only being a part of the Jackets for his final year, every moment he’s had with the team has become a core memory as he prepares to take that next step.

Bush has seen each of the players grow up since taking over the program three years ago. They’ve all helped to shape the North Augusta football team into what it is today and contributed to its recent success, he said.

“Donte' and Davion played a good bit as freshmen,” Bush said. “Then, sophomores, they all played. The last three years, they won 30 games in three years. It says a lot about them and the type of leaders they are. Those guys worked hard not only on Fridays when everybody in the stands and the community saw them, but those guys work extremely hard in the weight room, on the practice field and in the classroom. Hard work pays off, and we’re excited to see where they’re heading.”

It hasn’t been the ideal season for the North Augusta boys’ basketball team, but the adversity it's faced could become an advantage for the playoffs.

After playing shorthanded for the last several games, the Jackets have had players throughout the roster step up to keep the team competitive. Some teams would falter after losing several of their top players, but they’ve powered through to take firm control of second place in Region 4-AAAA.

“The teams that have been challenged the most, the teams that have faced the most adversity, will be the teams to be able to handle that come playoff time,” said head coach Tony Harrell. “And we played a brutal schedule. We've had some things outside of basketball that we've had to handle. So, it is either going to make our team a lot stronger or it's going up breaking our team.”

And for Harrell, one word sums up what it will take to keep this group going deep into the postseason: discipline.

With players getting back on the court to close out the regular season, there’s still a long way to go for North Augusta to find itself playing for a state title again this year.

“Discipline,” he said. “Discipline on both ends of the floor. And discipline means executing on offense. Discipline means boxing out. Discipline means taking charges. All that entitles discipline. So, if we're a discipline team, we're a hard team to beat.”

And for the most part, aside from Gray Collegiate Academy, the Jackets have maneuvered the region without too much trouble and a 9-2 record. Their most recent 59-36 victory over South Aiken was another step in the right direction despite a slow start.

After only outscoring the T-Breds 29-21 in the first half, North Augusta picked up steam in the latter portion of the game to stretch the lead on the scoreboard. The Jackets are no strangers to winning messy games, and it’s that perseverance that could set them apart in the coming weeks.

“We haven't been able to practice the last few days, so we're a little sloppy tonight,” Harrell said. “The key for us is getting back out to practice, remaining disciplined and executing either the offense or the defense that it's called. Too many times tonight, we didn't have good half-court execution on our offense, too many times tonight, we got beat off the dribble on defense. So, there's things that we’ve got to do better as a team if we want to go as far as we want to go.”

During this tougher stretch of the season that’s been filled with setbacks because of weather and missing players, Harrell has had to pull people up from junior varsity to fill in the gaps. Throughout the second half of region play, everyone has had a chance to step up as leaders, especially upperclassmen like senior Toian Nabriat and junior Tristan Anderson.

“I've had 10 men in practice the last week and a half,” he said. “And we've been shorthanded. But I pulled up five kids from the JV team, and they have been outstanding. They've been outstanding teammates. They've worked really hard in practice. They've helped us get better. But I'm really pleased with senior Toian Nabriat; he's kind of stepped up and had to do more. Tristan Anderson has carried a load a little bit more. But thankfully, we'll get the rest of the guys back at the end of this week and work them back into rotation to see where they're at.”

Anderson is eying 1,000 career points while Nabriat is closing out his final year as a dual-sport starter for football and basketball. With only three more games in the schedule for North Augusta, time is running out to get the team prepared for another title run.

It won’t be the easiest finish to the season for the Jackets with Airport, Brookland-Cayce and Midland Valley on the schedule. The Mustangs and the Bearcats are battling it out for third place in the region with 7-4 records, and a win over North Augusta for either would improve their resume.

With a 4-7 record in the region, South Aiken is firmly set in sixth place and looking at a playoff spot from the outside looking in. And with a gauntlet left on the schedule with Gray Collegiate, Midland Valley and Aiken, the T-Breds will need to come through with an unexpected win or two to safely secure a postseason berth.

The finish line is on the horizon for the high school basketball regular season.

While the key is consistency for North Augusta girls’ basketball at the top of the Region 4-AAAA standings, South Aiken is still fighting for a third-place finish heading into the postseason. After falling to the Jackets 64-22 on Feb. 3, the T-Breds are tied at 7-4 with Midland Valley in the region.

Finishing on a high note is the top priority for South Aiken head coach Russell Felton.

“We know we weren’t going to beat North Augusta tonight,” he said. “My biggest thing right now, we’re in third, we’re getting ready to play Gray (Collegiate) Friday at home. We’re going to try and hit them in the mouth, and then we’re going to come back and try to just control the controllables. Our program is not on North Augusta’s caliber yet, but I think ultimately, we’re going to get there. But right now, my biggest thing I said just finish strong, beat the teams we’re supposed to beat like Midland Valley, Aiken, that’s about it.”

North Augusta is at the point of the year where it's looking to reach its top level right before the start of the playoffs. While some teams may slump at times throughout a long basketball season, the Jackets thrive on discipline and a constant desire to get better.

As they eye another region championship, it may look like there’s not much better the team can get from the outside looking in. But for them, paying attention to the details and finding every little mistake to work out is what sets them apart.

Complacency isn’t part of the game plan for North Augusta.

“Trying to stay on top of our game,” said head coach Al Young. “Working hard and trying to emphasize that we can’t slack off. We come into the season with the idea that we’ll continue to get better and that we have to be at our best at the end of the season. So, we talk about that a lot. We just try to do everything we can to make sure that we’re peaking at the end of the season, not the beginning.”

While senior Celena Grant has been a standout on the team for her entire high school career, the Jackets are full of aces this season with upperclassmen leading the pack in players like junior Ashley Walker and seniors Kenedi Wright and Messiah Williams.

For Young, relying too much on one or two players can be an Achilles heel, so he keeps the emphasis on the group as a whole to keep teams on their toes.

“We feel like it’s always important that we can be a team,” he said. “And that we don’t rely on one person. We feel like if it's that way, then teams can kind of key on those people. So we try to stress that we have to work together as a team, got to share the basketball and certainly everybody working their game, shooting, dribbling and everything. At practice, we’re hopeful that all of our kids will develop those skills, and we’ll be able to share the basketball and do those things to put our kids in the right spot where they can be successful.”

Despite defense being North Augusta’s bread and butter as a program for the last decade, it's still the area Young wants to see the most improvement in throughout the final three games of the regular season.

The Jackets will face Airport, Brookland-Cayce and Midland Valley one last time. In their first meetings against this stretch of teams, they allowed an average of 19.66 points a game while scoring an average of 60.66 points.

“We always talk about defense,” Young said. “I just think our man defense has got to continue to get better. And we’ve got to be able to score. We’ve got to be able to shoot the ball better. And we’ll continue working on those things. Hopefully, when the time comes, we’ll be prepared."

North Augusta and South Aiken are two sides of the same coin. The Jackets boast experience and discipline, while the T-Breds are a young and growing team with high expectations.

To Felton, North Augusta is the standard for girls’ basketball, and he believes his group can achieve that standard with time. They’ll face second-place Gray Collegiate Academy, Midland Valley and Aiken to close out the season.

So far, the Jackets and the War Eagles are the only two teams in the region to get the best of South Aiken.

“I’m proud of my girls,” he said. “They’re young, and they’re going to get better. Like I said earlier, North Augusta’s the standard. I’m not mad about that. Only thing I’m worried about is control the controllables, like the next three games we got, those next three games are winnable. Even with Gray, we played great, tough down there, a few breaks here and there. My biggest thing with them is they play strong. Get back in the lab and do what we do, and everything’s going to happen.”

AIKEN — The snow is over, but the bitter cold remains.

According to meteorologist Chris Landolfi out of the National Weather Service’s Columbia forecast office, Aiken County generally received around 2-3 inches of snow from Winter Storm Gianna, with some portions receiving slightly less than two inches.

Landolfi said that temperatures on the night of Jan. 31 dropped into the mid-teens with low wind chills and that the night of Feb. 1 were expected to be “similarly cold although the wind is expected to weaken.”

Several power outages were reported in Aiken County, but most were resolved by early afternoon Feb. 1. The Aiken Electric Cooperative Outage Map reports two outages as of 2 p.m. Dominion Energy reports no outages in Aiken County as of 2 p.m.

Many government facilities were closed over the weekend and have altered their hours for Monday, Feb. 2.

The Aiken County Public School District has announced that Monday, Feb. 2 will be an e-learning day and a decision regarding Tuesday’s instruction will be announced no later than 3 p.m. Monday afternoon.

The Edgefield County School District is transitioning to e-learning on Monday as well and non-virtual afterschool activities are being canceled.

Edgefield County Schools will provide an update regarding instruction on Tuesday no later than 4 p.m. on Feb. 2.

USC Aiken plans to resume normal operations on Feb. 2 at 1 p.m. All classes prior to 1 p.m. are canceled.

Aiken Technical College will have a delayed start on Monday. Campus operations and classes will resume at 1 p.m.

Aiken County Government public facilities, residential collection centers and landfills will also have a delayed start on Monday at 1 p.m.

The City of Aiken will operate on a delayed opening schedule on Monday, Feb. 2. All city public offices and facilities will open at 10 a.m. and close at the facility’s normal schedule time. Solid waste routes will operate on their normal schedule Monday, Feb. 2.

All North Augusta city facilities were closed on Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 and have not yet announced a delayed start time for facilities on Monday, Feb. 2.

Although sunny conditions on Feb. 1 and high temperatures in the 30s melted most of Saturday’s snow, Landolfi says there is still concern about icy spots on the road for morning travel.

He noted that travel could continue to be hazardous, “especially on secondary roads.”

The Aiken County Sheriff's Office urged caution during travel: Bridges, overpasses, and shaded roadways may become slick with little to no warning, the sheriff's office said in a social media post.

Also, they urged motorists to stay off the road and delay travel until conditions improve.

If you must drive, the post continued, reduce speed, increase following distance and avoid sudden braking or sharp turns.