By Thomas Grant Jr.
R.A.M.P.
The acronym stands for Ready And Motivated Personally.
It best describes the mood around Gray Collegiate Academy football entering Friday’s first-round Class 2A Upper State home playoff matchup with Pelion.
It comes out of completing a regular season in which the second-ranked War Eagles (10-0) won a region title without playing a single opponent.
It also saw school officials heavily involved in discussions with other districts, elected state officials and the S.C. High School League about charter schools, their perceived athletic advantage and concerns about fairness resulting in voluntary forfeits by rival Region 4-2A schools.
In between that and unscheduled bye weeks, Gray Collegiate traveled on long bus trips out of state to play nationally ranked-teams. While the War Eagles were victorious in only one of the four replacement games, the results were not counted by the S.C. High School League and the school was compensated for their appearance by the out-of-state teams.
Now that the post-season has started, the only road trip they have to concern themselves would be in December in Orangeburg for the state final. As long as the War Eagles are winning, they will play their playoff games in the friendly confines of their new home “nest”.
“Excited to finally be back at home, playing in front of our fans,” head coach Adam Holmes said. “Been on the road so much to Florida and (Washington) D.C. and all those places. Did everything we wanted to accomplish, got a bunch of good games under our belts to get us prepared to hopefully make a playoff run.”
The Panthers (3-7), which has dropped three straight and are 0-2 all-time in the series, will face a well-rested War Eagles’ team which will only have one player missing this week due to injury. The team is also motivated, in Holmes words, to “show all these teams and people what Gray Collegiate football is all about.”
Holmes also did not shy away from the team’s motivations regarding how they were unable to play a full in-state schedule.
“It’s personal a little bit to us,” he said. “You know, these schools have taken these opportunities away from us and have cost us a couple of games and taken it away for our seniors that were having a good senior season. But we made the most out of it. At the end of the day, we came out better being able to play four quality opponents. Four out-of-state schools that are pretty good.
“But yeah, it’s personal for these guys to get on our home field and hopefully, win a state championship for Gray Collegiate Academy because as long as we keep winning, they get to play at home.”
FINAL S.C. PREP FOOTBALL MEDIA CLASS 2A POLL
1. Abbeville (10) (9-1)
2. Gray Collegiate (6) (10-0)
3. Hampton County (9-1)
4. Oceanside Collegiate (7-2)
5. (tie) Marion (9-1)
5. (tie) Strom Thurmond (8-2)
7. Fairfield Central (8-2)
8. Silver Bluff (7-3)
9. Ninety-Six (8-2)
10. Woodland (7-2)
Others receiving votes: Andrew Jackson, Saluda, Barnwell
PHOTO BY GEORGE MATSUI – Gray Collegiate Academy head coach Adam Holmes speaks with his team.
