Horry County, SC -
By Justin Felder - bio | email
HWY 707, SC (WMBF) – Socastee and St. James High Schools will both be in the playoffs this season; but Friday's rivalry game will determine who gets the 3 seed, and who gets the 4 seed. Both teams feature improving quarterbacks who have gotten their teams on the post season track.
St. James senior QB Chase Smith returned from an offseason injury stemming from a wiffle ball game to turn around the Sharks offense. The dual threat quarterback has the Sharks on the verge of their first playoff 3 seed in team history.
"He puts a lot of pressure on defenses, he can run the ball, he commands the huddle," said St. James head coach Billy Hurston. "Any team, when your starting quarterback's in there, kids react differently, they're a little more confident."
Smith also looks forward to chance to knock off his team's arch rival.
"It gets pretty serious," said Smith. "We like to be able to talk, tell them we beat them later on down the road. We're just going to have to go out there and play football, forget about everything going on outside of it and just play."
Socastee's tricky offense is tough on defenses – and quarterbacks. After former Athlete of the Week Zack Elliman headed for Coastal Carolina to be a wide receiver, Braves head coach Tim Renfrow's son Jordan took over the reins. He's improved of late, as have the Braves, as they look towards St. James.
"Jordan's gotten better and we expect him to," said Tim Renfrow. "We do a lot offensively with our quarterback and it takes time. It's great to have one hopefully for two years like we've had the last few years. We feel like as a team we've gotten better, that's the big thing. They're supposed to get better, that's sort of how this thing works."
St. James hosts Socastee Friday night at 7:30pm.
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