The best high school football highlight of 2013

Socastee has won 19 straight regular season games with Renfrow leading the Socastee offense. The Braves have lived in the shadow of rivals Myrtle Beach and Conway for decades, but with Hunter they are at the top of the mountain when it comes to Grand Strand football thanks to four straight wins over the Seahawks and Tigers. He runs the option like a doctor doing surgery on a defense. It's a combination of elusiveness and speed that makes him He's a nightmare for opposing coaches, but you'll find every one of them heaping praise on the reigning WPDE Zoneman winner. I can go into our archives right now and come up with a top ten list of Hunter Renfrow highlights, but I found the best highlight in our WPDE Studio last Friday night.

The Braves had just beaten archrival Myrtle Beach 37-21 and earned a trip to our studio as the SONIC Game of the Week. First year head coach Doug Illing handed Hunter an HTC Game Ball for his 249 yards combined passing and rushing and three TD's in the win. Here's a high school senior, on live television surrounded by his teammates, coaches and cheerleaders. He could have taken a moment to bask in the glow, but instead took the spotlight and shined it somewhere else.

 MUST WATCH: Hunter Renfrow gives HTC Game Ball to Robbie Bennett

You won't find a more thankless job than running balls to officials and hustling out water to players. It's easy to think that it's not all that important in the grand scheme of things. But Hunter Renfrow gets it. Robbie Bennett IS Socastee athletics. He works a tireless job in the background and is an important part of the Braves community. The guy who is in the shadows more than anyone else, was thrusted into the spotlight by the star of the team. An assistant coach leaned into me on the way out of the studio and said, "He came up with that all on his own", referring to his impromptu Game Ball audible.

Hunter Renfrow is the "Johnny Football" of the Grand Strand. He's got the Zoneman, Johnny Manziel has the Heisman. The way Manziel handled his off the field life post-Heisman is a cautionary tale of how one handles the spotlight and great success. Hunter Renfrow is handling his Zoneman success just fine.

The big schools haven't come knocking on Renfrow's door. He could run the triple option at Georgia Tech or he could be a slot receiver and dangerous return man at Clemson, the school he wants to attend. The FBS schools may get caught up in the numbers game when it comes to height and weight and miss out. That would be great news for a number of FCS programs that have already made offers. College coaches are well aware that it takes so much more than pure physical ability to succeed in college football. Looks can be deceiving. High school kids aren't supposed to be giving an adult life lessons. That's exactly what happened on Friday night when Hunter Renfrow reminded me that selfless is so much better than selfish. Thanks, Zoneman.

The Courage of Robin Roberts

I'm not a big ESPY's guy. If it weren't for the Gamecocks Jadeveon Clowney up for Play of the Year (which he won), I would have been buried in our archives watching 2012 high school football highlights getting ready for our Zone Media Day next week. While waiting to watch the Outback Bowl hit for 1,000th time, the Arthur Ashe Courage Award was presented to Robin Roberts. It's been well documented that the Good Morning America anchor has overcome breast cancer and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and has become an inspiration for the bone marrow transplant cause. Millions of viewers have been rooting for Roberts as she has been very public in sharing her struggles and triumphs over something so scary. Everyone has learned firsthand what an inspiration Robin Roberts is and why she was the perfect choice for the Arthur Ashe Courage Award. It just happens to be that Roberts inspired me many years ago when she was in perfect health.
Even in the minor leagues of sportscasting, if you've been doing it long enough, you'll have interactions with athletes and colleagues in the national spotlight. During my time in Bangor, I told the story of a small town girl who captured the fascination of a state by staying home and starring for the University of Maine women's basketball team. Cindy Blodgett led the nation in scoring and became a first round WNBA Draft pick. Her head coach was Joanne Palombo-McCallie, who is now one of the biggest names in college basketball as the head coach at Duke. I was nearly complete with my first documentary telling the story of the Maine basketball legend. The last piece of the puzzle was to go to Cleveland and show the hometown hero playing in the pros.
Robin Roberts was calling the Cleveland Rockers game for ESPN on the night I arrived. Two hours before tipoff, I approached her to see if I could ask her a few questions about Blodgett. I had arranged to talk to Cindy after the game, but nothing else was set up. It would have been so easy for Roberts to give me the brush off. After all, she's got a national broadcast to prepare for, and Cindy Blodgett was not a household name beyond the Maine border. Roberts not only agreed to talk with me, but she showed why she's one of the best in the business. It took me about 20 seconds to realize that she did her homework and then some. She broke down Blodgett like she had been covering her for as long as I had. She talked about the adjustment from small college basketball to the WNBA and the challenges she would face. I was hoping for a good sound bite or two and she gave me enough to do an entire separate feature for a future sportscast. As if that wasn't enough, she called over her color analyst. UConn women's basketball coach Geno Aueriemma, with Robin setting the table, sat down and gave me another great interview. It was like Robin Roberts put herself in my shoes and saw a small town sportscaster in the big arena and was thinking of how she could make my story better. Take my word - not everyone in television has that kind of selflessness and kindness.
I've been very lucky to have strong influences in my career. I was able to soak knowledge and wisdom on a daily basis from ESPN's Steve Levy and WNBC's Bruce Beck. It was only twenty minutes, but the time I spent with Robin Roberts had a lasting impression on me as well. It inspired me to try and give a helping hand to any young broadcaster who has reached out to me for advice or help no matter how busy the day gets.
I don't know if our paths will ever cross again, so just in case I can't personally say thank you, the next best thing is to share Robin Roberts Courage Award speech from the ESPY's. Sometimes, one brief interaction can have a lasting impact. I've already had that impact from Robin Roberts and if you watch this video you can have that same feeling.
Click HERE to watch Robin Roberts ESPYs speech

Rich's Blog: Golson on the big stage

The last time I saw Everett Golson, he had played the worst game of his entire football career. Shielded from the media, Golson came out of the Notre Dame locker room and stopped to talk with me. He had thrown two interceptions and got the quick hook in the second quarter from Brian Kelly in Notre Dame's 13-6 win over Michigan.
He had every reason to be down in the dumps and could have just kept on walking by. But that's not Everett Golson. He stopped and gave all the right answers and a quiet confidence that he's going to keep getting better. When the camera was off, I spoke with Golson for a couple of more minutes. I know him well enough that he could have took a moment to vent about not playing well or shake his head in disgust. There was none of that. He wasn't discouraged at all and was anxious to have a full two weeks to prepare for his next opponent. He enjoyed hearing about Myrtle Beach High's win over Conway the night before and more than anything happy to see a familiar face. Trust me, if it were up to him, he'd shy away from all the attention that he's getting in the press, but he knows that it comes with the territory.
Golson played eight games since that Michigan game and he did get better. He thrived in tough environments like Oklahoma and Southern California and might not have had flashy numbers, but he had the best stat of all - 12 wins and a spot in the BCS National Championship game.
I've witnessed more than one moment like after the Michigan game in the six years that I've covered Everett Golson that shows the intangibles which has put him on the biggest stage in college football in Miami. It has been fun to watch the country see the well rounded side of Golson who uses music as a creative outlet and has handled the bright spotlight of being a quarterback at one of the biggest brands in all of sports in stride.
When he threw for 47 touchdowns and just three picks in his junior season at Myrtle Beach, he told Mark Haggard that he was hoping to have no interceptions in his senior year. More than anything else, Everett Golson is a highly motivated individual. It doesn't matter what happens in the title game, one thing's for sure - Golson will be right to work in the offseason figuring out how he can be even better. Before leaving for Miami, he said that if the Irish wins it all in his redshirt freshman season, he'll get greedy and want to get another championship. That's how he is wired. Usually, that kind of mindset goes hand in hand with a huge ego, but not with Golson. He won WPDE's Zoneman Trophy in 2008 and 2009 and was the overwhelming favorite to win it all in his senior season. He suffered an injury against Byrnes early in the season and missed the majority of the regular season. With Zoneman ballots collected after week 11, it would be awkward to vote on a player who played about 10 quarters. Golson withdrew his name from consideration and asked for coaches to vote for one of his teammates for the award. At the Zone Banquet, I asked Golson to present the Trophy to the winner. This was my attempt of throwing him into the fire. Knowing that he would have been perfectly fine to have the spotlight off of him, I wanted to give him this task with the hopes that it would prepare him for what was to come in his college career. Standing on a stage in a room of 200 in a televised event is a daunting task for anyone, yet alone a high school senior. Talking off the top of his head, Golson spoke about what the award meant to him and how honored he was to be part of the legacy of the trophy and then announced that current University of South Carolina running back Shon Carson was the winner. Talking to Kirk Herbstreit and the rest of the national media is a whole lot bigger than the WPDE Zone Banquet, but I left that night knowing that Golson was going to be just fine in dealing with all the attention of being quarterback at Notre Dame.
I read a great article in USA Today about how young Golson will react on a big stage. The focal point of the article was the 2010 Class 3A championship that saw Myrtle Beach beat South Pointe in Everett's final high school game. I was on the sidelines and saw first hand the adversity Golson faced. Jadeveon Clowney, of South Carolina and future #1 NFL pick fame, threw #5 like a rag doll on the very first play of the game. Myrtle Beach had a blocked punt for a safety and it looked like the Seahawks were overmatched (sounds a lot like the Notre Dame/Alabama talk). Trailing 23-14 at the end of three quarters, Golson threw two TD passes in the fourth quarter in a 27-23 title victory. He didn't have the best game of his career, but he figured out a way to win when it mattered the most.
There's going to be about 25 million sets of eyeballs watching Everett Golson try and handle the toughest challenge of his career. He's the starting quarterback at Notre Dame and now a household name in all of America. If he plays great, that will be magnified even more. But that isn't going to change who he is at his core. He has the talent and resume to have a massive ego, but instead is the polar opposite. When a superstar comes home for Christmas and says his favorite gift was a candy cane from his Grandma, that's the definition of humble.
I have no idea what is going to happen between the Fighting Irish and the Crimson Tide. There will be a lot of people with butterflies as they hope that Golson can deliver in the biggest game of his life. Golson is human - he'll have those butterflies, but he'll settle into the flow of the game and do what he does on the big stage.
Today is Everett Golson Day in Myrtle Beach, as proclaimed by Mayor John Rhodes. It doesn't matter what happens later tonight on the field. The Grand Strand already knows that Everett Golson is a winner.