Where the time went

Abbeville High seniors prepare to graduate

May 18, 2007

By MIKE ROSIER
Index-Journal staff writer

ABBEVILLE — Everything has happened so fast.
Katelyn Williams remembers her arrival at the Abbeville High School campus as a nervous freshman with an exciting four years ahead of her.
Those years are gone, but some of the nervousness remains.
As the countdown to graduation dwindles, the butterflies are multiplying.
Williams — this year’s Abbeville High valedictorian — will address her fellow graduates, parents and attendees 7 p.m. Saturday at Lander University’s Finis Horne Arena.
“I’m probably more nervous (about speaking) than I thought I would be the closer and closer it gets,” Williams said Thursday. “I’ll be speaking about our high school memories and the things that will help out most after graduation. I’ll always remember how together our (senior) class was.”
Still, she wonders where the last four years even went.
“It’s gone by extremely fast,” she says.
Williams might as well get used to the Lander campus, as she plans to remain close to home when she attends the school this fall. A big fan of history at AHS, Williams is looking to the nursing program for her career.
“There are a lot of educators in my family, but that just wasn’t for me,” Williams said. “I’ve always been interested in the medical field.”
On Saturday, she’ll hope to hold her emotions in check.
“I just hope I don’t cry,” Williams said.
Joining the valedictorian on stage — and at the podium — will be a pair of honor graduates in JoBeth White and Carlie Williams (who is no relation to Katelyn Williams). While most schools feature a valedictorian and salutatorian, Abbeville High honors three students instead.
White — who will join Katelyn Williams at Lander in the nursing program — plans to speak on continuing the themes that, once applied, made the trio successful students at Abbeville High.
She’ll also battle the butterflies.
“I’ll be talking about goals, fundamentals and faith,” she said. “Those are the things that got us through high school, which will also help us in the future. I’m not used to speaking in front of a bunch of people either.
“I’m kind of shy when it comes to speaking in front of people and things like that.”
When asked what she will miss the most about her high school career, White mentions playing softball and tennis — and math class.
“It’s been really fun,” she said.
Carlie Williams plans to attend Anderson University.
“I visited the campus and just fell in love with it,” she said. “Science is probably my favorite subject, but I don’t think I’ll declare a major yet.”
For Carlie Williams, the first three years on a high school campus went by at a much lower pace, but the senior year has truly been a blur.
“It’s really gone by so fast,” she says. “I hope I won’t be emotional.”

Bondsman helps local clients clear language barrier

May 18, 2007

By LARRY SINGER
Index-Journal staff writer

The first thing a visitor to Carlos Garcia Bail Bonding LLC, located in a small strip mall in the 700 block of Cambridge Avenue, notices is that all of the glossy advertisements for Garcia’s services stacked neatly on the front counter are printed in Spanish.
For the past three years, Garcia, 44, who started his career as a bail bondsman in Greenville, has been helping Hispanics in Greenwood who have difficulty, because of language issues, dealing with court dates and court documents written in a language many of his clients do not understand.
For those people whose knowledge of the bail bond industry has come from Hollywood or the television show “Dog the Bounty Hunter,” the contrast between Garcia, who is originally from Colombia, and his fictional counterparts is startling.
In the media, bail bondsmen are invariably tracking down an armed-and-dangerous bail jumper. In reality, Garcia is more of a friend and confidant than a grunting, fleet-footed foe.
“Basically, the reason I moved here from Greenville, is the community was asking for my service,” Garcia said. “We target primarily the Hispanic community. A lot of companies don’t like to get involved with the Hispanic community because they believe Hispanics don’t go to court.
“I looked at that as a challenge. I found out the biggest problem concerning Hispanics and court is, if you don’t speak the language, how do you know you have to go to court? They give the prisoner the bond, totally in English, with a bunch of numbers and dates and they don’t have any idea what’s going on.”
To solve this problem, Garcia started educating the Hispanic community about how the bail bond process works and explaining to Spanish-speaking residents that if they ever get in trouble, here’s what they’ll have to do.
It was while working for an attorney in Greenville that Garcia realized being a bilingual bondsman was a great way earn a living and help people in trouble who need assistance the most.
“Basically, what happens is, to do this you have to be a registered bondsman in the state of South Carolina from the Department of Insurance,” Garcia said. “Once you get a license, you go to a county you’re going to be working in. In this case, my home county is Greenville, and after that, I can work in any other county close to my home county.
After Garcia registered in Greenwood County, he let the people at the detention center know who he was and how their guests can reach him by telephone.
“When somebody gets arrested, they just call you,” he said.
Garcia gets all the information he needs to post the prisoner’s bond, which has been as much as $100,000, and gets them out of jail as quickly as possible.
Sometimes, Garcia said, he has to make a decision to post the bond or refuse.
“That depends on the charges, and whether or not he is a high flight risk,” Garcia said.
Once Garcia weighs all the factors, he then makes a decision how much he will charge for his services.
“By law, I can charge up to 15 percent of the bond,” he said. “Sometimes, if it’s going to be something easy, I charge 10 percent.” If the person is an exceptional high flight risk case, Garcia said he requires collateral.
“The collateral could be a percentage of the amount of money from the total amount of the bond, or the total amount of the bond covered by property,” Garcia said. “You always try and cover yourself when dealing with a client.”
Once the paperwork is completed, Garcia said he visits the detention center, goes to court, places the bond and the person gets out of jail.
“I have the people I get out check in with me to make sure they know when the court date is,” Garcia said. “It the person doesn’t show up to court, you just go and get them.”
The best thing about being a bail bondsman, Garcia explained, is the ability he has to help people.
“The worst thing about being a bail bondsman,” he said, “is when you have to go to the house, where you see three kids in the bedroom and you see a guy who’s been trying to work hard so he can get the money to pay the fines and stay out of jail. You know when you take that man away, that wife and those kids are going to be alone.”

Mercy for Newberry

May 18, 2007

By RENALDO STOVER
Index-Journal sports writer

In their first outing of the season, Greenwood Post 20 looked as if they were in midseason form.
Post 20 cruised to a 10-0 mercy-rule victory Thursday over Newberry Post 24 in a scrimmage game at Legion Field.
“For no longer than we’ve been together as a team practicing, I was pleased,” Post 20 coach Billy Dean Minor said. “We threw strikes, we caught the baseball and we hit it pretty well.
We’re just happy with our overall performance, (especially) with it being this early in the season.”
Cruse Tollison was solid at the plate, going 3-for-4 while adding an RBI and scoring two runs for a Post 20 squad that scored a combined nine runs in three straight innings, beginning in the fourth.
“I was seeing pretty much everything well,” Tollison said. “I was seeing his fastball, curveball, and I just hit it where it was pitched. On defense I was just trying to make plays. Everything came out right tonight.”
Post 20’s first scoring opportunity came in the bottom of the second inning when they received their first hit of the game, a triple by Casey Pippin.
Pippin hit a shot to left field, which appeared to be good for a single, but Pippin hustled for the extra base hit, just beating the tag at third base.
Mack Hite then came up to bat and hit a two-out double, giving Post 20 a 1-0 lead.
Hite was 2-for-4 with 2 RBIs.
Post 20 missed an opportunity to add a run in the bottom of the third after Josh Lovvorn, who scored two runs in the game, lined out on a 2-2 pitch with runners on second and third, ending the inning. The first out of the inning came when Brent Wham was tagged out on a play at the plate. Wham went 2-for-4 with an RBI and a stolen base.
Offensively, Tyler McGraw (1-for-3, RBI, run scored), Matt White (1-for-3, RBI, 2 runs scored) and Brandon Miller (1-for-3, RBI) all hit well for Post 20.
Defensively, Post 20 pitcher Justin Collier was a problem for Newberry through the first three innings of the game, giving up just one hit. He left the game after the third inning due to what he described as “something he pulled in his side.”
“I just wanted to go out there and throw strikes,” Collier said. “I’m just trying to work on some pitches for the regular season. I was on a pitch count and was going to throw about 60 pitches. I’d only thrown about 25 or 30. I was going to go for about another three innings.”
Minor said that although his team dominated Newberry, they’ll have to step their game up for this Saturday’s doubleheader against Upstate Express, which starts at noon.
“We’re going to play a really good team,” Minor said. “We’ll just play our game and let it fall where it may. I try to use the preseason as a learning process and look at players and that’s what we’ll do Saturday. I don’t think we’re going to be intimidated and I think our kids are looking forward to it.”

Scruggs to lead AHS basketball

May 18, 2007

By SCOTT J. BRYAN
Index-Journal sports editor

When John Mark Scruggs left Calhoun Falls after a successful two-year stint as the boys basketball coach, he said he aspired to one day become a varsity head coach again.
Turns out, those aspirations only took a year to materialize.
After serving as a varsity assistant at Abbeville for a year, Scruggs takes over the Panthers’ program. Scruggs replaces James Herman, who is leaving to serve as an assistant coach at Southern Wesleyan.
“I hoped that one day I’d get another opportunity to do this,” Scruggs said. “I didn’t realize it would come so quickly. I truly believe it’s a challenge. I like it here. I hope to stay here the rest of my life.”
Scruggs left Calhoun Falls for family reasons. The drive to work in Abbeville is only five minutes, while Scruggs’ trek to Calhoun Falls was 30 minutes. Now, Scruggs has the opportunity to coach closer to home and guide a varsity program.
After serving as an assistant coach under Jimmy Towe at Calhoun Falls, Scruggs took over the program for two years. He compiled a 30-11 record, including a 20-4 region mark. He also won a region title.
“I played for coach Towe at Ninety Six and that’s where the connection was for me to go there,” said Scruggs, who graduated from Ninety Six in 1991 and earned his bachelor’s degree in visual art from Lander University. “We built a player-coach relationship and then I was able to get a job there. He was nice enough and cared enough about me to give me an opportunity there. We had some good years, and when he left for Greenwood, one thing led to another and I ended up the varsity coach.”
Scruggs is married to the former Jennifer Cobb, of Greenwood, and the couple have two kids, 5-year-old Shelby Anne and 3-year-old Savannah.
Abbeville athletic director Tad DuBose said hiring Scruggs was an easy choice because of his experience as a head coach.
“It makes it a little easier for us when you’ve got somebody on staff who is already qualified, already knows the kids and is familiar with the program,” DuBose said. “He knows what we expect here at Abbeville.”
Scruggs said the Panthers will likely undergo a rebuilding year since many of the team’s players graduated.
“I see it changing somewhat,” Scruggs said. “With it being such a short time for us, since most of the players are preparing for football season, we’re going to have to work a little bit this summer. I’m going to change some things gradually. By region time, I plan to have everything in. I think it’s going to be simple enough, so we’ll be fine.
“We lost nine or 10 seniors, so it’s going to be a rebuilding year. That’s a situation I’ve never been in before. I’ve always been fortunate enough to have kids coming back. I wouldn’t lose 10 at a time. It would always be four or five at a time. It’s a different experience for me and obviously a challenge. Hopefully, by midseason, we can get them accustomed to what we’re doing.”

Obituaries

Ruth Padgett Harrison

LAUREL, Md. — Funeral services will be 1 p.m. Saturday at the Liberty Spring Baptist Church, Edgefield, SC, conducted by the Reverend Roderick Cummings. Assisting are Reverend Davis Parks, Reverend Ronnie Williams and Reverend Curtis Bowman. Burial will follow in the Evening Star Cemetery, Greenwood, SC.
The body will be placed in the church at noon.
The family is at the home of her son, Gonzalee Harrison, 4418 Highway 178 South, Greenwood, SC. Butler & Sons Funeral Home, Saluda, SC, is in charge.

Lester Magaw

CAMDEN — Lester Magaw, 86, of Camden, husband of Belle Farmer Magaw, died May 16, 2007.
Born in Presque Isle, Maine, a son of the late Walter and Iva Killcollins Magaw, he was a US Army Veteran having served during World War II with the 1st Infantry Division, European Theatre, Africa, Sicily Omaha Beach on D-Day, the Battle of the Bulge, as well as Czechoslovakia. He was a member of the VFW and was retired from the DuPont Company. A member of the First Assembly of God Church, he was a former deacon and Sunday School teacher and Sunday School Superintendent.
Surviving in addition to his wife of the home are a daughter, Pamela Magaw of El Paso, TX; stepson, David Dority of Greenwood; grandchildren, Joy M. Ildeman, Damon P. Flake and his wife, Tricia; great-grandchild, Skyla Flake; step-grandchildren, Hollie Dority Motley and her husband, Charles and Joseph Daniel Dority and his wife, Cathy; sister, Lillian Gibbs of Windman, Maine.
Funeral services will be conducted Sunday at 3 p.m. from the Kornegay Funeral Home Camden Chapel, with Reverend Bruce Marthers and Reverend David Dority officiating. Interment will follow in Bethlehem United Methodist Church Cemetery.
The family will receive friends Saturday from 6-8 p.m. at the funeral home.
Those desiring may make memorials to a charity of choice.
For additional information and online condolences please visit www.kornegayfuneral.com. Kornegay Funeral Home in Camden is assisting the Magaw family. Announcement courtesy of Blyth Funeral Home & Cremation Services.

Ethel Belle Williams

BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Ethel Belle Williams, 79, of 9538 Kings Highway, died on Tuesday, May 15, 2007, at Sloan-Kettering Memorial Hospital. Born in Greenwood, she was the daughter of the late Obie and Carrie Payne. She was a member of Brown Memorial Zion Baptist Church in Brooklyn. She was a former member of Big Mt. Zion Baptist Church and Morris Chapel Baptist Church. Survivors include one daughter, Melissa Williams of Brooklyn, NY, one son, Tyrone Williams; two brothers, Marion Payne and Matthew Payne, both of Greenwood; six grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren.
Services are 7-9 p.m. Sunday, May 20, 2007, at Brown Memorial Baptist Church in Brooklyn.
Burial will be in Evergreen Cemetery. The family is at the home. L.H. Woodard Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements. Courtesy of Robinson & Son Mortuary, Inc.

James Anthony Witt

Services for James Anthony Witt, of 104 Bintage Road (Raintree Subdivision), are 2 p.m. Sunday, May 20, 2007, at Bethel Missionary Baptist Church in Cross Hill, conducted by Bishop Emanuel Spearman.The body will be placed in the church at 1 p.m. Burial will be in the church cemetery.
The family is at the home. Robinson & Son Mortuary, Inc. is in charge of arrangements. Online condolences may be sent to robson@nctv.com.

Opinion

Tribute to Armed Forces: Public thank you tonight

May 18, 2007

Sometimes we’re all guilty of failure to say “thank you” for a lot of the blessings we share.
One of them is freedom. Just as important, though, is the reason that freedom endures in the first place. That’s because of the men and women of our Armed Forces that have always stood watch and, in many cases, made the ultimate sacrifice to keep the rest of us safe and free.
There’s a chance for the public to remedy that. At 7 o’clock tonight at the Greenwood YMCA on Calhoun Road, a tribute to our Armed Forces of every war and conflict, along with their families, will be the order of the day. The main speaker will be Chaplain (Capt.) Jeff Struecker who was the Army’s top Ranger when he became part of that now famous event, “Black Hawk Down,” which was immortalized by the motion picture. There also will be patriotic music and other features to highlight the event.
It is open and free to everyone. No one has to be a veteran, a member of the Armed Forces now, or ever, or even in a military-connected family. Everyone is welcome and it is not political.
And, everyone attending will be given an American flag and a copy of Struecker’s book.
It promises to be an evening well spent. It should be an exciting event for all in the whole Lakelands area. They’re all invited just to say “thanks” for everything!