Trio set to bid adieu to 12 years of school

May 25, 2007

By JESSICA SMOAKE
Index-Journal staff writer

Pamela Lyons, Amber Scates and Ixavier Higgins are Greenwood High School’s top three seniors out of a class of 300 students.
It was a close race, said Kat Finkbeiner, Greenwood High School guidance counselor.
“It was between five students, and we did not know the complete results until Wednesday after they finished with exams,” Finkbeiner said.
The top three will speak at 4 p.m. today during Greenwood High School’s graduation ceremonies at Lander University. Scates will welcome the class of 2007 and the audience.
“I’m going to talk about who we as students should thank for getting us to this point in our lives,” Scates said, who added she is excited but nervous.
“I’m not a very good public speaker, and I know that what I say will make a lasting impression on everyone that is there. So, I have to make sure it’s good.”
Lyons will speak about moving on into the next step of life and embracing the future.
“I’m not really nervous,” Lyons said. “I have given speeches before, so it won’t be anything new.”
Higgins is also relaxed about the graduation ceremony.
“I might get nervous right before I go up there, but for the most part I’m excited about it,” he said.
All three found time to excel in school and be involved in activities such as sports, church and clubs. Higgins was a member of the football, basketball and track teams.
“I’m going to miss playing football at Greenwood High,” Higgins said. “We were really close as a team, and it was great going to the championships this year.” Higgins also was a member of the Student Government Association, National Honor Society, Junior Civitans and Beta Club.
Scates was a member of the swim team. She also participates in mission work and Impact Greenwood at First Baptist Church.
“I didn’t have that much time to participate in things because I have a job,” she said. She works as an assistant at McCrady and Newlan law firm.
Lyons is also involved at her church, Rosemount Baptist in Waterloo.
“I participate in Habitat for Humanity at my church and teach Sunday school,” she said. She was a member of Beta Club, Interact and National Honor Society.
The trio have different ideas about what their futures will hold.
Lyons was so sure about her decision that she only applied to one college.
“I have wanted to go to Clemson ever since I was a little girl,” she said. “It’s the only college that I have ever thought about applying to.”
She has received many scholarships including Palmetto Fellows, Chemistry Foundation and a scholarship from Coca-Cola. Lyons plans to major in biochemistry. She is excited about moving on to college but will miss certain things about high school.
“I’m ready to go to college, but I will miss homecoming at Greenwood High and being around my friends,” she said.
Higgins applied to four colleges including Furman, Wake Forest, Presbyterian and Georgia Tech.
He plans to attend Wake Forest with his full tuition paid for by scholarships from Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, the National Achievement Program, Greenwood High Beta Club and other academic scholarships.
Higgins plans to enter the engineering program at Wake Forest, but is also interested other fields of study.
“I want to start Wake Forest majoring in engineering, but I am also interested in the medical field and practicing law as well,” he said.
He is interested in playing football for Wake Forest, but is unsure of whether he will play as a freshman.
“I will stay in shape over the summer just in case I decide to play, but I really don’t know if I want to play football this year,” Higgins said.
Scates applied to Columbia College and Lander University. She chose Lander because of its education program.
“I know a lot of great teachers that are Lander alumni,” she said.
She is excited to begin college, but she will miss her high school friends and teachers as well.
“I had a lot of very good teachers at Greenwood High School,” Scates said. “I didn’t start going to Greenwood High until my junior year and they made the transition so much easier.” She plans to major in elementary education.

Students handed over lives

May 25, 2007

By MIKE ROSIER
Index-Journal staff writer

Greenwood School District 52 Superintendent Dan Powell handed graduate Alex Trowbridge much more than an envelope and an endless summer Thursday during Ninety Six High commencement ceremonies.
He gave Trowbridge — one of the evening’s honor graduates, who will attend the University of South Carolina Honors College — a huge sense of entitlement, and a reality check of the highest order.
Whatever becomes of his life from this moment forward, it is in his hands.
For the first time in his life, Francis Alexander Trowbridge II is in charge.
“It’s kind of like my life has been handed over to me for the first time,” he said as friends and family members of the near 140 graduates clogged the exits of Lander’s Finis Horne Arena.
“I’ll finally be able to make some of my own decisions. I’m excited, but it’s a really big responsibility, too.”
Christopher White and Keith Webber each decided to head off for The Citadel in the fall. As high as they stood Thursday evening — atop the pinnacle of high school life — a new beginning awaits them.
“I’m just excited right now,” said White, also an honors graduate. “I’m ready to move on to bigger and better things at The Citadel, and just ready to move on with life. I’m a little nervous about being a Nob (freshman) there, too.
“I’m going to right back to being on the bottom of the ladder again.”
Students were hardly the only people present in a proud state of euphoria.
In addition to the obvious emotions running through the minds of parents preparing to see their children out of the house and off to college, several Ninety Six High faculty members were joyous as well.
Sandi Zehr spent several minutes dispensing hugs and congratulating her students on their hard work and the milestone reached.
“I just love these kids,” Zehr said. “We have some great kids at Ninety Six.”
Valedictorian Kaitlin Rexrode addressed her classmates on the values of hard work and never losing the memories crafted the last four years.
“Never forget what it’s meant to us to be a Wildcat,” she said.
As bittersweet as the evening was, with many friends hugging each other for perhaps the final time, most graduates were thrilled to be moving on.
“it’s just a new start in life,” said Thursundray Lites. “We just closed out one chapter and are getting ready to start a new one. It’s finally all over.”
Friends made promises to stay in touch, and there were parties to attend, but not all of the graduates had their eyes set on an all-night celebration.
Anson Brinson had a lure of a different kind calling his name.
“I just feel like a weight has been lifted off of my shoulders just like everyone else,” Brinson said. “I can’t wait. I just want to go fishing.”

Hornets get their reward

May 25, 2007

By CHRIS TRAINOR
Index-Journal staff writer

WARE SHOALS — After 12 years of hard work — 13 if you count kindergarten — the Ware Shoals High School class of 2007 got its reward Thursday night.
Seventy-four diplomas were handed out to the graduates during a commencement ceremony in front of a large crowd at Riegel Stadium. The family and friends of the graduates, as well as community members, filled the entire home stands at the stadium as the well-wishers snapped photos and yelled encouragement to the students.
This year’s valedictorian, Makenzie Martin, was the first of five students to address her classmates.
“Not only is this high school a place where friends were made, but a place each one of us holds dear to our hearts,” Martin said. “The teachers here have taught us that failing is not an option and that giving up is only the first step to failure.”
In between posing for photos with friends and family after the ceremony, she described addressing the large crowd.
“I was excited and nervous and anxious and happy — all at the same time,” Martin said, smiling broadly. “I feel a little lost right now. I won’t know what to do Monday morning! But I am so happy, and I am proud of my classmates.”
Susanna Sullivan was another honor graduate who spoke. The graduate expressed her feelings about the perceived quality of her classmates.
“Many of us have lived life to the fullest,” Sullivan said. “Those of us that participated in any high school event will never forget the sacrifice it took to make us one of the most successful classes ever at Ware Shoals High.
“Though we didn’t win any state championships we set out to, we always worked together as a team and learned it takes teamwork to be successful.”
Though, as Sullivan said, the Hornets didn’t win state championships, the graduates certainly celebrated as if they had shortly after graduation.
As the marching band played “Pomp and Circumstance,” the entire class walked away from the commencement single file and made a bee line for the goalposts in front of the fieldhouse on the west end of the stadium. There, the class huddled in one massive pile and began to jump, whoop and yell not unlike a football team celebrating a win on Friday night before taking their mortar boards off and flinging them into the air.
“I am so relieved to have this over with,” exclaimed Whitney Richardson, grinning ear to ear as one friend after another came over to give her hugs. “We worked hard for this and tonight it paid off.”
Some students were already thinking of what would come next, even as they celebrated with friends and family.
“I feel great and I’m ready to go out and start working on my own,” said Tyler Boggs. “I’m going to Piedmont Tech next year. I’ll be studying graphic engineering. I studied it at the career center and I’ll move right into that.”
Boggs did admit there will be a little recreation before he heads to college.
“I’m heading to the beach for Senior Week, leaving next Thursday,” the graduate said, with a sly smile.

‘It feels like a back-room deal’

Hall of Fame coach questions process for hiring new AD

May 25, 2007

By SCOTT J. BRYAN
Index-Journal sports editor

Ninety Six High School’s Matt Huntsberger was promoted to athletic director earlier this week, but Cheryl Browning, who retired from the school in 1997 after a highly decorated career as a coach, said the hire doesn’t sit well with her.
Browning, the first woman inducted into the South Carolina Athletic Coaches Association’s Hall of Fame, said she was disappointed the Ninety Six Board of Trustees didn’t open the athletic director position to everyone in Ninety Six.
“It feels like a back-room deal,” said Browning, who coached volleyball, basketball, track and softball during her 30-year career at the school. “I love Ninety Six. I love the kids at Ninety Six.
“A number of the teachers that work there are my former students. I love it enough to give a scholarship there. I don’t think it’s an issue of my lack of love for the school and community. “I think it’s a lack of equal opportunity.”
On Tuesday, Chuck Burton, an assistant principal and athletic director at Ninety Six, tendered his resignation to the Board of Trustees. After accepting his resignation, the board met behind closed doors and discussed the vacant position, said Greenwood County District 52 Superintendent Dan Powell.
“Our policy says that we would advertise the job, but we also have a clause in there that says ‘except in extreme emergencies,’” Powell said Thursday afternoon from his office. “There was a recommendation to go ahead and fill this position.
“We were in emergency mode with Mr. Burton leaving. As you know with high school sports, things have to be done. Teams need to begin. We need to be working to fill jobs, like our cross country coaching job. They need to be working on that now.
“There was an emergency situation.”
Powell did not go into detail about what was said during the closed meeting, but he did say several people were mentioned as possible replacements.
“They decided to go with Mr. Huntsberger and a motion was made,” Powell said. “The voting members decided to go with Mr. Huntsberger.”
Board members Sam Corley and Butch Cobb declined to comment on the matter. Corley referred all questions to Powell and board chairman William H. Long, while Cobb did say since he wasn’t re-elected earlier this month, he abstained from the hiring process.
Huntsberger and Burton also declined to comment.
Long, when reached at home late Thursday, said it was a decision by the board and merited no further explanation.
“This was an internal decision and it was a board decision,” Long said. “I can’t answer for the board. I can’t answer other than what the board did. We decided to go this route.”
Long confirmed numerous coaches were mentioned during the closed meeting.
“Nobody, that I know of, was excluded from the conversations,” Long said.
Browning, who won 11 state titles at Ninety Six and was named a national award winner for District 3 on four separate occasions, said she doesn’t think there was an extreme emergency.
“I felt it should have been open to everybody on staff,” Browning said. “I think each individual person should have been given the opportunity to apply for the position.
“I have nothing against Matt Huntsberger. He was there when I was teaching there. It’s not against Matt. But it was not an open position, and it should have been.
“Anybody who wanted to apply for the position should have been able to apply.”
Browning cites the decision to hire Brian Neal as Ninety Six’s new football coach as a process that conflicts with how the athletic director position was filled. Despite heavy pressure from the community, the board elected to open the football coaching search instead of immediately offering Neal.
A month later, Neal was offered the job.
“This has nothing to do with Brian Neal getting hired,” Browning said. “I supported Brian. I taught Brian. He did his student-teaching under me. He helped me with the softball team and helped me take the volleyball team out to California. He’s a Ninety Six graduate. He’s somebody who has been loyal to the school. So why wasn’t he given a chance to apply for the job?”
Long said opening the job for applications within the community was never discussed.
“We had a bunch of names that were brought to our attention,” Long said. “Anything (about opening the job up to the public) was not said in open discussion.”
Browning said she applied for the athletic director’s position in 1994 before Mike Doolittle was hired from Allendale-Fairfax. Browning said that, at the time, she received a letter from then-superintendent Gerald Robinson saying she couldn’t be the AD because she didn’t coach football.
Powell, who was not with the school district then, said there is no policy forbidding non-football coaches from holding the athletic director title.
Browning’s biggest charge against the board is sexism. She said the all-male board didn’t open the position so women in the district could apply for the job. At the beginning of the 2006-07 school year, 14 public schools (7 percent statewide) had female athletic directors.
“Everybody should have had an equal opportunity, including me, if I wanted to apply,” Browning said. “Maybe I wanted to apply for the job. I, like anybody else, should have had the opportunity to apply for this job.
“There are three young ladies on staff there that would all be very capable at this job. But they weren’t even given an opportunity to apply. ... Butch Cobb (a member of the school board), his daughter is coaching over there. She should have been given an opportunity to apply. Why couldn’t she have applied for the job? If you don’t make it available, how do you know who wants it?”
Ninety Six has several varsity coaching vacancies open — volleyball, girls basketball, golf, cross country and an assistant football position. The only position being advertised on the South Carolina High School League’s Web site is the assistant football position, which was posted Thursday.
“They’ve had the volleyball job open since the beginning of the year, but they haven’t filled it,” Browning said. “They care about football and want to see football do well, but they don’t spend as much time on the other programs.
“When coach (Mike) Doolittle took over the athletic programs, we had successful programs in numerous sports. We had an average of 80 athletes, male and female, in the track program. This year, my understanding is they only had eight girls on the track team.
“In volleyball, we had three teams back when I was coaching, and I had a paid assistant coach. I just feel like, in general, all of the programs have gone down except for the football, wrestling and volleyball programs, and the volleyball program has stayed up because of coach (Beth) Miller, who has been such a great person with her enthusiasm for Ninety Six.
“The volleyball program has risen above all the mediocrity of the other sports.”
Above all, Browning said she thinks the way Huntsberger was hired cheapens the athletic director’s position. She said she hopes the school board will recognize what she thinks was a mistake and reconsider not opening the position to other coaches.
“Coach (Russell) Zehr and his wife, Sandi, are gone, and maybe it would have changed their minds,” said Browning, referring to the former coaches at Ninety Six who recently accepted jobs in the Lowcountry. “I just think it’s time to wake up and say women can do some things if they’ve been successful and can take everything to heart.
“I just think it should be fair.”

Obituaries

Pearl Alexander

Services for Pearl Murry Alexander will be at 2 p.m. Sunday at the Harley Funeral Home Chapel, with the Rev. Mac Jones and the Rev. Lawrence Johnson officiating. Burial will be in Greenwood Memorial Gardens.
Pallbearers will be Barry Haynes, Ralph Moore, Ray White, Ray Brown, Steve Hilley, Melvin Stribling and Darrell Alexander.
Honorary escort will be the members of Sunday School Class No. 34 of South Greenwood Pentecostal Holiness Church.
The family will receive friends at the funeral home on Saturday from 7 to 9 p.m.
The family is at the home.
Mrs. Alexander, 62, of 310 Lanham Street, wife of Bobby Wade Alexander, died Thursday, May 24, 2007 at her home.
Born in Lavonia, GA, she was a daughter of the late Hazel Southerland Hastings and William Larry Murry. She was a 1962 graduate of Greenwood High School and retired from Cooper Power Systems after 29 years of service. She was an active member of South Greenwood Pentecostal Holiness Church, where she served as Missionettes Director, co-director and coach of Bible Quest, was a C.E.M. board member, was active in Women’s Ministries and was a member of the choir.
Surviving is her husband of the home; two daughters, Sandy Alexander of Asheboro, NC, and Kathy Newman and her husband, Coley Newman, of Greenwood; three grandchildren, Jessica Alexander Brown and her husband, Matthew Brown, Tyler Newman and Jeremy Newman, all of Greenwood; two sisters, Carolyn Cobb and Minnie Morse, both of Greenwood; a brother, Larry Murry of Greenwood; and her beloved mother-in-law, Lucille Alexander of Greenwood.
Online condolences may be sent to the family by visiting www.harleyfuneralhome.com.

La Brentha Barlow (Brent Puckett)

La Brentha Barlow, 57, died Friday, May 18, 2007 at University Hospital in Augusta, Ga. She was born in Greenville, SC, the daughter of the late Henry and Janie Mathis Puckett. She attended St. Paul F.B.H. Church.
She is survived by two sons, Nathaniel Puckett and Jason Barlow of Greenwood; three brothers, Henry (Deborah) Puckett, Jr. of Greenville, SC, Michael (Cheryl) Puckett of Anderson, SC, and Eric L. Puckett of Greenwood; four sisters, Elaine (Robert) Jenkins of Atlanta, GA, Lena P. Moore of Greenwood, Sara L. Berry of Lorain, Ohio, and Sharon Williams of Atlanta, GA; three grandchildren.
Funeral services will be conducted on Saturday, May 26, 2007 at 2 p.m. at St. Paul F.B.H.
Church, with Rev. Mamie L. Williams officiating. Burial will follow at the Ninety Six Community Cemetery.
The body will be placed in the church at 1 p.m.
The family will receive friends at the funeral home on Friday night, 7 p.m. to 8 p.m.
The family is at the home, 229 Saco Ave., Greenwood.
Parks Funeral Home is assisting the family.

Lola Mae Bobo

ABBEVILLE — Lola Mae Bobo, 62, of 51 Bobo Drove, wife of James Allen Bobo, died Thursday, May 24, 2007, at her home.
The family is at the home.
Services will be announced by Abbeville & White Mortuary Inc.

Juno Lorne Chandler

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — Mr. Juno L. Chandler, 20, of 1935-A Baxter St., died May 21 at UNC Hospital, Chapel Hill, NC. He was a graduate of Greenwood HS Class of 2005, a member of Morris Chapel Baptist Church and attended Piedmont Technical College.
Surviving are his mother, Kimberly Procter of Charlotte, NC; his father and stepmother, Cornell (Patricia) Chandler, Sr. of Fuquay-Varina, NC; a brother, Cornell Chandler, Jr. of Fuquay-Varina, NC; two sisters, Naomi Lee and Victoria Procter of Charlotte, NC; maternal grandmother, Bonnie Johnson, and paternal grandparents, Eula Richardson and Bruce Chandler of Charlotte, NC.
Funeral services will be held Sunday at 2 p.m. from Grier Funeral Service, with Rev. Dr. Ricky Syndab officiating, assisted by Rev. Thessa G. Smith. Burial will be in Beatties Ford Memorial Gardens.
Memorials may be made to Cystic Fibrosis Foundation in memory of Juno Chandler.
Online condolences: pertompfh1@earthlink.net.

Bharatrai Desai

Services for Bharatrai C. Desai will be at 2:30 p.m. Saturday at the Harley Funeral Home Chapel, with Guru Dilip Dave officiating.
Mr. Desai, 79, of 501 Haltiwanger Road, Holly Tree Apts., husband of Manuben Desai, died Thursday, May 24, 2007 at his home.
Born in India, he was a son of the late Chotubhai and Maniben Desai. He had served as chief financial officer for the local electric board in India.

Edith M. Talbert

BRADLEY — Edith M. Talbert, 92, of Bradley, wife of the late Thomas “Ralph” Talbert, died Wednesday, May 23, 2007 at Self Regional Medical Center in Greenwood. She was born in Topenish, WA, to the late George A. and Lavisa A. Stephens Mitchell.
Mrs. Talbert was a devoted member of the Troy Methodist Church and was the last surviving member of her immediate family.
In addition to her husband and parents, she was preceded in death by a granddaughter, Cheryl Collins.
Surviving Mrs. Talbert are her daughter, Ivadell T. Collins of McCormick, a son, Ralph Ted Talbert of Bradley, five grandchildren, thirteen great-grandchildren, and six great-great-grandchildren.
Funeral services for Mrs. Talbert will be 10:30 a.m. Friday, May 25, 2007 at the Troy Methodist Church. Burial will follow in Overbrook Cemetery in McCormick.
Memorial contributions in memory of Mrs. Talbert may be sent to the Troy Methodist Church, PO Box 158, Troy, SC 29848.
The family is at the residence of Mrs. Ivadell Collins.
Online condolences may be sent to the Talbert family by visiting www.harrisfuneral.com.
Harris Funeral Home of Abbeville is assisting the Talbert family.

Opinion

Pitts offers better way to choose state judges

May 25, 2007

S. C. Count of Appeals Judge Donald Beatty of Spartanburg is only the third African-American in history to be elected by state lawmakers to a seat on the South Carolina Supreme Court. That occurred Wednesday when he won over two of his colleagues on the Appeals Court, Chief Judge Kaye Hearn of Conway and Judge Bruce Williams of Columbia.
Beatty will fill the seat of retiring Justice E. C. Burnett.
As usual, there was a lot of politicking among lawmakers before Beatty won on a third ballot.
Rumors, which always surround elections of state judges, indicated that all kinds of political deals were made as legislators jockeyed to line up support for their respective candidates.
But, then, quid pro quo arrangements are integral to the political world, whether state or national.

BE THAT AS IT MAY, THOUGH, there should be no concern about the judicial ability or temperament of Beatty. The same goes for the two candidates that lost. Had they all not been qualified they would not be where they are in the first place.
All things being equal, then, it reflects well on South Carolina to have another African American on the state’s top court. There has been none since Ernest Finney retired a number of years ago.
Nevertheless, there’s something inherently worrisome about the way judges are chosen. At times there have been so much political activity surrounding the process that some may have wondered if the right person had always been elected by lawmakers. When they play the game of “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours,” there’s always the possibility that political connections and not ability become the determining factor.

THERE HAVE BEEN EFFORTS from time to time - at least there’s been talk - that there has to be a better way.
With that in mind, Rep. Mike Pitts, R-Abbeville, Greenwood, Laurens, has introduced legislation that offers that “better way,” and it should get the attention of voters. After all, they have the ultimate influence when they decide who is and who isn’t elected to the House and Senate.
Pitts’ bill would allow the governor to appoint state judges with state senators being able to confirm or reject. It might not be perfect, however, it would take much of the politics out of a system that now rises or falls on political deal-making. Some politics would remain, of course. Nothing in government is ever totally free of it. It would be so much better than it is, though, that it should allay some of the public concerns over the entire process.