Sandro Guzman has only wrestled competitively for two years. He came in when Clinton High School started a team.
That’s not where it stops. The Red Devil senior signed a letter of intent on Tuesday to grapple with the Blue Hose of Presbyterian College, where he will compete in the 134- or 138-pound class.
Only a few students are still taking classes at CHS. Chairs are arranged in the gym for graduation. The signing wasn’t accompanied by the usual throng.
Guzman is a local kid who is going to compete at Clinton’s college. That is always good news.
Wrestling is an individual sport existing within the framework of a team.
“I just love being on the mat,” Guzman said. “I like just going at it, seeing what I can do and the progress I’ve shown. Like Coach says, you go wrestle, and you come out of it, regardless of how it goes, be humble. Respect the opponent.
“Every wrestling match is a matter of direct strategy. Even though you take some risk, you have to keep going for it. If I take a shot at someone’s leg, he’s gonna find a way to sprawl out. I’ve got to commit myself to go for it, or else he’s gonna take me down, anyway.”
At PC, Guzman is looking closely at business administration as a major. He never seriously targeted another school.
“It is really, really good,” he said. “I Iove it.”
Some Laurens County athletes are participating in various forms of travel ball, AAU and club play. The American Legion baseball players are a bit easier to track.
Clinton’s Junior Legion team is almost wholly composed of Devils, among them Luke Young, Tanner and Camden Finley and Jaydon and Owen Glenn.
The team split a doubleheader at Greenwood on Tuesday. The opening home game, at CHS, is at 6:30 p.m. next Tuesday versus Mid-Carolina.
In Clinton’s 4-3 victory in the first game, Young was 2/3 with a double and two RBI. Greenwood won the latter game, but Young, Tanner Finley and J.J. Dickson each had two hits.
On the Chapin-Newberry Post 193/25 roster are Clinton High’s Carson Glenn and Brett Young.
Glenn took the loss in Camden Post 17’s 4-1 victory in the opening game, though he only yielded one earned run in three innings.
Greenwood Post 20 features ex-Laurens standouts Jackson Martin and Jaedon Goodwin.
Goodwin was 1/2 with a stolen base in Greenwood’s 4-3 loss to Klutch GALina Collegiate of Augusta, Ga.
The Raiders’ Avery Madden and Grayson Ledford are on the Golden Strip Post 271 junior team, which defeated Warhawk Juniors (Greer) on Tuesday.
The names Duncan, Goodrum, Greene & Tucker would make a heck of a firm.
What they comprise is the quartet of Presbyterian softball players who made the academic all-district team.
Peyton Duncan, Kelby Goodrum, Jenna Greene and Kaitlyn Tucker made the team chosen by College Sports Communicators. All have at least 3.5 grade-point averages, have played for the Blue Hose at least a year and played at least 90 percent of the team’s games.
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