SC elementary schooler goes viral for his dancing at a Clemson football game
For the most part, Carter Wiley is your typical 7-year-old boy. He loves playing sports — especially baseball — and he enjoys hanging out with his friends.
But, unlike other kids his age, Carter is “not shy whatsoever,” per his parents. And that made him a viral sensation during Saturday’s Clemson-Miami football game.
Fans already had plenty to cheer about last weekend in Memorial Stadium: It was Senior Day, and the Tigers were crushing the Hurricanes by three touchdowns.
Then a cameraman in the West End Zone area locked in on Wiley during a third-quarter “dance cam” segment, and an elementary school star was born.
Wearing an orange Clemson pullover, Clemson high socks, his dad’s sunglasses and a huge smirk on his face, Wiley spent the majority of Saturday’s second half delighting fans and turning an aisle seat about nine rows up from field level into his personal Death Valley dance floor.
He flexed. He swag surfed. He did Cam Newton’s Superman celebration. He even did The Griddy — and, based on social media comments, performed the popular dance quite well for a 7-year-old boy. By the time the Wileys left the stadium, Carter was getting stopped for a high-five every few feet.
Now his moves are taking on a life of their own, with more than 500,000 people watching Carter’s viral moment online. And the second-grader from Upstate South Carolina is absolutely loving it. He came home from school Monday and said he’d been signing autographs.
“And he mentioned he might need a limousine,” his mom, Jessica, told The State.
The viral formula
The Wiley family lives in Duncan, near Spartanburg, and they’re longtime Clemson fans. Brent, Carter’s dad, grew up near the school, and he and Jessica had season tickets for football games long before they had children.
Carter is the middle child — with an older brother, Braylen, and a younger sister, Mila — and he and his brother have quickly tapped into a Clemson fandom that stretches back decades on their dad’s side. Braylen is a die-hard fan as well as “a statistics guy,” Brent said. “He’s there to watch the game. He would probably call plays if they gave him a headset.” As for Carter?
“He’s more there for the party,” Brent said.
Carter actually got his first taste of fame two weeks ago at the Clemson-Louisville game. On the advice of his older brother, he wore his No. 16 Trevor Lawrence jersey with hopes of getting on Memorial Stadium’s massive new video board during a standard “jersey cam” segment.
It was a success. Carter appeared on the big screen a few times and “got a kick out of that,” Brent said. He also had an ideal setup: The Wileys’ season tickets in the lower bowl put them directly beside an aisle and in clear view of an in-stadium camera operator.
Carter wasn’t even planning on going to the Clemson-Miami game. But a late ticket fell into the family’s lap, and he showed up to Death Valley on Saturday with his older brother, his dad and his grandpa. At some point during the game, Carter asked to borrow his dad’s sunglasses.
“I just thought he needed them,” Brent said.
If only he knew.
Those sunglasses ended up being a key part of Carter’s wardrobe during his two quarters of fame, adding an extra level of intrigue to one of the more interesting developments in a game that saw Clemson shut out Miami 24-0 in the first half and cruise to a 40-10 win in ACC play.
Carter’s first appearance while dancing in the aisle drew some laughs and applause. He got even more admiration on his second. By his third showing, he was confidently freestyling dance moves his dad had never seen from him before — and Clemson fans were hanging onto every second of it.
Jessica said Carter’s stated goal heading into the game was “to see if he could get on the jumbotron more than he did the week before.” Mission accomplished. Carter appeared on Clemson’s video board four or five times Saturday, and each appearance was longer than the last.
He was, for a night, a certified local legend. Fans sitting near Carter twisted around to watch his aisle dances. They poked their heads into his shots and waved. Braylen also got a good bit of screen time as Carter’s hype man, happily pointing at his younger brother in each shot.
It was like the Louisville game, but better. Just like the previous week, Brent started getting texts from friends in the stadium: “We see Carter!” Then he started getting texts from people who “I didn’t even know were Clemson fans,” he said, and he quickly realized the scope of it all.
They weren’t at the game.
They were watching Carter on TV.
‘People are loving it’
ESPN’s broadcast crew caught onto Carter’s antics, and he was shown in thousands of homes after a second-half commercial break. Play-by-play man Bob Wischusen called it “the definition of a home-field advantage” and analyst Dan Orlovsky called Carter “a stud.”
“Do you think he knows the camera’s on him?” Wischusen quipped.
That’s the 13-second clip that really took off on Facebook and Twitter: Carter doing The Griddy, a dance created by Louisiana musical artist Allen Davis and popularized by NFL wide receivers Justin Jefferson and Ja’Marr Chase, as well as a Superman pose and a muscle flex.
Video posts by the Clemson athletics department, ACC Network and @nocontextcfb, a Twitter account dedicated to the offbeat weirdness of the sport, have generated hundreds of thousands of views and thousands of comments and shares as of Tuesday. Some highlights:
“NIL deal? Too soon?”
“I want a tenth of the confidence this kid has”
“Dabo needs to give that kid preferred walk-on status”
“2038 first overall pick”
The funniest part of Carter’s big moment? He’s like this all the time. His family has nicknamed him The Mayor, because when they’re out and about in Duncan, a small town of about 4,000 people, he seems to know everybody — and not just children. He’s on a first-name basis with various adults his parents don’t even know.
“We know Carter and his personality and how funny and likable he is,” Jessica said. “So for us, it wasn’t a surprise. But we’re just overwhelmed with how social media has just taken over with him. Even just the little ESPN clip — people are loving it.”
And if you missed Carter last week, fear not: He’s planning to be back in the same seat Saturday for Clemson’s home finale against South Carolina.
It’s an opportunity he doesn’t take lightly.
“He’s wanting to put on an encore,” Brent said.
This story was originally published November 22, 2022 at 2:46 PM.
