Ty Olenchuk’s football career almost didn’t happen at Dutch Fork. How a simple message changed that.
Ty Olenchuk was ready to give up football but the Dutch Fork program is glad he didn’t.
Dutch Fork goes for its fourth straight Class 5A state championship on Saturday against Dorman. Olenchuk has been the starting quarterback for the team’s last three appearances and not too many starting quarterbacks have won three straight state titles in South Carolina.
But Olenchuk’s tenure as Dutch Fork quarterback almost didn’t happen. He thought of giving up football to concentrate on baseball during the summer before his eighth grade year but a game of catch changed that.
Dutch Fork coach Tom Knotts saw Ty and his brother Derek, a former Dutch Fork quarterback who went on to play baseball at Newberry, playing catch on the field and the Silver Foxes’ head man gave him a proposal. At the time, Olenchuk was a linebacker in middle school.
“Don’t quit now, you can be a quarterback in this system,” Olenchuk said, recalling Knotts’ message. “I bought in and here I am today. It is pretty awesome.”
Ty Olenchuk as a two-sport athlete
Following Monday’s state championship press conference, Dorman football coach Dave Guttshall went up to Olenchuk and joked, “I’ll be glad when you graduate.”
Guttshall isn’t alone in that feeling, especially with the way Olenchuk has performed during his high school career.
Olenchuk has been able to accomplish all this despite devoting a large portion of time to baseball in the spring and summer. He helped Dutch Fork to 5A state championship in the spring and won a national championship with the EvoShield Canes National team.
Last month, Olenchuk signed to play baseball with Clemson after committing to the Tigers his freshman year. Because of that, Olenchuk didn’t get much interest from college football coaches.
“He has a special arm and is a competitor,” Knotts said. “It is unfortunate he doesn’t work on it year-round like most but he is a gifted baseball player and I don’t begrudge him of that. “
Knotts said earlier this year Olenchuk throws it just as good as Chris Leak, who played for Knotts at Charlotte Independence (NC) and won three state titles.
Olenchuk holds five career Dutch Fork passing records including yards (8,773) and TD passes (98) to go along five single-season records and several other single-game marks. Most of the records he broke were his brother Derek’s, whose career completions record is safe from his brother breaking it.
Stick with football
Derek also was one of those who told his brother to stick with football and thought his brother had the makeup of and skill set to break all of his marks.
“I said listen there is nothing like playing under the lights and you will regret it if you don’t,” Derek said. “It has been fun to see what he has accomplished but also his growth as a human being. You can also see what kind of a leader he has become. No moment is ever too big for him.”
Ty didn’t have it easy growing up as the second youngest of four brothers. Derek said he and Kyle, who also played at Dutch Fork, beat up on Ty during their games of tackle football and playing football on the trampoline.
Derek remembers his younger brother as “short and stumpy” before he hit his growth spurt. The brothers have a strong relationship and Ty spent a lot of time on the sidelines as a ball boy for Dutch Fork games watching his brothers play. He saw Dutch Fork lose to Gaffney in 2013 before beating Sumter in 2014.
Now, Ty hopes to close out his career on top with another title.
“Never imagined I would be here with chance for third state championship,” Ty said. “It is an amazing feeling and just got to make the most of it.”
SC football championship schedule
A look at SC High School Football state championship schedule for Dec. 6-7
Friday
At Benedict College
Class 2A
Saluda vs. Barnwell, 5 p.m.
Class A
Ridge Spring-Monetta vs. Green Sea Floyds, 8 p.m.
Saturday
At Williams-Brice Stadium
Class 5A
Dorman vs. Dutch Fork, noon
Class 3A
Chapman vs. Dillon, 3 p.m.
Class 4A
Wren vs. Myrtle Beach, 6:30 p.m.
Tickets: $12 in advance and at the gate. Advance tickets sold at participating schools only.
GoFan for online tickets https://gofan.co/app/school/SCHSL
Watch: Friday’s games will be streamed on www.nfhsnetwork.com (Subscription required.)
Saturday’s Dutch Fork-Dorman game will be carried locally on WACH Fox 57 and the rest of Saturday’s games will be locally on WACH Fox 57.2. All three games Saturday will be carried on Sinclair TV stations across the state.
This story was originally published December 3, 2019 at 5:14 PM.
