Shane Beamer wants SC high school football championships back at Williams-Brice
If Shane Beamer has any input, the S.C. High School League’s football championships will be back at Williams-Brice Stadium in the future.
The second-year Gamecocks football coach was asked about the championships not being held at Williams-Brice Stadium at Monday’s Columbia Rotary Club luncheon, where Beamer was the guest speaker and took questions from members in attendance.
“I agree it is a great opportunity, the championship, high school teams to be able to play in that stadium,” Beamer said. “When I was here (as an assistant), you played in Columbia and then went to Clemson (for a year). After I left, it was changed for different reasons and that is made above my head.
“But if I had my choice, it would be right inside that stadium (Williams-Brice) every single December for the state championship.”
Beamer spoke for about 30 minutes Monday and was asked about a variety topics including transfer portal, name, image and likeness and expectations for his second season as coach.
In 2010, Williams-Brice Stadium hosted all high school football championship games. In 2011, all the games were played at Clemson’s Memorial Stadium. The championships were played at USC and Benedict from 2012 to 2019, with the Class A and 2A finals at Benedict and the bigger classifications at Williams-Brice.
The games weren’t held at Williams-Brice Stadium the past two years. In 2020, the games were held at Benedict College’s Charlie W. Johnson Stadium and Spring Valley High School with limited attendance because of COVID.
All five games this past season were held at Benedict over three days. It was the first time since 2011 that every game was held at one site. Beamer or members of his coaching staff were in attendance during all of the games last year.
The decision to hold the games at a smaller venue makes financial sense for everyone involved, including the teams, S.C. High School League commissioner Jerome Singleton told The State last December.
“I don’t think we need as big of a venue as we did in the past. They (Benedict) are well-sized to accommodate us,” Singleton said. “Williams-Brice is a great place to play the state championships. It is such a big venue, it requires a lot more people to be able to secure it the right way. We think because we are spacing things out and everything, we feel we can accomplish that a little more economically by holding it at Benedict.”
Singleton said last year he wouldn’t be opposed to going back to Williams-Brice and that championship venue location is decided on a year-by-year basis. USC and Benedict were the only two schools to place bids for 2021 championships.
Williams-Brice’s seating capacity is 77,559 while Benedict is closer to 11,000 but could be expanded. This year’s Class 5A Dutch Fork-Gaffney championship game was the only of the five championship games close to seating capacity.
The main reason for moving venues was the cost to hold the games. It costs about 25 percent less to hold games at Benedict instead of Williams-Brice Stadium, officials said. In prior years, the cost of holding the state championships at Williams-Brice approached $100,000, with half of that going toward law enforcement expenses.
When games are at USC, the competing high schools sometimes have to foot part of the bill. In most of Dutch Fork’s trips to Williams-Brice, coach Tom Knotts said the school had to pay money back to the league. In 2020 and 2021, competing schools were able to make money after expenses.
“It would be nice for kids to see a bigger college campus and see the stadium, the weight room and all that goes along with it,” Knotts said before last year’s title game against Gaffney. “That is a part we miss with South Carolina. But I am good with Benedict.”
This story was originally published April 12, 2022 at 11:20 AM.
