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The city of Orangeburg was truly “Garnet and Blue Country” Tuesday evening.
A sizable crowd packed the Russell Street Square Tuesday to show their support for the 2008 South Carolina State football team. From young and old, alumni to non-S.C. State graduates and public and SCISAA Orangeburg County high school students, nearly every demographic was well-represented at the hour-long pep rally.
For S.C. State punter and Orangeburg native Aaron Haire, the spirit of unity was both encouraging and long overdue.
“It’s one thing I’ve been hoping,” Haire said. “One thing that really determines a team success is having a community behind us and providing strong support. I was used to that growing up in Orangeburg and playing football for the Orangeburg-Wilkinson Bruins. So I’m happy that they’re starting to come out for the Bulldogs of South Carolina State.”
On hand to provide that support was the Orangeburg Prep football team and head football coach Adam Holmes, who played at the University of South Carolina when S.C. State head football coach Oliver “Buddy” Pough was the running backs coach.
“We want to support the community, we want to be part of the community and to show up and show that we’re glad to be here and glad to be part of this community.” said Holmes, who attended with his players. “That’s why we’re here. To come together for South Carolina State, for the whole Orangeburg community and the high school sports and all the hard work they put in, that’s why we came to support this.”
In addition to being entertained by event Master of Ceremonies and former legendary head Bulldog head coach Willie Jeffries, S.C. State’s Marching 101 and cheerleaders from Edisto, OPS and Orangeburg-Wilkinson, the crowd was encouraged to support the football players in attendance.
More important, dignitaries like S.C. State athletics director Charlene Johnson, event co-organizer and Orangeburg Touchdown Club President Don Tribble, T&D Publisher Cathy Hughes and Orangeburg Mayor Paul Miller were incessantly imploring the crowd to purchase season tickets.
“We’ve got a great group of athletes,” Johnson said. “Smart, they go to class. They look good, they work hard and they’re working towards being MEAC champions. Help us be the ‘12th Man’ to push them over the goal line!”
“We need to support our home football team here in Orangeburg,” Miller said. “We need to go out and purchase season tickets. I bought mine like many other people, but we need to be filling that stadium to watch these kids play.”
S.C. State President George Cooper spoke on stage and personally presented Johnson a check for two season tickets. Despite games against Football Bowl Subdivision opponents Central Florida and Clemson University, Cooper also predicted S.C. State would go undefeated this year.
Pough made a “guarantee” of his own to the Bulldog supporters, contingent upon them selling out Oliver C. Dawson Stadium for the four home games taking place in Orangeburg this season.
“I promise you one thing,” he said. “We hold 23,000 some-odd fans in Bulldog Stadium. I’m going to promise you that if you fill it up, every game you fill up we’re going to definitely going to win that football game!”
“We need every seat filled every game! If we get every seat filled every game, I guarantee you we can have 10 games in Orangeburg!”
S.C. State opens the regular season Aug. 30 against Central Florida and will play their home opener the following Saturday against Benedict College. Leaving Tuesday’s event, Haire is hoping to see a carryover in the fan support.
“It’s a big morale boost to know that you have people that want to see you do good and just want to support the things that you do and want to see you successful,” Haire said.
(Season tickets are currently selling for $125. For more information, contact the S.C. State Ticket Office at 803-536-8579.)
-- T&D Senior Sports Writer Thomas Grant Jr. can be reached by e-mail at tgrant@timesanddemocrat.com or by phone at 803-533-5547. Discuss this and other stories on-line at TheTandD.com.