By Lonnie Turner
In 1992, young Jackie Hayes took over the reins of the Dillon High School Wildcats and every year since then he has taken his teams to the playoffs…that’s 25 straight years. Quite a fete for a young man that played his high school career at DHS, graduated from Catawba and returned to coach his HS alma mater.
For the fourth time in his career, his teams will face the Hanahan Hawks of the Charleston area. The first meeting was a 41-35 barn-burner in 2007. In 2008, the Cats upended the hawks, 23-3 and in 2009, his team shutout the Hawks, 37-0, and in both those last two years, the Wildcats won their first two state championships in football.
The Hawks will come into Dillon with a 3-7 record, but Coach Hayes says they can do a lot of things on offense. The only games they won were a 47-13 victory over May River of the Bluffton area, a 28-27 win over St. Johns and a 47-0 triumph over Lake Marion. They have lost to Andrews, Wando, Berkeley, Cane Bay, Manning, Bishop England and Timberland. A Dillon win will match the Cats with the winner of the Wade Hampton-Strom Thurmond winner at Dillon next week. By the third round, the Cats could face Timberland again, but they would have to get past probably Gilbert, a team with a 9-1 record!
Any way, the Cats need a big following at Memorial Stadium this coming Friday so get your coat, some hot cocoa or coffee and head out to the stadium…early!
