Hilton Head Sports

LONGTIME JASPER COUNTY BASKETBALL COACH ENJOYS SPENDING TIME OFF THE SIDELINES

He’s traveled just outside of Columbia to see his grandson play basketball. He’s visited one son in Tennessee and another in Atlanta, and he and his wife of 37 years, Jacklyn, are planning a cruise. 

He’s played a lot of golf. 

LOWCOUNTRY SOCCER PLAYER MEETS DREAM TEAM

Over Memorial Day weekend, John Burk felt a lump in his neck that turned out to be malignant. Five months later, Burk found himself thousands of miles away, at Old Trafford stadium in England, home of Manchester United Football Club. 

A guest of Red Devils star Marcus Rashford, Buck was living a dream, watching his beloved team play.

PEDAL HILTON HEAD CONTINUES ITS MISSION OF HELPING AREA KIDS, ONE RIDE AT A TIME

Since it began in earnest 13 years ago, Pedal Hilton Head has grown from a single charitable cycling race to an entire weekend of celebration. Each year has seen an expansion in scope: last year saw the addition of a course that took riders across the bridge to Bluffton and new parties that let visitors experience Hilton Head Island at its finest. 

HANNAH EDELMAN RULES THE BEACH COURT

Like many girls growing up on Hilton Head Island, Hannah Edelman loved spending time at the beach.

She also loved playing volleyball.

Putting the two together changed her life.

In 1969, Hilton Head Island was a different place: full-scale development was only just beginning, and infrastructure was limited. And the racial tensions roiling across the rest of the country could be felt on the small island.

It was an unlikely spot for the launch of a racially integrated youth football program.

ROWING CLUB OFFERS FITNESS, CAMARADERIE

In gyms around the world, people are rowing. Their hands grasp handles that simulate oars, and they slide back and forth on seats anchored to pulleys. Their bodies become fitter, but rowing machines don’t do much to improve the soul.

Consider instead the workout experienced by members of the Palmetto Rowing Club: On a recent weekday, Broad Creek was calm, refreshed after a pre-dawn shower. At 8 a.m., the sun was warm but not hot, and a breeze moved over the rowers as they prepared to launch their boats. A blue heron sat on a piling, watching several men and women work together to carry the long, brightly colored sculls to the water and fit their oars in place. Because rowers face backward in their boats, club members almost glided past a pair of bottle-nose dolphins before they saw them.

HILTON HEAD’S ORIGINAL WAVE RIDERS SHARE THEIR LOVE OF THE SEA WITH A NEW GENERATION

Surfing wasn’t really a thing in South Carolina until the 1960s, when military personnel from the West Coast and Hawaii arrived during the Vietnam War and began paddling out in search of waves in Charleston and Myrtle Beach and on Hunting Island.

And though a few of these surfers made their way to Hilton Head Island, the sport remained mostly off the radar through the ’60s. That changed in 1971, when Hamp Sewell, a former East Coast surfing champion, and his wife, Sissy, started Kindred Spirits, a camp for kids that included surfing instruction. Soon they were taking young proteges to competitions around the state.

NEW PLANS COULD BOOST PLAYING SPACES IN GREATER BLUFFTON

The population growth in greater Bluffton has outpaced resources in numerous areas, but in few cases has the disparity been more apparent than in the need for sports fields.

County officials hope to remedy that need thanks to two pending land donations that could become the home of a baseball and softball complex featuring up to seven fields, as well as synthetic turf fields for soccer, football, and lacrosse, and a tennis and pickleball facility.

PARENTS GO THE EXTRA MILE FOR YOUNG SOCCER STARS

How far would you go to help your child succeed in a sport where he or she showed promise? How much would you sacrifice?

While many parents in Bluffton and Hilton Head Island spend their afternoons and evenings chauffeuring their children to after-school activities and sports, these parents of young local soccer superstars are in it to win it.