North-South All-Star football game to keep original date

The state’s secondary all-star football game will go on as scheduled.

The Touchstone Energy Cooperatives Bowl North Vs. South game, originally set for Saturday, Dec. 12 at Doug Shaw Memorial Stadium, will keep its same date despite a South Carolina High School League ruling on Tuesday to push back the start of the state playoffs. With the postseason delay, the Class AAAA and Class AAA championship games will be played that day at Williams-Brice Stadium in Columbia.

However, changing the all-star game wasn’t an option, according to North-South Game Director and current Westside head coach Scott Earley.

“With the Shrine Bowl the next week and then Christmas, there’s nothing we can do,” Earley said Wednesday. “You’re talking about six, seven, eight kids being replaced. There are just to many things, hotels, travel, to move everything. It would be a logistical nightmare.”

The SCHSL’s most recent decision postponed the start of the playoffs for three of the state’s four classes. Class AAA and Class A will join Class AA - which had already delayed its postseason - and open the first round on Nov. 13. Class AAAA will start the following week, on Nov. 20.

It was done to give teams who were affected by the recent flooding time to make up postponed games in a semi-regular fashion.

The Dec. 12 all-star game was already set, though, and Earley said playing the game on the same afternoon as the Shine Bowl of the Carolinas wasn’t an option. He said the decision was made “immediately” to keep the predetermined date.

“Really, I think it was a no-brainer,” he said. “I hate it for the selections who won’t be there, but they’ll be playing in the state championships.”

When the North-South rosters are released on Oct. 26, the staffs will also have a number of alternates ready to go. After the respective state semifinals games in Class AAA and Class AAAA on Dec. 4, the all-star coaches will then announce any necessary replacements for their game.

Eighty-eight players are selected from around the state and split along the Upper State-Lower State divide. The South won last year’s game 23-18, in part due to a pair of touchdowns from then-Georgetown standout Michael Billings. The North holds a 38-27-2 all-time lead in the series.

One week after this year’s game, the annual Shrine Bowl game will be played at Wofford’s Gibbs Stadium in Spartanburg. The lone area selection for that game is Conway’s Bryan Edwards, although several more Grand Strand products are believed to be on the short list for a spot on the North-South game.

This story was originally published October 14, 2015 at 12:35 PM with the headline "North-South All-Star football game to keep original date."