Battle For the Axe Set for Sept. 20. This Time it’s a Region Battle.
BLYTHEWOOD – With Westwood’s and Blythewood’s athletic programs in the spotlight at Tuesday’s Chamber of Commerce Meeting, fall—and footballs will soon take to the air.
Athletic Directors Barry Mizzell of Blythewood and Garrett Knight of Westwood opened for their football coaches by talking of their programs’ highlights in the 2023-2024 athletic year.
“We won the Region (3-5A) Championship in boys basketball and won the region championship in cheer,” Mizzell said of Blythewood, which has more than 800 of its 2,000 students participating in athletic programs. “We won the region championship in girls track and girls tennis last year… and our girls won the state track championship for the second year in a row.”
Mizzell also noted outstanding individual state champions, including wrestler Tiyanna Mack, who won her second straight girls state championship at the 132-pound weight class, and golfer Caroline Hawkins, who won her second straight state individual championship, along with several girls on the track team who claimed individual crowns.
“It was a successful year for us,” Mizzell said. “We’ve got a lot of great kids, a lot of great coaches who put time in making these athletes of ours into productive citizens.”
Blythewood also brings in a new sport to the fall slate of sports, boys volleyball.
Westwood, which moved up from the 4A High School League classification last year, has seen much growth in its sports, with its boys and girls basketball programs as well as boys and girls track and field being the highlights.
“We have close to 600 athletes who’ll be in our programs this year,” Knight said. “The women’s tennis team has doubled, the swim team has doubled, our cheer program will be back competing this year, and they have about 50 girls out there, so we’re excited to see some growing in our fall sports. We have seven (teams) that are competing, so we’re excited to see what they can do.”
When it comes to football, both Westwood and Blythewood programs are hungry to improve after tough 2023 seasons.
Blythewood finished the season 4-7 overall and fourth in the region. The Bengals made the postseason but fell 44-0 on the road at J.L. Mann. This year second-year head coach James Martin said his team will be heavy on senior leadership and strong on defense, especially led by 6-5, 320-pound nose tackle and Georgia Southern commit Sterling Sanders.
“We’re really excited about what he’s bringing the table to us. Martin said of Sanders, one of five seniors who have offers to play in college on the table. “We didn’t really have the record that we wanted to have, but we’re gonna build off of that for this year. We have 30 seniors on the football team, one of the first times in my 27 years of coaching football that we’ve had that many seniors. That’s important for us as a program to say we’re keeping our athletes in the program in this day and age where people want to get away from athletics.”
Westwood, which beat Spring Valley in the season opener last year—only to lose the rest of its games—looks to build on hard lessons that the young starters learned through all those defeats.
“We were really, really young last year, so we’re excited about here we are,” third-year head coach Robert O’Connell said, after going over the importance of building the team and solidifying that team in the midst of the Blythewood community. “The biggest thing we talk about is our guys an our kids being the best version of ourselves. First and foremost, academically and then as a citizen and lastly as a football player. Why is that important? I think we’ve kind of hit on the point that these are the future members of our community.”
With the High School League’s latest realignment, Westwood and Blythewood are grouped in a Region 5-5A that also includes Richland 2 schools Spring Valley and Ridge View. Lugoff-Elgin, Sumter, and West Florence also comprise the new region.
With that realignment, the annual Battle for the Axe—the Jeanne Schmidt Memorial Trophy—takes on a higher level as a region game.
Blythewood has held on to the Axe since winning it back in 2022. Last year’s Battle for The Axe went down to the fourth quarter and depended on the Bengals getting three scores to win 30-20 at Westwood.
This year’s contest takes place at Westwood again on Sept. 20.
“We’re excited about it, excited about our schedule this year to be able to have a region foe with Westwood and the battle of the axe all on the same night,” Martin said.
Added O’Connell, “Last year we had a great game with Blythewood, and it’s always a great game to play for your community and to play for something.”
Westwood heads to York for the Bill Pate White Rose Classic Jamboree Friday. The Redhawks are scheduled to play Catawba Ridge at 7 p.m. Westwood opens the season at home against A.C. Flora Aug. 23.
Blythewood rides over to Chapin Friday to play Clinton in the Aun&McKay Jamboree at Chapin High School. The Bengals open the season at home versus Nation Ford Aug. 23.
