High School Basketball in Fort Mill

A new year brings a new start for winter sports.

Both basketball and wrestling will start back this week after a lengthy break for the holidays which saw the Fort Mill School District put sports on hold as a potential surge in the coronavirus stopped high school sports locally in mid-December.

Practices for winter sports teams started back Dec. 30, but for some restarting the winter seasons will be starting a new season, especially for local wrestling teams, who have yet to have an official match yet. The Fort Mill boys’ basketball team hasn’t played since Dec. 1 at Lancaster. Nation Ford basketball hasn’t played since Dec. 11 and Catawba Ridge basketball hasn’t played since Dec. 14.

The first contest to open 2021 will be Fort Mill wrestling at Gaffney in a tri-match with Boiling Springs as well. The contest is crucial since the Jackets have yet to wrestle this season and the tri-match is a Region 3-5A match for all schools involved and will have playoff implications. Nation Ford will open its season Jan. 9 against Blythewood and Lancaster in a tri-match at home.

Basketball returns Jan. 5 as all three local high schools are back on the hardwood. Ironically, Fort Mill will play Lancaster at home 35 days since their last game for the boy’s team. Nation Ford will travel to Boiling Springs to open Region 3-5A play and Catawba Ridge will travel to South Pointe to open Region 3-4A play.

The month of January will be crucial for both basketball and wrestling as the majority of their matches and games will consist of region contests with the top two teams in each region qualifying for the playoffs. Getting through it without stoppages, delays or postponements will be just as important for potential playoff seedings.

Catawba Ridge basketball region schedule runs through Jan. 29 and both Nation Ford and Fort Mill will run through Feb. 5 where they will play each other twice in that final week of the regular season.

In wrestling, both Nation Ford and Fort Mill’s region season will culminate Jan. 26 in their dual match and the region tournament is set for Jan. 30 at Fort Mill. Catawba Ridge wrestling is set to finish its regular season Feb. 2 with their region tournament being Feb. 6.

Mac Banks: mac@fortmillprepsports.com, @fortprep