Tillar
BENNETTSVILLE—Marlboro County School District Superintendent Helena Tillar has a message about the Marlboro County High School football team.
“There’s always some suspicion when you’re winning,” Tillar said at Monday’s board meeting. “I want to share with you an inquiry I received from Ms. Tonya Brown (WPDE reporter). It says, trusting all is well, I obtained some information today that Marlboro County High School’s football team has been found to be in violation of having ineligible players on the team. I’m told the South Carolina High School League has sanctioned the football team for the violation. The league’s public information officer sent me the following: …please contact the school about this information.”
Tillar went on to read where Brown asked the SCHSL what actions had been taken against the Bulldogs. The league’s response, according to Tillar, “This is from Charlie Wentzky, he’s the deputy commissioner for the South Carolina High School League, he said, so it appears that our public information director redirected the news outlet to the school, which is what we would do if there is a sanction and what we will do if there is not a sanction as it is your story to tell either way. As I stated on the phone, if Marlboro County had a sanction from the high school league, you would’ve had verbal and written correspondence indicating what the penalty and sanction were. There are false rumors and information circulating. I suggest that the district gets out in front of this narrative.”
The rumors about the Bulldogs started with a highly shared Facebook post in a group called South Carolina High School Sports Group. A member of the group posted a screenshot saying 12 players from the football team were found to be ineligible and that the team had been sanctioned. And because everyone believes social media is the truth these days, more stories about “Trouble in Dawg land” began circulating in the group. Some people consider this group as a place where people who peeked in high school go to relive memories, others take it as a credible news source.
“I’m here to tell you today,” Tillar said, “All of our players are eligible and have been cleared by the high school league. We have no sanctions from the high school league and I think we need to put that to rest. I did want to share that because you know how the rumor mill is. It can be damaging and that’s why we went to the high school league to take it up with them. One thing we’re going to do is we’re going to follow the rules and regulations and do the right thing. That’s the only way that we operate.”
Marlboro County board chairman Michael Coachman thanked Tillar for going to the high school league to get out in front of the rumors.
“We went above and beyond to make sure all of our children were doing the right thing and make sure our children were legal. And this administration made sure all of that happened. And we will continue to be hashtag, MarlboroStrong.”