Trinity Collegiate to begin football program

DARLINGTON — It was 1988 when current Trinity Collegiate headmaster Em Hubbard began a football program at St. Andrews School.
“I think our biggest sports moment that season was when we finally scored a touchdown in our last game,” Hubbard said. “Ten years later, they won a state title.”
  Now, 20 years later, Hubbard is hoping to do the same thing at Trinity.

Hubbard and athletic director David Rector recently announced that the Titans will compete in SCISA 8-man football beginning this fall.

The process began in earnest when Hubbard arrived and culminated this past week with the announcement.

“I met with all the parents at each grade level to talk about a variety of things, one of which was football,” Hubbard said.

A survey was then sent out to all the parents inquiring if any of their children were interested in playing football.

The response was better than they had hoped, Rector said.

“We had about 25 kids interested in playing just grades 8-11, which is more than enough to start an 8-man program,” Rector said. “The level of interest was high, the timing was right with SCISA and we just all thought this could be a great thing for the school in the future.”

The total cost of starting the program is projected to be between $20-30,000. The Titans have plans to move up to 11-man soon and to begin the process of building a stadium.

“The founding fathers of Trinity purchased 100 acres of land, so we have more than enough space for a stadium,” Hubbard said. “Our soccer field could be made into a stadium, but for now we’ll look for some place with lights.”

Freedom Florence is a possible location for the Titans’ first season, Rector said, but the first order of business is finding a coaching staff.

“I think it’s very important that you get the right person in there,” Rector said. “We’ve had several people express interest, but we haven’t started the interview process yet.

“Our goal is to have the coach come in a be a part of a lot of the decisions that will need to be made from here.”

Both Rector and Hubbard are confident the program will be successful and the interest level can be maintained.

“The number of schools in the fall soccer leagues that we’ve been a part of have declined in recent years,” Hubbard said. “I think football is a great fall sport that our athletes can be a part of.

“.... There’s nothing quite like Friday nights under the lights.”