Players from all seven schools of the Sandhills Athletic Conference will meet on Sunday at SAC Football Media Day.
Neel Madhavan | Daily newspaper & Laurinburger Börse
RAEFORD – With the season approaching, high school football is back in North Carolina.
After official training began last week, the redesigned Sandhills Athletic Conference hosted their annual Football Media Day at Bayonet Golf Club on Sunday, where coaches, players, administrators and media representatives had the opportunity to meet and interact with some of their new opponents first time.
In both the preseason coaching and media polls, Richmond Sr. was selected as the favorite to win the conference championship next season. The Raiders received five out of a total of seven votes for first place in the trainer poll and eight out of eleven available votes for first place in the media poll.
Scotland was ranked third by the coaches and second in the media poll. The Fighting Scots received the other three of the eleven votes in the media survey.
Lee County and Southern Lee each received first place in the coach survey. The Yellow Jackets finished second behind Richmond, Pinecrest fourth, Hoke County fifth, Southern Lee sixth and Union Pines seventh.
In the media poll, Lee County was picked third, Pinecrest fourth, Hoke County fifth, Union Pines sixth, and Southern Lee seventh.
With yet another realignment of high school athletics across the state, the conference will look a little different over the next four years.
Although Scotland has been reclassified to a 3A school, both Richmond (4A) and Scotland will remain conference rivals.
The new SAC will be a split conference with seven teams with four 4A teams and 3A teams. Richmond and Scotland will stay along with Hoke County and Pinecrest, but they will be joined by the newcomers Union Pines, Lee County and Southern Lee.
Former Conference opponents Jack Britt, Lumberton, Purnell Swett and Seventy-First are now part of the United 8 Conference.
Richmond, Hoke and Pinecrest each stay 4A, while Lee County, Scotland, Southern Lee and Union Pines are 3A.
In last year’s COVID-shortened season, Richmond finished the conference standings at the top. Scotland and Jack Britt took second place, followed by Pinecrest, Hoke County, Seventy-First, Purnell Swett and Lumberton.
In its old Tri-County 6 conference, Lee County won its conference championship while Union Pines was third and Southern Lee was fifth.
A full pre-season preview for soccer and all fall sports will be available next week on yourdailyjournal.com and laurinburgexchange.com. Pick up a copy of the Richmond County Daily Journal or the Laurinburg Exchange on Saturday, August 21 for the full print version of the annual Fall Sports Preview tab.
SAC preseason coach survey (First-placed votes in brackets)
1. Richmond (5)
2nd circle Lee (1)
3. Scotland
4. Crown of pine
5. Hoke County
6. South Lee (1)
7. Union Pines
SAC media survey for the preseason (First-placed votes in brackets)
1. Richmond (8)
2. Scotland (3)
3. Lee County
4. Crown of pine
5. Hoke County
6. Union Pines
7. South Lee
Contact Neel Madhavan at 910-817-2671 ext. 2751 or [email protected] Follow on Twitter at @NeelMadhavan.