Groove to the Music with Dance Classes Near Wando, SC

Twenty-one mooring balls were recently installed and are visible from the two waterfront piers on Daniel Island’s Wando River coastline. The devices were permitted and funded by the Daniel Island Yacht Club

According to club representative Jeff Jarrard, a total of 144 mooring balls have been approved by the Army Corps of Engineers, SC Department of Health and Environmental Control and Ocean Resource Management.

Mooring balls are used to safely secure a vessel for a temporary stay.

The mooring balls off of Waterfront Park consist of a helical anchor that is driven into the seabed and attached to an elastic rope, known as a pennant.

These are not the mooring balls of old that were configured with a slab of concrete and a chain. The rope on modern mooring balls, like the ones installed off of Daniel Island, is flexible and stretches during tidal changes or storm surges.

Jarrard explained that the system is designed so as not to disrupt sea life or the ecosystem. He further noted that the balls do not impede the navigable waters because all of the moorings are located inside the channel.

The plan is to install a total of 73 mooring balls, Jarrard said, which is about half of the approved amount. Twenty-one out of a planned 28 have been installed north of the piers and another 45 are expected to be installed south of the piers, Jarrard said.

There are three types of moorings available: One that can sustain up to a 25-foot boat, one up to 35 feet and another up to 45 feet. Mooring balls for the smaller vessels will be closer to shore for depth reasons.

Although the mooring balls are engineered to have vessels attached during storm events, Jarrard said that the Daniel Island Yacht Club’s policy is that vessels cannot be moored during a storm.

Hazelett Marine is in charge of installation. Currently stationed in Panama, Hazelett is expected to return in two to three weeks to finish the remainder of the mooring field.

When the operation is complete, there will be two mooring fields and a main channel in and out of the facility between the two docks. The North Dock will be home to the Daniel Island Yacht Club and the Daniel Island Ferry. The South Dock is where the Carefree Boat Club resides, offering day docking and by the hour.

On the North Dock, there will be public restrooms and an administrative office for booking and launching charters and cocktail cruises. Construction has been delayed due to material supply issues but should be completed in the next few months.

There are currently no bridals or pendants on the mooring balls, rendering them unusable. Future usage will be permitted only for DI Yacht Club members or sponsored guests on a monthly or annual basis.

The Daniel Island Yacht Club has not opened up its membership yet. Its sailing program will be full steam ahead by the spring of 2022. Food and beverage services on the North Dock will be ready by early summer of 2022.

“Starting a yacht club is a different animal,” Jarrard said. “It takes a lot of preparation and discussion ... It’s a process ... We’re going to take our time and do it right.”

MOUNT PLEASANT, SC (WCIV) — The S.C. Dept. of Transportation plans to shut down both sides of the Wando Bridge twice in the coming months, meaning a reinstatement of controversial lane reversals on Interstate 526 while repair crews work on the maligned James B. Edwards Bridge.

Kevin Turner, an S.C. DOT engineer overseeing the I-526 Wando Bridge repair project, confirmed the lane reversal plans to ABC News 4 on Thursday. Repair work on the east and west side of the bridge is set to start "sooner than later," he says.

Fortunately, traffic impacts shouldn't be as significant for daily commuters. Turner says the lane reversals only will occur on two single weekends.

On both weekends, Turner says the lane reversals will start after evening rush hour on Fridays, and end on Sundays. The exact weekends for the closures haven't yet been determined, says Turner.

The lane reversals won't be the only impacts of the Wando Bridge repair work.

(MORE | SCDOT following 14 recommendations to improve Wando Bridge)

Turner says there will be an additional four weekends during which individual lanes on both the eastbound and westbound sides of the Wando Bridge will be closed for ongoing repair work.

Also, the trucking lanes on the east and west sides of the bridge, which are currently closed, will remain closed through the duration of the repair work, according to Turner.

Concrete barriers will be added along the closed trucking lanes to enforce the closure and protect workers, Turner says.

Freyssinet USA has been selected through a bidding process as the contractor to handle the $4 million repair. Turner says the construction company is one of a handful in the world qualified to take on the project, as their engineers specialize in post-tensioned box girder bridges such as the Wando Bridge.

The $4 million project will be paid for using a combination of state and federal dollars, Turner says.

Repair work is expected to start this summer, and continue through the first quarter of 2020. An exact timetable has not yet been established.

Turner says local mayors will be the first to know of the timetable for the lane closures and construction developments overall.

Repairs will be made to both the eastbound and westbound sides of the bridge, with contractors working to implement 9 of 14 repair and improvement recommendations made in a January 2019 comprehensive report on the bridge's issues.

The bulk of the work will be repairing corrosion damage caused by water leakage, and improving the structure to prevent water-related damage in the future, Turner says.

On May 14, 2018, DOT officials closed the westbound side of the James B. Edwards Bridge after discovering extensive corrosion and degradation to key parts of the bridge caused by water leakage.

The westbound side of the bridge was deemed unsafe for travel, while the eastbound portion — while in need of repair — was determined to be safe for continued use.

Initially, eastbound I-526 traffic was allowed to continue as normal, while westbound traffic was detoured onto U.S. Hwy. 17 over the Ravenel Bridge.

After nearly a week of extensive traffic congestion in the Mount Pleasant area because of the bridge closure, the DOT elected to reverse one lane on I-526, installing paved crossovers on the Mount Pleasant and Daniel Island approaches to the bridge, and placing dividing cones over the bridge.

The reversal allowed one lane of westbound I-526 traffic from Mount Pleasant to flow across the east side of the Wando Bridge toward Daniel Island and North Charleston.

DOT plans to enact a similar traffic pattern with the impending lane reversals, Turner says, but this time both sides of the bridge will close for a weekend apiece.

That will mean westbound traffic being diverted again into eastbound lanes over the bridge, and vice versa.

When the lane reversal was put in place last May, the move was appreciated by drivers and elected leaders East of the Cooper in 2018, but was criticized by drivers who commute to Daniel Island and Mount Pleasant from West Ashley, North Charleston, Summerville, Goose Creek and beyond.

North Charleston Mayor Keith Summey was vocal in his disapproval, feeling the lane reversals failed to consider the broader impact on traffic in the greater Charleston area.

Turner says DOT this time around has been in frequent contact with Mayor Summey, Mayor Will Haynie of Mount Pleasant, the Port of Charleston, and other local stakeholders, letting them know the potential impacts well in advance.

"We have been apprised of the timing and the plans," Haynie said in response to Thursday's news. "The object is to get complete the repairs we all so painfully became aware of last year, and we are glad to see them occurring."

"I also support the weekend lane reversals because it lessens the impact on the tens of thousands of Mt. Pleasant residents who commute on workdays," Haynie added.

Mayor Summey couldn't immediately be reached for comment.

(Clarification: This story's original headline said the lane reversals would happen in Summer 2019. S.C. DOT officials asked us to clarify that while it's very possibly the reversals will happen in the summer months, it's not certain. The reversals will happen sometime between now and the first three months of 2020.)

Art Craig remembers seeing Isaiah Perrin walking around the halls at Timberland High School and wondering why the big fella wasn’t playing football.

At the time, Perrin was about 6-foot-3 and tipped the scales at around 270 pounds. Craig thought he’d make a great offensive lineman.

Perrin, as it turned out, was more interested in becoming the next Tiger Woods.

“Isaiah was a huge golfer and really didn’t think about playing football,” Craig said. “We finally talked him into coming out for the football team and he was a three-year starter for us.”

Perrin, 34, grew to love the game and on Thursday was named the head football coach at Wando High School.

Perrin takes over for Rocco Adrian, who resigned in October after four seasons as head coach with the Warriors. Adrian went 8-28 at Wando.

Perrin served as the offensive coordinator for Stratford High School this past season, but has had stops at Wilson, Swansea, Lower Richland and Timberland as an assistant coach.

“Isaiah is a real student of the game,” Craig said. “I think he’s going to do a great job at Wando. He’s going to be able to relate to his players and I know they will love playing for him.”

Perrin said facing the Warriors during the regular season convinced him that the Mount Pleasant school has the potential to be a winning program.

“Seeing these guys and how they played us during region play made me want to come here,” said Perrin, who served as the head golf coach at Stratford for two years. “They were relentless in their effort. I think that’s something that we can build on. They have great facilities and a community that wants these guys to win. There’s a lot of potential here.”

The Wando High School wrestling team finished 16th at the AAAAA South Carolina State Wrestling Championships on Feb. 24 and 25. One Warrior came home as an individual state champion and another a runner-up in their respective weight classes.

Senior Pierce Carpenter-Kydd finished the season as the state champion in the 170-pound weight class. Coach Adam Schneider said Carpenter-Kydd “put in the work” in the off-season. The senior placed third in last year’s tournament and was determined to place first in his final team season.

“He's not a kid that's coming in to fool around. He comes in and has his fun but when it's time to practice and it’s time to work, he's one of the hardest workers we have,” Schneider said. “He was a little down last year after taking third. Obviously was happy with taking third, but his goal was really to be state champion and you can really see the offseason work that he put in.”

The tournament was also the first official girl’s state championship. Wando has five girls on the varsity wrestling team, three of whom qualified for state. They could choose to wrestle in the AAAAA boys' division or participate in the girl’s tournament, which included teams from all schools, regardless of class. All chose to wrestle in the girl’s bracket, making sophomore Cassidy Warren Wando’s first wrestler to place in the girl’s tournament.

Warren, who is also a cheerleader in the fall, placed second in the 120-pound weight class. Schneider said he immediately noticed her tenacity when she joined the team this winter.

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“I think from day one what I realized is how tough she is. Obviously, she's a very good athlete. She's a cheerleader, but she's very tough. It's not one of those sports where, you know, you can go out there and kind of walk through practice. You kind of have to fully immerse yourself and give it your all and she never complained. She wrestled with the guys, with the girls. It didn't really matter who it was,” Schneider said.

The Wando Warriors made it to the Sweet 16 in the tournament, ending a tough season marked by injury and the loss of some of their starting wrestlers.

“We had a couple of starters that did not come out to us and that were kind of expected to come back out this year,” Schneider said. “We had some kids really step up which was outstanding, even through some of the injuries. We had some very good wrestlers kind of get banged up this year, get hurt, so a couple of them didn't get to finish their senior seasons, which is a bummer.”

Though the tournament signaled the end of the varsity season, individual and club wrestling continues year round. Carpenter-Kydd and senior Jacob Pelbath were selected to compete in the 2023 SC North/South All-Star Wrestling Classic on March 3 and 4. Schneider was also named a coach of the 5A/1A-2A South All-Star team.

Three of the top high school athletic programs in South Carolina are located in the Charleston area.

The S.C. Athletic Administrators Association recently announced the winners of the Carlisle Cup in each of the state’s five High School League classifications. The Carlisle Cup recognizes the top athletic programs each year, based on state championships and playoff success.

Prep Zone

Wando is the Class AAAAA winner for the 2020-21 school year. The athletic program captured state titles in volleyball, girls swimming and girls soccer, and was the state runner-up in boys swimming, boys tennis and girls lacrosse. Wando also was Lower State runner-up in girls basketball and girls tennis, third in girls track and fourth in boys track.

Bishop England was the top program in Class AAA this year. The Bishops won state titles in girls tennis, boys cross country, girls lacrosse and boys lacrosse, and were state runners-up in girls basketball, boys golf and boys swimming. The girls cross country team finished third in the state meet, and the girls golf team was third in the AAA state tournament.

Philip Simmons earned the award for Class AA. The four-year-old Berkeley County school won state titles in boys tennis, boys track and girls track, while finishing second in boys cross country and girls cross country. The girls tennis team was AA state runner-up as well. The volleyball and girls basketball teams reached the AA Lower State finals.

High school coaches on the move

Summer is often the time for movement among the prep coaching ranks, and this summer is no different.

Oceanside Collegiate recently announced the hiring of two new varsity head coaches, while an assistant at Berkeley has landed his first head coaching gig.

OCA filled openings in baseball and softball in recent days. Alecia Robinson will assume duties as the head softball coach next spring. Robinson comes to Oceanside Collegiate from Blue Ridge High School in Greer. Robinson served at Blue Ridge for the last three seasons, guiding the Tigers to an undefeated region record and a Lower State appearance in Class AAAA.

Robinson is a former two-time all-state performer at Tuscola High School in Waynesville, North Carolina, where she holds the school’s career home run record.

Richie McCullough will take the reins of the successful baseball program. McCullough replaces Jerry Stoots, who was not retained after the 2021 season. McCullough has been an assistant on the varsity team for the last two seasons. Oceanside played for the Class AA state title in 2019 and won 20 games this spring but failed to make the state playoffs.

McCullough is a native of Columbia and a 1990 graduate of Columbia High. He was a four-year all-region selection who was also was named all-state and played in the North-South all-star game.

Prior to his move to Charleston, McCullough spent 11 years as an assistant coach in Lexington.

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“I am very appreciative for the opportunity here at Oceanside and would like to thank Mrs. (Brenda) Corley and Coach (Mark) Meyer for putting their trust in me," McCullough said. "I love everything about this school.”

Zach Jacobs, who was Berkeley's junior varsity baseball coach and an assistant coach for the varsity team, was hired as the varsity head coach at Beaufort High School. Jacobs is a graduate of Berkeley and was an All-Lowcountry selection as a player. He inherits a program that played for the Class AAAA Lower State championship this past spring. The Eagles lost to James Island in the best-of-three Lower State series.