Chimney Sweep in Wando, SC

Wando High School is a 2023 Capturing Kids’ Hearts National Showcase School. Interim Principal Kim Wilson made the surprise announcement to the staff May 10. Wando is the only high school in South Carolina to receive this designation this year.

“To be one of 468 schools in the United States for building strong positive relationships with all stakeholders is an amazing honor,” said Wilson. “Our faculty and staff are to be commended for their commitment in creating a culture where all students feel valued and safe.”

Capturing Kids’ Hearts National Showcase Schools are recognized for their excellence in creating safe and welcoming environments where students are relationally connected and eager to learn. The award celebrates schools producing exemplary outcomes using the Capturing Kids’ Hearts process. Award winners demonstrate a high level of performance and a positive culture and climate for learning.

Because of the rigor of the evaluation process, the Capturing Kids’ Hearts National Showcase Schools Award is both a high aspiration and an exemplary acknowledgement of excellence.

“Being a CKH National Showcase School would not have been possible without the support of our parents, community members and district leadership,” said Wilson.

In 1990, a small group of educators first experienced Capturing Kids’ Hearts at founder Flip Flippen’s home in College Station, Texas. Flippen’s vision has since grown, and today the Capturing Kids’ Hearts team serves more than 50,000 educators each year nationwide.

Capturing Kids’ Hearts is the premier source of professional development for educators across the country. Through experiential training, expert coaching, a character-based curriculum for students and personalized support Capturing Kids’ Hearts equips professionals in K-12 education to implement a transformational process focused on fostering student connectedness and growing a relationship-driven culture.

The Capturing Kids’ Hearts process equips educators with the skills they need to change the trajectory of students’ lives. Campuses implementing the Capturing Kids’ Hearts process consistently report improvements in academic, behavioral and cultural outcomes.

“We are so proud of our students for their contribution to making Wando a place where all students are important,” said Wilson. “They have placed a high priority on building relational capacity with their peers this year.”

Sign up for updates!

Receive Moultrie News promotions directly to your inbox!

Email

By submitting this form, you are consenting to receive marketing emails from: The Post and Courier, 148 Williman Street, Charleston, SC, 29403, US, https://www.postandcourier.com. You can revoke your consent to receive emails at any time by using the SafeUnsubscribe® link, found at the bottom of every email. Emails are serviced by Constant Contact.

Thirteen athletes from across eight sports signed their letters of intent to play at the collegiate level at a signing day ceremony at Wando High School on April 26.

The Class of 2023 students will be attending universities in and outside of South Carolina. Six athletes signed to Division I schools.

“There certainly has been a lot of hard work by these young student athletes,” said Wando Athletic Director Mark Buchman. “This is certainly a very exciting time. To have an opportunity to move to the next level, not many athletes get that chance.”

With the click of a pen and the situating of a branded cap on the head, the student athletes committed to their schools. Several of those athletes earned a double shout-out from the coaches who took turns at the podium highlighting their players. A handful of the athletes found the time to excel in not just one, but two sports during their high school careers.

“We’re talking about kids that go 365, 24/7 and that’s really rare to find these days,” said Wando Volleyball Coach Alexis Glover.

Girls basketball forward Taylor Brown signed with Division III school the University of Lynchburg.

Boys cross country runners Brendan Gomez and Tanner Jelliff signed with the University of Tennessee and Charleston Southern University, respectively. Both are Division I schools. Gomez and Jelliff also run on Wando’s track and field team.

Two more track and field runners signed with Division I schools. Hannah Togami is heading to the University of South Carolina and Jack Scott to the Citadel. Scott also played as a defensive back on the football team.

Running back AJ Gathers signed to play football for Brevard College in North Carolina. Gathers served as a team captain in his senior year.

For volleyball, setter Reece Campbell is heading to Salem College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Opposite hitter Emma Sanders signed with Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston, Massachusetts. Togami also played on the volleyball team as an outside hitter.

Wrestler Pierce Carpenter-Kydd will be joining Scott among the ranks of the Citadel cadets, though he signed with the Bulldogs wrestling team. Fellow wrestler Jacob Pelbath signed with Liberty University.

Boys soccer player Johnathan Coleman signed to Division II school Anderson University. His teammate Stokes McConnell signed with The University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee. Girls soccer midfielder Lennon Leithauser signed with The City College of New York.

“We, as an athletic partner, are extremely proud of you and I’m sure your parents, all the supporters that are in the crowd, your friends, family members are super proud,” said girls soccer coach Shannon Champ.

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.)

Dutch Fork coach Reed Gunter hopes his team’s first state title trip isn’t its last one.

The Silver Foxes put up a fight against powerhouse Wando, but the Warriors’ depth and experience took over in the final two quarters in the 15-8 victory Saturday in the Class 5A state championship match.

It is Wando’s sixth state title and fourth in a row.

Dutch Fork finishes the year at 15-2, the most wins in the six-year history of the program.

“Even with the loss today, it is tremendous and so happy to be there,” Gunter said. “It shows the hard work we put in and all the effort. I don’t plan on this being the last time. We plan on being back.”

Jack Shipman and Logan Mitchell each scored five goals for Wando (12-4). The Warriors, who led 7-6 at halftime, took control in the third quarter by scoring four goals. They added four more goals in the fourth quarter.

Shipman scored as time expired in the quarter to give Wando an 11-6 lead after three.

“This means a lot to maintain some dominance in this state,” Wando's Lance Renes said. “We put a lot of work into the practices. And all that work gives us the confidence to do our best and paint a beautiful picture.”

“Really, in the second half, we let them get a lot of shots off in the crease,” Gunter said. “Too many times, they came out with a better offensive plan and decided to attack us in close. I guess we just weren’t prepared for it. And in the second half, their depth came into play and wore us down a little bit.”

Alex Walters led Dutch Fork with four goals, and Chance Hainey added two.

Dutch Fork trailed much of the first half but erased a pair of three-goal deficits. Walters had a hat trick in the first quarter, with his third goal tying it at 3 with 1:43 left in the quarter.

The Silver Foxes trailed 6-3 but goals by Jakob Lara and Austin Beasley cut it to 6-5 with 5:55 left in second quarter. Hainey tied it at 6 on a goal with 44 seconds left in the half.

Tommy Marcoon gave Wando a 7-6 lead 20 seconds later.

This story was originally published April 28, 2018, 4:58 PM.

MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCIV) — It is the fabric of our Friday nights. It's easy to say that prep football is a respite, or an escape for a few hours. I found out the lengths of truth in that statement, this weekend.

It started as an innocuous weekend morning text. "Hey, it's Legette. Wanted to say it was good to watch Friday football news online. Little feeling of home. Keep up the good work."

Read more: Wando vs. Lucy Beckham | WATCH LIVE | Friday Night Rivals

The texts from Steve Legette, the Wando High School assistant principal, continued.

"On Saturday morning, we get together, everyone talks about what their high school team did. I got to say, 'Wando didn’t lose'. We have something to look forward to Friday nights and Saturdays for college football."

It sounds like a conversation that you'd hear at any small town Waffle House or coffee shop. Sure, I was appreciative of the text, but man, it hit me when I realized that the conversation and text message were coming from Djibouti, Africa.

"When I left in 2008, could hardly get in touch with home," said Legette, who is in his 30th year with the South Carolina National Guard and did a tour of duty in Afghanistan 15 years ago. "Now, we can call every day. Internet in our rooms, things we didn’t have 15 years ago in 2008."

This year, Legette is not on the sidelines or working crowd control. He's not taking tickets or parking buses. His service is of a higher order, on the African coast, somewhere between Sudan and Somalia. (WCIV)

This year, Legette is not on the sidelines or working crowd control. He's not taking tickets or parking buses. His service is of a higher order, on the African coast, somewhere between Sudan and Somalia.

"We have a two-star general who says every day is a Tuesday here," Legette said. "I said not anymore because now we have Fridays. Next week, we start having Saturdays.

"We're SC National Guard, so we have guys from all over," he continued. "I'm the Charleston guy, the Wando guy. I only care about Wando. I have guys from Dillon, Myrtle Beach. Everyone trying to get their high school game, get up at 2 a.m. and watch it on whatever streaming service they have. One guy whose kid goes to Dorman couldn't get it, so I had to stream on the radio."

It just means more in the south. This Friday, it means the most in the east. East of the Cooper River that is. Lucy Beckham battling Wando. The battle for supremacy on their side of the Isle of Palms connector.

Read more: Friday Night Rivals returns for 14th season of Lowcountry high school football action

"Just got off the phone with Coach Bookman, more of a learning curve for us on our own campus because we're the away team," Legette said. "District 2 stadium, will feel weird for students and parents to be sitting on the other side of the stadium in the sun when everyone else gets the shade, Different experience than it was last year. I texted Rocco, good luck this week. Talked to some of the other coaches and wished them luck and told them I’m pulling for them."

Amazingly, with the News4 livestream of the game, Legette will be able to watch it live, all the way from Djibouti.

"I do miss Friday nights, being out on the field and part of athletics," he said. "I should be able to watch it. Majority of us won't be up at 2 a.m. watching anything, so the internet should be working and we'll go from there."

Even if you don't know much about Djibouti, its easy to know there will be a big smile in the mess hall on Saturday morning with a Warriors win on Friday night.