Embedded Files
Within the Sports page, you're able to read all our sports stories ranging from Football to even Archery. If there is a specific topic you're looking for, just click on the image and it'll take you to that section!
Senior Ipact: More Than Just a Parade
Senior Ipact: More Than Just a Parade
By Journe Pyles
August 17, 2026
On August 14, Fountain Inn High school hosted what would have been their sixth parade down Main Street in Fountain Inn. Every year FIHS has a parade at the beginning of the school year showcasing the different clubs and sports they have that impact the community.
All students participating in the parade went to the main gym to check in with their clubs or teams before the event began. This event brought students together as they represented the different sports teams and clubs at FIHS. Following the parade was going to be the first pep rally of the 2026-2027 school year.
Unfortunately, due to weather conditions, the Fury Friday Parade and pep rally were cancelled.
The following participants were to be featured in the parade:
Principal Stephanie Smith, Jessica Pressig, Meredith Welch; substitute Mark Willis, assistant principals Kelli Belanger, Aaron Shaw and Lindsey Beam; Rudolph Gordon Mascot/Fury Mascot/ FIE Mascot/Athletic Director Robby Bell; FIHS Staff; and the following sports teams: Cheerleading, Wrestling, Golf, Swim , Volleyball, Tennis, girls and boys soccer, girls and boy basketball, XC, Track, Baseball, Softball, girls and boys lacrosse, Football, girls Flag football, Archery and Dance.
In addition to the sports and staff, the following programs had representatives: Robotics, Chorus band - music, Principal’s Cabinet, Student council/BETA/NHS, and PTSA.
While all these participants were ready to march, the seniors were excited for one of their last events. As the announcement was made that the parade was cancelled, disappointment fell over the crowd.
“When I found out the parade was cancelled, I was honestly really disappointed. I was really looking forward to it. I understood that the rain and lightning made it unsafe, but it was still sad that we weren’t going to get to have it,” senior volleyball player Brinlee Nelson said.
For seniors, the parade was more than just a school event, it was a chance to see younger students excited about the parade and celebrate with friends and the community.
“I was looking forward to being with my friends and seeing all the little kids excited for the parade and all their smiles. The parade is important to me because when I was younger I looked up to the high schoolers and now I'm that high schooler so it's just a full circle moment,” senior volleyball player Bethony Brown said.
The parade also brought the school and community together, making the event more special for seniors who were experiencing their final high school parade walk.
“I was most looking forward to getting to celebrate with my friends and everyone in the Fountain Inn community. I think it’s really cool that the whole community comes together for the parade and gets to support the school. Being a senior made it feel even more special,” Nelson said.
Football 🏈
Football 🏈
Jamboree Sets Stage for Fury Football
By: Brianna Martinez, Delaney Yamaguchi
August 19, 2026
Fountain Inn football opened its preseason with a jamboree, holding a 27-0 shutout over Newberry, giving the Fury its first look at how the team’s offseason work translates to the field.
“Any time you get to play the jamboree, you get to compete against new teams, and it's great to see how our players can engage and how they can handle new pressure not just against each other,” head football coach Brett Nichols said.
“The whole point of jamboree is to see how [the players] would react and evolve and show us what we can improve on for the rest of the season.”
The scrimmage gave Nichols exactly what he was looking for.
”Our defense showed me a lot. [We] played fast, got the ball; those are the kind of things you wanna see while playing the jamboree,” Nichols said.
This year, football has a lot of leadership that helped push them through the jamboree.
“We have a larger group of seniors who can lead the team and know what we expect, and having that experience has upped our program,” Nichols said.
That guidance will be critical for the team's younger players. The coaches have high
expectations for this group and think they can do great things this year.
“We have young guys that we expect to see more out of, we have a talented young
group of kids that we've observed that could help out and adjust to the leadership of the seniors.”
That adjustment should happen quickly because the team already has a strong core, especially with the quarterback, Sam Holliday.
“We have a lot of returning players that already know how to work with and communicate with our quarterback, Sam Holliday, who has a lot of talent and will be able to bond with new people, which will make experience our biggest strength.”
While the Fury is off to a great start, they will continue to put in the work to make this a successful football season.
“Working on our consistency, understanding plays, and limiting mistakes” are the top priorities of the team this season for Nichols.
The first game will be Friday, Aug. 21st on the road against Greenville High School.
Cheer 📣
Cheer 📣
Title
Title
Byline
Volleyball 🏐
Volleyball 🏐
Fury Parade
2024 Volleyball Season
Rudolph Gordon Volleyball
Volleyball Scrimmage and Tournament
Volleyball Scrimmage and Tournament
By: McKenna Burks
As the volleyball season begins, the team kicks off there with a scrimmage and a tournament here at FIHS. I interviewed Coach Reed, the head coach of the volleyball team, to hear his thoughts of this year’s season.
“The first scrimmage back was good. The team had a fun time, and grew closer through some of the challenges we faced. It was great to see Laurens in the pre-season too, so we have an idea of what we'll be facing, come region play.”
Building on the momentum of that early success against Laurens, the Fury is now channeling that energy directly into preparation for the official tournament. Based on what Coach Reed said, it sounds like the volleyball team had a great start. One thing that was really exciting to Coach Reed was seeing the seniors step up as leaders on and off the court.
“7 Seniors is a lot, but they have been working hard over the past few years, and I can't wait to see the great things they accomplish this season.”
The veteran leadership will be tested as the varsity squad shifts their focus from the scrimmage line up to their first competitive bracket of the regular season. Not only are seniors doing amazing things on the volleyball team, but they are seeing some new faces on the court this year. Lily Wright, Brooklyn Burgess, and Bethany Brown are joining the FIHS varsity volleyball team for the first time this season.
“They are bringing a lot of power and height to the front row with them,” Coach Reed said.
This newfound power and height will get its first major test this weekend as the team transitions from casual scrimmages into a competitive environment. It sounds like we have plenty of power in the front row of the court.
The FIHS volleyball team entered their first official competitive bracket of the season as they went into their first tournament of the season that took place Aug 15. They were led by their team captains Kayla Giles & Jillian Hug.
“Our first tournament went well. We had gotten the farthest ever in FIHS volleyball history. We had many wins and losses but ended up getting 3rd in silver,” Kayla Giles said.
With a historic third place finish under their belts, the Fury is just getting started. Hopefully, they can carry this momentum forward and secure wins in the future.
Cross Country 🏃♀️➡️
Cross Country 🏃♀️➡️
Starting out the XC Season
Starting out the XC Season
By: Harper Bartley
On Saturday, August 15, at 8:00 AM, the starter gun went off and the XC runners started their 2026 season. The team has been working all summer to build strength, endurance, and a positive mindset to help prepare for this season.
“I've been preparing with not only working on my endurance but also my strength by doing all the workouts,” tenth grader Bree Jeletic said.
Over the summer, the XC team practiced three days a week. Captains Camryn Davis and Derek Ashworth hosted their own practices for the team most of the other days. Practice usually consisted of long runs or work out days, building the teams’ strength and endurance.
“I've just been constantly reminding myself and saying out loud to the other girls that we trained for this and we can do hard things,” Davis said.
After all the hard work that these runners have put in this summer, everyone has expectations for themselves and the team.
“My expectations are to continue to have a positive mindset and not to get worked up over things” Jeletic said
“My expectations are to try my hardest and never give up when things get tough, just run my very best and keep pushing myself, "sophomore Ava Matson said
As the runners prepare for the season, the first meet helped them to get a feel for what is coming up in the next few regular season meets.
“I was pretty pleased with how the race went, we didn't time anything but as far as effort level, we were pretty good, it was a good experience for all of the new people,” head coach, Quinn Wilson said.
The new runners learned a lot this past race, when you're practicing hard workouts you're pushing yourself differently than when you're in a race.
“The difference between practices and races is the amount of intensity going on, at practice we are just running to build endurance but at actual races were showing all of out actual hard work and effort that we've put in, and that immediately intensifies how our race is going to be” Matson said
“When you're racing, you're getting carried by a lot of adrenaline, but once the adrenaline wears off you've got to figure out how to mentally take yourself through that and keep up with the pace you had with the adrenaline,” Davis said
Runners purposely did not mentally train over the summer for this race because the coaches wanted them to get a good feel for racing first
“I didn’t have them mentally train because it's early in the season and i want them to focus on their effort level and I don't want them to overthink it too much,”
This past race was a brand new experience for some. There were many new runners at this race, some having never ran XC, and some having never even ran before.
“I was pretty pleased with how the race went, we didn't time anything but as far as effort level, we were pretty good, it was a good experience for all of the new people. A lot of the new ones need to get used to racing and so do the returners, we need to put in a lot more work and train more.” Wilson said.
As the season progresses, the runners will continue to grow mentally and physically. Make sure to keep up with the upcoming races to watch our team accomplish much more this season.
Swim 🏊
Swim 🏊
Diving INN to the Season
Diving INN to the Season
By Miles Tabor
Fountain Inn Fury swim team opened their season Wednesday Aug. 19 at Orchard Farms against Westside and Christ Church. The Fury beat Westside but fell behind Christ Church.
While the record start split, this meet was a positive indication of the season to come.
Starting the year with a new boys’ head coach, Edwyn Brock has been helping the team get ready since the season started at the beginning of August.
Brock is super excited to get the amazing opportunity to coach this team.
“I think I can bring this to a state champion level team by utilizing all of the practice time and making the swimmers work harder to achieve their goals,” Brock said.
One of his swimmers, junior Derrick Ashworth, is looking forward to working with Brock this season.
“I know he'll be a great coach and be able to relate to the kids,” Ashworth said.
The swim team has a lot to look forward to this year, as they placed fourth in state last year. Their main goal for this year is the podium at state, and the new coach is going to help with that.
“Brock brings such good energy and I think he has a lot to teach everybody. He's a well of young information. I think he does a great job of making sure all of the practice time is well used, and all of practice is spent making the team better, and growing team chemistry,” junior Miles Tabor said.
The assistant coach, Erin McConkey, also offers years of experience with the team.
“Coach McConkey is also a very very good coach, and has won state championships in the past with a different team,” Tabor said.
“I am hoping to make this year the year that fountain inn wins a state championship this year,” McConkey said.
Swim have their next meet on Sept. 9 versus Daniel, Greenville, Wren and Southside Christian high schools.
Fury Swim Splashes INN to a New Season
Fury Swim Splashes INN to a New Season
By Jillian Nees
August 19, 2026
On Wednesday Aug. 19th our Fury Swim team had their first home swim meet against Westside, T.L. Hanna, Christ Church, and Easley.
During the meet we had two automatic qualifiers for state with Knox McConkey in the 200 IM, and Miles Campbell one of his events. It is a huge accomplishment for both of these returning swimmers.
“I was proud of how our veteran athletes swam. I also was super impressed by the confidence our new middle school athletes displayed,” head coach Erin McConkey said.
McConkey and new boys coach, Wyn Brock, have both been working hard to get our fury swimmers ready.
“While practice this year’s been a little bit difficult with the weather, so far we’ve gotten to work a little bit with all four strokes, and then we took a day to work on starts and turns,” Brock said.
Senior Haylie Gray has been on the swim team her entire high school career.
“We swim every single day with afternoon practice everyday and morning practice on Fridays. And we are just are grinding it up and preparing for all these meets,” Gray said.
“We’ve been doing our sprint sets to focus on our 100 free, and 50 free style. We’ve also been doing a couple of longer sets to be able to go with distance swimmers. But overall, we've been over like the medium zone spread set and long distance,” senior Calin Ursache said.
While the swimmers get to practice to prepare for the season, the coaches reflect on the meets in order to better lead their swimmers to success.
“I feel pretty good about where we’re at, but the first meet of the year is always somewhere where I want to look and see what we’ve got and are still learning about,” Brock said.
The coaches are not the only ones leading the team. The seniors step up and provide leadership to their teammates as well.
“We have to lead them, we have to teach them things from time to time, like turns and strokes and stuff like that. But the main thing is that it’s just so fun teaching them, like sportsmanship, and just leading them and also just supporting them during the races, of course. You have to cheer on to them and all of that type of stuff,” Ursache said.
While practice is important nothing can prepare swimmers for how other teams will act or swim against you.
“We have a lot of good teams here today. A lot of them are fast, but they showed really good sportsmanship, which is a great thing, but I just love how all our swimmers are doing great, and they’re just swimming as fast as they can,” Ursache said.
“The hardest part about swimming against them is probably trying to stay mentally focused in between swims,” junior Miles Tabor said.
Being able to stay focused and showing good sportsmanship both play very big roles when it comes to competitive swimming, and it is important to know how to do both at the same time because in the end, everyone is doing what they love.
Our next fury swim meet is on Sept. 9th at home against Westside, Danial, Greenville, Wren, and SCC.
“We have a great season ahead! Great start and great direction!” McConkey said.
Basketball 🏀
Basketball 🏀
Article Title
Article Title
Byline
Article Title
Article Title
Byline
Wrestling 🤼♂️
Wrestling 🤼♂️
Article Title
Article Title
Byline
Baseball ⚾️
Baseball ⚾️
Article Title
Article Title
Byline
Softball 🥎
Softball 🥎
Article Title
Article Title
Byline
Soccer ⚽️
Soccer ⚽️
Article Title
Article Title
Byline
Archery 🏹
Archery 🏹
Article Title
Article Title
Byline
Track and Field 🏃♂️
Track and Field 🏃♂️
Article Title
Article Title
Byline
Tennis 🎾
Tennis 🎾
Article Title
Article Title
Byline
Lacrosse 🥍
Lacrosse 🥍
Article Title
Article Title
Byline
🏌️♀️Golf 🏌️♂️
🏌️♀️Golf 🏌️♂️
Under-Par Start
Under-Par Start
Ja'Mya Williams
Fountain Inn High School’s Girls’ Golf has kicked off their 2026 season. Leading golfers in the first couple of matches have been juniors Mabry Thompson and Londyn Kozlowski, sophomore Spencer Harvey and freshman Aubrie Dennis.
As a team, the girls won their first and second regular season matches against JL Mann and Easley. The work the girls have been putting in led them to an invitation to the May River Invitational at Hilton Head Lakes.
“Being in the top 12 teams in the state is a great feeling,” head coach David Horton said.
“It is confirmation that the girls are being recognized to the state even while it is early in the season. They will continue to work and grind to the end.”
Horton doesn’t question their competition.
“The girls are always focused and hardworking,” Horton said.
“This season I am looking forward to improving my score and learning new techniques,” sophomore Ava Joy Pillow said. Unfortunately the upcoming tournament at May River in Hilton Head, South Carolina on Monday August 23rd-24th was cancelled due to inclement weather and bad course conditions.
The next golf match will be on Thursday August 27th!
Page updated
Report abuse