Dorothy Fortune wins girls basketball game No. 700 in South Carolina

There's really no shock in Dorothy Fortune winning her 700th game.

She won five state titles last decade at Lee Central (Bishopville) and has had some of the top talent in the state on the 2A level.

Fortune accomplished this feat, and became the fifth girls coach in the state to top 700 wins, on Friday with a 51-24 win over Indian Land. She told the Florence Morning News that winning No. 700 "ranks right up there with those state titles."

After the game she was given the game ball and a "700 win" T-shirt.



"Seven hundred is just a number. It means that I'm blessed, I'm highly favored," Fortune told the paper. "One thing I do know, you've got to have good players. Some people think that you can win a state championship by just coaching ordinary people. That's not true."

COURT NAMED FOR SALUDA COACH
Patsy Rhodes is enshrined in three halls of fame for coaching girls basketball. Now, her name will be on the court where she won so many games.

Saluda honored the former coach last week by naming its court in her honor. Rhodes coached there for 32 years and compiled a 417-305 record and took teams to back-to-back state semifinal games in 1989 and 1990.

"That's going to be the most special thing that's ever happened to me," Rhodes told the Greenwood Index Journal. "I've gotten a lot of awards here and there, and that's got to be the ultimate to me. I know it's taken a team effort on everyone's part to get this done."

WRESTLING PLAYOFFS USE DIFFERENT FORMAT
On Saturday, the first and second rounds of the 4A wrestling playoffs used a different format. Instead of playing those matches at the higher seed, teams showed up at the region champions' schools.

Four teams converged in the gyms of each of the eight region champions to play the first two rounds of action. And only one region champion lost its match. The Riverside (Greer,) Warriors, the fourth seed out of Region II-4A, but ranked 10th in the state, knocked off Laurens in the opening round 39-34.



The Warriors then toppled Northwestern, the second seed out of Region III-4A, 51-18 in the second round to move on to the third round.

INAUGURAL HALL OF FAME ANNOUNCED
The S.C. Athletic Administrators Association announced its inaugural class of inductees for its first Hall of Fame Banquet. The banquet will be at 6 p.m. on Friday, March 11 at the Charleston Marriott Hotel.

The inductees will be:
* Pete Ayoub, retired Executive Director of the S.C. High School League, who encouraged forming a state athletic administrators association.
* Pete DuBay, retired Sumter District 17 Athletic Director and a founding father of the SCAAA.
* Tim Touchberry, retired athletic director at Fort Dorchester High School and first SCAAA representative on the SCHSL Executive Committee.
* Joe Turbeville, retired athletic director at Irmo High School and second President of the SCAAA.
* Ray Wilson, deceased athletic director at Spartanburg High School and founding father of the SCAAA.

Jason Gilmer is an award-winning writer who has covered football in South Carolina for more than a decade. He does a statewide high school football blog on GoUpstate.com. You can reach him at palmettofootballtalkblog@gmail.com.