Dutch Fork vs. White Knoll state championship showdown is full of intrigue

Nick Pelham will see a lot of familiar faces on the Dutch Fork High sidelines in Friday’s S.C. Class 5A football championship game. One will stand for the White Knoll football coach — his son Alex Pelham.

The junior is a reserve tight end for Dutch Fork and will be on the opposite side from his father when the Silver Foxes and Timberwolves meet at S.C. State’s Oliver C. Dawson Stadium.

Dutch Fork is going after its eighth state championship, all since 2013, while the Timberwolves are in their first state title game.

“I have been hoping for a White Knoll-Dutch Fork state championship since he left (Dutch Fork). I love competing against my dad,” Alex said after Tuesday’s practice. “I’m super excited.”

Alex isn’t sure who the rest of his family is pulling for in the game. He said his sister will be wearing a special shirt with White Knoll on one half and Dutch Fork on the other, similar to the design Donna Kelce wore when her sons Travis and Jason played each other in the NFL’s Super Bowl last year.

The Pelhams knew about the possibility of the two teams playing in the finals when the playoff brackets were released. The Timberwolves defeated the Silver Foxes 17-13 on Oct. 6 on their way to the region title.

It was White Knoll’s first win over Dutch Fork since 2009 and the Silver Foxes’ first region loss since 2015.

“He has been wanting this state championship game since the pairings were announced. The rest of the whole program wanted this to happen. They wanted White Knoll to make it because they knew they were going to make it,” Nick Pelham said this week. “So here we are. We are going to give it a chance and see if we can stay in the game with them. They’ve got the incentive to defeat us and they are excited to play us. And I think our kids are excited to give it one more shot.”

Alex said he probably won’t talk to his dad during pre-game warmups, but they’ll speak after the game. When White Knoll won earlier this year, Pelham went up to his son and gave him a hug after the game.

Pelham did his best to get his son to come with him when he became the White Knoll coach three years ago. But Alex didn’t want to leave the Dutch Fork program.

“He loves the program that he is in and loves playing at Dutch Fork,” Pelham said. “He loves the coaching he receives and loves his friends. I appreciate all the things Coach Knotts does. He doesn’t treat him any differently and coaches him hard.”

Dutch Fork ‘changed my career’

Nick Pelham has fond memories of Dutch Fork, spending two stints there — one under Bill Kimrey and then five seasons under Knotts. He was the defensive coordinator for the Silver Foxes, who won a state championship in each of his years from 2016-10.

Pelham’s intensity and attention to detail meshed well with the ultra-intense personality of Knotts, who has won 460 games and 14 state championships combined in North and South Carolina. Both are football junkies who love to immerse themselves in all aspects of the sport.

“He loves football as much as I do,” Knotts said. “We have a lot of good talks. I learned a lot of things from him.”

Football isn’t their only passion. Both also have a love for basketball and took jabs at each other this week on who would win in a game of one-on-one.

“I would win and I would bet my house on it,” said Knotts, a former all-region basketball player in North Carolina.

“I lost a little bit of weight so I’m in a little better shape, so I would put my money on me,” Pelham said.

Joking aside, both say they learned a lot from the other during their five seasons together. Knotts said he practices more with a lot of tempo, lining up two offenses on either side of the hash mark, making the defenses sprint to either hash. He also started using clocks to divide periods of practice.

Pelham also learned many things from Knotts. The biggest: holding players and coaches accountable for their actions. That helped him as he tried to put his mark on the White Knoll program, he said.

“Dutch Fork, it changed my career. It changed my life,” Pelham said. “Coach Knotts has done a lot of great things. He is a great football coach. He is a great leader. I learned so much from him and can’t thank him enough.”

The two coaches both say they don’t talk a whole lot with each other during the season, but there’s a healthy respect between them. Knotts isn’t surprised about what Pelham has been able to accomplish in just three years, going from two wins in 2021 to a state championship appearance in 2023.

“We always knew what a gold mine White Knoll was,” Knotts said. “It was going to take someone to get a program started from top to bottom with the principal being on board, the weight training and student-athlete part of it. When it came open, I knew he would apply. …. The pay raise is significant and rest is history. He is doing a great job.”

Different paths to title game

White Knoll’s and Dutch Fork’s roads to the championship game couldn’t be more opposite.

The Timberwolves, who began the season unranked, are 14-0 and boast a dominating defense, giving up just 170 yards and points per game. White Knoll has outscored its opponents 482-91 this season.

They’ve knocked off traditional powers Fort Dorchester and Summerville during their postseason run. After last week’s win over Summerville, Pelham, the coaches and players took it all in but immediately got back to work to prepare for the Silver Foxes.

“I keep telling our kids and coaches, we are going to enjoy this in January, February and March, but now isn’t the time to enjoy it,” Pelham said. “So many amazing things have happened this season … and we are excited to try and finish things off the right way.”

Dutch Fork’s run has been unlike any other of the championship appearances under Knotts. They started the year as preseason No. 1 but eventually fell out of the rankings after an 0-3 start.

The Silver Foxes (9-5) have five losses this year, the most of any of the 10 teams playing for a championship. The losses are the most at the school since 2009, the year before Knotts arrived. A tough schedule against the likes of out-of-state teams Weddington (N.C.) and Colquitt (Ga.) factored into those losses, as did some injuries and “not being able to get out of their own way,” according to Knotts.

Dutch Fork eventually found out its identity and pulled out a pair of close wins in the playoffs. They won against TL Hanna (31-28) in the second round on a last-second blocked field goal.

In last week’s semifinal game, Dutch Fork rallied from nine points down in the final 2:29 to defeat JL Mann, 31-30.

“I still believed, even though we had tremendous issues to deal with,” Knotts said. “I believed we would be practicing here, right here, right now. ... I believed it with my heart and soul.”

Now, Knotts and Silver Foxes got the matchup they wanted to complete what he’s called the “greatest story ever.”

“We wanted to be playing White Knoll. We talked about hoping they would get through,” Knotts said. “We knew we were going to get through. But all that goes out the window when the game starts.”

State championship schedule

All games at SC State

Thursday, Nov. 30

—Class 2A—

Gray Collegiate vs. Oceanside Collegiate, 7 p.m.

Friday, Dec. 1

—Class A—

Christ Church vs. Johnsonville, 2 p.m.

—Class 5A—

Dutch Fork vs. White Knoll, 8 p.m.

Saturday, Dec. 2

—Class 4A—

Westside vs. South Florence, noon

—Class 3A—

Daniel vs. Camden, 7 p.m.

Tickets, directions, how to watch championship games

▪ THE ADDRESS: S.C. State’s Oliver C Dawson Stadium is located at 300 College Ave, Orangeburg, SC 29115

▪ TICKETS: $15, can be purchased at gofan.co or through each of the schools before gameday. Gates will open for spectators no earlier than one hour prior to posted game time. Expect delays and long lines getting into the stadium.

▪ PARKING: Parking is $10 per car. Parking pass available through Gofan.co. Vehicles with trailers, pull behind grills and RV’s will cost $20. Parking lots open two hours prior to the first game of the day.

▪ TV: All five games will be carried on Sinclair Broadcasting stations across South Carolina. Affiliates are WMYA (My40 Asheville-Greenville), WACH (57.2/1250/Columbia), WCIV (MyTV Charleston) and WWMB (CW21, Florence/Myrtle Beach). The Dutch Fork-White Knoll game will be broadcast locally on WACH Fox’s regular channel.

▪ INTERNET: All five games will be streamed on www.nfhsnetwork.com. A subscription ($10) is required.

▪ RADIO: The South Florence-Westside game will will be on 96.3 FM in Florence and on the radio station’s Facebook page. WPUB Kool 102.7 FM in Kershaw County will carry the Camden-Daniel game and stream it online.

▪ WEATHER: According to weather.com, Thursday 63 degrees for high, partly cloudy. Friday, PM rain (61 percent chance) and high of 70. Saturday, 97 percent chance of rain and high of 71.