West Florence High School

West Florence High School is a public secondary school serving grades 9 through 12 in Florence, South Carolina, United States. The school is located on the city's west side, near the intersection of Interstates 20 and 95. West Florence has an approximate enrollment of 1700 students and is one of three high schools under the jurisdiction of Florence Public School District 1. It is the largest high school in the Pee Dee region.

West Florence High School
Address
221 N. Beltline Drive Florence, South Carolina United States
Information
Type	Public secondary
Established	1970
School district	Florence Public School District 1
Staff	103.00 (FTE)[1]
Grades	9-12
Enrollment	1,720 (2018–19)[1]
Student to teacher ratio	16.70[1]
Color(s)	Green and gold
Athletics conference	SCHSL Region 6, 5A
Mascot	Knight
Website	https://www.fsd1.org/westflorence

In early 1982, the West Florence basketball program was found to have violated rules and ethics, and was placed on probation. This prevented them from playing in the Region 5, 4A tournament that year, which was played at West Florence.

That season, the WHFS junior varsity basketball team included six 8th-graders attending Moore Middle School. They were eligible to play JV sports at the high school which MMS fed into, which was WFHS.

There was a problem. These 8th-graders had successfully academically passed the 8th grade the year before, during which they had played one season for the MMS basketball team. It was admitted that the reason they were voluntarily held back was to give them an extra year of experience playing together on the WFHS JV team before joining the varsity team.

This was ruled to be not only a to-the-letter rules violation, but also an ethics violation, based on the students' academic progress being intentionally held back for a year, while simultaneously advancing their athletic progress.

While the 1981-82 WFHS varsity team lost an opportunity to play in that year's region tournament, the six 8th-graders on the JV team continued to play JV and varsity basketball, culminating in WFHS winning the South Carolina State championship in 1986, one year after the six athletes would have graduated high school, had they not repeated the 8th grade.

By the end of the 1985-1986 school year, these six athletes had played together for six consecutive years: 8th grade(MMS), 8th grade again(WFHS JV), and four years on the WFHS varsity team. The six players were now 19 years old, the highest number of 19-year-olds ever to appear on a South Carolina state championship roster. With an extra year of biological growth, height, and experience, their regular season and tournament schedule were the physical equivalent of a university junior varsity team playing against high school teams. Their state championship was not vacated or forfeited.

All of this is a matter of public record. The six players were: Jay Nettles, Donald Nance, Tony Black, Russell Green, Jay Gamble, and Pat Connelly.

Tony Black went on to play college basketball at Wake Forest, and Russell Green played for Texas. The two eventually reunited in Florence SC, transferring to Francis Marion University to complete their college basketball years.

During the early 1980's scandal: --WFHS Head Basketball Coach: Tommy Johnson. --MMS Principal: Paul Shaw. --WFHS Principal: Jack Sullivan.

Again, this is a matter of public record.