BLYTHEWOOD – As Westwood and Blythewood get ready for another football season, the teams have the Battle for the Axe circled on their calendars.
Since the schools named their rivalry the Battle for The Axe, the Bengals and Redhawks have won two games apiece—Westwood won 14-7 in 2019 and 7-0 last season. Blythewood won 53-8 in 2022 and rallied for a 30-20 victory in 2023. The game was scrubbed because of Covid in 2020 and 2021.
At Tuesday’s Chamber of Commerce meeting Tuesday morning, interim Blythewood principal Ralph Schmidt, who also served as Westwood’s principal beginning in 2012, told the story about how naming of the rivalry and the christening of the contested trophy—a large red-and-blue wooden axe that was named in honor of Schmidt’s wife Jeanne, who died of a brain tumor in 2012, just as Ralph Schmidt took the reins at Westwood.
“It (the Battle for the Axe) has a very, very special meaning to me,” Principal Schmidt told the Chamber of Commerce. “…I still remember sitting in the ICU with her the day she had the stroke and listening to one of my assistant principals and telling me about the Blythewood-Westwood first football game. … Blythewood won the very first game, but it was a couple of years later that Robby Summey was the coach of the football team and Dan Morgan was the football coach at Blythewood, and Blythewood came together and wanted to do something very special.”
The rivalry officially became the Battle of the Axe in 2019. “It was one way to pull two schools together to do some really great stuff. They honored my late wife by naming the trophy for her, the Jeannie Schmidt Memorial Trophy,” Schmidt said.
Certainly, the game has meaning between the two schools because of the community rivalry that has generated food drives and other competitive events in the spirit of giving to the community.
The game, set for Sept. 19 at Blythewood, is also both teams’ Region 5-5A opener for the second straight year. It’s going to be a game where both teams get a real feel for how they’ve progressed after five non-region games.
Blythewood lost 34 seniors from last year’s team that went 6-5 and 2-4 in the region, and lost in a tight 31-28 game to Clover in the first round of the 5A Division I playoffs.
Fourth-year head coach James Martin acknowledged the team’s adversity, which went far deeper than gridiron issues.
“We talked about having some hiccups on the field, and we lost a football player last year, Troy Moore Jr., August 31,” Martin said. Moore died in his sleep after going home from the team’s second game of the year.
“You never know what you go through in a school year or a season, but he’s still in our heart for this year,” Martin said. “He would have been a senior this year, and we’re going to continue to honor Troy with his number on our helmets.”
Martin added “Every single day I’m so proud of our football team. It’s easy to say ‘Team First’ or ‘Go Bengals’ but our kids have embraced adversity and not growing weary. We always break it down by saying ‘Troy Strong.’ Every single day we get an opportunity to teach our young men and in other sports, young women, what life is about, and it’s bigger than football.”
Among the some 23 returning seniors are quarterback Johnny Collins, who passed for 2,371 yards and 28 touchdowns, and wide receiver Carter Coleman, who had 834 receiving yards and 13 touchdowns.
Blythewood opens the season at Nation Ford Aug. 22, travels to Midland Valley Aug. 29, and plays host to Fort Mill in the Bengals’ home opener Sept. 5. That game marks a two-game non-region homestand as Blythewood faces Keenan Sept. 12 before opening region play against Westwood.
Westwood is looking to get a little better than last year’s 6-6, 3-3 effort that saw the Redhawks reach the second round of the 5A Division 2 playoffs. They also lost about 30 seniors from last year, but return 26 seniors—and have a new coach to lead them this fall.
Stephen Burris succeeds Robert O’Connell, who led the team to a 10-23 record over the past three years. O’Connell’s last year saw the Redhawks turn the corner with a 34-14 victory over Socastee in the first round of the playoffs.
Burris had assistant coaching stints at Conway, Socastee, York, and Ridge View before coaching 1A Lamar to an 18-8 record and two third-round playoff appearances in two years.
His coming to Westwood came about under tragic circumstances, but Burris told the Chamber of Commerce that his going to Westwood was meant to be.
“My wife passed away last December due to ovarian cancer, but she was a teacher … and she taught a Westwood for three years,” he told the group about his wife, Kimberly’s contributions to the Westwood community. “Due to her impact, when the opportunity came for me to come to Westwood was something I couldn’t pass up. This community has done a fantastic job of embracing me and my family.”
He added that when his team breaks the huddle, they use an acronym based on a saying she used: “Harness Our Strength Under All Circumstances Never Lose The Sight of Our Team’s Purpose.”
“We’ve averaged about 104 kids every summer,” Burris said to note Westwood athletes’ dedication. “As of 7:15 every morning they’re all showing up on time and ready to go. I’m very excited to be here, I’m looking forward to working with all of you.”
Westwood opens the season Aug. 21, a Thursday, at 4A opponent A.C. Flora, travels to Sumter to take on Lakewood Aug. 29, and comes home to play Richland Northeast Sept. 5 and Airport Sept. 12 before travelling up Wilson Boulevard to take on its crosstown rival.
The Battle for the Axe does have its gridiron implications, but for Schmidt and many others, it’s also a moment to come together and chip in to help the Blythewood community in any way possible.
“My wife was the director of Camp Chemo. Both of us were about service to children, service to others,” Schmidt said. “And I’ll never forget the morning after she passed away, I was trying to figure out what to do … and I picked up her bible and opened it up and in her bible was a piece of cray paper and a bible verse that was written on it that has come to mean more to me than anything. It was Galatians 6:9, ‘Do not grow weary of doing good.’ I’ve thought about that for many years and the wonderful part about that is that we get to choose what’s doing good. … Jeanne was committed to that.”
