With the South Carolina High School League’s recently announced region changes, RNE will have to travel further distances and compete against new schools. 

RNE will stay in Class 4A, but move from Region 5 to Region 3. The only school making the same move will be A.C. Flora. New teams in RNE’s region include: Camden, Dreher, Lancaster, South Pointe, and York. Our previous region included: A.C. Flora, Irmo, Ridge View, Lugoff-Elgin and Westwood. 

Before the region realignment happened, there was a new multiplier rule put in place that made it where every student outside of a school’s designated zone counts as three students. This led to every school in our previous region, but RNE and A.C. Flora, being bumped to 5A. 

Richland Northeast head football coach, Walter Wilson, says the regions are supposedly based on geography.

“Us being Northeast, we are right here by the highway, we can hit the road, so I guess that’s how they did it,” Wilson said.

The main difference in the regions that many members of the Richland Northeast community are affected by is the travel time. Previous to this change, the furthest school from RNE was around 25 minutes with light traffic. In this new region, three of the schools are over an hour away, York being 1 hour and 20 minutes with light traffic. 

“If you are a football fan, you are going to come, I mean, they are going to be good games,” Wilson said. 

The maps featured above showcase the difference in the schools’ proximity to RNE.