By DAN BISER

The South Columbus Stallions, winners of eight of the last 10 Waccamaw Conference football championships, will open their 2006 season Friday night at 7:30 when they take on the Laney High Buccaneers in Wilmington.

South Columbus, which went 12-2 last season while winning the Waccamaw Conference title and advancing to the third round of the state 2A playoffs, opened the 2005 season with an 8-0 home-field shutout over the 4A Laney squad.

Coach Joey Price heads into his 10th season as Stallion head coach needing just four wins to claim his 100th career victory with the Stallions. SCHS has claimed at least nine victories in each of the past nine seasons under Price.

Laney heads into the 2006 season with Greg Ditz as its new head coach. The Bucs gave a strong showing in their recent BB&T Football Jamboree scrimmage against West Brunswick.

Laney, which finished with a 5-7 record last season and advanced to the state 4A playoffs, is a long-standing member of the Mideastern Conference.

Price feels his team will get one its stiffest season-opening challenges ever when it travels to Wilmington Friday.

“They have a lot of good athletes and Coach Ditz has brought some good things to their program,” Price said. “They have lot of size and depth and they have always had a very competitive football team.

While South Columbus returns with seven starters on defense, it is the offensive side of the ball where there are a lot of new faces.

“The offense is something that is just going to take some time in coming around because there is just not a lot of experience there now,” Price said.

Senior Michael Hewett has stepped into the starting quarterback slot while sophomore Justin Smith and junior Dakota Piver have filled the running back spots. Junior Dale Clay brings some his talents from the Stallion basketball team to the wide receiver position.

Linebackers Andre Jacobs and Buster James, and cornerbacks Piver and Donovan Watts are leaders back in the defensive unit. All four are juniors. Watts has shown a lot of improvement as the SCHS place-kicker. Jordan Lanier is back to handle the punting.

In last year’s game with the Laney, South Columbus got a touchdown and a two-point conversion in the opening minutes and the score remained the same the rest of the way.

South Columbus will open its home schedule on Sept. 1 against longtime border rival Loris, S.C

.