Pressley HARVIN, III^{[1, 2, 3, 4]}

• Name	Pressley HARVIN
  Suffix	III
  Gender	Male
  HIST	Sumter Item to reveal Top 125 Sports Figures with anniversary celebration Posted Saturday, October 12, 2019 6:00 am BY DENNIS BRUNSON In celebration of its 125th anniversary, The Sumter Item is going to select the Top 125 Sports Figures during that period in Sumter, Clarendon and Lee counties. The list will be revealed in reverse order starting on Wednesday with Nos. 125-111. The remaining lists will be contain 10 figures beginning on Friday. Those lists will appear every Wednesday and Friday until it reaches the top 10 in December. At that point, one story will be released in each edition until the top figure is revealed. The list will include people who affected sports in our area both in competition and in other ways as well. Coinciding with the list reveal, we'll be asking readers to reveal their Top 10 sports figures in Item history, and we'll be hosing Autograph Giveaway contests featuring our famous local sports figures. The Sumter Item's Top 125 Sports Figures 101-110 Posted Friday, October 18, 2019 11:40 am In celebration of its 125th anniversary, The Sumter Item has selected the Top 125 Sports Figures during that period in Sumter, Clarendon and Lee counties. The list will be revealed in reverse order, appearing every Wednesday and Friday until it reaches the top 10 in December. At that point, one story will be released in each edition until the top figure is revealed. The list will include people who affected sports in our area both in competition and in other ways as well. 110) Luther Welsh - Luther Welsh grew up in Lee County and cut his coaching teeth in Sumter County. However, it was in Georgia -- most notably at Thomson High School – where he enjoyed most of his success. Welsh had a career record of 333-181-6 and won three state titles with Thomson in 1984, 1985 and 2002. 109) Frank Moses - Frank Moses was a standout defensive lineman and wrestler at Sumter High School. He had 523 total tackles in three seasons and won a state title as a wrestler in 1974. Moses went on to Furman University and was an All-Southern Conference selection as a senior in 1977. He had 360 career tackles and led the team in tackles twice. Moses is a member of the athletic halls of fame for both Sumter and Furman. 108) Pressley Harvin - Pressley Harvin was rated as the top high school punter in the country in his senior football season at Sumter High School 2016. He was a Shrine Bowl selection and was named the state’s special teams player of the year. He was a track and field star as well, finishing second in the shotput as a senior. Harvin is now a junior at Georgia Tech. He was a third team All-Atlantic Coast Conference choice as a freshman and second team as a sophomore. 107) Jeremy Bryan - Jeremy Bryan became the first boxer in the history of the Sumter Optimist Boxing Club to win a National Golden Gloves championship, claiming the 141-pound title in 2004. He defended his title the following year and won a couple of other national competitions as well before turning professional. 106) Eddie Talley - Eddie Talley has had tremendous success both as a head football coach and basketball coach at both Wilson Hall and Laurence Manning Academy. He’s closing in on 600 career victories in basketball and has led Wilson Hall to one state title and LMA to two. He has over 100 victories as a football coach and led Wilson Hall to one state title and LMA to two. 105) Mike Weathersbee - Mike Weathersbee was on the ground floor of coaching and developing the sport of boys high school soccer in South Carolina and he was very, very good at it. He led Sumter High School to three straight state titles from 1975-77 and led the Gamecocks to another state title in 1981. He has a career record of 147-28-1 and is a member of the SHS Athletic Hall of Fame and the South Carolina High School Soccer Coaches Association. 104) Rossie Kearson - Rossie Kearson was selected to the Southeastern Athletic Conference first team each of his four years playing basketball at Morris College. He was the school’s leading scorer when he was done, but his senior year was something special. He averaged 29.5 points on the 1965-66 team that went 24-5 and was nationally ranked for part of the season. 103) Annette Brown - Annette Brown was a 4-year letter winner on the Sumter High School girls track and field team, but she was arguably the best athlete in the state her final two years. As a junior in 1988 and a senior in ’89, Brown won the 100- and 200-meter state titles in 4A and ran a leg on the championship-winning 4x100 relay team. 102) Dean Johnson - Dean Johnson is arguably the best pure shooter ever from Sumter. He averaged 18.3 points in his 2-year varsity career with Sumter High School, leading the Gamecocks to the 1980 4A state championship. He was named the South Carolina Basketball Coaches Association 4A state Player of the Year. He went on to a solid career at Gardner-Webb as well. 101) Robbie Evans - Robbie Evans’ love for baseball came from playing with his neighborhood friends at the old Crosswell Park fields before working his way through the Sumter Kids In Baseball program. He went on to become a starter for Sumter High School, the Sumter P-15’s and finally with Wofford College, where he was a starting shortstop. Later in his life, he was the hitting coach for the P-15’s, including both of the years in which they reached the American Legion World Series. Despite all of those credentials, that is not where Evans had his biggest impact on the Sumter sports scene. That came from his time as the sports editor for The Sumter Item. Evans enjoyed covering all kinds of sports, but he truly enjoyed his opportunities to write columns. They could be humorous, and they could be biting, whether he was writing about South Carolina or Clemson sports or any of the local teams. However, what he enjoyed the most was writing something to which he never put his name. He took great pleasure – egads! – writing under the name Major Amos P. Hoople. Hoople would pick the local high school football games each week, but that was secondary. How he described the teams their coaches and their opponents made for a newspaper must-read on Friday afternoons. Sumter High to induct first athletic hall of fame class since 2012 Gary Nelson, right, seen with Mayor David Merchant at his retirement ceremony last year, will be one of eight inductees to the Sumter High Athletic Hall of Fame. CAL CARY / THE SUMTER ITEM Posted Saturday, October 21, 2023 6:00 am By TIM LEIBLE tim@theitem.com For the first time in more than a decade, Sumter High School is adding to its athletic hall of fame. When athletic director Crasten Davis got to SHS last year, one of his priorities was reviving the Sumter High School Athletic Hall of Fame. The last class came in 2012, when Lee Hatfield, Jermaine Williams, Rutledge Dingle and Frank Moses joined the group that will surpass 40 as eight new members are inducted on Dec 9. "Any time you come to a school with a rich history in athletics like we have, you want to give those athletes their just do," Davis said. "Not only do we want to recognize those kids that are here, but we want to recognize the past athletics as well because they give the current students someone to aspire to be." The eight members of the class of 2023 are Gary Nelson, the school's first athletic trainer; longtime football and track coach Carl Baker; longtime coach Coley White; Jordan Montgomery, who is currently starring on the Texas Rangers as they make a push to the World Series; football player Roderick McDowell; Pittsburgh Steelers punter Pressley Harvin III; track and basketball star Shawna Waters; and track star Gregory Blanding. Keith West, who is also a member of the Sumter High Athletic Hall of Fame, was on the committee who selected this group of inductees. He felt that after a long time away, it was important to bring in a larger class than in years past. "It took several months of us having meetings and figuring out criteria, who our candidates were going to be, how many candidates we'd have. It took several months of planning to get this together," West said. "Because we haven't done this since 2012, we felt like we should do a little bit of a bigger class to make up for lost time. We had some great candidates and a lot to choose from. The more we went through it, we felt like this was what we needed to do. "All of our athletes that were in this class performed at a very high level in high school, performed at a very high level in college, and a couple of them made it to the professional ranks. It was some stiff competition, and between the coaches and the players, we felt like we had to go with a bigger class." The committee included Sumter Item historian and legendary SHS track coach Sammy Way, Sumter Sports Hall of Famer Allen Johnson, former football star and fellow athletic hall of famer Cleveland Pinkney, another hall of famer in Karen McFadden, Jody Ortmann, Ashley McDuffie and a current inductee, Baker. Nelson came to Sumter High in 1984 and served as the school's first athletic trainer. He held that role until he retired at the end of last school year. He helped revolutionize athletic training in the state and was inducted into the South Carolina Coaches Association Hall of Fame and is a Sumter County Athletic Hall of Famer. He won countless awards from the National and South Carolina athletic trainers associations, including the Fred Hoover Award and the Athletic Trainers Service Award. Baker was inducted into the Sumter Sports Hall of Fame alongside Nelson in 2011. He started coaching and teaching at Sumter High in 1977, serving as an assistant to five head football coaches through the decades, and coached alongside Way and Dingle with the powerhouse track program. He was an all-state sprinter at Lincoln High School the year before the school merged with Sumter High. White was a multi-sport start at Lincoln High School in the '50s before competing in basketball, football and track at both Voorhees and Morris College. He went on to coach all three sports at Sumter High and Bates Middle School. Montgomery is currently a member of the Texas Rangers and previously pitched for the St. Louis Cardinals and New York Yankees. Before turning pro, Montgomery posted a 20-7 record with a 2.96 earned run average at South Carolina. He is one of just 22 pitchers in program history to post 20 or more career wins. At Sumter High, he led the Gamecocks to a state title in 2011 and was the South Carolina Gatorade Player of the Year. McDowell is currently the running backs coach at Jacksonville State. He previously held the role at the University of Louisiana-Monroe. He also coached at his alma mater, Clemson, in 2019-20. As a player at Clemson, he racked up 1,983 all-purpose yards and 14 touchdowns. At Sumter High, he led the Gamecocks to the 4A state championship and played in both the Shrine Bowl and the U.S. Army All-American Bowl. Harvin won the Ray Guy Award in 2020 as the best collegiate punter in the country at Georgia Tech. He was the first Black athlete to win the award. He was drafted by the Steelers in the seventh round of the 2021 NFL Draft. This season, he's averaging 47.2 yards per punt. Waters was an All-American track athlete at Sumter High, winning a state title in the 1,600m run before running at Kansas. She was also a state champion in cross country and starred on the 1983 girls basketball state championship team. Blanding graduated in 1985 after winning state titles in both the 400m dash and the 800m run. He was a high school All-American before running at Methodist College. Tickets for the banquet will be made available both online and at the door, but the committee is still finalizing ticketing details. Those will be announced in the coming weeks. J. O'Gradys, the home of the Sumter Sports Hall of Fame, will cater the event, which will be held at Sumter High School. The added twist this year is that the inductees will be introduced by their former coaches or other important people in their lives at the ceremony. "We thought that would be a little more special," West said. This is also hopefully the start of making the Sumter High Athletic Hall of Fame a yearly tradition. "We hope to do it every year," West said. "As long as we get support from the community and people come out and participate, we definitely hope to keep this going." Former SHS star Harvin III, realizing NFL dream, hopes to lay the path for others to follow Former Sumter High punter and current Pittsburgh Steeler Pressley Harvin III stands inside his former high school at the Sumter High Athletic Hall of Fame induction on Saturday. ADAM FLASH / THE SUMTER ITEM Posted Friday, December 15, 2023 6:00 am By TIM LEIBLE tim@theitem.com Many kids who have played the sport of football have dreams of one day playing in the NFL. When Pressley Harvin III was 14, he put those dreams into words. When the former Sumter High punter was inducted into the school's athletic hall of fame on Saturday, his mother, Adrienne, read the message that a young Harvin III put into the world. "My dream is to make it big and go to the NFL," Adrienne read. "I am realizing that I have to put all the hard work in now. I'm going to stay humble and don't make stupid decisions in life. Dreams are always good to have and if you don't have one, make one. Even if you do, make the standard high and achieve it, and go over it. I got my dream, and I have the potential for it. My life's not the best, but it can be. I'm going to make it better. If you've got something you want to do in life, hold on and put hard work in now, so you can be blessed later." Now 11 years later, Harvin III has reached that goal and more. At Sumter High, he punted in the Shrine Bowl and had a slew of honors to go along with playing in the state's top all-star game. Harvin III then went to Georgia Tech, where he continuously improved until his senior season when he became the first Black Ray Guy Award winner, the honor awarded to the nation's top punter, in NCAA history. He was then drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the seventh round of the 2021 NFL draft. "I am to the point where you don't even recognize you're in your dream. I'm truly in my dream," Harvin III said. "I always thought about the dreams and aspirations of being there, and it sometimes hasn't even hit me that I still am." Through all of those experiences, Harvin's roots are still firmly in Sumter, South Carolina. "The hard work really did come from this place. Sumter High will always have a place in my heart. I put in hard work before I really even knew what hard work was. I had coaches in front of me that had the discipline in place to make sure that we always had everything we needed to be not even just the best athletes, the best student athletes, but the best people," Harvin III said. "That's what Sumter is about. "When you've got good people in the school district, especially in Sumter High, the good faces usually stick. We've had Coach (Carl) Baker, Coach (Gary) Nelson, Coach (Coley) White that I've known for a long time, Coach Cleve(land) Pinkney; I've had the part of being in a relationship with him on the field as well as off the field," Harvin III continued, noting three of the men inducted into the same class of the Sumter High Athletic Hall of Fame, as well as the man who introduced him at the ceremony. "Just seeing so many familiar faces that continue to keep this place special, continue to keep this place upright, too." Because of the leadership Harvin III had during his time at Sumter High, he wants to help other athletes follow in his footsteps. "Those were also athletes that went on and did this one day, came back, paving it forward for the guys like me, and here I am kinda passing the torch down a little bit," he said. "I have to pay my respects to it, as well as become the person I want to be and try to help the next athlete from Sumter High be able to be in the hall of fame, too. It's more than just a group every year that goes up and gets this nomination; it's more than that. It's a brotherhood, and all of us are a part of something really, really special." Harvin III is typically a pretty busy guy as an NFL player. Last week, he played in a game against the New England Patriots on Thursday, came home for the hall of fame ceremony on Saturday and went back out to Pittsburgh to prep for a matchup with the Indianapolis Colts this weekend. Through that hectic schedule, he still finds time to reflect on the significance of reaching the goals he set at 14. "I get the opportunity sometimes throughout the week when we have downtime to just reflect on the week, reflect on what got me here, reflect on my 'Why.' My 'Why' has always been my family," Harvin III said. "I can take a look back and say all of the hard work I've put in over the years, whether I knew it was going to work out or not, here I am. Manifestation is something that's real. "I'm really, really thankful to God for putting me into the opportunities that I did and the blessings that he's given me in life and just using my platform to try to be selfless, bring somebody else that's going to be able to win another Ray Guy behind me one day or go get a full ride scholarship at Georgia Tech or whatever DI school it's going to be, dreams of going to the league or being the next corporation CEO. The sky is the limit, I just want to be a catalyst to show people whatever you put your mind to, you can do it, it's just a matter of time and opportunity." The person at the center of that "Why" is the same man where Harvin III got his name. Pressley Harvin Jr. was a stalwart in the Sumter High community and a crucial figure in the life of his son. Harvin III lost his father during his rookie year, a taxing addition to an already hectic year. All of Harvin III's accomplishments come back to the man that inspired him to achieve them. "This is also something for him. I have his name, too, so his name is going to go into this record book, too," Harvin III said at his induction. "He meant a lot to me and my family, but he meant so much to this school district. He put in so much time. Days that he couldn't be at practice with me was probably because he was with someone else driving the bus somewhere, just doing something to be helpful. "That was the role model I had in front of me on and off the field." Harvin III has learned so much during his time as a professional, especially under the guidance of Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin. Tomlin is known as a true "player's coach" and that passion for those under his tutelage has left a lasting impression on Harvin III. "He's helped me grow into the man I'm aspiring to be," Harvin III said. "You'll never see him change, he's the same guy win, lose or draw, he's going to have the same mentality every day. We have a lot of - Tomlinisms is what we call them in the locker room - and they're just sayings that he has that, on the football field, they correspond and they can be compared, but they're also life lessons outside of it. "It's one of the things that I really truly look up to him about and respect him because he uses his platform not only to try to win football games, but to try to make everyone in the organization better people." Harvin III knows that there are so many kids in Sumter that aspire to follow in his footsteps. It's a badge that he doesn't wear lightly. He has the same message for those kids as he did as a 14-year-old. "When you tell yourself you've got a dream of doing something, don't just say it. You have to believe it," Harvin III said. "That was one thing I did when I was growing up was believed in what I wanted to do. I had my family support behind me, and I always knew God was going to put me in opportunities to show me the way. "Over time, the more you stop stressing about things and start looking at the good in things and opportunities that do come your way, even if something isn't the way you wanted it to be, you still have something there."  [1, 2, 3, 4]
  HIST	Sumter Item to reveal Top 125 Sports Figures with anniversary celebration Posted Saturday, October 12, 2019 6:00 am BY DENNIS BRUNSON In celebration of its 125th anniversary, The Sumter Item is going to select the Top 125 Sports Figures during that period in Sumter, Clarendon and Lee counties. The list will be revealed in reverse order starting on Wednesday with Nos. 125-111. The remaining lists will be contain 10 figures beginning on Friday. Those lists will appear every Wednesday and Friday until it reaches the top 10 in December. At that point, one story will be released in each edition until the top figure is revealed. The list will include people who affected sports in our area both in competition and in other ways as well. Coinciding with the list reveal, we'll be asking readers to reveal their Top 10 sports figures in Item history, and we'll be hosing Autograph Giveaway contests featuring our famous local sports figures. The Sumter Item's Top 125 Sports Figures 101-110 Posted Friday, October 18, 2019 11:40 am In celebration of its 125th anniversary, The Sumter Item has selected the Top 125 Sports Figures during that period in Sumter, Clarendon and Lee counties. The list will be revealed in reverse order, appearing every Wednesday and Friday until it reaches the top 10 in December. At that point, one story will be released in each edition until the top figure is revealed. The list will include people who affected sports in our area both in competition and in other ways as well. 110) Luther Welsh - Luther Welsh grew up in Lee County and cut his coaching teeth in Sumter County. However, it was in Georgia -- most notably at Thomson High School – where he enjoyed most of his success. Welsh had a career record of 333-181-6 and won three state titles with Thomson in 1984, 1985 and 2002. 109) Frank Moses - Frank Moses was a standout defensive lineman and wrestler at Sumter High School. He had 523 total tackles in three seasons and won a state title as a wrestler in 1974. Moses went on to Furman University and was an All-Southern Conference selection as a senior in 1977. He had 360 career tackles and led the team in tackles twice. Moses is a member of the athletic halls of fame for both Sumter and Furman. 108) Pressley Harvin - Pressley Harvin was rated as the top high school punter in the country in his senior football season at Sumter High School 2016. He was a Shrine Bowl selection and was named the state’s special teams player of the year. He was a track and field star as well, finishing second in the shotput as a senior. Harvin is now a junior at Georgia Tech. He was a third team All-Atlantic Coast Conference choice as a freshman and second team as a sophomore. 107) Jeremy Bryan - Jeremy Bryan became the first boxer in the history of the Sumter Optimist Boxing Club to win a National Golden Gloves championship, claiming the 141-pound title in 2004. He defended his title the following year and won a couple of other national competitions as well before turning professional. 106) Eddie Talley - Eddie Talley has had tremendous success both as a head football coach and basketball coach at both Wilson Hall and Laurence Manning Academy. He’s closing in on 600 career victories in basketball and has led Wilson Hall to one state title and LMA to two. He has over 100 victories as a football coach and led Wilson Hall to one state title and LMA to two. 105) Mike Weathersbee - Mike Weathersbee was on the ground floor of coaching and developing the sport of boys high school soccer in South Carolina and he was very, very good at it. He led Sumter High School to three straight state titles from 1975-77 and led the Gamecocks to another state title in 1981. He has a career record of 147-28-1 and is a member of the SHS Athletic Hall of Fame and the South Carolina High School Soccer Coaches Association. 104) Rossie Kearson - Rossie Kearson was selected to the Southeastern Athletic Conference first team each of his four years playing basketball at Morris College. He was the school’s leading scorer when he was done, but his senior year was something special. He averaged 29.5 points on the 1965-66 team that went 24-5 and was nationally ranked for part of the season. 103) Annette Brown - Annette Brown was a 4-year letter winner on the Sumter High School girls track and field team, but she was arguably the best athlete in the state her final two years. As a junior in 1988 and a senior in ’89, Brown won the 100- and 200-meter state titles in 4A and ran a leg on the championship-winning 4x100 relay team. 102) Dean Johnson - Dean Johnson is arguably the best pure shooter ever from Sumter. He averaged 18.3 points in his 2-year varsity career with Sumter High School, leading the Gamecocks to the 1980 4A state championship. He was named the South Carolina Basketball Coaches Association 4A state Player of the Year. He went on to a solid career at Gardner-Webb as well. 101) Robbie Evans - Robbie Evans’ love for baseball came from playing with his neighborhood friends at the old Crosswell Park fields before working his way through the Sumter Kids In Baseball program. He went on to become a starter for Sumter High School, the Sumter P-15’s and finally with Wofford College, where he was a starting shortstop. Later in his life, he was the hitting coach for the P-15’s, including both of the years in which they reached the American Legion World Series. Despite all of those credentials, that is not where Evans had his biggest impact on the Sumter sports scene. That came from his time as the sports editor for The Sumter Item. Evans enjoyed covering all kinds of sports, but he truly enjoyed his opportunities to write columns. They could be humorous, and they could be biting, whether he was writing about South Carolina or Clemson sports or any of the local teams. However, what he enjoyed the most was writing something to which he never put his name. He took great pleasure – egads! – writing under the name Major Amos P. Hoople. Hoople would pick the local high school football games each week, but that was secondary. How he described the teams their coaches and their opponents made for a newspaper must-read on Friday afternoons. Sumter High to induct first athletic hall of fame class since 2012 Gary Nelson, right, seen with Mayor David Merchant at his retirement ceremony last year, will be one of eight inductees to the Sumter High Athletic Hall of Fame. CAL CARY / THE SUMTER ITEM Posted Saturday, October 21, 2023 6:00 am By TIM LEIBLE tim@theitem.com For the first time in more than a decade, Sumter High School is adding to its athletic hall of fame. When athletic director Crasten Davis got to SHS last year, one of his priorities was reviving the Sumter High School Athletic Hall of Fame. The last class came in 2012, when Lee Hatfield, Jermaine Williams, Rutledge Dingle and Frank Moses joined the group that will surpass 40 as eight new members are inducted on Dec 9. "Any time you come to a school with a rich history in athletics like we have, you want to give those athletes their just do," Davis said. "Not only do we want to recognize those kids that are here, but we want to recognize the past athletics as well because they give the current students someone to aspire to be." The eight members of the class of 2023 are Gary Nelson, the school's first athletic trainer; longtime football and track coach Carl Baker; longtime coach Coley White; Jordan Montgomery, who is currently starring on the Texas Rangers as they make a push to the World Series; football player Roderick McDowell; Pittsburgh Steelers punter Pressley Harvin III; track and basketball star Shawna Waters; and track star Gregory Blanding. Keith West, who is also a member of the Sumter High Athletic Hall of Fame, was on the committee who selected this group of inductees. He felt that after a long time away, it was important to bring in a larger class than in years past. "It took several months of us having meetings and figuring out criteria, who our candidates were going to be, how many candidates we'd have. It took several months of planning to get this together," West said. "Because we haven't done this since 2012, we felt like we should do a little bit of a bigger class to make up for lost time. We had some great candidates and a lot to choose from. The more we went through it, we felt like this was what we needed to do. "All of our athletes that were in this class performed at a very high level in high school, performed at a very high level in college, and a couple of them made it to the professional ranks. It was some stiff competition, and between the coaches and the players, we felt like we had to go with a bigger class." The committee included Sumter Item historian and legendary SHS track coach Sammy Way, Sumter Sports Hall of Famer Allen Johnson, former football star and fellow athletic hall of famer Cleveland Pinkney, another hall of famer in Karen McFadden, Jody Ortmann, Ashley McDuffie and a current inductee, Baker. Nelson came to Sumter High in 1984 and served as the school's first athletic trainer. He held that role until he retired at the end of last school year. He helped revolutionize athletic training in the state and was inducted into the South Carolina Coaches Association Hall of Fame and is a Sumter County Athletic Hall of Famer. He won countless awards from the National and South Carolina athletic trainers associations, including the Fred Hoover Award and the Athletic Trainers Service Award. Baker was inducted into the Sumter Sports Hall of Fame alongside Nelson in 2011. He started coaching and teaching at Sumter High in 1977, serving as an assistant to five head football coaches through the decades, and coached alongside Way and Dingle with the powerhouse track program. He was an all-state sprinter at Lincoln High School the year before the school merged with Sumter High. White was a multi-sport start at Lincoln High School in the '50s before competing in basketball, football and track at both Voorhees and Morris College. He went on to coach all three sports at Sumter High and Bates Middle School. Montgomery is currently a member of the Texas Rangers and previously pitched for the St. Louis Cardinals and New York Yankees. Before turning pro, Montgomery posted a 20-7 record with a 2.96 earned run average at South Carolina. He is one of just 22 pitchers in program history to post 20 or more career wins. At Sumter High, he led the Gamecocks to a state title in 2011 and was the South Carolina Gatorade Player of the Year. McDowell is currently the running backs coach at Jacksonville State. He previously held the role at the University of Louisiana-Monroe. He also coached at his alma mater, Clemson, in 2019-20. As a player at Clemson, he racked up 1,983 all-purpose yards and 14 touchdowns. At Sumter High, he led the Gamecocks to the 4A state championship and played in both the Shrine Bowl and the U.S. Army All-American Bowl. Harvin won the Ray Guy Award in 2020 as the best collegiate punter in the country at Georgia Tech. He was the first Black athlete to win the award. He was drafted by the Steelers in the seventh round of the 2021 NFL Draft. This season, he's averaging 47.2 yards per punt. Waters was an All-American track athlete at Sumter High, winning a state title in the 1,600m run before running at Kansas. She was also a state champion in cross country and starred on the 1983 girls basketball state championship team. Blanding graduated in 1985 after winning state titles in both the 400m dash and the 800m run. He was a high school All-American before running at Methodist College. Tickets for the banquet will be made available both online and at the door, but the committee is still finalizing ticketing details. Those will be announced in the coming weeks. J. O'Gradys, the home of the Sumter Sports Hall of Fame, will cater the event, which will be held at Sumter High School. The added twist this year is that the inductees will be introduced by their former coaches or other important people in their lives at the ceremony. "We thought that would be a little more special," West said. This is also hopefully the start of making the Sumter High Athletic Hall of Fame a yearly tradition. "We hope to do it every year," West said. "As long as we get support from the community and people come out and participate, we definitely hope to keep this going." Former SHS star Harvin III, realizing NFL dream, hopes to lay the path for others to follow Former Sumter High punter and current Pittsburgh Steeler Pressley Harvin III stands inside his former high school at the Sumter High Athletic Hall of Fame induction on Saturday. ADAM FLASH / THE SUMTER ITEM Posted Friday, December 15, 2023 6:00 am By TIM LEIBLE tim@theitem.com Many kids who have played the sport of football have dreams of one day playing in the NFL. When Pressley Harvin III was 14, he put those dreams into words. When the former Sumter High punter was inducted into the school's athletic hall of fame on Saturday, his mother, Adrienne, read the message that a young Harvin III put into the world. "My dream is to make it big and go to the NFL," Adrienne read. "I am realizing that I have to put all the hard work in now. I'm going to stay humble and don't make stupid decisions in life. Dreams are always good to have and if you don't have one, make one. Even if you do, make the standard high and achieve it, and go over it. I got my dream, and I have the potential for it. My life's not the best, but it can be. I'm going to make it better. If you've got something you want to do in life, hold on and put hard work in now, so you can be blessed later." Now 11 years later, Harvin III has reached that goal and more. At Sumter High, he punted in the Shrine Bowl and had a slew of honors to go along with playing in the state's top all-star game. Harvin III then went to Georgia Tech, where he continuously improved until his senior season when he became the first Black Ray Guy Award winner, the honor awarded to the nation's top punter, in NCAA history. He was then drafted by the Pittsburgh Steelers in the seventh round of the 2021 NFL draft. "I am to the point where you don't even recognize you're in your dream. I'm truly in my dream," Harvin III said. "I always thought about the dreams and aspirations of being there, and it sometimes hasn't even hit me that I still am." Through all of those experiences, Harvin's roots are still firmly in Sumter, South Carolina. "The hard work really did come from this place. Sumter High will always have a place in my heart. I put in hard work before I really even knew what hard work was. I had coaches in front of me that had the discipline in place to make sure that we always had everything we needed to be not even just the best athletes, the best student athletes, but the best people," Harvin III said. "That's what Sumter is about. "When you've got good people in the school district, especially in Sumter High, the good faces usually stick. We've had Coach (Carl) Baker, Coach (Gary) Nelson, Coach (Coley) White that I've known for a long time, Coach Cleve(land) Pinkney; I've had the part of being in a relationship with him on the field as well as off the field," Harvin III continued, noting three of the men inducted into the same class of the Sumter High Athletic Hall of Fame, as well as the man who introduced him at the ceremony. "Just seeing so many familiar faces that continue to keep this place special, continue to keep this place upright, too." Because of the leadership Harvin III had during his time at Sumter High, he wants to help other athletes follow in his footsteps. "Those were also athletes that went on and did this one day, came back, paving it forward for the guys like me, and here I am kinda passing the torch down a little bit," he said. "I have to pay my respects to it, as well as become the person I want to be and try to help the next athlete from Sumter High be able to be in the hall of fame, too. It's more than just a group every year that goes up and gets this nomination; it's more than that. It's a brotherhood, and all of us are a part of something really, really special." Harvin III is typically a pretty busy guy as an NFL player. Last week, he played in a game against the New England Patriots on Thursday, came home for the hall of fame ceremony on Saturday and went back out to Pittsburgh to prep for a matchup with the Indianapolis Colts this weekend. Through that hectic schedule, he still finds time to reflect on the significance of reaching the goals he set at 14. "I get the opportunity sometimes throughout the week when we have downtime to just reflect on the week, reflect on what got me here, reflect on my 'Why.' My 'Why' has always been my family," Harvin III said. "I can take a look back and say all of the hard work I've put in over the years, whether I knew it was going to work out or not, here I am. Manifestation is something that's real. "I'm really, really thankful to God for putting me into the opportunities that I did and the blessings that he's given me in life and just using my platform to try to be selfless, bring somebody else that's going to be able to win another Ray Guy behind me one day or go get a full ride scholarship at Georgia Tech or whatever DI school it's going to be, dreams of going to the league or being the next corporation CEO. The sky is the limit, I just want to be a catalyst to show people whatever you put your mind to, you can do it, it's just a matter of time and opportunity." The person at the center of that "Why" is the same man where Harvin III got his name. Pressley Harvin Jr. was a stalwart in the Sumter High community and a crucial figure in the life of his son. Harvin III lost his father during his rookie year, a taxing addition to an already hectic year. All of Harvin III's accomplishments come back to the man that inspired him to achieve them. "This is also something for him. I have his name, too, so his name is going to go into this record book, too," Harvin III said at his induction. "He meant a lot to me and my family, but he meant so much to this school district. He put in so much time. Days that he couldn't be at practice with me was probably because he was with someone else driving the bus somewhere, just doing something to be helpful. "That was the role model I had in front of me on and off the field." Harvin III has learned so much during his time as a professional, especially under the guidance of Steelers head coach Mike Tomlin. Tomlin is known as a true "player's coach" and that passion for those under his tutelage has left a lasting impression on Harvin III. "He's helped me grow into the man I'm aspiring to be," Harvin III said. "You'll never see him change, he's the same guy win, lose or draw, he's going to have the same mentality every day. We have a lot of - Tomlinisms is what we call them in the locker room - and they're just sayings that he has that, on the football field, they correspond and they can be compared, but they're also life lessons outside of it. "It's one of the things that I really truly look up to him about and respect him because he uses his platform not only to try to win football games, but to try to make everyone in the organization better people." Harvin III knows that there are so many kids in Sumter that aspire to follow in his footsteps. It's a badge that he doesn't wear lightly. He has the same message for those kids as he did as a 14-year-old. "When you tell yourself you've got a dream of doing something, don't just say it. You have to believe it," Harvin III said. "That was one thing I did when I was growing up was believed in what I wanted to do. I had my family support behind me, and I always knew God was going to put me in opportunities to show me the way. "Over time, the more you stop stressing about things and start looking at the good in things and opportunities that do come your way, even if something isn't the way you wanted it to be, you still have something there."
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  _UID	630B057FA388423B8AFB06A4D522268066BC
  Person ID	I321864	Singleton and Related Families
  Last Modified	18 Dec 2023

  
  

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  [S27153] TOP 125 Sports FIgures (#110-#101). [S27152] Sumter Item to reveal Top 125 Sports Figures with anniversary celebration. [S31358] Sumter High to induct first athletic hall of fame class since 2012. [S31437] Former SHS star Harvin III, realizing NFL dream, hopes to lay the path for others to follow.