Year in review: A look back at 2025 on Aiken's local sports front

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Dec. 31—Another year has come and gone on the local sports front, and in 2025 there was no shortage of big stories here in the Aiken Standard coverage area.

Championships, coaching changes, controversy, chaos — all culminating in a year's worth of chatter in the community and on social media.

Here's a quick look back at 2025 in review, with the biggest local sports story — according to our web analytics — of each month.

January

Here's where that chaos comes into play, and in only the best way. The high school wrestling scene has continued to grow since the sport was introduced to Aiken County in 2016, and in no way could that have been better on display than a final regular-season quad match between Aiken High, North Augusta, South Aiken and Gilbert with the Region 4-AAAA championship hanging in the balance. Early upsets that night forced it to a decider between Aiken and North Augusta, with the Jackets emerging with their second consecutive region title.

Aiken would get the last laugh the following month, though, beating South Aiken and North Augusta in the playoffs on its way to the state semifinals, and then bringing home the program's first — and the county's second and third — individual state championships around the necks of Bryan Davis, Jr. and Aiden Vasquez.

February

Another year brought the world's best junior golfers to Graniteville for the Junior Invitational at Sage Valley, and the field of 60 — 36 boys and 24 girls — was never scrutinized more than when it was confirmed that Charlie Woods, son of 15-time major champion Tiger Woods, and Kai Trump, granddaughter of President Donald Trump, would be among the participants.

Charlie, who finished the year as a Rolex Junior All-American, finished tied for 25th in the boys' field, 20 shots back as top-ranked Miles Russell won the championship in a stunning finish. Kai, who has since committed to the University of Miami, struggled to a last-place finish.

March

March was loaded with big stories on the local sports front, but this time of year for the last decade has been all about the North Augusta girls' basketball team. This year the destination was Florence, site of both the state semifinals and championship games, and this time the boys' team joined the girls as both played for Class AAAA titles.

The boys came up just short in their first appearance in program history, while it was business as usual for the girls in a 50-37 win over Westside for the Jackets' sixth state title in the last nine years, further strengthening one of the most dominant runs by a single program in state history.

April

During his years at North Augusta and Aiken high schools, RJ Felton showed he had the potential to one day play at a much, much higher level. He signed to play at the Division I level at East Carolina, and during his time with the Pirates he left his name all over the record books while helping lead a revival of the program.

Up next? The pro ranks. Felton threw his name into the hat for the NBA draft and ultimately signed with the Indiana Pacers, and by year's end he's averaging 11.4 points and 3.6 rebounds per game for the G League affiliate Noblesville Boom.

May

The end of high school golf season is a critical time for teams to be playing their best, with region championships and state qualifiers getting them ready to determine who is the top team in each of the state's classifications. The best of the best, though, is settled before then at Palmetto Golf Club. Celebrating its 50th year in 2025 was the Southern Cross, which once again welcomed all of the heavy hitters back for the Masters of high school golf.

This year's champions came from Blue Ridge High School, which isn't accustomed to receiving the same kind of attention as its larger Greenville County neighbors. No more. The Tigers won the team title by two over Georgia's Frederica Academy — with Upstate Class AAAAA schools rounding out the top five — and junior Dawson Szabo backed up his ranking as the state's top junior by claiming medalist honors by three as the only player under par.

June

A familiar visitor returned to the area when five-time Masters champion Tiger Woods stopped by, but it wasn't for any kind of advanced preparations for next year's tournament at Augusta National Golf Club. Instead, it was to scope out the sites of the future sites of The Loop at The Patch and TGR Learning Lab Augusta. The partnership with Augusta National was announced back in April during the Masters, and it didn't take long to start getting to work.

The Loop at The Patch is a Woods-designed nine-hole short course at the redeveloped Augusta Municipal Golf Course, with plans of a grand opening in time for the 2026 Masters. The TGR Learning Lab is scheduled for an April 2028 opening and will provide free programming to students within the Richmond County School System and other districts throughout the CSRA.

July

Golf courses have been a hot topic in this area, with several high-profile private clubs being built locally and rumors of more on the way in addition to new ownership at existing clubs that are open for public play. One of those is Cedar Creek Golf Club, which was acquired by Mississippi-based Bloom Golf Management and immediately underwent significant renovations to bunkers and cart paths, heavy tree removal and plenty more.

And that was only phase one. More work is ongoing at Cedar Creek, with the final results expected to be fully visible during the 2026 growing season.

August

The end of summer means football season, and in the Aiken Standard coverage area that begins with the release of the season preview special edition and the Standard 10, which lists the 10 area players with the most intriguing storylines to watch. It's not a ranking of who we think are the best players, though in many years there's so much local talent that it ends up looking that way, anyway.

This year's list was no different, as it was loaded with eventual All-State selections, college signees, seniors leaving a legacy and underclassmen getting started on theirs. It's always a difficult list to put together, and rest assured the "short" list for next year already contains dozens of names.

September

The City of Aiken Amateur Championship celebrated another record field in its 16th year, with more first-timers than ever participating at The Aiken Golf Club. Of course, by Sunday the tops of the leaderboards featured many familiar names, including one in Tom Kennaday who moved back down to the Regular division after winning the Senior Division a couple of years ago and feeling like he still had the game to compete with the younger guys.

He did more than compete with them. Kennaday added his second Regular division title, having won his first six years ago, by holding off Kyle Bearden by a shot. He posted the low round of the tournament with a 5-under 65 in round one, and he played consistently from tee to green to keep anyone from catching him.

October

Thankfully, it's not a story about a hurricane postponement this year.

North Augusta's football team was dealt a serious blow to its hopes of repeating as Region 4-AAAA champion when the Jackets suffered a tough road loss at Gray Collegiate Academy to halt their undefeated start of the season. They were going to have to regroup quickly to get back to work in the region gauntlet, and they knew they couldn't take lightly an Aiken High team that had been playing inspired football under first-year head coach Steve Hibbitts.

The Jackets showed they knew how to handle adversity by scoring 42 points in the first quarter in a 63-0 rout that was their 17th win in a row over the Hornets and matched the largest margin of victory in the 102-year-old series. North Augusta would eventually finish second in the region and advanced to the third round of the Class AAAA playoffs, while Aiken continued to show strides while winning multiple games in a season for the first time since 2021.

November

A proud and tradition-rich Strom Thurmond football program has won an awful lot of games over the last 20 years, but until now just couldn't find a way to advance past the third round of the playoffs. The Rebels did that by smothering Chester in a revenge game from last year's first round, setting up a Class AA Upper State title clash with Fairfield Central.

What followed was one of the games of the year, with Strom Thurmond seemingly taking control late only to find itself needing to stop a two-point conversion with no time remaining to avoid overtime. All-State linebacker Bryston Coleman made first contact, several teammates dogpiled on top of the ball carrier, and the Rebels were on their way to the state championship game for the first time in 20 years.

December

The Rebels had survived and passed test after test while winning nine consecutive games on their way to the state championship game. Only one more stood in the way, and it was sure to be the biggest one yet in the form of a Hampton County team boasting the No. 1 scoring offense in Class AA behind the state's leading rusher and scorer.

What wins championships? Defense wins championships, and Strom Thurmond proved that one last time by suffocating the high-powered Hurricanes, allowing only one score in a 26-7 victory that was the third title in program history and first since 2005, setting off a party in the peach fields that's sure to carry well into 2026.

Happy New Year.

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