It does not happen very often, in fact almost never for one school to have boys and girls win the state championship in the same sport, in the same year.

The TL Hanna Yellow Jackets girls golf team won the state championship last fall while the boys won the 5A title in the previous spring.

Those who want to be picky say the wins came in different academic years, so it might be like the Tiger Slam (Woods held all four major titles at the same time, but not in a calendar year) record, but two state championship trophies are on display at the Anderson High School.

As an extra pat on the back, Anderson area state representatives Blake Sanders, April Cromer and Dawn Chapman invited both teams to the state house to be recognized for their championships.

Local representatives bringing in a favored and successful high school team is not new in the capital, but it was new for the Hanna boys and girls.

“It was neat getting to represent Hanna in Columbia,” said boys golf coach Eric Bona. “When we won the legislature wasn’t in session so this is the first time everything worked out,” he said.

The rarity of having state champions in the same sport for both boys and girls was an achievement that deserved a turn in front of the camera, even it was just the webfeed for the assembly.

“I know all our girls were really thrilled to be coming to this,” said Hanna girls golf coach Gabbi Kitts. “They got all dressed up and it was fun being all together,”she said.

Kitts noted that Cromer and Chapman both attended Hanna so she knew they had to be very proud to present the team to their fellow legislators.

Many times when these kind of events are staged the audience, in this case the state legislators, may not always pay close attention to the proceedings.

Bona said he was impressed with the call to order and the attention the legislators paid to the presentation,

“After the proclamation we got a nice round of applause from the floor. Our teams have worked very hard to be champions and any time your effort is appreciated it is appreciated,” said the boys coach.

There is no line in the South Carolina High School League record book listing boys and girls golf teams winning state titles in the same year.

A less than perfect review of the less than perfect records kept by the High School league in golf seems to indicated AC Flora High School from Columbia has accomplished the two championships during the 2010-2011 school year.

In looking back through the Palmetto Finest record book Hanna has been well represented when state golf team and individual championships are mentioned.

Jay Seawell, the head coach of a couple of national championship teams at Alabama won two individual titles and helped the Yellow Jackets to their first team title back in the 1982-83 school year.

The Jackets claimed back to back titles in the 1992-93 and 1993-94 school years. The schools last championship before the current team’s two wins was in 1973-1974.

In addition to Seawell’s individual championship Hanna golfers Tim Sautter in 1990, Patrick Rada in 2006 and current team member Bennett Scaletta in 2023 have also won the championship,

To equal the mark of the Falcons Bona’s team this year needs to win their third straight title. Receiving the nice honor at the state house could provide a little extra motivation for the team ranked Number 1 in the golf coaches pre-season poll.

“We are looking at today as the end of what we already accomplished. We need to put that behind us and get ready to try to win another state title this year,” he said.

After pictures and some congratulations the teams were off to a lunch celebration and then back to Anderson,

The Hanna boys will begin their quest for a third straight state championship at the annual Red Raider Invitational played on the Greenville Country Club’s Riverside Course on March 3,

Hanna Boys team included Bennett Scaletta, Eric Erlenkeuser, Cal Harbin, Caden Olsommer.Landon Smith, Blake Heard, Tyler George, Brice Ritter, Jacob Kennedy, Coaches Eric Bona, Matt Harbin, Jeff Brookman, Logan Hogg.

Helping to congratulate the Hanna teams were SCGA Executive Director Biff Lathrop and Senior Directors Justin Flemming and Alex Hamilton.

The Hanna Girls team included: Hayden Bell, Sarah Catherine Bryant, Hanna Erlenkeuser,
Serra Erlenkeuser, Parker Foltzer, Reagan Joseph, Sadie Ray, McKenie Ross, Hannah Rumsey, Katelyn Scaletta, Marissa Scaletta, Sierra Schulze, Aislun Smith, Olicia Wallach, Kadie Grace Wohlford, Reagan Joseph, Head Coach Gabbi Kitts, Assistant Coach Eli Roland.