Battery Creek must be loving its new region home

When I sat before my decade-old, 26-inch RCA television for the first time in my new townhouse a week ago, I couldn't believe my eyes. The TV I had secretly hoped would perish in the move from our cramped apartment appeared bigger and brighter than I remembered it only a day earlier.

Come to think of it, all of our things look nicer in their new surroundings, where they have more room to breathe and more windows to shed flattering natural light upon them.

Battery Creek High School football fans must feel the same way when they look at their team in its new environment. The Dolphins consummated their move to Region 8-AAA with a 27-16 victory against Stall on Friday, a win that checked off a long list of first-in-a-long-time occasions.

Before Friday, Creek hadn't won a region game or a home game since 2005, the same year it last won two games in the same season. The Dolphins hadn't won a homecoming game since 2003.

Creek had some good-looking blue and gold furniture the past few years -- players like Tavaras Pinckney, Antonio Wiggs and Antonio Hills -- but the luster seemed to be dulled by a thick coat of dust when placed alongside the glossy finishes of region mates such as Summerville, Beaufort High and Fort Dorchester.

Plug the Dolphins into Region 8-AAA, though, and all of a sudden that same furniture looks more like it came from Waterford than Wal-Mart. Suddenly, a team that lost its five region games by an average of 32 points a year ago has the look of a playoff squad. With a bit of polish, the Dolphins might even be a region title contender.

"I told the seniors they can be the class to get things turned around," first-year coach Carlos Cave said, "and then they can come back and say, 'It started with us.' "

If you think you've heard this story before, it's because you have. Creek's new region rival, Hilton Head Island High School, did this dance three years ago. The Seahawks dropped from Class 4-A to Class 3-A and traded their doormat status to become an instant contender for region titles and a perennial playoff qualifier.

For more inspiration, the Dolphins need only look to Lady's Island, where archrival Beaufort High School has experienced a similar about-face. Since Mark Clifford took over, the Eagles have gone from punchless to powerhouse in five short years.

The Dolphins have the advantage of both of those factors -- a new region in which their furniture is as fancy as anyone's, and a new coach who seems to be arranging that furniture in just the right way. On Friday, Cave simplified the offense to take the pressure off quarterback Antonio Wiggs and place the emphasis on a talented stable of running backs. The Dolphins responded with a season-high 338 yards of total offense. The defense was equally impressive, limiting a dangerous Stall offense to 146 yards by bottling up explosive tailback John Gadson.

Granted, this first region win came against a Stall team that has had only slightly more success in Class 3-A the past two years than the Dolphins experienced in Class 4-A, but the Warriors were a playoff team last year.

With one more win, the Dolphins will clinch their first playoff appearance since 2002, when Collin Drafts led a high-flying offense to a first-round victory against Laurens before running into perennial power Byrnes. Glancing at a region lineup that drops off sharply after clear-cut favorite Hilton Head High, it's easy to conceive of Creek hosting its first playoff game in six years.

"Anything can happen once you get to the playoffs," Cave said. "We're athletic enough to compete with anyone. We just want to get there."

So far, they look like they belong.

The Dolphins are far from flawless. Untimely penalties and turnovers have caused them to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory at least once this season, as struggling teams are apt to do. But in this new home, those blemishes are more easily hidden, and if Creek can limit its major mistakes, it can have success in this environment.

The transformation has already begun. It was only two weeks ago that the Dolphins snapped a 28-game losing streak with a 32-0 victory at Ridgeland, but neither Creek's players nor an energized crowd at Dolphin Field seemed to recall Friday how out of place their furniture appeared in the old place, because the Dolphins fit in so nicely in their new dwelling.

"Well, we don't have to talk about that losing streak anymore," Cave said after the Ridgeland game.

Indeed, the Dolphins have changed the subject. Now they can discuss more pleasant topics, such as playoff aspirations and -- for at least one more week -- region title hopes.

Those conversations had a way of getting drowned out in the constant clamor of Class 4-A, but in the Dolphins' new digs, they're coming through loud and clear.