New SC charter school’s football coach facing 2-game suspension. Here’s why

One of the state’s newest schools is facing sanctions from the South Carolina High School League in the weeks before they begin their first fall sports season.

The SCHSL executive committee voted 10-5 Wednesday in favor of upholding penalties against Mountain View Prep’s football program for a rules violation that happened during a “dead week” this summer. A handful of MVP’s athletes took part — along with an assistant coach — in volunteering as helpers in a local youth sports camp, according to testimony Wednesday.

Mountain View i s a new charter school that will open this fall in Spartanburg County. They can appeal Wednesday’s ruling and have their case heard again before the league’s appellate panel.

The penalty for the violation is a $500 fine, the loss of one day of practice and the loss of a preseason scrimmage. Head football coach Grey Ramsey is suspended for the first two games along with assistant coach Ronald Goodwine.

Ramsey told The State they plan to appeal the decision.

The SCHSL has two times periods known as dead weeks in the summer calendar where essentially no athletic activities are allowed, and coaches and players are not supposed to work together in any capacity.

“Dead week is a dead week. I think that’s been clearly communicated by the High School League,” SCHSL executive committee member Andy Rogers said. “You’re not allowed to participate in any activities.”

Goodwine ran a youth camp in Greenville for 5- to 7-year-olds, and four Mountain View Prep players showed up to help in the camp during a July dead period, according to Wednesday’s testimony.

“What made it a violation is that the coach and the players were there together,” SCHSL commissioner Jerome Singleton said. “If it was just the kids and no coach, there would be no violation.”

Assistant commissioner Charlie Wentzky noted that all summer workouts are technically voluntary and that dead weeks are intended to cut out workouts and shield the high school athletes from feeling any pressure of having to practice.

”What they can’t do is work with their coaches or be with their coaches in any capacity,” Wentzky said.

Mountain View principal Matt Talley and Ramsey argued that players were helping out — not participating — in the camp was a way to give back to the community.

“We’ve never heard community service is not allowed,” the principal said.

Talley and Ramsey, a former assistant at Spartanburg High, both said they had no knowledge of the camp or the players’ involvement until Goodwine posted pictures of the event on social media.

MVP technically doesn’t have an official football roster yet, but those expected to participate in the sport have taken part in summer workouts and 7-on-7 games this summer.

MVP, like its charter school counterparts Gray Collegiate in West Columbia and Oceanside Collegiate in Mount Pleasant, has already drawn criticism in the Upstate for pulling students from existing high schools in order to build its athletic rosters.

Singleton addressed some of those concerns last month in a meeting with officials from Spartanburg County high schools.

Mountain View plays Atlantic Collegiate and Southside Christian in the first two weeks of the season.

In other appeals voted on Wednesday:

▪ Chapman High won its appeal, 14-0, to have its penalty reduced regarding the varsity boys basketball team being banned from the 2025 postseason.

The SCHSL penalized the program because players helped out at a camp at the end of May. Because that event happened during what’s known as the “closed season” for basketball — when athletic participation is not allowed — one of the possible penalties is a postseason ban.

But the executive voted Wednesday to reduce the penalty to a $500 fine, loss of three practices, being limited to one preseason scrimmage and hosting no community events for 2024-25. Head coach Jared St. Charles also was suspended for two games — the opener and the first round of the playoffs. St. Charles was hired in March after leading the Landrum girls to state championship game this season.

“I can’t see punishing them (players) for that and taking away their chances of playing in the playoffs,” executive committee member Matthew Hiers said.

▪ The executive committee voted 14-0 in favor of granting Dallas Dotson full eligibility to play sports at Dixie High School. Dotson was at Crescent High School last year.