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November 7, 2024 - USL Super League (USLSL)

Lexington SC forward Madi Parsons (center)(Lexington Sporting Club, Credit: Tommy Quarles)

LEXINGTON, Ky. - Lexington Sporting Club is set to return home after a lengthy four-match road trip that saw it earn its first two wins in club history. Now home, the Greens return to Lexington SC Stadium for a revenge match against Dallas Trinity FC. Kickoff against the Trinity is scheduled for 7 p.m. ET from Lexington, Kentucky.

Lexington SC (2-6-2, 8 points) is coming off an unfortunate loss on the road against Tampa Bay Sun FC inside Riverfront Stadium in Tampa. The loss concluded the Greens' four match road stint which saw them earn an average of 1.5 points per match. Now finishing the Fall schedule at home, LSC will look to finish strong in its last four games before winter.

Dallas Trinity FC (3-1-4, 13 points) is coming off a 1-0 win over Fort Lauderdale United that it earned inside the Cotton Bowl. The win marked the fourth consecutive point-bearing result for the Trinity (WDDW) and propelled the Lone Star outfit into third in the USL Super League table.

TUNE IN:

The match will be streaming live on Peacock.

For in-game content, follow Lexington SC on Twitter and Instagram.

For in-game stats, head to the Match Center.

GAME NOTES

Lexington SC is facing off with Dallas Trinity for the second time this season. The first time the pair met was in the Cotton Bowl in Dallas in LSC's third match of the season. That match saw the season debut of goalkeeper Sarah Cox.

LSC is led in its inaugural season by head coach Michael Dickey. Dickey is the club's first women's professional coach, with Michelle Rayner serving as women's sporting director and Ben Willis and Maren McCrary being Dickey's assistants.

Kailey Utley and Madi Parsons both found the net the first time LSC faced off against Dallas, with Utley's goal coming in the seventh minute. The goal in Dallas is currently Utley's only of the season.

Madi Parsons was named USL Super League Player of the Month for the month of October, becoming the first Green to ever earn the honor in the USL Super League. Parsons logged an assist in the club's loss to Tampa, bringing her total up to four goals and four assists for eight goal contributions on the year. Parsons is co-leading scorer of the squad alongside Sydney Shepherd, who she assisted in the Tampa match.

Madison White is the woman to watch for Dallas Trinity FC. The USL Super League October Goalkeeper of the Month, White has done well to ensure that the Trinity remain in the bottom half of the league in goals allowed. Looking at Trinity's recent form, White has secured two shutouts in the club's last three games and has played a key role in its ongoing four-match point-bearing streak. While LSC has displayed a proficient attack so far this season, leading the league in goals scored, White will do her best to keep the Greens off the board and getting past her is the only way to secure a key three points.

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The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

Customers of a Midlands health care system could be at risk of losing their in-network coverage, depending on the outcome of ongoing negotiations with one of the nation’s largest insurance companies.

Lexington Medical Center this week sent out a notification to all of its patients who have Aetna insurance that the West Columbia-based health care provider could be dropped as an in-network option for the insurance giant.

“Lexington Medical Center is currently in negotiations with Aetna Healthcare on its commercial contract set to terminate on February 1, 2025,” the medical center said in a message sent to patients. “We are diligently working in good faith to remain an in-network provider with Aetna Healthcare, but our status is doubtful.”

The message was sent, Lexington Medical Center said, so that patients can consider making different selections for the health care coverage for the coming year.

“We know many of you are going through open enrollment with your employer and want to make the most informed decision when selecting health care coverage, which is why we are letting you know now,” the message said.

Besides its West Columbia hospital near Interstate 26, Lexington Medical Center operates 44 separate practices and specialists throughout the Midlands, from oncologists to podiatrists to urgent cares. All of them would be affected if negotiations between the health provider and the insurer don’t come to some kind of resolution.

While Lexington Medical Center said it would continue to serve Aetna customers, “you may be subject to the out-of-network terms of your health plan, which generally results in higher out-of-pocket costs to you,” it said.

The center offers financial assistance programs for patients, and ongoing treatments may be eligible for continuity of care during a transitional period while customers find another provider. Emergency services will also continue to be treated as in-network, the medical center said.

Asked for comment by The State, a Lexington Medical Center spokesperson said in a statement, “We are working to remain an in-network provider with Aetna Healthcare, and we hope to reach a mutually beneficial agreement to care for the patients we serve.”

In a statement sent via email, a spokesperson for Aetna’s parent company CVS Health said the company was likewise working to renew its contract with Lexington Medical.

”We are hopeful that we will reach an agreement that keeps them in our networks while keeping health care services affordable for our members and health plan sponsors,” the company said.

The State

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Bristow Marchant covers local government, schools and community in Lexington County for The State. He graduated from the College of Charleston in 2007. He has almost 20 years of experience covering South Carolina at the Clinton Chronicle, Sumter Item and Rock Hill Herald. He joined The State in 2016. Bristow has won numerous awards, most recently the S.C. Press Association’s 2023 faith reporting award for his coverage of the breakup of the United Methodist Church.

In our Reality Check stories, The State journalists dig deeper into questions over facts, consequences and accountability. Read more. Story idea? Email statenews@thestate.com.

Lexington is one of the fastest growing counties in South Carolina. Or is it?

As the area west of the Congaree River and Columbia and Richland County continues to deal with a variety of new developments and corresponding issues such as maintaining local roads, the quickness of the county’s population growth is both frequently cited and frequently questioned by local leaders and residents arguing passionately about how they want the place they call home to look heading into the future.

So, just how fast is Lexington County growing? How does it compare with other counties in South Carolina? And what indicators should we look to when making those determinations?

It’s first important to consider that Lexington County sits in a state and region where the population is growing quickly, said Jerry Mitchell, chair of the geography department at the University of South Carolina. In 2023, the state was the nation’s fastest growing, seeing an uptick of 1.7%.

“The Western and Southwestern and Southeastern parts of the United States are growing faster,” Mitchell said, but he noted that this doesn’t mean all states in these regions are gaining population.

“Mississippi and Louisiana have lost population. It’s not just California, New York,” he added. “But South Carolina, depending what time frame you look at, we’ve been No. 1.”

So when Lexington County charts anywhere near the top of the heap for growth in S.C. counties, that means it’s growing quickly compared to many other parts of the country.

Mitchell said the most accurate measure of growth is the official U.S. census, done every 10 years. During the most recent frame counted, 2010 to 2020, Lexington’s growth rate of 12.04% ranked No. 11 among South Carolina’s 46 counties. The county added nearly 32,000 people during that time to claim a 2020 population of nearly 294,000.

During that same period, coastal Horry County, home of Myrtle Beach, topped the list with a growth rate of 30.35%, adding nearly 82,000 people to claim a 2020 population exceeding 351,000.

A better understanding of trends and short-term growth can be found in the annual estimates the U.S. Census Bureau provides in between its full once-a-decade counts, Mitchell said.

“The census also does something called an American Community Survey, where they survey [more than 3.5 million] households across the country each year, and they make sure they get representation in each state,” he said.

The numbers culled from this process say much the same about Lexington County’s population increase from 2010 to 2020, as its growth rate of 7.02% between 2010 and 2015 ranked No. 10 in the state and its mark of 7.84% between 2015 and 2020 also ranked No. 10.

U.S. census numbers in more recent years show that Lexington’s growth ranking hasn’t really changed much.

Estimates show that Lexington grew by 5.3% between 2020 and 2023, gaining more than 15,500 people to claim a population of nearly 310,000 and ranking No. 11 in the state in terms of percentage growth during that stretch. Lexington’s rank slips to No. 15 when you look at the numbers from between 2022 and 2023, when the county grew by about 1.4% as it added more than 4,400 people. It remains the state’s sixth most populous county.

But Lexington is outpacing its more populated neighbor, Richland County.

Richland’s estimated population as of 2023 is more than 425,000, but its growth ranked No. 21 at 2.2% between 2020 and 2023 (adding nearly 9,000 people) and No. 23 at 0.9% between 2022 and 2023 (adding more than 3,600 people).

Mitchell cautioned that judging growth by percentages doesn’t always paint an accurate picture. He pointed to Jasper County, which sat at No. 1 in terms of percentage growth in the state between 2022 and 2023, having grown by 4.9%. But in terms of raw population, it gained fewer than 1,600 people.

“That’s like a hiccup,” Mitchell said.

When it comes to the sheer number of people added, Jasper ranked No. 16 between 2022 and 2023, while Lexington ranked No. 6 and Richland ranked No. 9. Horry County led the way, ranking No 1 with its addition of more than 14,300 people. (Horry’s percentage growth of 3.7% ranked No. 3.)

Looking at the official U.S. census numbers, Lexington’s addition of nearly 31,600 between 2010 and 2020 ranked No. 9 in the state, just below Richland’s 31,649. Horry topped the list with its nearly 82,000.

Gregory Sprouse, director of research, planning and development for the Central Midlands Council of Governments, said there’s another metric to look at as far as how much a county might grow moving forward.

“We’ve always felt like residential building permit activity is a pretty good indicator of growth,” he said, noting that the Building Industry Association of Central SC maintains a database of these numbers for counties in the Midlands.

According to the association’s numbers, compared to its neighbors in Richland and Kershaw County (where the 2023 population was estimated to be nearly 70,000), a lot of building permits are being issued in Lexington County. Every year since 2013, more permits have been issued in Lexington than in Richland:

But it’s unclear exactly when and how building permit activity will translate into real growth.

“If you’re seeing permits issued now, it doesn’t necessarily mean that those same units are going to have certificates of occupancy over the next year,” Sprouse said. “Sometimes it can take a lot longer for things to fully build out.”

This story was originally published November 7, 2024, 5:00 AM.

A man who’s a teacher at a Columbia-area school was arrested for assaulting two students this year, according to the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department.

Jermaine Cornelius Singletary, 51, was charged with two counts of third-degree assault & battery, the sheriff’s department said Wednesday in a news release.

The sheriff’s department said Singletary teaches at Irmo Middle School. The Lexington-Richland 5 school is on Wesctott Road near the intersection with St. Andrews Road, in the area of Columbia between Harbison Boulevard and Lake Murray Boulevard.

While Singletary is listed on the roster of teachers on the school’s website, a link to his bio leads to an error page.

“School District Five of Lexington and Richland Counties received notification that a district employee has been arrested,” L-R 5 officials told The State when asked about Singletary. “We are cooperating fully with law enforcement in their investigation, and the employee is on administrative leave.”

The assaults involved two students in incidents that were separated by several months this year, according to the sheriff’s department release.

Singletary struck a student in March after he thought the student touched his head, the sheriff’s department said. The teacher hit another student in October after the student retrieved a portion of an assignment Singletary threw in a trash can, according to the release.

Information on the students’ conditions, and if they needed any medical treatment, was not available.

Singletary did not report either incident to school administrators, the sheriff’s department said.

“When we became aware of these two incidents, we opened our investigation and determined Singletary allegedly assaulted two students on two separate occasions,” Sheriff Jay Koon said in the release.

Singletary turned himself in Wednesday morning and was booked into the Lexington County Detention Center, the sheriff’s department said. No bond has been set and Singletary remains locked up, jail records show.

Following a bond hearing, the Columbia resident is scheduled to return to court on Nov. 19, Lexington County judicial records show.

If convicted on the misdemeanor assault and battery charges, Singletary faces a maximum punishment of 30 days in jail and a $500 fine for each count, according to South Carolina law.

There was no word what a conviction would mean to Singletary’s status with L-R 5, and if he would lose his teaching certification.

In a breaking news situation, facts can be unclear and the situation may still be developing. The State is trying to get important information to the public as quickly and accurately as possible. This story will be updated as more information becomes available, and some information in this story may change as the facts become clearer. Refresh this page later for more updated information.

The State

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Noah Feit is a Real Time reporter with The State focused on breaking news, public safety and trending news. The award-winning journalist has worked for multiple newspapers since starting his career in 1999. Support my work with a digital subscription

Voters in Lexington County elected 18 school board candidates on Nov. 5 to fill open seats in the county's five districts.

More than 140,000 ballots were cast in Lexington County. Here's a look at the school board results:

Lexington One

The central Lexington school district had four open seats to fill and two incumbents on the ballot. The winners were Kathy Henson, Mike Anderson, McKenzie Flashnick and Nicholas Pizzuti.

Mike Anderson (Incumbent) — 11 percent, 15,933 votes

Mckenzie Flashnick — 12 percent, 17,462 votes

Adriannah Greyson — 4 percent, 6,804 votes

Kathy Henson (Incumbent) — 15 percent, 21,741 votes

Dana Homesley — 10 percent, 14,460 votes

Nicholas Pizzuti — 11 percent, 16,465 votes

Mariel Taylor — 8 percent, 11,529 votes

David Terry — 8 percent, 11,541 votes

Scott Whetstone — 8 percent, 12,270 votes

Shelton Yonce — 10 percent, 14,512 votes

Lexington Two

The Cayce and West Columbia area school district had four at-large seats available. Two incumbents sought reelection. The winners were Craig Aull, Abbott Tre Bray, Mary Burkett and Liz Chitty Castles.

Craig Aull — 13 percent, 6,845 votes

Barry Bolen — 9 percent, 4,830 votes

Abbott Tre Bray (Incumbent) — 13 percent, 6,572 votes

Mary Burkett — 17 percent, 8,498 votes

Liz Chitty Castles (Incumbent) — 14 percent, 7,117 votes

Ivan Earle — 5 percent, 2,671 votes

Brian Habing — 6 percent, 3,089 votes

Allen Knotts — 8 percent, 3,951 votes

Cliff Springs — 10 percent, 5,231 votes

Lexington Three

The Batesburg-Leesville area district serves the western part of Lexington County. Three incumbents defended their seats. The winners were Cynthia Etheredge, Stacey Derrick, Craig Caughman and Sonya Winstead Cary.

Burgundy Barr — 11 percent, 1,194 votes

Sonya Winstead Cary (Incumbent) — 18 percent, 1,921 votes

Craig Caughman (Incumbent) — 20 percent, 2,142 votes

Stacey Derrick (Incumbent) — 21 percent, 2,196 votes

Cynthia Etheredge — 27 percent, 2,809 votes

Lexington Four

The Gaston and Swansea area district had six candidates on the ballot. The winners were Lynne Fallaw, Sadie Wannamaker, Dennis Wilson and Cindy Dibble.

Tina Brantley — 13 percent, 1,472 votes

Cindy Dibble — 15 percent, 1,689 votes

Lynne Fallaw (Incumbent) — 22 percent, 2,395 votes

Mark Hardenbrook — 11 percent, 1,219 votes

Sadie Wannamaker (Incumbent) — 17 percent, 1,846 votes

Dennis Wilson — 16 percent, 1,756 votes

Lexington-Richland Five

The Irmo and Chapin area district, which lies in both Lexington and Richland counties, chose from two candidates in Richland and three candidates in Lexington.

Voters also decided whether they want the district to issue $240 million in bonds to be used on school building projects.

In Lexington County, the winners were Catherine Huddle and Scott Herring.

Richland County (39 percent reporting as of 10:35 p.m.)

Jason Baynham — 50 percent, 7,979 votes

Mike Ward — 49 percent, 7,870 votes

Lexington County

Scott Herring — 34 percent, 12,141 votes

Catherine Huddle (incumbent) — 34 percent, 12,043 votes

Ken Loveless — 30 percent, 10,947 votes

Lexington-Richland Five bond referendum (39 percent of Richland County reporting at 11 p.m.)

Yes — 70 percent, 34,483 votes

No — 29 percent, 14,702 votes

Bond referendum results include the entire district, both Richland and Lexington counties.