From staff reports

FLORENCE — Kelvin Wymbswill serve as the acting principalat West Florence High Schoolfor the remainder of this schoolyear, said Dr. Dan Strickland,interim superintendent for Flor-ence School District One.

Wymbs replaces Pam Quick,who resigned as principal of the

school on Friday.Before being

named directorof secondary edu-cation for Flor-ence School Dis-trict One in 2015,Wymbs served asprincipal of Rich-land School Dis-

trict Two’s Lower Richland High

School from 2011 to 2015. As theformer acting principal of LowerRichland High School, Wymbscollaborated with all stake-holders to implement the larg-est School Improvement Grant(SIG) ($6 million) in the state. AsSIG coordinator, he implement-ed the state-of-the art STEM Ini-tiative in collaboration with theEngenuity S.C., TransformSC/

New Carolina Pilot program.While at Lower Richland,

Wymbs resolved a variety ofproblems hindering growth inclassroom settings and schooloperations by remodelingschool organization, teachingand learning to drive the suc-cess of improved test scores andwork flow.

For his work in Richland

School District One, Wymbswas named the recipient of the2015 Southern Regional Educa-tion Board (SREB) High SchoolsThat Work (HSTW) OutstandingPrincipal Award, an award thatrecognized the growth of LowerRichland High School acrossmany variables.Wymbs

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TODAY’SWEATHERPleasant with plenty

of sunshine.High 69, low 39.

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SPORTS Wilson boys, girls, five more local teams hope to win titles. Page 1B

TUESDAY FEBRUARY 27, 2018

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“We can’t just all of a sudden say, ‘Everything’s been fixed. We’re right where we need to be.’ You’ve had generationafter generation that has not been afforded a right to an appropriate education, and like we’ve said, educationis the backbone; it’s the basis for mobility in this world. Not having the opportunity to have a decent educationis going to hinder a person’s ability to attain the American Dream. So, hopefully, as generation after generationbegins to be able to take advantage of these educational opportunities, progress can continue to move forward.… It’s going to be a slow process. There are going to be many, many years where we’ll probably have this samediscussion. … You still have first-generation graduates.”

REBECCA CROSS/MORNING NEWS

Robert Craig Washington is the principal of Southside Middle School.

CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

The marshall Tucker Band will perform at 7:30p.m. on May 4 in Florence.

Wymbs becomes acting principal at West Florence High School

From staff reports

FLORENCE — There will be “lightning inthe air” on Friday, May 4 when the iconicMarshall Tucker Band brings its legendarybrand of Southern rock to the Francis Mari-on University Performing Arts Center.

The Marshall Tucker Band has had a de-voted and passionate following, almostsince the day the group was formed in Spar-tanburg in the early 1970s. That’s grownthrough the years, as the band churned outseven gold records, three platinum recordsand a long list of memorable singles, in-cluding, “Can’t You See,” “Heard It In a LoveSong,” “Fire On The Mountain” and more.

Through it all, the Marshall Tucker Bandbecame synonymous with pioneering thegenre of Southern rock.

Tickets for the 7:30 p.m. show, the band’sonly Pee Dee-area performance this year,are now on sale. Ticket prices start at $22.

Tickets can be purchased at fmupac.org,by phone at 843-661-4444 or in person fromnoon to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday atthe PAC ticket office in downtown Florence.

The Marshall Tucker Band got its startwhen lead vocalist Doug Gray teamed upwith Tommy Caldwell and Toy Caldwell,Paul T. Riddle, George McCorkle and Jer-ry Eubanks. The band’s composition haschanged repeatedly through the years.As longtime fans know, there is no actu-al “Marshall Tucker” in the band. The band“borrowed” that name from a piano tunerwhose name was found on a key ring intheir original rehearsal space.

From pulling a name out of thin air, creat-ing a new sound was no big deal for MTB.

FACES OF FEBRUARYLast in a series honoring African-Americans in the Pee Dee

REBECCA CROSS/MORNING NEWS More from Robert Craig Washington at SCNow.com

Robert Craig Washington

Marshall TuckerBand comingthis spring toFMU PAC

See BAND, Page 3A

See WYMBS, Page 3A

BY SHAMIRA MCCRAYMorning News

smccray@florencenews.com

FLORENCE — Rainy weatherdidn’t stop members of the PeeDee Picklers Pickleball Club fromdedicating six new courts Mon-day morning at Timrod Park.

City of Florence Tennis DirectorRob Hill said in the three yearsthat Pickleball has been in Flor-ence, he has seen rapid growth.He said the city is very excitedand enthusiastic about where

the sport seems to be heading.“And because of all that rapid

growth, we know we want to tryto provide facilities that can sup-port that and foster growth,” Hillsaid. “So we have been looking attrying to provide this facility for alittle while.”

The local tennis associationgave Hill and others its blessingto convert three tennis courtsat Timrod Park into Pickleballcourts.

Hill said there was a big potof funds put together for a proj-

ect servicing some of the tenniscourts, and he had hoped therewould be enough money left overto build the six Pickleball courts.But after bids returned, therewere not any funds left.

“But at that point, it had lookedlike we were just going to have toput it (the Pickleball courts proj-ect) on hold until some funds be-came available,” Hill said.

A short while later, an anony-mous donor from the Pickleball

New Pickleball courts dedicated at Timrod ParkFrom left, city of

Florence Directorof Tennis Rob Hill

joined Pee DeePicklers members

Michael Falcone,Buddy Dawkins,

Phylis Falconeand others onMonday for a

dedication of sixnew Pickleball

courts at TimrodPark.

See TIMROD, Page 3ASHAMIRA MCCRAY/MORNING NEWS