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Hanahan High School coach Brian Mitchell enters his 20th season as the Hawks’ handler in baseball.

He expects this year’s bunch to look about like most before it on the diamond. As the curtains open on the season, Mitchell’s squad is No. 4 in Class AAA by the South Carolina Baseball Coaches Association.

Last spring, the Hawks won 25 games and capped the campaign in the Lower State tournament.

“You could hit repeat on our last 10 years,” said Mitchell, who has more than 300 career victories. “We have some pitching and defense to be competitive. We’ve got to find some bats. We’ve got to hit. How far we’re able to go comes down to generating some runs. How are we going to be hitting at the end of the year?”

A recent practice was spent grinding at the plate, working on small ball. The Hawks bunted for more than an hour. Mitchell doesn’t think the Hawks are going to be able to sit on the bases and wait for doubles for run production.

“We’re going to have to be a hard-nosed contact team and put pressure on teams on the bases,” Mitchell said.

The Hawks begin the regular season on March 9 at Fort Dorchester and follow with road clashes at James Island on March 10 and West Ashley on March 13. Hanahan opens its home slate on March 15 versus Gainesville (Fla.) High School.

A stellar group of seniors are back to guide the journey this spring. Nick Cappello, a catcher/pitcher, batted .348 and posted a 7-0 mark on the mound with a 1.55 ERA as a junior. Catcher Mason Brady batted .333 in 2022. Outfielders Brayden Joseph and Kwame Parker made the most of their opportunities at the dish last season, hitting .441 and .419 in a total of 79 plate appearances. Pitcher/infielder Braylon Mitchell garnered three pitching victories as a junior but is currently sidelined with an injury.

From the junior class, brothers Landon Gomes and Hunter Gomes are key returners who made an impact in 2022. Landon, an outfielder, batted .328 and Hunter was 8-0 from the mound with a 2.53 ERA.

Additional arms on the bump are Gabe Dotterweich, Porter Sprovero, Nate Humphrey and Lucas Brown. Joining Brady and Cappello on the other end of the battery is Joey Smith.

Joseph and Sprovero are at first base while Jacob Bunting and Riley Turner are competing for time at second base. Camden Kackley moves into shortstop, replacing all-state player Aryan Patel, and Hunter Gomes is on the hot corner.

More players expected to roam the outfield grass are Dylan Crocker and Harry Swindal.

“I think we have good chemistry,” Mitchell said. “They’re all pulling for each other. We have some position battles but they know we’re all pulling in the same direction. They’re used to winning. They know it starts with team chemistry. These guys understand the teams that win are the teams that do all the small things right.”

HANAHAN, S.C. (WCBD) – The owner of a fitness training company in Hanahan that has been working with kids and adults for a few years is calling on the community to help keep his business open.

Kendrick Robinson opened The Factory Sports and Fitness Training in Hanahan a year before the coronavirus pandemic hit the United States to help train people in basketball, football, and other athletics.

“It was something that God brought to me. He gave me a vision,” said Robinson. “I wanted to have a facility where the youth in our community could (better) selves and have a safe place where they can come and train.”

“He always helps out. He helps out with kids like schoolwork and stuff like that before training,” said Christian Gray, who has been coming to the program for four years.

Robinson said working with the youth is his passion. But things have been tough financially, he said.

“Our rates are really not expensive, but if they’re not able to do training, we try to do charitable giving would give out free sessions,” explained Robinson.

He went on to say, “We kind of gotten [sic] to a rough patch since Covid. We had a business plan, and it kind of altered all of that, and we’ve been playing catch-up ever since.”

Robinson decided Sunday to let the public know they might have to close next month and started a GoFundMe in hopes of finding some assistance.

“Not something I wanted to go public with, but closed mouths don’t get fed. God revealed that to me, he told me to make sure I keep this place open and get the help that we needed from the community. The response has been, man amazing.”

More than $2,500 has already come in from the community, of the $10,000 they need.

“It’s been amazing to get all the feedback and support from the supporters we’ve had over the years and knowing that we’re doing the right thing just by being transparent with the community and letting them know that it hasn’t always been easy.”

If you would like to help, please click here.

HANAHAN, S.C. (WCIV) — Hanahan High School has named Milan Turner as the next varsity football coach.

Turner was announced as the high school's head football coach in a press release on Jan. 24.

Read more: 4 months after departure, BCSD says former Hanahan HS head coach Art Craig retired

“We are elated to welcome Coach Turner to the Hawk family,” Hanahan Principal Tom Gallus said in a statement. “Our community is very fortunate to have a coach of this caliber to lead and develop our student-athletes on and off the field. Coach Turner is a proven educator and leader. He knows what it takes to build a successful high school football program and to ensure that each student is prepared for their next steps after high school. I look forward to serving alongside Coach Turner and seeing our Hawks shine under the Friday night lights.”

According to the press release, Turner has been an educator since 1994 and has coached in six state championship games during his time at five Georgia high schools. He was most recently serving as the director of high school relations on the football staff for Georgia Southern University.

Read more: Hanahan High School announces interim head football coach in place of Art Craig

"First, I would like to thank Coach Clay Helton and Georgia Southern University for the incredible opportunity I had to serve this year on the football staff," Turner said. "I want to also thank Principal Tom Gallus, Athletic Director Kim Joseph, the search committee, and the Berkeley County Board of Education for this incredible opportunity to be a teacher and head football coach at Hanahan High School. I am extremely excited for the future of our school and athletic program. I cannot wait to get to work with our team and to meet the Hanahan community. Wendi and I feel extremely blessed."

"Thank you to Coach Helton, Staff, Players, Administration and Eagle Nation for an exciting journey this year. Thank you for letting me be a small part of something Special! The future is bright at Georgia Southern, You ain’t seen nothin’ yet! #GATA #HailSouthern," Turner's Twitter post read.

FMRP and tumor immunity

Many tumors have developed mechanisms rendering them resistant to attack and destruction by the immune system. Zeng et al. report that fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP) is highly expressed in human cancers, and they propose that it is involved in antitumor immunity. FMRP is best known as an RNA-binding protein that regulates the stability and translation of neuronal RNAs. By genetically inactivating the FMRP gene in mouse cancer cells, the researchers found that FMRP-deficient tumors had reduced growth and were more susceptible to attack by T lymphocytes. Tumor cells lacking FMRP showed remodeling of the tumor microenvironment, macrophage polarization, and upregulation of the chemokines involved in effector CD8⁺ T cell recruitment. —PNK

Structured Abstract

Cancer biology and therapy have been transformed by knowledge about immunoregulatory mechanisms that govern adaptive immunity. Although some forms of treatment resistance are related to the intentionally transitory operations of the adaptive immune system, others reflect more subtle requirements to modulate the immune system in different contexts. In this work, we identified an immunoregulatory mechanism involving the neuronal RNA binding protein fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP), which broadly regulates protein translation and mRNA stability and is aberrantly up-regulated in multiple forms of cancer.

This study was motivated by reports that cancer cells naturally overexpressing FMRP, whose loss of expression in developing neurons causes cognitive defects, were invasive and metastatic. We investigated the expression of FMRP in human tumors, further assessed its tumor-promoting functions in mouse models of cancer, and evaluated its association with prognosis for human cancer patients.

When human tumor tissue microarrays were immunostained for expression of FMRP, a majority of tumors expressed FMRP, whereas cognate normal tissues did not. To investigate the functional significance of this broad up-regulation, the FMR1 gene was ablated through CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing (FMRP-KO, where KO indicates knockout) in mouse cancer cell lines that were inoculated into both immunodeficient and syngeneic immunocompetent mice to establish tumors in parallel with wild-type (WT) FMRP-expressing cell lines. Mice bearing FMRP-KO tumors had similar survival compared with isogenic WT tumors in immunodeficient hosts, indicating that FMRP was not involved in stimulating tumor growth per se. By contrast, tumor growth was impaired and survival extended in immunocompetent hosts, implicating the adaptive immune system. Indeed, FMRP-expressing WT tumors were largely devoid of T cells, whereas FMRP-KO tumors were highly inflamed. Depletion of CD8 and CD4 T cells restored tumor growth and reduced survival, implicating FMRP in immune evasion in WT tumors. WT and FMRP-KO tumors were profiled by single-cell RNA sequencing, revealing marked differences in genome-wide transcription and abundance of cancer cells, macrophages, and T cells. To elucidate the effects of this multifaceted regulatory protein, we performed several functional perturbations, revealing that: FMRP-expressing cancer cells produce the chemokine interleukin-33 (IL-33), which induces regulatory T cells, as well as tumor-secreted protein S (PROS1) ligand and exosomes that elicit tumor-promoting (M2) macrophages. Both cell types are immunosuppressive, collectively contributing to the barrier against T cell attack. By contrast, FMRP-KO cancer cells down-regulate all three factors and up-regulate C-C motif chemokine ligand 7 (CCL7), which helps recruit and activate T cells. Additionally, immunostimulatory macrophages develop in this context that express three proinflammatory chemokines—CCL5, CXCL9, and CXCL10—which cooperate with CCL7 in recruiting T cells. Finally, neither FMR1 mRNA nor FMRP protein levels were sufficient to predict outcomes in cohorts of cancer patients. Recognizing FMRP’s function as an RNA binding protein that modulates mRNA stability and hence levels in transcriptome datasets, a gene signature reflecting FMRP’s cancer regulatory activity (involving 156 genes) was developed by comparing FMRP-expressing versus FMRP-deficient cancer cells, both in culture and within tumors. Our FMRP cancer activity signature was prognostic for survival across multiple human cancers; anticorrelated with the intensity of T cell infiltration in different tumor types, consistent with FMRP’s immunosuppressive effects; and was associated with comparatively poor responses to immune checkpoint inhibitors and immune-dependent chemotherapy in selected cohorts.

FMRP is revealed as a regulator of a network of genes and cells in the tumor microenvironment that contribute to the capability of tumors to evade immune destruction.

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Abstract

Many human cancers manifest the capability to circumvent attack by the adaptive immune system. In this work, we identified a component of immune evasion that involves frequent up-regulation of fragile X mental retardation protein (FMRP) in solid tumors. FMRP represses immune attack, as revealed by cancer cells engineered to lack its expression. FMRP-deficient tumors were infiltrated by activated T cells that impaired tumor growth and enhanced survival in mice. Mechanistically, FMRP’s immunosuppression was multifactorial, involving repression of the chemoattractant C-C motif chemokine ligand 7 (CCL7) concomitant with up-regulation of three immunomodulators—interleukin-33 (IL-33), tumor-secreted protein S (PROS1), and extracellular vesicles. Gene signatures associate FMRP’s cancer network with poor prognosis and response to therapy in cancer patients. Collectively, FMRP is implicated as a regulator that orchestrates a multifaceted barrier to antitumor immune responses.

It was almost an eight-hour day at the Hanahan ballpark in some oppressive heat, but the Hanahan Dixie Youth Minors (10U) got their pay day when it was all over.

Hanahan won twice on the final day of the District 7 tournament June 23, rallying for a 6-4 victory over Mt. Pleasant before pulling a similar escape in the championship game against Moncks Corner.

In the finale, Hanahan pitcher Hudson Tolbert hurled a complete game and infielder Luke Roe drove in three runs in the 8-3 victory. Catcher Jax Morrical chipped in a pair of RBIs.

Hanahan scored the final eight runs of the game after giving up three unearned runs in the top of the first.

Coach Matt Marlowe’s team, which finished 5-1 in the district, advances to the state tournament next month in Dillon. Their only loss was, 12-10, to Mt. Pleasant a day earlier. Marlowe said he was up until 2 in the morning after the loss.

“We cleaned up a lot of our mistakes we made the other night,” Marlowe said. “That was a big part of it today. We learned from it, moved on and went out and had some fun tonight. We hoped we were going to play two.”

They did.

Hanahan scored four runs in the bottom of the fifth to edge Mt. Pleasant, 6-4, to set up the nightcap in front of an energetic crowd.

Moncks Corner plated three unearned runs on three Hanahan errors in the bottom of the first inning but also gave one back in the top of the second on an error.

It settled into a pitcher’s duel before the fifth inning once again proved huge for Hanahan. It plated five runs to take the lead for good.

With two on and two out, Roe blooped a single down the left-field line to pull Hanahan within 3-2. The tying run came home on the same sequence when the ball got loose on the infield.

Tolbert then helped himself with a RBI single off the pitcher’s glove to put Hanahan up, 4-3. Later, with the bases loaded, Morrical delivered a two-run single down the right-field line as the lead doubled to 6-3.

Roe iced it in the top of the sixth with a two-run single up the middle.

“He’s been one of our most consistent hitters in the tournament and really we’ve had a lot of guys hit the ball well,” Marlowe said.

Tolbert, a lefty with good offspeed stuff, fanned four batters and allowed three hits.

Hanahan didn’t make an error after the first to help the southpaw and ended the first by throwing out a runner at the plate. Roe and Ryker Schnackenberg collected two hits each and outfielder Jackson Cribb made a nice diving grab in center to take away a hit from Moncks Corner in the bottom of the fourth.

“I felt very confident with this team, just knowing the skill level and the mindset we had,” Marlowe said. “We had to work through a little adversity, but that’s just typical of 9-and 10-year-old kids. One of the biggest things we achieved was taking it one game at a time. I made sure they knew they were out here for a reason. They were selected for a reason and they had to be confident in themselves and make plays.”

Hanahan won three games (Mt. Pleasant 10-0, Moncks Corner 13-1 and St. Andrew’s 16-4) before losing to Mt. Pleasant on June 22.

Coach Marlowe is assisted by Chris Tolbert and Thomas Hole.

“I’m excited. We’ve got to brush up on some things for the state tournament,” Marlowe said. “We want to see where we can make some improvements. Hopefully we can go up there and put on a good show.”

The word is out that there is something special in Goose Creek. The City of Goose Creek Gymnastics is a dynamic, driven and fun organization displaying confidence, determination and the accolades to back it up.

Under the leadership of Brittany LaRoche, City of Goose Creek Gymnastics coordinator, the teams within the organization have exceeded all expectations. Ten of the organization’s competitive teams have been awarded first place across the state within the last two years. Over that period, a competitive boys team has also been established and is now dominating competitions throughout the state.

LaRoche, a Goose Creek native, is herself a former competitive gymnast. She was a devoted athlete having practiced for 10 years with two private gyms in the Lowcountry, where she attended practices 32 hours a week Monday through Friday.

“I’ve had a passion for gymnastics since I was a little girl growing up in Goose Creek,” said LaRoche. “This has been an incredible opportunity to return to my hometown and create a program built on the same love and appreciation that I have for gymnastics.”

LaRoche has been with the City of Goose Creek Gymnastics for four years, and has bright goals for its future.

“I want our teams to continue to grow and become even stronger and more competitive,” said LaRoche. “Our goal for the competitive program is to be number one in the state at all levels.”

Due to the program’s esteem, the City of Goose Creek Gymnastics has grown exponentially and consists of five experienced and talented coaches including Brittany LaRoche, Jaime Barnes, Taylor Bone, Laura Aycock, and Keenan Shine.

“I am extremely proud of how much this program has grown,” said LaRoche. “I have such a special relationship with our parents, whose support has been overwhelming. I am also so grateful for my experienced coaching staff, and the talent and expertise that every single coach brings to our program.”

The City of Goose Creek Gymnastics is open to both boys and girls ages 5-16. Due to the program’s distinction and volume of students, the City of Goose Creek Gymnastics is currently waitlisting prospective students.