Winning tastes sweet but losing offers lessons to make you play smarter.
The best news of last season is that Pelion High is a winner again. They made the playoffs this year.
Congratulations, Panthers.
The next best news is that most of our Chronicle Country teams posted winning records with Gray Collegiate winning 8 of its 9 games.
No, I didn’t forget Dutch Fork. The Silver Foxes and coach Tom Knotts won a 5th straight 5A state championship. No other SC 5A public high team ever did that.
Only Erik Kemrey’s Hammond private school team won 6 state titles. You can take it to the bank that the Silver Foxes will tie that record next season.
A pair of SC teams, Clemson and Coastal Carolina, won their conference titles.
Coastal Carolina head coach Jamey Chadwell was selected the Associated Press Coach of the Year.
In his 3rd year, Chadwell led the team to their 1st Sun Belt Conference title and an 10-win regular season.
His players earned 16 All-Sun Belt selections including 10 1st-team selections. 
Clemson beat Notre Dame in the ACC title game and had a better record than Ohio State which played only 6 games,.
But in a surprise win, the Buckeyes soundly defeated No. 2 Clemson 49-28 in the Sugar Bowl.
Yes, I expected Clemson to win by far more than the 6.5-point betting line.
Ohio State QB Justin Fields took a shot from Clemson linebacker James Skalski in the 1st half. 
Skalski was ejected for targeting but Fields played injured in a gutsy performance. He torched the Tigers with 22 of 28 passes and 385 yards and his offensive line protected him through 98% of the game.Ohio State avenged last year’s semi-final loss to Clemson. In the 2nd half, Fields put the game away with a 56-yard TD pass.
Can you believe a Brent Venables defense giving up 7 TDs in a single game?
Fields out-dueled Clemson’s Trevor Lawrence, who fell behind after the Tigers had 3 scoreless possessions in the 1st half. Clemson’s quarterback completed 33 of 48 passes for 400 yards and 2 touchdowns.
Now Lawrence and co-star Travis Etienne move on to the pros. For Clemson, it’s next men up. There’s another season to prepare for.
No national title this year but we’ll all recover. 
Losing teaches more lessons than winning. 
Winning is sweeter. Losing makes you smarter.
What knd of season do you think your favorite high school and college teams will have next season? Write ChronicleSports@yahoo.com