Vote: Who should be SBLive’s Upper State South Carolina Defensive Player of the Week (10/30/2023)?

Here are seven nominees for your voting consideration

Mike Duprez | Oct 30, 2023

Vote: Who should be SBLive’s Upper State South Carolina Defensive Player of the Week (10/30/2023)? /

We have seven athletes nominated this week for SBLive’s Upstate South Carolina Defensive Football Player of the Week from Oct. 26-27 and we ask you, the fans, to help decide who should indeed be the top athlete selected. Voting will conclude on Saturday, Nov. 4 at 11:59 p.m. and the winner will be announced in next week’s poll.

Congratulations to last week's winner: Azel Banag of A.C. Flora.

Here are this week’s nominations:

Deonte Starr, Clover

Starr returned an interception for a touchdown in the Blue Eagles’ 58-21 romp over Rock Hill to conclude the regular season.

Drew Spires, Richard Winn Academy

It’s a weekly deal for the 6-foot-2 senior. This time he had 11.5 tackles in the Eagles’ 36-8 win over Laurens Academy. Spires also caught 6 passes for 201 yards and 4 touchdowns.

Knai Cook, James F. Byrnes

The senior safety, who has 10 college offers, helped lead a strong pass defense as the Rebels ended their regular season with a 33-21 win over Gaffney.

Andre Pickett, Northwestern

The 6-foot-1, 275-pound junior tackle led the Trojans with 10 tackles, including 6.5 for loss in the Trojans’ 52-10 rout of Catawba Ridge. Pickett also had half a sack.

Spencer Conn, Daniel

Conn has put together solid games all season and he had another great one Friday night. The 6-foot, 210-pound junior, who is also a standout baseball player, had a team-best 11 tackles and recovered a fumble in the undefeated Lions’ 50-0 runaway win over Crescent.

Kaiden Erby, Greenville

The sophomore cornerback had a big night with five tackles, an interception and three pass breakups in a 42-14 win over Easley.

Reece Lynch, Chapman

The senior linebacker led his team with 10 tackles in a 38-35 win over Broome.

Published Oct 30, 2023

MIKE DUPREZ

Mike Duprez became a freelance sports journalist for Scorebooklive.com several months after retiring from the newspaper business. A native of Oakland, California, Duprez moved around as a child due to his father’s service in the United States Marine Corps. He earned a bachelor’s degree in political science from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1981. Duprez, who lives in North Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, had 30 years of experience in newspapers as well as other endeavors before retiring at the end of 2021. He covers stories in both North Carolina and South Carolina for Scorebooklive.com.