I realize that I can't remember things out of the past as well as I use to, but I believe that there was a first for me at Wilson Hunt Friday.
Morgan, the last of the Doughtie children who is a proud Gryphon freshman this year, was away at a church camp for the weekend at Lake Gaston.
As we waved bye to Morgan Friday afternoon and it was almost time to head out to meet Wes Bradshaw and Charles Alston for our road trip to Hunt, Pat (my beautiful wife) looks at me with these sad eyes and says, "well, I guess I will have to stay home all alone on a holiday Friday night."
Morgan, the last of the Doughtie children who is a proud Gryphon freshman this year, was away at a church camp for the weekend at Lake Gaston.
As we waved bye to Morgan Friday afternoon and it was almost time to head out to meet Wes Bradshaw and Charles Alston for our road trip to Hunt, Pat (my beautiful wife) looks at me with these sad eyes and says, "well, I guess I will have to stay home all alone on a holiday Friday night."
Right away, my first thought is 'yep, that's too bad.'
I may look stupid, but looks aren't everything. I responded with a quick-thinking 'you know, we could go over to Parker's, and then over to the game.'
I still have heel marks on my chest as she ran over me heading to the car.
I called Wes and told him I would meet him at the game. You know the average person who eats at Parker's is over 50 years of age and is 60 pounds over weight. (insert my picture here). A large combination dinner and five quarts of sweet tea later, we arrived in the parking lot at Hunt High School.
Hunt High has an average-sized press box, but when you put three radio stations: WZAX 99.3 FM doing the call on its "Game of the Week", WLLY AM was doing Wilson County's "Game of the Week" and of course, AM Sports 1390 covering the Gryphons - there is a house full.
Both schools had their film crews, WHIG TV 17 was filming for its "Game of the Week." There was hardly any room for the PA man and the clock operator.
In order to make sure everything is in working order, you must set up the equipment about an hour before broadcast time. If everything works and there is no panic because a piece of equipment is not acting right, you sometimes have 45 minutes to catch up on all gossip from all of your friends from the other radio crews.
Pat went up with us to the press box with the intent to go sit on the Rocky Mount side as soon as someone she knew showed up. To say the least, it can be very entertaining in the press box as everyone asks question about players and some old stories pop up.
I think Pat enjoyed all the hub-bub in the box and stayed the whole game. I don't ever recall that she has ever been in a football press box with me while the game was in progress.
Hunt's JV cheerleaders came around just before the half and took orders for food. Somewhere along the way, I missed their visit, but to my surprise, a cheeseburger and fries appeared for me when they started unloading their goodies from the concession stand.
If you listened to the game last week, Kentucky Fried Chicken provides the food in the press box at Gryphon home games for everyone, and Wes got caught with a mouth full of biscuit coming out of a timeout. This time, it was my turn to be caught enjoying a burger when it was time for me to talk.
Do you get the sense that Wes and I can eat?
I called Wes and told him I would meet him at the game. You know the average person who eats at Parker's is over 50 years of age and is 60 pounds over weight. (insert my picture here). A large combination dinner and five quarts of sweet tea later, we arrived in the parking lot at Hunt High School.
Hunt High has an average-sized press box, but when you put three radio stations: WZAX 99.3 FM doing the call on its "Game of the Week", WLLY AM was doing Wilson County's "Game of the Week" and of course, AM Sports 1390 covering the Gryphons - there is a house full.
Both schools had their film crews, WHIG TV 17 was filming for its "Game of the Week." There was hardly any room for the PA man and the clock operator.
In order to make sure everything is in working order, you must set up the equipment about an hour before broadcast time. If everything works and there is no panic because a piece of equipment is not acting right, you sometimes have 45 minutes to catch up on all gossip from all of your friends from the other radio crews.
Pat went up with us to the press box with the intent to go sit on the Rocky Mount side as soon as someone she knew showed up. To say the least, it can be very entertaining in the press box as everyone asks question about players and some old stories pop up.
I think Pat enjoyed all the hub-bub in the box and stayed the whole game. I don't ever recall that she has ever been in a football press box with me while the game was in progress.
Hunt's JV cheerleaders came around just before the half and took orders for food. Somewhere along the way, I missed their visit, but to my surprise, a cheeseburger and fries appeared for me when they started unloading their goodies from the concession stand.
If you listened to the game last week, Kentucky Fried Chicken provides the food in the press box at Gryphon home games for everyone, and Wes got caught with a mouth full of biscuit coming out of a timeout. This time, it was my turn to be caught enjoying a burger when it was time for me to talk.
Do you get the sense that Wes and I can eat?
I think you will find that when a game is a blowout like the Hunt game was, it easy to tell who won by how long the post-game show is on the radio.
The Wilson County crew was off the air in about five minutes. Not much joy to pass around when the team you are covering is clobbered by 38.
WZAX's crew, being the "Game of the Week." was next to go. They will have more games for both schools later in the year.
The press box was deserted (what happened to that jammed press box) except for the extreme right side where we continued to expound on the Gryphons' victory.
A huge crowd at the game meant that even after a half-hour post game show, the parking lot was still trying to get clear as we finally made it out there.
Looking back, having my main squeeze in the press box with me made me feel like I was 20 again .... Ok, maybe 40.
The Wilson County crew was off the air in about five minutes. Not much joy to pass around when the team you are covering is clobbered by 38.
WZAX's crew, being the "Game of the Week." was next to go. They will have more games for both schools later in the year.
The press box was deserted (what happened to that jammed press box) except for the extreme right side where we continued to expound on the Gryphons' victory.
A huge crowd at the game meant that even after a half-hour post game show, the parking lot was still trying to get clear as we finally made it out there.
Looking back, having my main squeeze in the press box with me made me feel like I was 20 again .... Ok, maybe 40.
Unfortunately, there's no Parker's to go to next week in Henderson!
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