First Place On The Line

Tonight Fike will play host to the Gryphons in baseball which will be a battle for first place. Fike had a very slow start but this week they have scored 27 runs in their last two games.

Overall Fike is now 7-3 but most importantly zero losses in conference play. The Gryphons are 12-1 overall and also support a goose egg in the loss column.

As bad as the schedule has been with so much time off the last two weeks the Gryphons will have their entire pitching staff fresh while The Golden Demons have played on Monday and Tuesday this week.

The Lady Gryphon football team(soccer) took care of Northern Nash for the second time this year in conference play winning 3-nil Monday. Good going!

Those of you who read this column daily know that I am torn over the naming of the new basketball coach at N C State.

Stephanie Glance has been one of those dedicated employees that every company wish they had. Practically she has been the coach over the last five years during Kay Yow's cancer battles.

I like so many other Wolfpackers wants to be 25-5 every year just like Duke and Carolina. I don't see Stephanie being able to do that.

Today at Reynolds Coliseum on Kay Yow Court N C State is expected to names Kellie Harper the new Women's basketball coach.

Harper then Kellie Jolly before marriage lead Tennessee to three straight national Championships while the starting point guard for the Volunteers. Her five years at Western Carolina she has been 97-65. I think what pushed Harper to the top of the list that in the past two seasons Western Carolina has been ranked 25th and this year 15th on the academic honor roll for colleges.

Not only is she young and energetic but she believes in the classroom too. So in five years since she has been a head coach she has won at a school that had never before and has improved every year in the quality education her players were getting.

Lee Fowler has not set the world on fire with any of his hirings since he has been the Athletic Director for the Wolfpack. I think he got this one right.

Hopefully the only problem the Wolfpack will have with Harper is that whenever Pat Summitt retires at Tennessee they don't come after her. The good news there is Summitt is only 54 years old and as many games as she has won already she may pull a Joe Paterno and coach forever.

Harper will only be the third Women's coach in the Wolfpack women's history. Robert Doak coached the first women's team in 1974 and Yow took over in 1975. At 32 years old she has the potential to coach the Wolfpack until 2045 or so.

If that happens that means Fowler finally got one right.