Hallways Are Abuzz

Social time on the campus of Rocky Mount High School was all basketball today as students talked of Saturday's regional final victory and whether you were going to the Dean Dome this Saturday.

A contingent of folks from RMHS were on hand today at the press conference discussing Saturday's state championships. Mike Gainey talked about his Gryphons and their path getting there.

Concord's head coach spoke. Scott Brewer is a former state champion coach with Central Cabarrus in 2000. Concord will be making its third trip to the State championship game in the last five years. The Spiders won the 3-A crown in 2006, the year before Brewer took over. Concord is on a 16-game winning streak and has not lost a game since January 10. Its record is 25-6 and the Spiders are the champions of the South Piedmont Conference and, of course, the Western regional champion.

You can never trust a team's program, whether it's football or basketball, as a football team might list a player at 190 pounds, when he is actually 225 to make you think he is smaller. In Basketball, they are listing 6-foot-3 as Concord's tallest player. So we will not know for sure until tip=time how accurate that is. They are a run-and-gun team maybe even more than we are.

The Gryphons brought 1,000 tickets back with them to sell for the game Saturday. They will go on sale Tuesday morning and will not be sold past Thursday. I just can't imagine that the tickets will last that long. They will be on sale in the school office. Tickets are $9. If you wait and stand in line at the Dean Dome, they will be $10. Coach Gainey has too much going on this week to add ticket sales to the biggest week of his life.

WZAX 99.3 is trying to get advertising sold so Wes and I can bring you the game back for those of you who don't go to The Hill on Saturday. I hope on tomorrow night's blog I can give you a thumbs up on the radio live broadcast.

Sunday night we will be showing a replay of the state championship game on WHIG-TV beginning at 8 p.m. Gainey and the Gryphons will be there as we always do when we celebrate a victory and hope not defeat Sunday night. Regardless of the results, just making it to the big dance is something special and needs to be recognized.

I think I got a thumbs up from wife Pat, but, of course, there is always a catch. We have a grandaughter that plays in the Raleigh Soccer League. She is eight and has a game Saturday morning somewhere in Wake County. She says she will go to the Duke-Carolina baseball game under one condition. It has to be a pretty warm day. She says she will go see Madison play in the rain and freezing cold, but to watch Brian Goodwin and Carolina, it has to be warm. The five-day forecast calls for 60s Saturday.

So I have a big sports day online for Saturday. Soccer in the morning, Carolina baseball at Durham at 2 p.m. and Gryphon basketball Saturday night. I wonder if I can find a softball game, somewhere!