007 Wins Washington Invitational

James Bond Gryphon sophomore cross country runner won the boys race at the Washington Invitational Saturday in Washington N.C.. Bond ran a dead even seventeen minute race on the 3.1 mile course. Team mate Mason Holt another sophomore finished fourth running the race in 17:16. This enabled the Gryphon Boys to finish second in the boys division of the invitational.

If you recall a couple of weeks back when we first spoke of the cross country team both Bond and Holt ran right around 17:30 so Bond knocking off thirty seconds and Holt fifteen seconds in a couple of weeks is outstanding development for both. It would lead you to believe that both these guys have unlimited potential in cross country.

No one brought home a metal as a winner but as a team Rocky Mount's girls came home the champion of the invitational. Cross country scoring is the winner gets one point , second two points and third three. As all the runners cross the finish line all the scores from your top five runners are added up and the team with the lowest wins and the Lady Gryphons got a real team effort and won the invitational.

This is certainly one of the biggest weeks in cross country in recent memory.

Last Thanksgiving after the football season ended it also brought to a close the first decade of the twenty first century. On this blog we named our top fifteen Gryphon football players of the decade. Three of those players have tried and still trying to make in in pro football. There is still a couple of players in college who played during the first decade of this century which might wind up making the pros yet.

Mike Mason who was rated as the seventh best tried with the Cleveland Browns. Stephan Virgil was cut during the summer by Buffalo. Stephan was our #1 rated player. We hope that the knee injury that Stephan had his senior year at Virginia Tech will allow him another shot if he wants to continue to try. Terrell Hudgins who holds just about every pass receiving record in college football history was cut by the Cowboys as he was #2 on the list.

If these guys can't make it what does it take. Not only does it take luck but being at the right place at the right time is the most important, then staying healthy.

Kids all over the world want to be a pro. Their chances are slim and none that they will even make a college team much less the pros. If there is one thing each athlete needs to do is realize that pro sports is a long shot. Prepare yourself to be a pro in another sport like banking, sales or coaching.

Monday both tennis and soccer have home matches. Volleyball is home Tuesday.