Plans, Plans and More Plans

If you don't have a plan in life, you may find yourself going nowhere. WZAX Jammin 99.3 FM will be broadcasting the 3-A State Championship Saturday night from Chapel Hill. This week, after the Gryphon victory last Saturday in the East regional, at least 11 sponsors have stepped forward which will allow us (Wes Bradshaw and myself) to bring you the game from the Dean Dome.

This will be my second basketball broadcast of a state championship game from Blue Heaven. I was there in 2005 when SouthWest Edgecombe girls won the 2-A title. I have done a couple of football state title games and in baseball, a couple of state title Babe Ruth games and I have been privileged to do two Babe Ruth World Series title games in which Nash County has been involved. I don't care how many Super Bowls you do, every one of them is special and for me and Wes, doing these games are big moments in our broadcast careers.

WHIG-TV has met every requirement that TimeWarnerCable has required of them except one. They want the tape to record the Rocky Mount game in their hands at 10.a.m Saturday. Part of the problem is there will be four games for them Saturday and once they start their live feed to their Time Warner customers across the state, they don't want me banging on the the door of their truck with a tape for them to record on at 7.30 p.m. We are still working on that problem.

Mike Gainey, his coaches and players have agreed to be on the Stretchlon Sports Show Sunday night live at 8 p.m. - win or lose Saturday. Mike also told me today that they have two buses full of Gryphons heading to Chapel Hill. By the way, Rocky Mount will be the visitor in this game and will wear navy blue, so I think they want all Gryphons fans to wear navy blue Saturday night.

Those who attended the Eastern regionals, whether it was a boys game at ECU or a girls game at Rose High, know that Greenville is a really good venue for the regional. It's not too big, but just about the right size for the regional. However, there is a real possibility that Greenville will no longer host the regional.

University Health Systems of Eastern Carolina, which has been the title sponsor for the last 10 years, from what I hear is pulling out as sponsor. That's too bad. Probably the best thing to happened to eastern North Carolina in the past 30 years was ECU getting the medical school.

University Health Systems of Eastern North Carolina has branches out all over eastern North Carolina and it now owns many of the little hospitals around the East that feed into Pitt Memorial. What a better way to advertise that to sponsor something that connects the entire eastern North Carolina together. Last week, teams from Weldon, Rocky Mount, Goldsboro, Kinston and Pender County were just some of the teams that played in the regional.

If it doesn't stay in Greenville, it may very well go to Fayetteville and then. whenever we play in the regional, we will be making the long trips instead of heading just down the road as it is now. Sometimes you don't miss something until it is gone.