Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Volley Ball draws West Craven

If you go to the NCHSAA website looking for the volleyball brackets and teams they are still not up but Coach Tab Wilcox was telling her team that they draw the same team they met in the opening round last year West Craven. Rocky Mount won the first round match but like all teams from the Coastal they were tall but not very fast. Lady Gryphon Volleyball starts their run in the playoffs Saturday at 2.00pm at the gym.

The Tennis duels got underway this afternoon and now I know why I did not know who Rocky Mount was playing. They aren't, only two teams from the Big East made the playoffs.

#1 seed Nash Central hosted McMichael and the Lady Bulldogs didn't need the doubles to secure victory as they advance to the second round 5-1. Next Tuesday they play at #1 from the Carolina conference Cardinal Gibbons in Raleigh. Nash Central is now 17-2 on the year.

The #2 from the Big East Fike traveled all the way to Currituck to meet the #1 seed from the Northeast Coastal and if you are going to ride that far you might as well celebrate coming home and Fike destroys Currituck 9-0. They now travel to the #1 seed Eastern Wayne.

Tarboro Girls having a heck of a year in tennis kept it rolling winning their opening round against Warren County 9-0. They next play First Flight who is #1 in the Northeast Coastal 2-a. Tarboro is 22-2 this year.

The boys brackets in soccer is out with only conference seeding having been released and there is a big advantage in winning the top spot in conference play. Hunt and Rocky Mount are battling for the top spot and both would get first round home games. #1 gets Eastern Carolina #3 and #2 draws Coastal #3. The second round #1 would be home while #2 would hit the road at Carolina #1. A tough road to for who ever draws the second spot.

It is vital for the Gryphons to win the remaining two conference game Wednesday at home to Northern at 5.00pm and Thursday on the road. Two wins and the worse they could be would still be tied for first.

Cross Country Big East Championship is Wednesday at Fike.

Lindsey Thomas, Caroline Bell, Caroline Nelson and Elizabeth Thompson are the two Gryphon doubles teams and they play in the regional Friday

I see in the Telegram that Gryphon baseball player Benton Moss was named Student of the week by the Kiwanis club. Moss who has declared for UNC baseball with Mike Fox to join former Gryphon Brian Goodwin has been nominated for the Morehead Scholarship. Don't you know Mike Fox would love to have him at Carolina with the Morehead and use his baseball scholarship for someone else.

It's Still The Big Three

The two plus years that I have done this daily blog there have been peaks and valleys in the viewer ship. When people don’t look, why? Am I talking about uninteresting things that no one wants to see or why is there a jump? It is easy to see what people want to see on the local level.

It’s winning football, basketball and baseball. When each is doing well people want more, when things are down like in football they don’t want to look at bad things. As you know it is my policy that I don’t rag on high school players and coaches so if you are looking for a forum to spew hate this is not the place. I’m not going to berate either.

Simply put a state champ potential soccer team or a really good volleyball team doesn’t move the meter of interest of the general public in Rocky Mount.

In the past when football was winning I would take a whole day to report on a game and now when things are not so good take a paragraph.

That first month once I started this blog it took a while to get the seeds planted and folks to know what I was doing. By the middle of the 2008 football season and other than a forfeit no losses on the field people began making hits. By the Eastern Finals I was pleased with the 60 or so a day that I had coming aboard.

Basketball and Baseball had good seasons and by the end of baseball playoff loss I was up to maybe 75 hits a day.

Legion season started and by the State playoff run we had hit a spike and were now getting 125 per day. 2009 football had a good season and maintained the 125 per day but the next jump occurred during that month stretch this year when the basketball team made their state championship run. We had reached 150 average per day.

By summer with the legion returning to the state tournament and the little league tournament being in Rocky Mount we went over 200 hits on some days.

Football has fell on one of the worst seasons in a decade and so too viewer ship has fallen. Could I get people to click me on if I did a tabloid material. Not my style so it ain’t going to happen.

Since the beginning I have watch Charles Alston’s Gryphon Grapevine first of all it is the Bible of Gryphon Sports. Then Rocky Mount’s I High site. They too are not getting the hits that they have in the past.

Conclusion: To me it is very evident that people love a winner. They can’t get enough when they are winning and could care less when they are losing. There is only one problem with that attitude. When you don’t go to the games whether they win or lose that is a dollar or more that will not be in the coffers for the other sports and well as for future football teams.

We need to support the team whether you think they are state champs capable or just average. The football team is giving us all they have. It may not be enough for you to want to go but remember this Friday is homecoming. If you are going to a game this year we have homecoming and Northern left at home.

It may not happen this Friday night with Fike but I can assure you Northern will be in Rocky Mount in record numbers. You surly wouldn’t want them to out number you that night would you.
Yes we would like to win every game and be happy and have a smile on our face all the time. The Lord takes away the sunshine and makes it rain every now and then and that is not such a bad thing. Not winning every game is not the end of the world.