He Made An Impact

Today many in this area especially those from the sports community will be saying good bye to a friend.  Charles Alston was a 1976 graduate of Rocky Mount Senior High School.  Early on he helped with the afternoon edition of the Evening Telegram. This last year he helped with the Nashville Graphics.  His main job was working in the Home and Garden department at Sears.  He worked at Sears so long that as the elder statesman who  got to pick first on which day off you took each week and you can bet if there was something important going on concerning the Rocky Mount Gryphons that was Charle's day off. He planned vacation around State Championship weekends just in case one of our teams was there.

He never married and his life away from work was the Gryphons.  Any sports record that you might know about anything to do with the Gryphons Charles Alston is the person who researched it to come up with that stat.  Charles goal was he wanted to have a stat on any sport about Rocky Mount High that there was a history to look up.  He spent hours pouring through the archives at Braswell Library for box scores of baseball games.  Do you know how much time that must take and Charles was no where near finished?

2001 First Media decided to start doing all football, basketball and baseball games of Rocky Mount High.  Having only moved here in 1995 I knew very little of the history.  Yes I knew of Danny Talbott, Phil Ford  and the likes but I knew nothing of the Hank Jones's of Rocky Mount history.  My very first broadcast of Gryphon basketball I had Charles as my halftime guest and as long as there was Gryphon's on the radio Charle's was there with me.  later we changed over to the game of the week and included all schools of the area but for about four years Charles was my right hand man.

Coming back from a ball game one night Charles had recently started the Web site of Rocky Mount  and we talked about me doing an opinion  about once  a week on the site.  In August of 2008 Charles set me up with this blog and this has been a daily thing for me since.  On and average day now this site has grown to where around 125 people read this on a daily average.

What kind of an impact has Charles Alston had in the area.  If this blog  can be any indication my top three blog days as far as how many have look at it on a daily basis is telling.  The most viewed day was the 24 hours after the basketball team won the title in 2010.  550 people viewed this blog that day.  Just this year when both basketball teams played in Regional finals 499 hit this site.  The next week when the boys won their second title 475 people came to read my view.  Monday night and the next 24 hours there were 455 hits on this site the 4th biggest day.

I have read many people who would love to see something named for Charles and I am all for it.  The football press box at the Athletic Complex is one of the best press boxes for high schools in the state.  Yes the Gryphon's no longer play there but as the city tries to use that football facility and of course the Viking Down East Classic will be an annual event there.  NC Wesleyan after thought and the locker rooms are refurbished should use the Complex.  Charles Alston spend many a night there and I believe next year during the Viking Down East Classic would be a great time to name the press box in his name.