Fight Until The End

All any fan can ask of any team they pull for is to give it all you have and whether you win or lose when the game is over and we can say "We gave it all we had".  Most Gryphon football fans have complained mostly over the past few years of not doing much in any game in the second half. When the conversation about who would be the new coach was raging either the old ball  coach or the young blood Gryphon Jason Battle. The search committee chose Jason Battle.

There are those who wanted the old ball coach they will be in the wait to prove to me over a period of time.  Heading into the fifth game this coming Friday night with Rose there has been one area the Gryphons have made major improvements and that is they were the best team on the field in the fourth quarter against SWE and Hertford County.  Even in the season opening loss with Bunn they made a push in the fourth but fell short.

The Gryphons made the winning drive against HC in the fourth and against SWE scored all three times they had the ball in the fourth.  Both of those games they were under sized  in the line on both sides of the ball. There is no  doubt that the Gryphons have talent but the coach has to get that talent  out of his players.

Winning games in the fourth quarter tells me a few things.  The Gryphons are in great physical shape.  They team looks like they are having fun and they are performing like a machine together.  Those three items are all related to coaching.

There are tough times ahead for this team as I don't think any one who has watched this team so far thinks they are a team that could go undefeated but the talk in the stands is about the change that everyone sees over last year.  All the credit for this change has to go to Jason and his staff.

Any team that plays with spunk, spirit and a never quit attitude should win the hearts of their fans regardless of the outcome of the game's score.  What we want to see is play hard on every play give us all you got and let's go shake hands when the game ends.

Anyone who ever has been around Jason knows he has a glow about him that life seems to be good.  He likes to remind anyone that will listen that he is the only coach at Rocky Mount that has three state championship rings,  2008 he was an assistant on the baseball team and the 2010 and 2012 basketball teams.  His glows reflects on his players as they seem to be having fun the Jason Battle way.

There has been plenty of second guessing about the Jason Battle hire as the Gryphon football coach which was lead by Principal Mr. Farrow and athletic director Gainey.  Four games into the 2012 football season they sure do look like geniuses

Forgive Me Fore I Have Sinned

I don't know how many games I have ever seen in Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh over my life time but Saturday I did something that I have never done before.  I think it was 1959 or 1960 the first time I went inside the hay barn called the home of the Wolfpack.  My dad and his friends had loaded up a car and we drove to Raleigh from Ahoskie to watch the Big Four play basketball.  It was called the Dixie Classic.

That day I pulled for all four teams from North Carolina.  All I knew was four teams from out of this world had come to Reynolds to show our boys from North Carolina that they knew nothing about basketball.   As a six or seven year old boy I don't even remember who those teams were that thought they could teach us how to play basketball.

Over time I fell in love with the Wolfpack and Duke and Wake and Carolina had to take a backseat in my life.  Yes today I did something in the house of the Grey Fox, House of David Thompson and the house of Jim Valvano.  I pulled against the Wolfpack.

Clad in an orange tee shirt with Campbell Volleyball on our chest Pat and I didn't know whether to hide or cry as we entered the building. I told coach Leigh Mullins of Campbell that  she had no idea how it was for me to be in this building in this tee shirt.

I don't know if we were punished for wearing such colors or not but the Pack stung tne Camels 25-11-25-15 and 25 19. Afterwords we ran into coach Kelly Harper the Wolfpack Women's basketball coach and I told her of our plight of wearing orange on this day as if I needed to explain it to her. Thankfully this is the only time this year the two teams face off.

This past Thursday the Technician the official newspaper of N C State ran an article on the state of the Triathlon program.  It interviewed Brooks Doughtie their coach as well as some of the runners as today in Williamsburg Virginia State's Tri team competes for the first time with a coach.

The NCAA is still considering the options of making Tri an official NCAA sport.  The Technician has a quote of the day for someone within their paper that day.  They used a quote Brooks had given them when they interviewed him.  "I want to get a team atmosphere going instead of a bunch of indiviuals racing for N C State."