Donte Battle Big East Player Of The Year

Rocky Mount High School Junior Donte Battle has been named the Big East Player of the year in basketball.  Battle averaged 18.8 point and almost 11 rebounds per game leads two other Gryphons who join him on the All Conference team.  M J Gainey Jr. a senior who on the season averaged 12.1 points per game and Mason Hines a senior rounds out the Gryphons on the all Conference team.  Hines average 6.2 points per game 5.9 assists and 3.2 rebounds and proved that you don't have to be a big scorer to be all conference.  Michael Hines made the Honorable Mention all conference team.

Rocky Mount baseball plays at home today against Greenville Rose at 4pm weather permitting.

Rocky Mount Prep is the only team from the area that will be playing Saturday and they will be in Reynolds Coliseum in Raleigh for the 2.30 tapoff.  They will be playing Winston Salem Prep.  First Media is trying to get sponsors to be able to carry the game Saturday which we hope to be able to tell you that we will have the game on the radio but we are not able to yet.

Those who don't make the trip can go on line to Time Warner Cable  at their North Carolina website and be able to watch the game on line as it is feed to all the Time Warner Cable systems in North Carolina.

Sitting on press row Saturday as Prep was destroying East Carteret there was mumbling about how unfair it is for the Prep and Charter schools to be playing in the public school playoffs.  Sounds just like the roar last spring when member of the NCHSAA almost voted out all the the Private school  because they are dominating in most cases all of the so called minor sports.

The issue for for charter schools like RM Prep they have no school boundary as to where your school district is.  You can actually live in Raleigh and if you want to drive all this way could go to school at Prep and play athletics there.  That is where the public schools are seething.  I can tell you that there in no member of the Tar-Roanoke wanting Prep to be in their conference because a student who lives in Leggett right in the back yard of North Edgecombe can go to Prep.  I suspect this spring the Private school issue will come up again since 80% voted the private school out but just enough school voted present to not get the required votes to oust.

Prep plays Saturday against Winston Salem Prep a team that during the playoffs beat their opening opponent 100-37.  their second round game 97-43.  Sounds a lot like the scores RM Prep was winning by doesn't it.  I would suspect in due time as more charter school open there will at some point be a Charter school league and all the charter schools will have their own playoffs.  That is not much consolation for a team like East Carteret who possibly won the state championship without two Prep schools in their way.

Right now at this time this is the way the rules are set up and right or wrong Rocky Mount Prep has done every thing that they needed to do to get themselves in this position to win their first State Championship.  I hope everyone in Rocky Mount will be there to cheer them on.