There is an old saying in Nascar that if you run up front enough you will win one after a while. Northern Nash boys cross country team won the Eastern Regional 3-A championship on Saturday winning for the first time in the Regional since 1993. Since 93 there haven't been many times that the Knights were not in the top five.
Why is it that they are so strong in long distance running. You may have heard me say this not but a few weeks ago that football was 80% coaching. It might be even more in cross country. How do you convince teenagers that going out and running five miles a day is something you need to do in life when there are so many other distractions for our teenagers.
Jeff Dodrill has been coaching the Northern C/C teams for many years. I met him for the first time in 1999 when I was doing the game of the week on WHIG TV. I interviewed him for halftime and then you could see how well the players reacted with him. There are many great coaches leading our youth in this area and if you could pick five from every sport our children play Jeff would have to be on that list.
He is of course the Athletic Director at Red Oak Middle and he gets first shot as those gangly seventh graders moving to Junior High. How in the world do you convince a 7th grader that running could be your passion. He has and then as Northern Nash High cross country coach he has already invested two years or more in these kids once they hit high school. You will find him almost every day running right along with his runners.
The results Northern is always near the top. Injuries at the wrong time of year effect everyone one way or another year after year but under Dodrill Northern Nash is a power in cross country. This Saturday they have a real chance in winning it all a state Crown. Good luck Knights
Rocky Mount girls tennis team travels to Terry Sanford today for the third round of the State Duel Tennis playoffs. RM 18-1 and TS 12-0 square off hoping to play in the fourth round Wednesday and if they survive that the state championships this weekend.
The Lady Gryphon doubles team of Chandler Brice and Eliza Fike finished 3rd in the state doubles losing to the two time State champion duo of the Knors Sisters.
Taylor Love the singles player from Hunt lost a heart breaker in the singles finals to Asheville's Adrienne Haynes. The scores were 2-6- 6-2-6-4.
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