It is not often that any team starts a season as the defending State Champions as the 2016 Rocky Mount Gryphon football team did. Even if the entire team except for one player returns to a team that one player makes a completely new team. There have been times this season that this team has looked like last years squad but for the most part there is nothing about this years team that matches up with last.
They started 5-1 and the one lost was a competitive game with Middle Creek who by the way is on the schedule again next year. No one in 4-A through the first 12 games this season has been as close as the Gryphons were to MC 25-37. The victory over Rose was impressive and total domination over Hoke County led up to a conference schedule.
We all found out that there is new life in Nash Central. Turnovers we said made that game closer than it should be. A hurricane put a stop to life for a week and Fike found the Gryphons very dominant. A visit to Southern Nash and a top quality dog fight and the Gryphons go down after practically handing the Firebirds a touchdown after a defensive stop.
Turnovers plague once again with Northern Nash and Hunt. There was a point midway in the third quarter against Southern Lee that the season is over gift wrapped very nicely by four turnovers. Then there was a transformation right in front of everyone's eyes. The Gryphons woke up and started playing the way they had the first six games. Anyone who attended the game could see the players that played the first 28 minutes were not the same players that finished the last 20 minutes.
This team has the ability to be just as dominant as last year running the ball. They are not very good when they just go through the motions. You could almost see a concentration focus in the last minutes that has been missing for over a month. The only defensive fumble that the Gryphons had all night against Southern Lee was the Southern Lee defender took the ball away on the second half kickoff. The other five times the ball was on the ground were mishandles in the backfield that the Cavaliers graciously pounced on.
The 2016 version of Rocky Mount Gryphon football team this season have convinced themselves that they are defending state champions and no one can stop them but are they ever so wrong. There is a team out there that can stop them and they are the Rocky Mount Gryphons. That Gryphon team shows up to games thinking the other team must be shaking in their cleats because we are on the field. They rely on that team to fold up before the kickoff.
If this team has any intentions of playing beyond next Friday night they had better get off the bus with the concentration level like they had at Rose. They went to Southern once and two unnecessary penalties gave new life to the Firebirds and the Birds are good enough to take any gift and cram it down your throat.
Ok Rocky Mount Gryphons, what team do you want to be? Are you going to be the Gryphons that show up for 28 minutes and give the game away or the team that wants to crush you. The only way to play A third round game is to be the Gryphon team that when they get off the bus they are focused as one. If they show up and play the first 28 minutes the way they did last Friday it will not matter about the last 20 minutes the game will be lost.
What will it be?
Sunday, November 20, 2016
High School Baseball Prospects
The third Nash County baseball player has signed Division one scholarship as Landon Roupp of Faith Christian has inked his name to an offer from UNC Wilmington. He becomes the third player in the class of 2017 to commit to a Major baseball program.
Roupp joins David Harrison from Rocky Mount and Reid Johnston from Rocky Mount Academy as baseball players that know what they will be doing in the fall of 2017. Most notably two of those players are from private schools Roupp and Johnston killing the myth that no player from a private school will ever get noticed at the level they play in high school because they don't play enough quality competition.
Those two players joined travel league teams and like Harrison traveled all over the southeast growing up and all three got noticed. Johnston and Harrison by Elliot Advent from N C State and Roupp by Mark Scalf at UNC-W. The last ten years travel ball has boomed and families are willing to join soccer, basketball, volleyball and baseball and I am sure there are others sports on travel teams that send families on weekend excursions all over the southeastern US. Their is a tremendous cost to families and for these three it has paid off for their college futures.
One of the biggest losers in the rise of travel baseball is American Legion baseball who has lost most of the top prospects to travel ball. Even high school baseball is feeling the effects as many travel teams play during high school season making spring time seven day a week baseball. It brings in question and all three of our signees are pitchers pitching during the week for their high school team and may be pitching an inning or two on weekends. The stress level on a players arm or body is never ceasing. Last season even during the summer both Johnston and Harrison played for Post 58 Legion team but when scheduling conflicts occurred they played travel.
This coming high school season all three should be set to show us their stuff as they prepare to move to the next level and at this point we don't know but hope there may even be a level beyond college if they want it. There is no need for any of our three signees to play travel next summer and just think of the Legion team Rocky Mount could have if all three spend the summer playing legion for Post 58.
The prospects for the Legion is good without the three but with them the summer of 17 could last into August if these three anchor what looks like a good team already. If you remember Post 58 did not have a college player returning from college last season because of no Legion Baseball in 2015. Several senior players from last years team will have eligibility to return to Post 58 next season if they wish
Has anybody noticed this besides me that the best newspaper in Nash County is the Nashville Graphics. Even though it is only a weekly newspaper you can find more information in it than any other. In my opinion the second best paper to find out what is happening here in Nash County is WRAL.COM. Just thinking out loud.
Roupp joins David Harrison from Rocky Mount and Reid Johnston from Rocky Mount Academy as baseball players that know what they will be doing in the fall of 2017. Most notably two of those players are from private schools Roupp and Johnston killing the myth that no player from a private school will ever get noticed at the level they play in high school because they don't play enough quality competition.
Those two players joined travel league teams and like Harrison traveled all over the southeast growing up and all three got noticed. Johnston and Harrison by Elliot Advent from N C State and Roupp by Mark Scalf at UNC-W. The last ten years travel ball has boomed and families are willing to join soccer, basketball, volleyball and baseball and I am sure there are others sports on travel teams that send families on weekend excursions all over the southeastern US. Their is a tremendous cost to families and for these three it has paid off for their college futures.
One of the biggest losers in the rise of travel baseball is American Legion baseball who has lost most of the top prospects to travel ball. Even high school baseball is feeling the effects as many travel teams play during high school season making spring time seven day a week baseball. It brings in question and all three of our signees are pitchers pitching during the week for their high school team and may be pitching an inning or two on weekends. The stress level on a players arm or body is never ceasing. Last season even during the summer both Johnston and Harrison played for Post 58 Legion team but when scheduling conflicts occurred they played travel.
This coming high school season all three should be set to show us their stuff as they prepare to move to the next level and at this point we don't know but hope there may even be a level beyond college if they want it. There is no need for any of our three signees to play travel next summer and just think of the Legion team Rocky Mount could have if all three spend the summer playing legion for Post 58.
The prospects for the Legion is good without the three but with them the summer of 17 could last into August if these three anchor what looks like a good team already. If you remember Post 58 did not have a college player returning from college last season because of no Legion Baseball in 2015. Several senior players from last years team will have eligibility to return to Post 58 next season if they wish
Has anybody noticed this besides me that the best newspaper in Nash County is the Nashville Graphics. Even though it is only a weekly newspaper you can find more information in it than any other. In my opinion the second best paper to find out what is happening here in Nash County is WRAL.COM. Just thinking out loud.
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