Bye, Bye Hanna

I sat home on a Friday night deflated from not having a football game.

Morgan, our freshman Gryphon, is going to sing the National Anthem next Wednesday afternoon at a home volleyball game at her old school, Edwards Middle.

If I didn't know the words before, I do now as Morgan has sung, hummed and played on the piano the National Anthem more than Greg Fishel has given Tropical Storm Hanna updates in the last 24 hours.

Thought I would pull an all-nighter Friday and watch the storm as it passed, but there was no need to. Praise the Lord.

I hope Hanna is not playing the Hurricane Dennis role by giving us a good soaking before Ike arrives next week. If you will remember, Floyd followed behind Dennis in 1999.

What a game for the ECU Pirates today! This just might be the biggest win in school history, considering that the Pirate history is they have lost following a big win like last week. Good job of stepping forward and not living on last week.

The Pirates should pop into the Top 25 with this start.

I don't know if you have heard about this or not, but Friday night, Thomasville High was suppose to host Davie County in high school football.

When they went to turn the lights on at Cushwa Stadium, someone had stolen all the copper wire in the electrical panel.

I did play-by-play of the 1988 2-A state championship game at Cushwa Stadium as Thomasville beat Hertford County, 13-10.

Could it be that Stephan Virgil is heading for All-ACC honors this season? Today, he had his first career interception as Virginia Tech beat Furman. He also had five tackles - two for losses, and for good measure - he batted a pass away.

Keep it up Stephan!

Stephan's old running mate Terrell Hudgins passed a milestone Saturday afternoon.

Elon was playing Stony Brook College on Long Island, New York - right in the middle of Tropical Storm Hanna.

It didn't matter to Terrell, who grabbed 11 passes for 138 yards in Elon's win. In doing so, he hit a milestone in recording his 200th collegiate reception. He is now at 207. He also grabbed his first touchdown of the season.

Not bad for a guy who wanted to be a college quarterback.

I see that Duke's winning streak is over at "1". Northwestern did the Blue Devils in. There is a rumor going around Durham that Duke can't win in football unless they use Carolina balls.

For those of you who didn't catch it, at Duke's season opener Saturday before last, a skydiving team was to drop the Carolina game ball on the 50-yard line at Kenan Stadium at UNC's season-opener, but it got it mixed up and landed eight miles northeast of its target at Wallace Wade Stadium instead.

It seemed to spur Duke on to victory.

I wonder where the skydivers landed tonight. Raleigh?

Gryphons lose without playing

I had been gearing up this whole week getting my mind right that we were playing tonight, rain or shine.

Wes Bradshaw called me about 1 p.m. to tell me the Northern Vance game, due to Tropical Storm Hanna, had been moved to the Thursday night of Oct. 2, which is our open date week.

Boy what a let down! Even this morning when the rain started, I was still thinking I might as well get ready - that even in the press box we might get drenched.

Blowing wind, down pouring rain - I was all set to wear my poncho tonight.

Now there is nothing to do on a Friday night.

More bad news. There had been a rumor and finally today, it is official that the season-opening victory by the Gryphons has been forfeited.

I know very little of the situation, other than what I understand the player was eligible under the North Carolina High School Athletic Association guidelines, but not Nash County guidelines.

Bravo to all concerned as Rocky Mount turned itself in to the NCHSAA once it realized the infraction.

The implication is always there if someone else turns you in that you were cheating. But when you turn yourself in it, shows a standard that you have set that you live by regardless of the consequences.

Thursday night, the JV Gryphons pounded Northern Vance 40-zip. The fourth quarter was played with a running clock.

Teams of the NEW 6 Conference had a better week than last week as everyone played on Thursday night.

The headline game was Wilson Fike's 14-13 overtime victory over arch rival Wilson Hunt. Fike trailed 7-0 into the fourth quarter. With the game at 7-all, Fike scored and made its extra point in OT, but after Hunt scored and it missed its PAT attempt (It was 35 yards long after the Warriors were flagged with an excessive celebration penalty after the OT TD!).

Despite not scoring an offensive touchdown, Nash Central won its second game in a row with a 10-9 victory Beddingfield.

SouthWest Edgecombe took some pain out on North Edgecombe. SWE was trying to forget its loss Monday night at West Craven and did a good job in doing so - winning 59-14.

Southern Nash edged Warren County 21-18. The game was up in the air until the last seconds when Southern was able to hold off the Eagles.

The only conference loser this week was Northern Nash, which was shutout by Tarboro 35-0.

Through Tarboro's three games this season, it has allowed only seven points.

In Northern's three game, it has scored only 11 points.

I think the fans in (Tarba) Tarboro have something special brewing in Viking Land this year.

Looking at future games, Hertford County put 60 on Northampton-East this week as Diego Hasty battered his old school.

We have the Bears here in a couple of weeks.

Well, since I have nothing to do but sit home and look at the radar on TV tonight, I may well blog again tomorrow.

Hope everyone is able to stay safe and dry this weekend ....

NEW 6

Winning the conference championship automatically gives the conference champion at least to homes games, if not more in the playoffs.

Regardless of how the non-conference part of any team's schedule goes, those last five games of the season are everything.

SouthWest Edgecombe's loss on Monday night to West Craven means that four of the six conference members lost their first game.

I know you are not suppose to do this, but we can get some idea of what kind of team Wilson Fike has this Friday night (scratch that - that game has be moved to Thursday) it hosts Hunt.

I like what I saw of Fike during the scrimmages at the jamboree, which was held at Rocky Mount.

You know, since the schedule change, Fike and Rocky Mount could clash for the conference championship the last game of the season.

Every team will play at least five games before conference play starts and one loss the first week of the season is not a disaster for anyone.

SouthWest played their first game of the season at West Craven, which was at home and playing its second game of the season. Don't count SouthWest out just yet because West Craven is always around when the playoffs start.

There is an old saying that teams improve the most between the first and second week of the season.

After you have been knocked around a little bit that first game, teams realize they aren't as good as they thought and pay closer attention to their coaches that second week of practice.

Nash Central came back this past week with a victory after it had taken a shellacking the week before.

Northern Nash improved and found the end zone, but this week they get Tarboro - a team that is giddy over the start it has had this year.

Tarboro has outscored its opposition 85-7 in its first two games.

I think most folks in Stanhope feel like the Firebirds let one get away last week against Bunn. This week, Southern Nash will have an opportunity to see if that second-week improvement deal is true.

Fike had the week off and many of its players were at Hunt watching two teams that they will have important games with in Hunt this week and Rocky Mount at the end of the season.

Now back to the home field, in at least the first couple of rounds, if not more depending on who survives the first couple of weeks in the playoffs.

Rocky Mount is 10-5 during the B.W. Holt era in the playoffs.

The Gryphons are 8-3 at home and 2-2 (wins at Gray's Creek, Hertford County) on the road. Where do you want to be when the playoffs start? I think there is a distinct advantage in playing at home during the high school playoffs

As of this minute as I write this on a Wednesday night, Rocky Mount's JVs are still on at home Thursday. No word on moving the varsity game, so I would assume if the weather is too bad Friday, it would have to be moved to Monday.

The Tarboro-Northern Nash game has been changed to Thursday night, as well as Beddingfield at Nash Central. SouthWest Edgecombe will have to travel to Leggett to face North Edgecombe Thursday evening.

This will be my last blog before the Friday night game at Henderson, weather permitting. Will be doing the PA tomorrow night at the Gryphon JV game.

See you there .....

Hurricane Watch!

Here we are in the third week of the high school football season and week No. 3 may find us watching a hurricane instead of football.

The track that Hurricane Hanna is projected could be from anywhere near Miami right up to Cape Hatteras.

If the storm stays out to sea longer and waits to hit North Carolina, that might take it until Saturday to get here.

Storms tend to pick up speed when they come onto land, so any landfall in northern Florida or Georgia might put the rain near us on Friday.

I called Northern Vance, Rocky Mount's scheduled opponent this week, today and made arrangements for us to come do the game Friday. It is wise to let the home team know that you want to broadcast a game from their facility. If there is anything special we might need to know, we'll know before leaving home.

I did ask the athletic director of a "What if" case in case Hurricane Hanna gets here ahead of schedule would the game be moved to Thursday.

The answer was, "we plan on playing Friday night, unless" and that unless was "we will play Friday night in the rain."

Maybe they saw last year's film of us playing Wilson Fike in the slop over at Buddy Bedgood Stadium and figure their best chance to win is to slow us down.

You know, even though the game against Hunt was on Friday, that was a day late due to the game being scheduled on Thursday to give everyone a jump on the Labor Day weekend.

If you watch TV any at all, the movie "Bull Durham" is on about once a week on some channel. Over the Labor Day holiday, I caught the last minute of it as the credits were scrolling.

When it came up on the part where it thanks people who helped to my surprise it said thanks to the Rocky Mount Parks and Recreation.

Does anyone know what happened during the filming of "Bull Durham?" Was something filmed here in Rocky Mount pertaining to the movie?

I realize most of the filming was in Durham at the old Durham Athletic Park, but how did Rocky Mount play a part in the movie?

I didn't move here until 1993, so I wasn't in the area during the filming otherwise I might have tried out for the radio announcer part.

Back to Gryphon sports: You know the football team is off to a tremendous start scoring over 40 points in its first two games for the first time in school history. Thanks to Charles Alston for that info (I stole it from his Gryphon Grapevine blog).

There is an old saying, "you are never as good as you think and never as bad as it appears."

Remember Gryphon fans, we have only played two games. Let's see how the Gryphons react after they fall behind for the first time.

The last part of that old saying is for Northern Nash fans. Wins have been few and far between in the last few years. I think all they need is a little luck to fall their way like picking up a fumble and scoring a touchdown and they just might get things turned around.

I hope we can bring you a game this week from Northern Vance. I don't care what day it is as long it is this week not next Monday.

J.H. Rose is awaiting next week. That would only give me four days to rest up for the biggest of our non-conference games. At my age, I need all the rest I can get.

Here's what winning will do for you.

I have to ask this question.

Why is it that all-of-a-sudden it seems that Rocky Mount High is going through a period of great athletes?

I personally don't think there has ever been a shortage of good athletes, but if you look back into the past, winning opens up opportunity that losing doesn't present to athletes.

The more often you make it to the 3rd and 4th round of any sport, college coaches can watch an athletes perform against top caliber competition and make better judgements about how that athlete will perform in college.

Looking back in the 60's, Jim Clack and Danny Talbott got noticed not because they were good athletes but good winning athletes.

In the 70's and 80's, Phil Ford and Buck Williams found their way to the NBA from the foundation of winning that they achieved at Rocky Mount High.

Do you think Brian Goodwin would have played two major baseball All-Star Games this past summer if the Gryphons had lost in the first round of the playoffs, instead of being the state champs. Winning provided him extra games to showcase his ability.

Whit Barnes, the Gryphons' starting center, has already committed to play football at Wake Forest next year. Four playoff games helped put him in a spotlight during the playoffs last year.

In 2004, Terrell Hudgins at quarterback and Stephan Virgil as a do-it-all player were given the opportunity to play at the next level.

Both players, Terrell, a redshirt junior and Stephan, a true junior, are proving that winning in high school can lead to success later in college.

Hudgins has found a home at Elon, where he was named an All-American wide receiver the last two years. In his first game this past Saturday, he picked right up where he left off last season -catching 10 passes in Elon's opening game against Richmond (a 28-10 loss)

If this season is anywhere close to the last two seasons, Terrell may have to decide whether the NFL is a possibility or come back to play his senior season.

Stephan has been on the special teams at Virginia Tech his first two season. In the season opener agaist ECU, Virgil found himself as the starting cornerback almost single handedly beat the Pirates scooping up a fumble and rambling 30 yards for a touchdown. In the third quarter, he took a blocked extra point out of the air and raced 90 yards for a two-point defensive conversion.

Before you Pirate fans get upset, I know you all won the game, but this is a Stephan Virgil story. I will have to say that Skip Holtz is doing a great job in Greenville.

Winning is an attitude and that is provided by the coaching staff. In order to talk about the coaches that is another story but there is no doubt that Rocky Mount has excellant coaches in all sports.

Finally, I am convinced that dropping to 3-A level has made a more balanced field to play sports. In the late 80's and 90's, Rocky Mount was caught being a school with 1,400 students playing in a conference where other league members had 1,800 to 2,000 students. Even Northern Nash was pushing 1,700 kids in school.

Yes, we were able to win in certain years back then, but they were few and far between. We have had a few athletes who made it to college level sports, but nowhere like the period we are going through now.

WHY? We didn't win then like we are now.

The press box on a Friday night

I realize that I can't remember things out of the past as well as I use to, but I believe that there was a first for me at Wilson Hunt Friday.

Morgan, the last of the Doughtie children who is a proud Gryphon freshman this year, was away at a church camp for the weekend at Lake Gaston.

As we waved bye to Morgan Friday afternoon and it was almost time to head out to meet Wes Bradshaw and Charles Alston for our road trip to Hunt, Pat (my beautiful wife) looks at me with these sad eyes and says, "well, I guess I will have to stay home all alone on a holiday Friday night."

Right away, my first thought is 'yep, that's too bad.'

I may look stupid, but looks aren't everything. I responded with a quick-thinking 'you know, we could go over to Parker's, and then over to the game.'

I still have heel marks on my chest as she ran over me heading to the car.

I called Wes and told him I would meet him at the game. You know the average person who eats at Parker's is over 50 years of age and is 60 pounds over weight. (insert my picture here). A large combination dinner and five quarts of sweet tea later, we arrived in the parking lot at Hunt High School.

Hunt High has an average-sized press box, but when you put three radio stations: WZAX 99.3 FM doing the call on its "Game of the Week", WLLY AM was doing Wilson County's "Game of the Week" and of course, AM Sports 1390 covering the Gryphons - there is a house full.

Both schools had their film crews, WHIG TV 17 was filming for its "Game of the Week." There was hardly any room for the PA man and the clock operator.

In order to make sure everything is in working order, you must set up the equipment about an hour before broadcast time. If everything works and there is no panic because a piece of equipment is not acting right, you sometimes have 45 minutes to catch up on all gossip from all of your friends from the other radio crews.

Pat went up with us to the press box with the intent to go sit on the Rocky Mount side as soon as someone she knew showed up. To say the least, it can be very entertaining in the press box as everyone asks question about players and some old stories pop up.

I think Pat enjoyed all the hub-bub in the box and stayed the whole game. I don't ever recall that she has ever been in a football press box with me while the game was in progress.

Hunt's JV cheerleaders came around just before the half and took orders for food. Somewhere along the way, I missed their visit, but to my surprise, a cheeseburger and fries appeared for me when they started unloading their goodies from the concession stand.

If you listened to the game last week, Kentucky Fried Chicken provides the food in the press box at Gryphon home games for everyone, and Wes got caught with a mouth full of biscuit coming out of a timeout. This time, it was my turn to be caught enjoying a burger when it was time for me to talk.

Do you get the sense that Wes and I can eat?

I think you will find that when a game is a blowout like the Hunt game was, it easy to tell who won by how long the post-game show is on the radio.

The Wilson County crew was off the air in about five minutes. Not much joy to pass around when the team you are covering is clobbered by 38.

WZAX's crew, being the "Game of the Week." was next to go. They will have more games for both schools later in the year.

The press box was deserted (what happened to that jammed press box) except for the extreme right side where we continued to expound on the Gryphons' victory.

A huge crowd at the game meant that even after a half-hour post game show, the parking lot was still trying to get clear as we finally made it out there.

Looking back, having my main squeeze in the press box with me made me feel like I was 20 again .... Ok, maybe 40.

Unfortunately, there's no Parker's to go to next week in Henderson!

Week 2 in the books

For the first time this year, all four Nash County high schools took to the field - the last Friday night in August with two winning and two coming home losers

Southern Nash opened its season, but came up on the short end of a14-8 score with Bunn. Bunn, which is a 2-A powerhouse, had all it could handle from the Firebirds. Even though it is a loss, this game may give Southern folks a reason to feel optimistic after this game.

A team that needs to just feel good about itself regardless of whether it wins or loses is Northern Nash. Tonight may have been one of those games that if the Knights are going to win a few games this year this was one of them. D. H. Conley prevailed 22-11. As a coach, you always want to carry something good out of every game whether you win or lose, and the Knights found a way to come up with 11 points tonight.

The team that made the biggest comeback tonight was Nash Central.

The Bulldogs were embarrassed by Tarboro a week ago, but they found a victory against Smithfield-Selma 28-20. Just maybe last week's humiliation at Tarboro wasn't as bad as it seemed because Tarboro pitched a shutout against Washington 35-0 Friday. People in the 2-A ranks had better pay attention to the Vikings.

I like to watch what people do as they continue their season. Looking at East Forsyth, they rebounded tonight in beating Winston-Salem Reynolds 37-16.

Now let's turn our attention to the Gryphons.

You have to give it to coach B.W. Holt. He knows how to make the Gryphons come out snarling.

Last week by the midpoint of the third quarter, the Gryphons had East Forsyth 43-0, and tonight a very good Hunt team was down 34-0 at the half.

What I really like about the Gryphons' starts is that the other side had "zero" on the scoreboard in both of those scores. In the second quarter tonight, many second-team players had good minutes even before the half against a team we could easily meet again in the playoff.

Even though East Forsyth scored 14 and Hunt was able to score only six, both games were pretty much over when the scores came against the Gryphon defense.

After two games, the Gryphons are averaging 43.5 points per ball game. Last year's team that played in 15 games could only ( I said only) muster 34 per contest.

Is this year's team better than the eastern final team of last year? If two games is enough to make a trend, then the answer is yes. Then why is this team better than last year?

Let's start with the defense. Last year's team had terrific defensive ends, but you can add the entire front four to that list this year. So far East Forsyth and Hunt are averaging just a tad over 2 yards per rushing attempt.

I hardly called any linebackers' names during tonight's game due to the fact that the front four were making all the plays.

It's hard to pass in a game when you jump to a 27-0 lead in the first quarter. So, the Gryphons did most of the passing in the second quarter. Last year was a total gamble putting the ball in the air, but the passing game is better this year.

It is scary to think at how well this team has started off. Tonight, the Gryphons didn't play chop liver but a top 10 3-A team in Hunt at its place.

I know many fans failed to see the first quarter. During a timeout after a Gryphon touchdown, we looked out the press box door and there was 200 or so people still in line trying to get in (metal detector screening slowed the process). It was 27-0 before most of those folks got through the gate.

We have another road game next week as the Gryphons travel to Northern Vance - a 29-7 loser to Southeast Raleigh tonight.

Travel with the team to Vance County. You just might be watching one of the best Gryphon teams ever.

Time will tell ....