Reality Check Time

I am not a big fan of taking a week off after non-conference play before opening the conference schedule.

Now the Gryphons will not have an open week due to the lack of TVs in Vance County where nobody knew a storm was coming.

Instead, our open week has come before what has to be the biggest game of the regular season for the Rocky Mount High football team.

Two impressive victories have come and gone and it seems like a month ago since we played Hunt.

This game will not make or break the Gryphons, but it will go a long way telling us how good this team could be.

Last year's game with Rose was much like the Carolina Panthers -San Diego Chargers game this past Sunday.

Nobody thought that Carolina had a chance, but in the end, everyone found out Carolina is a lot better than any one thought.

Who would have thought that Rocky Mount had a chance and yet, the Gryphons won 17-7 last season.

Friday night will give us some idea whether we are really a deep playoff team or a pretender.

We do not have to win the game, but if it goes down to the final seconds and the winner is not decided until then, then this will tell me this Gryphon team will be OK come playoff time, barring major injuries.

If Rose dominates from the get-go and and we are never a threat to win, then we are nowhere near as good as we think we are.

If when all the smoke clears and the Gryphons get on the bus to come home with a victory, then this really could be a special team.

It has worked out that the last two times when we have beaten Rose, we have a 20-0 regular season record - last year and in 2004 combined.

What does that tell me? Rocky Mount has to be pretty good to beat Rose - anytime.

I hope the Gryphon faithful come out in droves Friday night.

Barring more rain, the JVs play Thursday night and their 23-game winning streak will be put to the ultimate test.

We are experiencing the good old days right now with the level of quality football that B.W Holt has brought to Rocky Mount.

Don't miss out - see ya at both games ...

Storming the field

What a great day in East Carolina football history. The Pirates nail two top 25 teams in two straight weeks to start a season. That had never been done in Pirate history.

Here it is mid-week and the athletic departments finds themselves trying to figure out what went a muck after the game.

The first hint was the interview with Coach Holtz following the game on ESPN. The lone state trooper assigned to guard coach Holtz could not hold back the throng of eager Pirate fans who had stormed the field and who wanted to be on-camera.

The one of the ESPN experts back in Bristol, Ct. made a comment that went something like "that poor cop didn't have a chance against that mob."

If they only knew that all those poor cops were being over run everywhere on the field.

Regardless of whether it is N.C. State tearing down a goal post or ECU celebrating a major upset, fans are warned during the game that they are not allowed on the field.

I know it is the "college thing" to do to run to mid-court or sprint to the 50-yard line just to say you were there, but once there, what can you do. Get hurt is all!

My only time to try to enjoy Times Square on New Year's Eve, I found myself jammed up against 300,000 people and none of them I knew. We were shoulder-to-shoulder and I think I was the only sober person there.

I thought 'You know, if I fall down I will be trampled to death and nobody will know who I am.'
It was certainly not what I thought it would be.

All that running around - several people were knocked down and scuffles broke out among the security there.

Today, those who were trespassing want to file charges against the security people for doing their job.

I hear that there are pictures of officers using force against several of the rowdies, but, of course, nothing of what they did to incite the officers. Not even that they were trespassing while this was going on.

What has happened to our society? We now punish those during their job while the guilty run free to run on another basketball court or football stadium next month.

If we are not going to let security secure the area, then don't have any next home game - just let them tear up the field.

You know, it got so bad Saturday that Coach Holtz made his players leave and go to the locker room until order was restored and then he let them go back out to sing with the band.

If the home team felt threatened, how do you think the West Virginia players felt?

I guess you have heard of the game in which the University of Washington quarterback ,who scored on the last play of the game, threw the ball straight up in the air about 10 feet and got flagged with a celebration penalty.

The only problem was his touchdown made the score 28-27 and Washington needed the extra point to send the game into overtime.

It became a 27-yard extra point, which it was blocked.

All the expert commentators were furious with the referee who threw the flag. They forgot to tell you that it was the poor blocking when the extra point was blocked.

We have become a society of lets blame anyone except the guilty.

Paul Harvey, my favorite newsman, says that "self-government will not work without self-discipline."

Friday night when you head to Rose High School, there will be a reason that you go through a metal detector before you can enter. If it wasn't checked someone would bring a gun.

I realize some of the officers panicked, but they were there in the mob.

The rest of us were in the stands where we were suppose to be or at home safe in front of the TV.
None of us know what they felt and I have a hard time blaming them if they delivered a bloody nose or two.

NFL Week 1

Tom Brady threw for a record 50 touchdowns during the regular season last year.

Monday's MRI could change the entire NFL season.

Dr. Doughtie says Brady is through for this year. All of a sudden, the MVP of the NFL may not throw one touchdown this year.

I hate to see anyone get hurt, but if Brady is out for the year, the Pats may be in a mad scramble to even make the playoffs.

I found myself rooting for Philip Rivers to beat Carolina today, but clearly the best team won the game.

The Panthers showed a running game that if they can do that all year, they may be in the Super Bowl.

If the Chargers can't stop the run any better than what they did Sunday, they won't be playing in the Super Bowl.

Rivers played great, but the Chargers' defense was mighty porous. It almost reminded me when he was at N.C. State and the Wolfpack had to score 50 points to win games.

Michael Turner is no longer a backup running back any more. The Matt Ryan Era starts off very well for the Atlanta Falcons, but Turner stole the show with over 200 yards rushing.

I know this week the news media will start pushing the Dallas Cowboys as the team to beat for the Super Bowl after their romp over Cleveland

I would like to see them win a playoff game first. Dallas has not won a postseason contest since 1995.

Dallas and the New York Yankees are a lot alike. The media loves both of them because they are glamour teams.

The Carolina Panthers have been to more Super Bowls this century than Dallas, and the Florida Marlins have won more World Series than the Yankees.

If the Rocky Mount Gryphons can learn one thing from the opening week of the NFL season is that you have to win them on the field.

All the talk about how good you are only counts when you prove it on the field.

The Gryphons get to the hard part of their non-conference schedule with J.H. Rose and Hertford County back-to-back. Both are 6-0 combined.

Every game so far this year has had rain doubts and depending on what Hurricane Ike does, rain may be in the plans for Friday.

If any of you know of any local athlete playing on the college level, whether it's a Gryphon athlete or from another school, please let me know so we can pass the info on about all of our local athletes.

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.