Internet Agony

The revolution of the invention of the Internet has brought great knowledge to everyone who has ever attempted to use the world wide web.

Who needs and encyclopedia when all you have to do is Google it and your answer is instantaneous.

Sporting events which are not carried on TV have game trackers where you can watch pitch-by- pitch in baseball or play-by-play in football.

I have during his career at Elon watched many games on Gametracker of Terrell Hudgins and Elon since none of Elon's games are on TV.

But let me tell you, a sport where the Internet has yet to give you information the second it happens.

Golf

If you are a regular reader of my blog, last weekend I told you of my cousin Lauren Doughtie.

Lauren is my second cousin. Her dad Mike Doughtie is my first cousin. Mike's parents died rather early in his life, so even though I am a cousin we are like brothers. In fact, Lauren calls me Uncle Tony.

Lauren this weekend is playing golf for N.C. State in the Mercedes-Benz Championship in Knoxville, Tn.

This past Friday, I had to return home to Ahoskie for a funeral of a brother-in-law's mother.

While I'm in the press box just before we went on the air, Brooks calls me to tell me Lauren is tied for the lead after the first day of play.

I had forgotten all about her playing since we were away all day, plus we had to hurry to make sure we were back for the Northern Nash game.

She shot 4-under 68, which is her best score ever plus it tied N.C State's all-time low score for women's golf.

Saturday, I went down town to the Down East Festival and when I got home, I pulled up the scores and she struggled to a 1-over par 73 and was tied for fourth.

In college golf, they start at both the No. 1 and No. 10 tees ands her tee time was at 11.15 a.m. That is perfect for me to get home from church and follow her entire final round.

If you have never had the pleasure of watching golf on Gametracker, let me tell you what you better be prepared to do. Unless you plan to watch a non-moving screen for four hours, be prepared to read a book, or in my case, go watch the Panthers play.

1.05 p.m. - The first three holes appear on her scorecard. She birdied the first hole and parred two and three. She's two shots out of the lead.

I go to watch the Panthers and quickly you can tell this is not the Panthers' day. I switched to the Indy game - not much better. Let's go back to the computer and play Spider Solitaire.

1:55 p.m. - Holes No. 4, 5 and 6 appear on her card. She parred all three. But one of the other girls is 3-under on the day and Lauren trails by three shots.

In college golf, the players scores are fed into the computer every three holes. What I wish they had were cameras attached to the heads of every player. Then you'd just click on the player of your choice and watch what she sees as she is doing it.

2.40 p.m. - Hole No. 7 appears a bogey she is now down by four. Holes No. 8 and 9 are parred are she makes the turn four shots back.

3.05 p.m. - Hole No. 10 is a par 5 where Lauren cans an eagle 3 - she's now jut two back. No. 11 is parred and she birdied No. 12 to pull within one shot.

Now is when the pacing begins. Go check on the Panthers. They are getting killed and I go pace back and forth in front of the computer.

One problem with Gametracker is you don't know how far off the actually scoring was done.

It is 4.30 p.m. before the next set of scores pops up. Lauren bogeyed No. 14 to drop to 2-under on the day and is two shots off the lead.

As Lauren finishes No. 15, she and the girl in the lead by two are in the same group. One other girl at 5-under that is tied with Lauren for second has already finished her round. Lauren knows exactly where she stands.

Everyone knows except me sitting home how her shot-by-shot is going. Five o'clock comes and no final scores. I have now gotten my five miles of walking in all within five feet of my computer.

I did go to the kitchen to get more drink and watched former Northern Nash star and current Arizona Cardinal J.J. Arrington return the opening kickoff back for a touchdown against the Dallas Cowboys.

I have read the Telegram Online and the News and Observer's website, still the scores are not in.

5.05 p.m. - Scores are in. Hole No. 16 a birdie, No. 17 a par - up by one looking at the score at No. 18 where Lauren also gets a birdie .. 4-under par for the day, 7 under for the tournament. I am so proud of her.

But is there a playoff?

I leave Lauren's individual page to go to to the leaderboard and THERE it is - the name Lauren Doughtie on top of the page. The girl that was in the lead double bogeyed the last hole and Lauren has won by two shots.

My cell phone becomes instance news for grandma, and Brooks calls. There will be joy in Mudville tonight, I called and left Lauren a message.

Her phone is deep in her golf bag and I know the celebrating is on.

Congratulations Lauren.... A champion tonight!

SouthWest Game

During the first three years of the NEW 6 Conference, the winner of the Rocky Mount-SouthWest Edgecombe football game has been the conference champion.

When the conference was formed almost four years ago, no one expected either SouthWest or Rocky Mount to dominate the league.

Raymond Cobb was just arriving in Pinetops from cross-county rival North Edgecombe and generally speaking, Cougar football had been average at best for the previous 10 years.

B.W. Holt had just shocked the Big East 4-A Conference by winning its last football championship, but the wave of super power football was just taking hold.

So scheduling the Cougars and Gryphons in the first game of the season in conference play made sense.

Historically speaking ,Fike and Rocky Mount are traditional rivals from out of the past and with the other three county schools as bitter rivals, it made sense that the team from down N.C. 43 play Rocky Mount in the first game.

But who knew that Cobb could transform the Cougars overnight into a beast in football?

In 2005 in Rocky Mount, the Gryphons came away with a 24-7 victory. They meet again in the playoffs and if I remember correctly, the Cougars showed their first signs of not cowering down to the Gryphons as RM won 21-7.

2006 brought an overflow crowd to Pinetops as SouthWest gave the Gryphons their first league loss, 21-16. The Cougars would make it all the way to the third round undefeated and lose to Eastern Alamance in overtime ,while Rocky Mount was fallling to Western Alamance 41-37 that same night.

Last year was a classic, as if to say that 2006 was not as Brian Goodwin had to save the day for the Gryphons with a forced fumble late in the game to save a 15-12 Gryphon win.

Since Holt has been in Rocky Mount, he has averaged nearly 40 points per game, but against Raymond Cobb only 19 points per game.

So what is Cobb's secret ???

Ball Control!!!

Cobb, at both North Edgecombe and now at SouthWest, runs the football. If we saw one thing against Northern Vance is they kept the ball away from us and it almost worked.

It also helps that during his Cougar tenure that SouthWest has been very good on defense.

If Rocky Mount can be ahead 14-0 or 21-0 like they have in most of their games, the Cougars will not be able to chew up the clock by four yards and a pile of mud like Cobb loves to do.

The Achilles heel for SouthWest is because they are a running team, they don't pass and when they have to pass they are not great at it.

Being behind and I think in their case we have to have more than a 14 point lead to make them start passing.

You see Cobb has gotten two state championships under his belt and five visits to the championship game by ramming the ball down your throat. He doesn't even know how to teach a quarterback how to throw the ball, only how to hand off to the running back.(Only joshing, Raymond)

So the conference decided to rotate the games played to eliminate RM and SouthWest from having to play the first game and what has this change done? It has created the best game in the conference season now the second week instead of the first.

I really think that if Rocky Mount scores 21 or more it will win. History tells us that the Gryphons will have to fight tooth and nail to get it.

The first three years of this conference, the winner of this game has gone undefeated during the regular season. Each will carry a blemish into this game next Friday night.

Odds are that the winner will be the conference CHAMPION.

Slugfest

The opening night of NEW 6 Conference football has come and gone and the Gryphons did what they were suppose to do.

The boys in blue and gold were 40-point favorites and they covered the spread with a 49-0 chewing up of Northern Nash.

Every weekend ,Charles Alston looks at the game film and double checks the stats to make sure he gave the right carry to the right number and tackles to the correct player.

Unless he has made a major miss in the press box, the Knights of Northern Nash do not have as many yards in the total stats for the season than when they started tonight.

The "D" Block held Northern running game to five yards. Where the "D" really laid it on Northern was every time it went back to pass, it was losing yards. In high school stats ,until the quarterback let's go of the ball ,regardless on his intent to throw the ball, it is counted as a rushing attempt.

As if five yards wasn't bad enough, when Northern did get a chance to try a pass, it failed to find a white shirt to catch it and for the night zero yards passing.

I am thinking back from memory, but the Gryphons only had the ball nine times tonight and scored seven times.

Twice, we started on our side of the 50-yard line and scored both times. We never punted all night. In fact, twice when we failed to score we went for it on a fourth and ten on their side of the field and put it in the hands of the defense to keep them on their side of the 50 and they did.

Northern started on our side twice and once gave it up on its own 32. The other time it failed on a fourth down play.

In the past, this has been a great rivalry ,but tonight it was a pushing and shoving match which distracted greatly from the game. I remember at least six unsportsman ike conduct penalties call on both sides.

I think there should be a rule instead of calling it an off-setting penalty the players involved get in the penalty box like hockey and think about what a stupid thing you have just done for 10 minutes.

You know, if a player gets tossed out of a game, he cannot play the next week. But if they sit in the penalty box as long as they never get tossed out let them play next week.

Everyone that attended the game got to see a very special halftime with the baseball team and track star Jacobi Jenkins receiving rings for their championships in the spring.

WHIG-TV was there and as its game of the week can be see it Saturday at 9.30 am and after the Stretchlon Sports Show Sunday night at around 10 p.m.

By the way, the Stretchlon Sports Show Sunday featuresthe Rocky Mount soccer match against Southern Nash in which was the first soccer game that I actually did the play-by-play

I vote that the Gryphons wear the gold jerseys for every game for the rest of the season.

In the two games since the gold jerseys were unveiled, the Gryphons have won two games and out scored their competition 112-6.

No one has found any points on Rocky Mount all year in the first quarter and the Gryphons have out scored everyone 121-0 in the first quarter.

Collins Cuthrell was 8-for-14 passing and he missed on a 60- yard pass that he let go from our 43-yard line and was over thrown in the end zone. The ball was actually in the air 60 yards in the wind. His other two misses were dropped by our receiver right in their numbers and hands.

Since tonight was the first night of conference action, here is what happened elsewhere.

Nash Central beat Southern Nash 24-13 at the Dawg Pound. Nash Central has not lost on the field since its opening game with Tarboro.

In the game that had all eyes looking toward Pinetops, Southwest Edgecombe scored with 23 seconds to play and beat Wilson Fike 21-14.

Next Friday nigh,t the Gryphons travel to SouthWest in what some may find to be a ultra big football game.

I will close with this fact.... since the NEW 6 conference began play, working on four years now, the Gryphons are are 14-2 in conference play. One of those two losses happened at SouthWest two years ago.

Championship Time

We start off tonight with a well done to the Lady Gryphons tennis doubles teams. The ladies bring home a crown in doubles with the team of Kate Gray and Caroline Gray.

They had to beat their own teammates of Lindsey Thomas and Addie Keeter.

Caroline Gray lost in the championship match of the singles title or she could have had both the conference singles and double titles. The finals were hotly contested as the score was 7-5 and 6-4.

The Lady Gryphons open NCHSAA playoffs Tuesday when they travel to Union Pines High School in Cameron. First serve will start at 4.00pm.

We head to the final week of boys soccer with Northern Nash and Rocky Mount tied about as tight as any sailor's knot.

Both are 7-1 in conference play but the game that will probably tell all is Monday night. The soccer team heads to Fike. A victory will more than likely create a tie by week's end.

Whether you are first in the conference or second if you were to lose a draw might mean a road game over a home match.

However if the Gryphons don't win Monday there will be no tie.

The Volley ball team has completed its regular season and head to the conference tournament at Nash Central on Monday. The finals are scheduled for Wednesday.

I am scheduled myself to be there Wednesday for the Championship as I will be taping the game for the Stretchlon Sports Show.

Richard Sarmiento has done a very great deed for the community over the last six plus years with the Stretchlon show highlighting the youth of our area.

There is no doubt with the State Championship in Baseball this past spring that it may have not happened with out Babe Ruth Baseball and The Stretchlon Stars as many of our baseball players got most of their experience from both. Richard has been the backbone of both over the past 10 years.

The most important time in the football season begins Friday night. Conference play.... The Gryphons have already qualified for the playoffs but the whole deal is wrapped up in whether you play at home during the playoffs or not.

In the tenure of B W Holt the Gryphons are 2-2 on the road and 8-3 at home during the playoffs. It is awful hard to beat a good team in their pasture.

Don't forget Northern is in our house and Ring night for all of the State champions in spring sports will be passed out during a ceremony at Halftime.

Twenty seven victories in a row for the baby Griffs. There was one point in tonight's game where there was about a ten minute down pour. If you remember during the second JV game of the season there was a down pour and the rain did little to stop the Gryphon attack and tonight was no different.

The weekend is off and running for the Rocky Mount Gryphons as the JVs take out Northern Nash 48-12

I can't amagine anyone who would not want to go to the game tomorrow night but if you must miss the game Wes and I will bring the facts starting at 7.00pm on AM 1390.

Baseball playoffs

It had been 108 years since the Cubs and White Sox have been in the baseball playoffs at the same time. After this year, if you pull for either Chicago team you had better hope they don't make it again together for another 108 years.

The Cubs, who everyone thought was the best in the National League, was vacuumed right out of the playoff in three straight games. They were 0-2 at home.

The White Sox did one better and lost three games to one - winning at least one of two at home.

The Dodgers and Phillies will make a very good National League Championship Series and I am sticking with the Dodgers.

The American League finds the upstart Tampa Bay Rays playing the Red Sox. who knocked off my choice for the World Series, the California Angels of Anaheim of Orange County or Pasadena.

I think part of the Angels' problems in the playoffs is they don't know who they are. They really have no identity.

I would really like to see Manny and the Dodgers play the Red Sox in the Series, but I think the Rays may play in their first World Series.

Right this minute, the best organization in baseball is the Red Sox. They proved this year they didn't mind taking a risk getting rid of Manny. In return, they got a player, Jason Bay, who has filled in nicely in Manny's Spot.

Comparing them with the Yankees, all the Yankees do is go out and spend more money and show little results. The Red Sox will dump an aging player, regardless of whether he still has anything left, but the Yankees keep getting older.

I think one problem the Yankees have is they think they are smarter than everyone else.
I would really love for the Rays to win the World Series because that's where George Steinbrenner lives.

I thought the Red Sox -Angels winner was going to win the World Series and now that the Red Sox are there, I will be pulling for the upstarts - the Tampa Bay Rays.

Thank goodness none of the four playoff series went five games. The rate that WTBS was showing the games every other day, the World Series could not have had two teams until November.

Turning our attention to football - the round kind, last night several of the Rocky Mount soccer players went to Wilson Fike hoping that Fike would help beat Northern Nash. It would've given the Gryphons the NEW 6 Conference lead with three games to play.

Fike squandered a 2-0 lead last night in the match and lost in double overtime to Northern Nash, 3-2.

Now when Fike comes to Rocky Mount, the shoe will be on the other foot as the Knights will be hoping the same thing happens. A Fike victory would help them out.

First things first. RMHS soccer has a home match Wednesday afternoon against SouthWest Edgecombe.

Not only will the baseball team be receiving its state championship rings Friday night, but Jacobi Jenkins will get one as well for his individual state championship in the 110 meter hurdles.

T-minus three days and counting until Northern is in our house!

Nitty Gritty Time!

I had an opportunity this afternoon to do the Gryphon boys soccer game with Southern Nash for TV.

Matt Moore's four goals and Justin Marsigli's three assist and a goal led the Gryphon rout, 7-1 over the Firebirds.

Tim Bishop and Ben Chavis added goals for the 12-2-1 Gryphons. The victory moves them to 6-1 in NEW 6 Conference play.

This team is loaded with five senior starters: Justin Adams, Ben Boudreau, Matt Moore, Hunter Perry and Nathan Pope. Those coming off the bench include seniors Francisco Alfaro, Zack Bullock, Ben Chavis and Kashyap Kauai.

This team has a load of experience from these seniors, but the one place where a lot of faith has been placed on a freshman is goalie Drew Gorham.

Any time a freshman plays, he must really be talented and Gorham has started the entire season for the Gryphons in goal.

His goals-against average is hovering near one per game and he had a shutout today until a Gryphon header went in the goal instead of down the field.

The Gryphons also put five underclassmen on the starting lineup with junior Justin Marsigli, then sophomores Mark Gray, Andrew Morales and Matt Williams; ninth grader Andy Martin joins Gorham in the starting lineup for the Gryphons.

First-year head coach Drew Nick shows his excitement when he talks of the possibilities of this team for the remainder of the year, the conference tournament and state playoffs.

The Gryphons have Nash Central, SouthWest Edgecombe and Fike left during the regular season. If they win all three, they will finish no worse than tied for first - depending on how Northern Nash fares rest of the way.

Northern is hosting Fike tonight and the Gryphons have Fike next week, so Fike will be a big factor in how the regular season plays out.

Thursday night, the JV Gryphons will go after their 27th straight victory at Northern, and Friday night, the varsity goes after its 22nd straight regular season win on the field.

T-minus four days and counting until Northern Nash!

Power Football

If the Super Bowl was held next Sunday, the two teams playing for the title would be the Tennessee Titans and the New York FOOTBALL Giants.

There are 11 weeks to go in the NFL regular season. Let's wait and see if either even makes it to the league championship.

What do they both have in common? A running game! DEFENSE!!!!

Despite all the West Coast offenses and other so-called sophisticated schemes, the teams that win week after week are the running teams.

Even with the running game that New England had last year, it relied too much on the pass and when it needed a running game, they kept passing. In the end, scoring quickly on offense and putting your defense right back in the game is not good come the fourth quarter.

The Rocky Mount Gryphons have speed, but Thursday night when the game was tight in the second half, they relied on power football to get the advantage in the game.

High school football is spattered with teams that try to spread teams all over the field. Year after year, the teams that go deep into the playoffs ram it down your throat running the football.

The teams that have had the best success on the Gryphons have been the teams that had a quarterback that was hard to bring down.

Western Alamance comes to mind for some reason.

Americus Williams from Northern Vance was that way last Thursday night. Do you realize we shut them out in the second half and they crossed the 50- yard line only once in the second half?

Friday night is the first night of conference football. The Gryphon Nation needs to be in the house as the baseball team will be receiving its state championship rings. ECU freshman Jacobi Jenkins will also receive one for winning the 3-A 110 hurdles state title.

Five players on the football team will be among those sporting new hardware: Collins Cuthrell, Brian Goodwin, Chris Pittman, Nick Hahula and Carter Varnell. From what I hear, all members of last year's team will be at the RMAC, even the five that have moved on to college.

Wes Bradshaw, our very own play-by-play man, who during the spring is the PA voice of Gryphon baseball, will be the master of ceremonies. We will bring the event to you live on AM 1390 as it happens.

There is no better way to celebrate a Gryphon crowning achievement than to do it in front of the Northern Nash faithful.

By the way, let me get on the Northern crowd for just a minute.

Now that the schedule has changed and RM-NN are playing the first game in the conference rotation instead of the last and Northern is on a one-game winning streak, there is no reason not to attend this game. If you remember the last time these two met in Rocky Mount ,at least the Knights' cheerleaders show up because no one else did for Northern.

T-MINUS five days and counting until The Game!