Expections Are High

*************************************************************************
The weather has gotten today's baseball game with Rose. The game has been rescheduled for March 18th.
*************************************************************************

If the weather holds off Rocky Mount high school baseball will start the 2010 schedule today hosting Rose. The Gryphons are Pre-season #1 state wide in just about all the polls based on the return of their pitching. Hobbs Johnson and Benton Moss. Johnson already inked with Carolina for next year and Moss waiting for his senior year before his signature sends him to Chapel Hill.

Northern Nash found out last year during the regional that you never have enough pitching and the progress of who becomes the #3 and #4 reliable pitchers will be a key to this teams success. If their was a failure last year it was timely hitting and question marks abound.

Kent Cox who takes over for legend Pat Smith has a load on his shoulders already with the high expectations. This week they start out with Rose and defending 4-A champions Aubrey Kell. The Gryphons could easliy start out 0-2.

Softball has already moved today's home game to Thursday. Boys tennis begins it's season Wednesday weather permitting.

If we are going to get the snow in eastern North Carolina today that the weatherman says we might. Then the basketball regional might wind up doubling up later in the week. We will worry with that when we know for sure.

I hear that WRMT is working on doing the games on radio and I know WHIG-TV is taping the Rocky Mount game for showing on the "Stretchlon Sports Show" Sunday night.

I hope you read Nick Phillps blog Thoughts from out of my head. His blog Sunday talking about winning is not everything is great. I need to add Nick's blog to my list at the bottom of this page so it would be easy for you to access.

I did not get a chance to see the overtime Sunday night but I thought the Canada-USA hockey game was one of the best ever. I went to church Sunday night and missed over time.

34% of American homes were tuned in to the Super bowl but Sunday 80% all all Canadian TVs were watching the hockey. You think they like hockey in Canada. What else is there to do there this time of year?T

Regional Press Conferences Today

If you need Mike Gainey today and need to talk Rocky Mount high sports business you will need to see him in Greenville attending the Regional informational meeting. Typical information for the teams, which door to enter that kind of stuff as well as the media gets a chance to talk to all the coaches involved. There is always excitement any time your team progresses this far but Mike should be an old hand at all the hoopla this week. This is his third trip to Greenville and the regional in the last nine years.

Girls soccer begins today at D H Conley. baseball and softball begin Tuesday at home both at 4.00pm.

Stephan Virgil is at the NFL conbines in Indianapolis and today begins the physical side of the things. Today is weight lifting to find out how strong you are and tomorrow the forty yard dash and agility drills. Sunday all the teams got to interview the future NFL players.

Last night on the "Stretchlon Sports Show" on WHIG-TV Martin Fleming who is the authority in eastern North Carolina on high school wrestling announced his All Area team. Chandler Phillips at 135 pounds and J K Williamson at 171 made it from Rocky Mount. Freshman Mason Holt made honorable mention.

Joe Young from Northern Nash also made the team and I would like to congratulate Joe on finishing 5th in the state this weekend. He was the top finisher in the state who went to Greensboro from our area. Joe and Tavis Richardson from Northern were also on the all area team.

Martin was calling the all area team out so fast toward the end of the show that I couldn't write fast enough. A replay of the show will be on at 5.00pm today on WHIG-TV. You know making the all area team covers more territory than the all area team when the Rocky Mount Telegram announces it winter sports all area team. The news paper is for it's coverage area while Martin's area is pretty much northeastern North Carolina from Raleigh to the coast and Kinston to the Virginia line.

College baseball this weekend Campbell took two out of three from NCA&T. Northern's Bryan Braswell continues to knock the cover off the ball.Braswell was 3 for 5 and 5 rbi's in the three game series. Nash Central's Xavier Macklin for the Aggies had three hits over the series and Rocky Mount's Ben Fish had an inning behind the plate in one of the games. Alex Pearce the former Bulldog from Nash Central has four RBI's so far this season for UNC-Pembroke.

ECU took 2 out 3 from South Carolina. They are 4-3 on the season but 6 of their games have been against top 15 teams. State and UNC have lost only once each. Sure does look like Brian Goodwin has his feet on the ground now for the Tar Heels. Last week he started out his college career going zero for nine but now is 7 for his last 17. He has a homer, two triples, two doubles. He is second on the team in RBI's and leads the team in total bases.

Regional Is Set

Monday is always media day for the regional basketball in Greenville and Wes Bradshaw is going to represent us and get us our press passes for the week long regional to be held in Greenville. You will see interviews on the locals TV stations like 7 and 9 during the week which they will actually get on Monday.

Rocky Mount after the reseeding plays 25-2 North Guilford. I doesn’t really matter to me who they play because in order to advance any further the Gryphons will have to play better than they did Friday and I thought they played great. There is an old farmers saying that from here on out who ever they play they are in the tall cotton.

Tip time is 7.00pm Thursday

Heart break for the fighting Bishops of NC Wesleyan who had won the regular season championship and as the #1 seed played Christopher Newport today in the conference finals at Newport’s home court and lost. 67-63. The loss knocks the Fighting Bishops out of the NCAA Div III basketball tournament.

Nash County sent 11 wrestlers to the state championship in Greensboro on Friday. Southern Nash sent Buddy Jones who wrestled at 125 pounds, Steven Morgan at 135. Nash Central two wrestlers and they were Josh Taylor at 105 and Jacob Robinson at 135. Rocky Mount was represented by Chandler Phillips in the 135 pound class and Janicento Williamsonat 171. Big East conference champion Northern Nash had the most wrestlers with five. Tavis Richardson 145 pounds, Kris Horton 160, Bryant Sweet 171, Danzel Perry at 189 and Joe Young wrestled at 215.

I have had a hard time getting on the NCHSAA website to the wrestling brackets but the only locaL wrestler to make it to the quarter finals was Northern’s Joe Young. I am sure it is all over by now but it has be very frustrating when you click on the brackets and nothing appears for five minutes. I am sure with all the people trying to get on the site plus thee NCHSAA updating it ever so often it has been for every one.

Brian Goodwin hit his first college home run Saturday in Carolina’s first loss of the season. N C State beat Cal(Irvine )Yesterday the #3 team in the country and beat James Madison today. ECU got ninth inning heroics to beat South Carolina Saturday 4-3 after losing the opener yesterday. While I was at the playoff basketball game Friday night wife Pat went out with a friend Debbie to Mario’s and Billy Godwin was there e having dinner.

Finally , I have never been a Danica Patrick fan. She has never shown me to be much of a driver when she was in Indy Car racing. Saturday during the race at Las Vegas in the Saturday division of NASCAR Patrick crashed and promptly got out of the car and blamed the other guy. It is clear to me that Patrick is a pretty face that can sell spark plugs but she needs to go to Kenly on a Saturday night and learn to drive in the push and shove division before she gets killed or kill someone else.

Gryphons Sprint To Regionals

THE NCHSAA HAS RESEEDED THE EAST REGIONAL AND THE GRYPHONS PLAY NORTH GUILFORD AT 7.00PM THURSDAY NIGHT AT MINGES AT WILLIAMS ARENA AT ECU

I mentioned when talking about Wednesday's victory over West Craven that one of the Assistant coaches had said walking off the court the the Gryphons were too quick and long. Well, Friday night that was apparent again as the Gryphons were able to come up with rebounds on the third attempt while C B Aycock would still be finishing their second jump at the rebound.

A major improvement in this years team is their ball handling and again tonight the play of Darius McKnight,Kenyatta Bullock and William Young lead the Gryphons. The turnover match up wound up 15 a piece in the game but with two minutes to go in the third quarter the Gryphons had committed only five. By that point in the game the Gryphons had control.

Darius McKnight lead the way for the Gryphons being one of five double digit scorers with 15 points and also showed that rebounding quickness with eleven rebounds. Detrail Jenkins was also a double double man with eleven points and twelve rebounds. The Gryphons win going away despite Tashawn Mabry sitting more than he wanted to with foul trouble but in limited play Tashawn gets seventeen points points and nine rebounds. William Young and Terrell Hilliard were double digit scorers from off the bench with eleven and ten points.

Mike Gainey earns his third trip to Greenville and the regional for the third time in nine years. The Gryphons will be matched up against South Central who beat Fike 77-57 and are sporting a 27-1 record. The other regional semi final will send two Mid Piedmont conference teams against each other as NE Guilford beat Southern Lee 60-50 and Northern Guilford edged Westover 59-58.

The 3-A regional is Thursday night and who plays in the early game or late game is not yet announced but with two teams from the same conference matched up in one game I can't see that game being the feature 8.30 game Thursday night. South Central being a local Greenville team and Rocky Mount from just down the road I would suspect you are going to have to be there before the first game starts if you want a seat in the 8,000 seat Williams Arena at Minges Coliseum.

According to the NCHSAA website the matchups may be reseeded today and Rocky Mount very well may get one of the Guilford county schools in the Thursday game.

The lone Big East girls team finished their season last night losing to South Central 66-35. The Girls regional at Rose High school will feature two conference matchups. South Central and Havelock from the Coastal and Westover and Union Pines from the Cape Fear Valley tangle.

Regional Up For Grabs

Tonight is the sectional finals in 3-A basketball as Mike Gainey will try to get his Gryphon team to the regional for the 3rd time in his coaching career. No final is easy and tonight will be no different as C B Aycock will bring a 24-3 record to town. Wednesday nights win was #20 for the Gryphons this season and they have also lost three times. This for sure is the last home game of the season for after tonight there is only the Eastern Regional and the State championships left

If you want to see what the baseball team has, they have a home practice game today at 4.00pm. Returning the top two pitchers from last year Hobbs Johnson who has signed to play with Carolina in 2011 and rising Junior Benton Moss who has verbally committed to Carolina high hopes abound on the Gryphon diamond.

The Rocky Mount Junior Legion team last summer finished 3rd in the state tournament. There is hope that the holes created with the graduation of the big three of Brian Goodwin, Ben Fish and Dillon Cockrell can be made without much drop off in the offense. We will see. Brand new coach Kent Cox will have big shoes to fill in replacing Pat Smith who brought a baseball state title to Rocky Mount in 08.

Wes Bradshaw gave me a heads up on this and Tuesday when I got home from work I saw it on TV myself. Former Northern Nash basketball player Michael Deloatch and now a senior guard for Norfolk State Spartans made the ESPN plays of the day. In fact it was #3. Deloatch stole a pass near his foul line and streaked to the goal where when he reached the other foul line bounced the ball hard off the floor to make it fly up in the air where he picked it off for a slam dunk. It could have easily been the play of the day.

You know in the last ten years Nash County has become a hot bed for baseball and we now have many college players from this area. Former Northern catcher Bryan Braswell who is the starting behind the plate for Campbell got two hits and drove in two runs in helping the Fighting Camels of Buies Creek take the Wolfpack to extra innings on Tuesday. There are so many players from this area playing college baseball it is hard to keep up with all of them.

I don't know whether you saw this on WRAL-TV last night but the CIAA basketball tournament is underway in Charlotte. Ken Smith of Channel five did a sports report on Chowan College from Murfreesboro who having Joined the CIAA this year is taking part in their first tournament. They have come a long way since 1994 when they first started playing division 3 basketball over being a junior college. My last year as play by play voice of Chowan was 1993 their last year playing as a junior college.

I actually did one game for Chowan in 1994 when they came to Methodest college in Fayetteville. Pat had been transferred by Carolina Telephone back then and we were living there. Bob Burke coach at Chowan brought the radio equipment on the vans with the team and I did the game. Afterwards loaded the equipment back on the van for the trip back while I stayed in Fayetteville.

Sectional Finals Friday Night Includes Gryphon Boys

Now let's be honest with each other for a moment. The night Rocky Mount scorched Northern Nash at home to complete the first round of the Big East play Rocky Mount was playing at a level that you had to say,"man they just might be good enough to win the state". Since then have come eight games and tonight is the first time since that Northern Nash game that the Gryphons have come any where close to the Northern game level.

Being the best team doesn't guarantee you any thing just look at our football in 08. Luck has a hand and tonight for the second time in the playoffs the Gryphons played a #4 seed at home. Darius McKnight got the Gryphons off to a early lead with a barrage of threes in fact three in the first quarter and the Gryphons never looked back downing West Craven 94-65.

RMHS had three players with at least 18 as Detrail Jenkins had 13 rebounds to go with his scoring. Tashawn Mabrey had 20 and McKnight poured in 24. As I was walking out of the gym one of the assistant coaches for the Eagles was over heard saying they were too quick and long for us.

This sets up the sectional final Friday night at home for the Gryphons as they will play C B Aycock who tonight beat D H Conley 71-51. Earlier this week Aycock dispose of Nash Central by 20 after the Bulldogs had just beaten the Gryphons last Wednesday. Friday night's game if this was football would be a Thanksgiving Friday game and if you have ever heard me say this before Only the real teams are left now. Aycock will come to town sporting a 24-3 record.

The only other Big East team still alive coming into tonight will also play Friday as Fike traveled to Hertford County and came home with a 75-66 victory. Fike will travel South Central who now stands at 26-1.

The Lady Gryphons went all the way to Brunswick County and failed to survive the playoffs as they lose tonight to West Brunswick 52-47. Fikes girls played Hertford County and when Friday night comes they will be playing as they beat the Lady Bears 54 to 35. Their draw next is Havelock who beat Hunt 68-50 to end the Warrior season.


Let's talk NFL for just a moment. Today is the first day of the NFL combines in Indianapolis. Among those players that will be there looking to impress NFL scouts will be Stephan Virgil who on this blog was named Rocky Mount's #1 football player for the decade and Virginia Tech Hokie. All of the experts who you might hear talking about the NFL draft position are labeling Stephan as the 11th best defensive back in the draft which would put him near the 4th round. This combine could move him up or down depending on his performance.

Missing from the combine is Terrell Hudgins the all time leading pass receiver in College football history. Despite his college record his best 40 yard runs are on in the 4.6 range and that was not good enough to get invited with other receivers. Not is all lost for the Former Gryphon. More than ten scouts have committed to come to Elon's Pro day. Those experts we were talking about a minute ago are saying Terrell is going somewhere near the 7th round.

A Parents View

I made a promise to myself when my children were born that I would not be in the booth calling games on the radio if they were playing in that game. I also chose not to coach any sport that they played in because I wanted to watch them and being a coach you watch everyone. I just felt as a parent I wanted to be able to watch them from the parent’s point of view over a broadcaster or coach’s view.

I found that when video cameras became the thing that I hated them. I found myself trying to make sure the camera was focused or I had the camera pointed in the right direction instead of enjoying the event as it happened. I had to go back and watch the video to enjoy it. You kind of miss out on it from behind the camera while it is going on live.

Time has passed and only once did I go against my promise. Stephanie’s last year in little league back when we lived in Ahoskie the team had no coach and I took the job. As it turned out none of my children played in a sport where I would have done one of their games from behind the microphone.

My grandfather Doughtie once he hit eighty years old at his birthday parties would always make a little speech and would always finish up by saying I may not be here next year and tear up. He made it to seventeen more parties and teared up at the end of each one.

The older I get the more I get just like him. Monday night, Morgan the last of the Doughtie clan (Stephanie, Brooks, Amy) sang the National Anthem before the start of the Gryphon girl’s basketball playoff game.

Some of you know that Morgan has some health issues right now that are a concern for our family. The doctors say that they are not life threatening. Her health problems can be embarrassing for her but she is a trooper, has missed very little school. She is trying to get to five feet tall which means she is slow a foot which does not lend itself to being athletic. Instead of playing sports she has been team managers in several sports so far in her year an a half of high school life.

I know now why I decided almost thirty years ago not to be behind the mic in any of their games. I wanted to be able to enjoy the moment and not worry about when the next commercial needs to play.

I have in the past had a moment or two that you are so happy for those on the field of play that a choked up moment occurs. It passes quickly and you continue on with the broadcast.

As I stood with my hand over my heart and listened to her sing, I know I could never have described it from behind a mic. She was there doing her best. She may not run fast but from a father’s perspective she ran the opening kickoff back for a touchdown. If great grandfather Roy had of been there he would have probably had a tear. I know I did.

A proud one!