A Week Later

We have all had a chance to really let the State championship sink in, and here are just a few thoughts and reflections.

1. I like walking in and asking for a media pass that lets me walk all the way out on the North Carolina outline on the floor. Then it has my name on the pass.

2. I really like bringing the teams out and taking a team picture before the game. Everyone still thinks they can win, after the game not much for taking pictures if I was on the losing end.

3. I like one teams color guard presenting the colors and the other singing the National Anthem.

4. Sitting on the sidelines of any big arena like the Dean Dome is a completely different game from being in the stands.

5. I like giving the referees a plaque. It is an honor for them just like the teams playing. Every game, refs make weird calls but I don't think either side could complain about the officials in this one.

6. The supporters for the Gryphons were not all Rocky Mount High folks. You know you can fight with your brother but when someone else fights him, you are going to be on his side. There were a lot of Nash County folks there pulling for Rocky Mount regardless of the school loyalty.

7. Mike Gainey said he got a tear when he was able to put T J Walker in the game. Didn't we all.

8. I like the NCHSAA official who put every one's gold metal around each winning member personally, regardless of whether it was a player, coach or manager.

9. The walk down the hill to the parking lot was easier than the walk up to the Dean Dome.

10. Loved honking our horn when we passed the cheer leaders on the way home.

11. The line of red tail lights on 64 coming home, just like in the movie "Hoosiers".

12. Got a thrill seeing the Rocky Mount Police Department waiting for the team at the Nash CC on ramp. Escorting them home as CHAMPS.

13. Cutting the nets down in Rocky Mount.

14. "Sleepless In Rocky Mount" on a Saturday night during daylight savings time.

15. Being with the team Sunday night on TV.

16. The feeling that I still have a week later.

Gryphon Girls Soccer "Off And Running"

Soccer added another victim last night and girls soccer is off to a 6-0 start on the season. Six games into the season the girls have scored 20 goals which gives them a 3.66 goals per game average. That total doesn't seem all that impressive until you see that they have given up a total of three goals in six games. That's .5 goals against average per game. If you relate that to football they would be winning every game 24-3 and that is impressive. Keep it up girls!

When you have two division one pitchers on your roster like Rocky Mount's baseball team has, expectations can be unrealistic. So far reality is living up to the optimism. Today Rocky Mount beat Rose 7-1. The Gryphons have swept Rose for the second year in a row. Four of the Gryphon wins have been against 4-A baseball. Now 6-1 baseball is home Saturday at 1.00 pm as the Tarboro Vikings come calling. That lone lost was to the defending 4-A champs so this is a great start for first year coach Kent Cox.

Collins Cuthrell provided enough power hitting a three run homer and Benton Moss beat Rose for the second time this year. This stat is provided by Charles Alston. Benton Becomes the first Gryphon pitcher since 1998 to beat Rose twice in a season. The Junior is now 17-1 pitching for the Gryphons in his career.

Boys tennis has had a hard time with the weather so far this spring. It is hard to play tennis with a wet ball and going into tonight's match at Hunt the tennis team is 2-1. One of those victories was a conference win against Nash Central.

The Gryphons were leading the Wachovia Cup after the fall sports and winter sports did not slack up on bit. The way the spring sports have started the Gryphons may very well win the Big East Wachovia cup and possibly be in the top ten in the state.

Gryphon Bats Explode

Need to get with Charles Alston Mr. Gryphon sports encyclopedia but it is believed that today's home run out burst by by Gryphon baseball is a record just set last year. Rocky Mount used five home runs to swat the Yellow Jackets of Roanoke Rapids 19-0.

Spencer Bell hit a two run shot and Collins Cuthrell, Parker Helms, Jeremy Trevathan, and Matthew Berry all hit solo shots as the Gryphons acted like Hot Shot insect spray in clobbering Roanoke Rapids. Hobbs Johnson picked up his second win of the year going three innings in the five inning game.

Barring injury and the early results from the pitching this years Gryphon fortunes will hinge on how the bats do. This is the first time this year that the Gryphon bats have been blazing. Today's win brings the season to 5-1.

Rose will be at Gryphon Stadium Thursday at 4.00pm to make up the snow out the first day of the season, and Saturday Tarboro is here for a 1.00pm first pitch.

Softball is finding life hard. Today they lost 17-4 at Beddingfield.

Tashawn Mabrey and Darius McKnight make the all Big East first team. Danita Whitaker and Timishia Walker make first team for the girls. Danita shares the player of the year honor but I don't know how to explain why Tashawn who made all state this week is not Big East player of the year.

I just want to put to rest the rumor that the reason North Carolina played their NIT game last night in the old Carmichael Arena instead of the Dean Dome was not because they thought Rocky Mount was too hard of an act to follow at the Dean Dome. Even though the Gryphons are the best team to play there this year.

The Triangle area is buzzing this morning after both North Carolina and N C State won their NIT openers last night. If they win their second round games they will be paired up for round three. I hope Carolina fans don't think what they saw last night was improvement. They hustled last night something they have not shown all year. let's don't kid ourselves William and Mary would have buried Carolina in Willamsburg.

I hope when Carolina loses to Mississippi State it goes to the wire. I want Carolina to win but I don't see it happening. State travels to UAB and you can expect another 60-58 game which means they could win or they could lose. there is a good chance neither wins their next round game.

All The Pieces Must Fit

The 2009-2010 basketball season at Rocky Mount High soared to the pinnacle of success, a state championship. Despite the end result, not many had thoughts that a state championship was on the horizon.

There was talk of transfers coming into the program, but there was also a transfer who left and moved back to New York. The tallest on the team, the stud in the middle at six feet nine had gone. The Gryphons had Tashawn Mabry returning, but that hadn't proved to get us past the sectionals.

All you have to do is look to the college that plays in the house that brought the Gryphons their state title, Carolina and see that promises and hype don't add up to a gallon of gas.

A loss to 2-A Beddingfield rather early on the road would dampen any talk that this team had championship potential. Way back in 1983, N. C. State won a national championship but it didn't jell until Derrick Whittenburg went down with a broken foot. Six weeks without him and those off the bench stepped up and found roles on that team, including Rocky Mount's very own George McClain.

The same thing happened for the Gryphons. T.J. Walker's season-ending knee injury and Mabry's three-game absence gave players an opportunity to play bigger roles instead of watching from the sidelines or in the case most of the time on the court passing Tashawn the ball and being a spectator on the court.

In the rout of Northern Nash in Rocky Mount in mid-January, there was a sense that this team was coming together. Tevin Taylor, Darius McKnight and Billy Young were becoming a reliable point guard combination. Then there was the exam week, followed by snow that closed school for four days and it looked like big MO left and hid.

The second cycle in conference play the Gryphons were average, disgruntle players. A loss the first night back from the snow at Fike and then a tournament semifinal lost to Nash Central. This team will win their first game in the playoffs at home, but hit the road and then pack up the equipment until next year was the thought of many.

All the squabbles were mending and by the second-round playoff, the Gryphons caught a break. An upset and instead of hitting the road in the second round, it's another home game. Detrail Jenkins was becoming a double-double man every night. Kenyatta Bullock was dependable hitting big threes. Terrell Hilliard and Tecoby Hines were playing like starters from off the bench.

The tranformation took over Mabry. He became the greatest scorer in Gryphon history, but still hadn't won much in the playoffs. Tashawn found the level that people predicted back in the eighth grade. Mabry's career he had been a scorer but the last month he became a great player. In the regional and state championships, Tashawn averaged 29 points and 10 rebounds plus five blocks a game. All of the pieces fell in place.

When all was said and done, Mike Gainey became a state championship coach. This is probably the hardest year in his life and somehow, the most rewarding. All you have to do is look toward Roy Williams this year and see that you just don't put five on the court and say bring me a title. The captain of the U.S.S. Gryphon was Gainey and the captain maneuvered this ship through many mine fields.

I said this on the radio Saturday night. The Nash County area has some of the highest unemployment in the state. People are struggling to pay their light bills. This team put a little pep in everyone's step to make us proud.

The Rocky Mount Gryphons: STATE CHAMPIONS!!!!!

Great time to Be A Gryphon

If the Gryphons needed any help from the stands and support to help push them to a state basketball title, they got it and plenty more Saturday night.

I am saying 7,000 Gryphon fans were there but there is no way to know for sure. The pep band added so much to the excitement. Back in my high school days we had a pep band an I think next basketball season there should be consideration of having the band at every game.

I have never seen so many gold towels that the fans were waving. I think everyone who wears blue and gold can be proud of our team and the actions of our fans in representing the city of Rocky Mount and Nash County.

The 750 or so that greeted the team back at the gym after midnight just goes to prove one thing, bad things don't always happen on a Saturday night and you can have a good time without drugs and alcohol.

This is the fourth basketball title for Rocky Mount High. It is the eleventh title in all sports with baseball having garnered five titles and football two. Just maybe #12 can come in early June as baseball is looking good in the early baseball season.

Hope you had a chance to watch the basketball team on WHIG-TV last night on the "Stretchlon Sports Show". That was just some of the spoils that go with winning it all.

I need to take a day off. Got up too early Saturday morning considering Saturday night turned into Sunday morning real quick. Day light saving time killed an hour, even sunday night after we got back home from TV station Morgan down loaded her pictures on my blog as it was later than I wanted it to be hitting the hay last night.

There will be a pep rally in school today at 2.00pm for the CHAMPS!

The ChampionSHIP & The Celebration

ChampionSHIP Belongs In Gryphon Land

Rocky Mount High school rode all the way to the Hill to bring home the state 3-A championship back to the MOUNT.

The Grypons jumped on the Spiders early and raced to a 22-12 lead late in the first quarter and all of a sudden Tashawn Mabry comes up gimpy and Rocky Mount lost all the MO they had going. Before the half ended Concord had trimmed the Gryphon lead to two.

Some where early in the third quarter Mabry decided pain or not it was time to go and the Gryphons went, building as much as a twelve point lead until a scrappy bunch from Concord did everything they could muster from JacQuise Moore who took game high scoring honors with 28.

Mabry who had six at the half collected 20 in the second half and 26 for the game earning the MVP of the Championship game. Mabry gathered ten rebounds and had a double double but he was joined in the double-double game by Detrail Jenkins with 15 points and 11 rebounds.

Darius McKnight who earned the Eastern Champion award as the best player poured in 14 points and he was joined in double digits by Billy Young with 12.

You can not win a championship without unsung hero's and Marcus Jones, Kenyatta Bullock and Terrell Hilliard all gave us performances that we could not have won without them.

Concord wanted to make a living off the full court pressure but one of the keys stats of the game was the Gryphons committed only 15 turnovers. The smaller Spiders out rebounded the Gryphons in the first half 25-22, but it was all Gryphons in the second half winning the boards 25-12. Gryphons are State 3-A Champions 84-79 over Concord.

It is hard to tell how many folks were there tonight from Rocky Mount but my guess is 7,000. About 750 of those fans were in the gym at midnight to welcome the champs home. The NCHSAA will not allow any team to cut down the nets after their championship because there were four games there and they would have had to replace the nets at the end of every game. So the Gryphons cut down the nets at Rocky Mount High school at around 12.30am.

The clock said 12.58am when we arrived home. It is day light saving spring forward so it was actually 1.58am. I have to be at church at 8.00am so there will be no pictures tonight. Sunday afternoon we will display the Pictures Morgan took for the yearbook.

WAY TO GO GRYPHONS!!!!!!!!!! STATE CHAMPS