Sports Underway

Monday the Rocky Mount High School soccer team got the 2010-2011 athletic season underway and came up on the short end of a 3-2 match with Roanoke Rapids. Their next match is Friday at Bunn.

Girls tennis starts their season today with a home match against C B Aycock and then another home match Wednesday.

Volley ball has Roanoke Rapids at home today and a hugh match at home Thursday with South Central. Volley ball losses last season you can count on one finger and South Central was responsible for two of them. Saturday they take part in the Nash County Tournament at Northern Nash. They play Southern Nash in the first match at 10.00am.

Football cranks out the 2010 version Friday night in an Endowment game at Bertie. Bertie for so many years was in the same conference with Rocky Mount so people who follow the Gryphons who have ever been to Bertie know that it is not an easy place to play. Greg Watford is in his first year with the Falcons as head coach.

We live in a society today that when ever someone gets a tough break because of the rules everyone always blames the rules and they should be changed. I disagree!

There is a flap over the two shot penalty given to Dustin Johnson on the final hole of the PGA Championship Sunday for grounding his club in a bunker. The rule should be changed, how could he tell if he was in a bunker? All he had to do was read the memo sent out by the PGA. Johnson admitted Sunday night he looked at the memo but did not read it. Not reading it may have cost him a half million dollars.

The injury suffered last week by Chipper Jones probably has brought an end to a very good career to one of those players because of cable TV we were able to watch almost every game he played. Dale Murphy and now Chipper Jones two Atlanta players who are so close to Hall Of Fame numbers but to me just not quite enough. Regardless of whether they have the numbers or not they provided us with a quality career which we were able to watch that forty years ago we would have only been able to read about in the paper the day after it happened.

I can't imagine what they will be saying forty years from now about how this period of our lives was so simple.

Bizarre Finish

Anyone who has ever played golf has at some point tried to hit the ball further than they know he has control of the shot. As I watched yesterday's PGA Championship the thought kept going through my mind that it is great these guys can hit it 350 yards. What is the point if you can't keep it consistently in the fairway.

Yesterday player after player with the winds howling keep hitting shots 25 yards deep into I won't call it rough but more trouble than it was worth. The end saw Martin Kaymer and Bubba Watson tie for the top when Dustin Johnson was penalized two shots on the last hole for grounding his club. This is the biggest golfing flub since since the leader Roberto De Vicenzo signed has score card wrong and lost a chance to be in a playoff in the Masters in 1968.

Kaymer wins a three hole playoff with a bogie on the last hole. Despite all the balls flying around Kaymer and Watson shot under par which was amazing to me.

Cousin Lauren Doughtie shot a one over 73 yesterday which gave her a one over par score in the Futures Tournament in Richmond yesterday. This is her best tournament score since she has been on the tour but one over was only good for 36th place which is not her best finish.

I see Lauren and Tiger Woods right now in the same boat. We are so use to seeing Tiger shoot in the 60's that he was 2 under par on a tough layout in the PGA Championship. He shot in the low 70's all four rounds. That just does not cut it when you compare those scores to others. If I was shooting 73 I would be jumping up and down celebrating, for Lauren 73 and she is losing ground.

She will head to the final Futures tour event of the year Labor Day weekend 104th on the money list needing to finished 90th to guarantee being able to play all the events next year. Last year she finished beyond 90th but during the LPGA qualifying tournament in December even though she didn't qualify for the LPGA had a high enough score to make her exempt on the Futures Tour.

Kernersville State Champion American Legion team from North Carolina is heading home after losing their third game 6-1 to a team from Oklahoma. They finish fifth in the nation. Rocky Mount's ten run lost to them in the State tournament doesn't look so bad now after this run by Kernersville who won the Southeast Regional a long the way, especially since Kernersville had one inning in which they score nine runs on Rocky Mount.

Moss Gets His Inning

Benton Moss got one inning of work in the Under Armour All-American baseball game Saturday at Wrigley Field in Chicago. Moss was a member of the American All Stars and was on the winning team. The fifth inning was his inning which started out with a strikeout, then a popup before Benton walked a batter who was thrown out trying to steal second. Three batters-three outs the hard way.

Rocky Mount 's football team took on Garner in the High School OT Jamboree at Southeast Raleigh High School. Garner scored twice while not allowing the Gryphons to score.

Thursday the Gryphons traveled to Wake Forest Rolesville where WFR out scored the Gryphons by one score. It's hard to judge how good you play until after everyone gets a couple of games under their belt. These two scrimmages have been against some really good 4-A schools.

Friday night Terrell Hudgins had one catch for the Dallas Cowboys in their loss to Oakland. So far in his attempt to make the Cowboys he has three catches for 57 yards. Only one receiver has more yardage with 60 while no one has a better per catch average that has more than one catch.

Can Terrell make the Cowboys? Looking at their three deep depth chart they list three players at left wide receiver and only two at right wide receiver. Dallas has 79 players still on their roster and nine are listed as wide receivers. Not having a third listed at right wide receiver, does that mean Dallas only plans to carry five receivers or is that third spot up for grabs?

Only Cut down day will we know for sure.

Kernersville lost their opening game in the American Legion World Series Friday in Spokane Washington to Las Vegas 6-5. Saturday in the losers bracket the Southeast Regional Champion stayed alive beating Branford CT 8-6. They will play today at 5.00pm trying to move further in the losers bracket.

Cousin Lauren Doughtie is even par after two rounds of the latest Future Tour tournament going on this weekend in Richmond. She has a real chance to get a good pay check. So far in her short career on the Futures Tours during the third round when she has had a chance to make a good check she has shot 75 or worse. Today's the day Lauren. 70 or better and a top ten.

The PGA has about seven players up front who have never won a major. After his dive in the US Open I have a feeling Sunday night the PGA Champ will be Dustin Johnson.

Everybody's Still Undefeated

There has been a period of five years or more where Northern Nash has been at the bottom of the conference instead of near the top. Last night Northern fans who saw it are jumping for joy this morning after the Knights looked impressive in the jamboree held at North Johnston.

Northern took on North Duplin, North Johnston, Rosewood and Louisburg and at times looked dominate. This is a far cry from the past few years and Northern fans are guarded that they may be back.

In the same Jamboree Southern Nash and South Johnston went head to head in a repeat of the eastern finals last year. SJ had a slight edge in this head knocker.

Tarboro's Jamboree the SouthWest Cougar fans held their throat in the hands for a while when their starting QB went down. Understand he has a shin bruise.

Rocky Mount and Nash Central are jamboreeing today at Southeast Raleigh High School. Rocky Mount takes on Garner at 3.00pm. Nash Central plays later.

Passed by the new Rocky Mount High school Friday afternoon. The metal frame work is up for the gym and cinder blocks are forming the class rooms. WOW!

Benton Moss will play today at 1.00pm on MLB.COM at the Under Armour All- American Baseball game being played at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

I am not really in favor of going to an 18 game NFL schedule. As a fan I understand that season ticket holders should not have to pay full price to see starters play ten minutes and watch players that will not be on the team next week play.

The simple solution to me is add four more teams to the playoffs. Drop two pre season games. The first weekend of the playoffs only have eight of the playoff teams in action. The second weekend the other eight. That gives nobody a bye but three straight weekends of doubleheader playoff games on Saturday and Sunday.

Higher ratings, higher income from advertisers. That's the whole purpose get more moola and still end season by first weekend in Feburary.

Under Armour Game Saturday For Benton Moss

Benton Moss and family are in the windy city of Chicago today as Benton prepares for the Under Armour All-American baseball game which will be played at 1.00pm Saturday at the home of the Chicago Cubs Wrigley Field.

The game will not be on any tv network but can be seen on line at MLB.com. Moss who has verbally committed to Mike Fox at North Carolina is the second Gryphon who has played in the Under Armour as he will join Brian Goodwin who played in this game two years ago. Each team has 18 players and as Benton is a pitcher he may only get one inning of work in this game.

Gryphon football scrimmaged at Wake Forest-Rolesville last night. Girls Volley ball beat Beddingfield in a scrimmage at Beddingfield.

I had the Cowboy game on NFL.com game tracker last night while I watch the Panthers lose to the Ravens 17-12. Hoping to see Terrell Hudgins make a few plays but into the third quarter he had none before I went to bed. Dallas blew a 9-0 lead in the second half and lost to Oakland 17-9.

I think the Panthers have upgraded the best position on the field in quarterback as Matt Moore just to me looks like an NFL quarterback. The way Jake Delhomme played for the Panthers last year the only QB in the league worse than him was in Oakland.

Now that Oakland has improved their quarterbck situation at least a little, you can look out. They have had one of the better defenses in the NFL the past couple of years but had no quarterback. They at least have an average QB in Jason Campbell now. It would not shock me if the Raiders make the playoffs.

If we carry Gryphon football on the radio this year and that is still up in the air as to this point we do not have enough sponsors tonight is the last free Friday for a while.

Hope everyone survives Friday the 13th.

Rail Hawks game

Had a chance to see my first professional soccer match last night as my family attended the soccer game between the Carolina Rail Hawks and Rochester New York. The reason we were there our eight year old grand daughter Madison, who is a really good soccer player in CASL league in Wake County won an award in her age group the Sportsmanship Award. CASL gave away the awards at half time of the soccer match.

These guys that play for the Rail Hawks are excellent soccer players. I saw last night first hand what I saw watching the World Cup. The higher the level of soccer the better defense they play regardless of how good a player is handling the ball. Soccer is exploding in America but for it to pass the NFL they have got to figure a way to get more scoring. Why in the world can't they stop the clock when a player is injured. The extra time without the clock is ridiculous.

The game was played at the Wake Med Soccer Field in Cary which use to be called SAS Soccer Park which is a nice facility which holds about 7,000. Last night was really CASL night and there were probably 2,000 kids there in their uniforms. If you don’t think soccer is big, CASL has 8,000 kids playing soccer in Wake County.

Yesterday the football coaches voted for who they think is going to win the Big East football title. The coaches picked Southern Nash, Hunt, Rocky Mount, Northern Nash Nash Central and Fike in that order. One vote either way and first could have been picked fourth the vote was that close.

I understand while the coaches met behind close doors transfers was one of the topics of discussions.

Rocky Mount girls Volley ball kicks off their season tonight at Beddingfield. Yesterday they handled both Faith Christian and Rocky Mount Academy in scrimmages.

The Stretchlon Sports Show will kick off the fall sports by taping the Nash County Volley ball tournament being held this year at Northern Nash. It is set for Aug 21st. We will tape all four games.

Carolina has announced that the players who are in question by the NCAA will not play until the NCAA gives them the ok to do so. They don’t want to have to give games back should they play this year and then the NCAA rules they are ineligible. Carolina is playing it safe. I think that is a wise choice in this matter.

I listen to 99.9 the fan in Raleigh a lot. They have interviewed the guy who broke the story on Carolina and he said yesterday on 99.9 that Carolina may have had an ineligible player last year. Holy Cow! When all this eligibility stuff first came up and Carolina said they were asked by the NCAA not to talk about it, now we know why if last year is in the question. Carolina may have to give up all their wins from last season. If you are a State fan and looking for anyway to get a winning season from last year, sorry, State beat Carolina so Carolina will not have to give that one back if these stories are true.

I have talked about this before but how in the world can Tiger Woods be 119th on the PGA tour money list this year and still number one in the world. They have got to look at how the rankings take the past two years.

Phil Nicholson announced earlier this week that he has arthritis which you know has to effect your golf game. That may be why he has not shot past Tiger to the #1 ranking. Steve Stricker if he should win the PGA Championship could go to #1.

If you look at the Major League baseball stats it sure looks to me like Josh Hamilton of Raleigh is a shew in as MVP of the American league. Talk about a made for movie but his life since high school is what movies are made for. Top of the world, falling into a bottomless pit and then getting back to the top. Even though they gave up a five run lead with Cliff Lee on the mound last night to the Yankees, the Texas Rangers are good. They took two of three from the Yankees this week

Getting Down To Business

Today is coaches meeting day for the Big East Conference. All coaches involved in fall sports will meet at Southern Nash and discuss issues related to their sport that needs to be hashed out among the coaches. Then at the end they will vote for who they think will win their conference.
This will go on for all sports football, volleyball, boys soccer and cross country.

Here is my guess of how football will turn out in the conference. I don't think there is a dominate team in the entire league so I think everyone will lose once.

1. Southern Nash - They have a talented squad and last years playoff run just may pump life back into the Firebirds which has been missing since the four County High schools went into the same conference. 4-1

2. Northern Nash- They hit harder on defense than any other team in the league last year and I don't see why that should change this year. A better offense and Northern will be back. 3-2

3. Wilson Hunt- You can always count on Hunt to be competitive. First they live by the run. In the past ten years Hunt has been really good when they could throw some to loosen up the defense. 3-2

4. Rocky Mount- This team is better than last year. Seven road games could become burden as season wears on. 3-2

5. Nash Central- In a league where everyone is equal there is a thin line from first to fifth. 2-3

6. Wilson Fike- Fike has floundered ever since Richie Pridgen tried to retire and coach football. Pridgen is on the staff at Northern 0-5.

This is a league without a proven quarterback. The team that gets the best play there may prove to be the best. First to fifth is just a fumble difference in any team. This should be an exciting football year. Since the league is so balanced very well could get a team to eastern finals again this year.

The Rocky Mount High girls volleyball team scrimmages Faith Christian and Rocky Mount Academy starting at 1.00pm today in the gym. jvs and varsity will see action. The varsity plays Faith at 2.00pm and RMA at 6.00pm.

I like it when the public schools get together with our local private schools. I realize not all sports are compatible but basketball,baseball, soccer and tennis could join volleyball and competing with our neighbors.