Life The Old Timey Way

You may not have noticed but Saturday and Sunday were great days to be out in the yards enjoying Life. Yesterday with folding chair in hand I sat for three hours under the shade tree watching the world pass by my house. Brought back memories of the way we use to live before air conditioning came along.

You use to sit outside on the porch after supper and watch the world pass by just because it was too hot in the house. It is amazing what you can see and notice as life passes by you which you can't see inside with the air conditioning or in the back yard on the deck.

Northern Nash's J J Arrington was a victim of the 53 man roster of the Philadelphia Eagles. Arrington trying to come back following Micro fracture knee surgery has joined Terrell Hudgins trying to latch on to team after being cut last week.

In case you don't remember but on my blog back at Thanksgiving of last year the New Bern- Rocky Mount game in 2004 was listed as the game of the decade. The starting tailback that night for New Bern was Montario Hardesty who's injury riddled college career at Tennessee earn him as a draft pick of the Cleveland Browns.

Hardesty was destined to make the Browns maybe as their starting tailback until he tore ligaments in his knee Thursday night in the Browns final preseason game. He's done for the year.

When school returns Tuesday all the so called minor sports kick into conference action this week.

Girls tennis who is sporting a 3-1 record host Nash Central Tuesday. Volley Ball sporting a 7-2 record also host Nash Central Tuesday. Cross country runs Wednesday as the Big East who has gone to all conference members running together at the same location again this year runs at Fike. Soccer who put 12 goals in the net last week against Oxford Webb has another week of non conference action before conference play. Soccer is 5-1-1 so far this year.

Digging Deep

There is something down deep inside our soul that when our backs are to the wall we can give a better effort than what caused us to get up against the wall to begin with. Last night the Tar Heel football team despite having 13 players watching back in Chapel Hill or in the stands in Atlanta gave an effort beyond what any Tar Heel Fan could dream or expect in the coming weeks if those 13 never play this year.

Way back in the day when I was spinning the hits on the radio I went to work one day ridden with the flu. I could hardly hold my head up. I could not wait for the end of my show so I could go lay down. Just before the show ended the station manager walk in and said I think this is the best show I have ever heard you do. Your jokes, timing you have been on fire today. I could not feel from my vantage point what he heard only that I felt I was dying let me get out of here.

The Tar heels had about a week to prepare with out what they thought were going to be 15 missing players. The NCAA gave two players a reprieve on Friday to play. The Heels came together to give a supreme effort and take away eight minutes in the second quarter they were the better team.

On the other side of the coin LSU had heard all week that Carolina was not playing half the team so this game is going to be easy. LSU forgot at halftime that without those eight minutes Carolina is in the lead. They came out figuring the game is over and almost got their tail Handed to them in the second half.

If at any time on any field of play, if you say this game is over before it is over you lose the focus that it took to get the lead. LSU lost that focus while Carolina was giving an effort from deep down inside themselves. When they had to focus again LSU couldn't while Carolina was playing with something they didn't know they had and might not have it again this year.

What I saw last night was LSU isn't as good as advertised while Carolina if they get the 13 back quickly can still be very good.

I went to church tonight just as Tulsa scored to make it 49-45. Was shocked to hear the Pirates scored to win it.

Terrell Hudgins was not picked up for the taxi squad by Dallas. He's still looking. Carolina's Jessie Holley did make the Cowboy Taxi squad.

Hold On To The Football

Rocky Mount High School has played three football games. Their opening game they turned the ball over once which was returned for a touchdown. Last week two fumbles and four interceptions added to the misery of a 39-14 shellacking from Northern Durham. Friday night the inability of keeping the football in their possession led to six more miscues.

Football is a simple game, miscues stop your momentum and give the other side life. Considering the field position that the offense left the defense in against East Duplin the defense played great.

Turning to Northern Nash, if the game goes to over time we don't know that they would have won. A non- call on a punt formation distracted the Northern punter who failed to catch the snap and a safety comes about on what is basically the last play of the game. I wonder how many times Northern has practiced punting this summer, probably 300. A loss comes from not holding on to the football.

Over at Nash Central how many times this summer have they practiced an extra point. They scored with 2.50 to play and an extra point might get them into overtime. The result a 21-20 loss. We don't know whether they could have stopped Hertford County in over time but we will never know.

Simple things like holding on to the football and kicking the football and all three of the public high schools in Rocky Mount bite the dust Friday night. Execution and the winners may have been different

Southern Nash is acting like they could be what everyone thought they could be after a 38-7 whipping they applied to Beddingfield.

Russell Wilson looked great for the Wolfpack. Carolina playing better than expected against LSU. Boy wouldn't that be a feather in the ACC cap if Carolina pulls off an unset.

Scoring Streak Ends

I don't have Charles Alston by my side to get it 100% right but Rocky Mount failed to score in a football game for the first time since the opening game of the 2001 football season. Don't hold me to the fire on this one but I think it ends at 121 games. East Duplin shuts down the Gryphons 14-0. Trailing 10-0 in the fourth quarter East Duplin added not one safety but two in getting their scoring total to 14.

I was in Henderson tonight following the volley ball team who went five sets with Southern Vance.

The opening set went to the Raiders 26-24. Rocky Mount showed more pep winning the next two games 25-16 and 25-19. The fourth set the Lady Gryphons lost 25-16 setting up the tie breaker in which the Lady Gryphons won going away 15-3.

The most consistent player for the Lady Gryphons was Lauren Campbell who in one game the team won eight straight points on her serves. All night long she had 15 diggs and set several kills up at the net for Tia Hudgins who was awesome at the net in the tie breaker blocking several shots at the net plus had her own kills.

Lady Gryphons who played three days in a row is now 6-2 on the season.

Heart break Tonight: My blog this morning I said Northern needed to hold Tarboro to twenty points much Like Nash Central did two weeks ago. But they needed to score which Nash Central didn't. Northern Did the defense part tonight and went toe to toe with the defending 2-A champions until as bad snap in the enzone with less than ten seconds to play turned a potential overtime game into a Sweet ride home for Tarboro.

The Vikes escape from Death Valley winning 9-7. There is no moral victory for Northern but I can tell you the Knights are coming. Those of you say what was wrong with Tarboro there was nothing wrong with them. They have started out the season playing three 3-A schools and are undefeated.

Tonight Cary Shuts out Sanderson 31-0 which is an indication for Northern that their foe last week just might be good so last weeks thumping was not as bad is it might have seemed for Northern fans.

I can't wait to hear the details on this game but I can't wait to hear the details on this game but SouthWest Edgecombe beat North Edgecombe 22-14. Last night Hunt beat Holley Springs 38-7. This sets up a show down next week between Hunt and SouthWest Edgecombe.

Extra Effort Award Comes To Rocky Mount

Andrew Morales Rocky Mount High School Senior soccer player who next year will play soccer at Duke is this week's winner of the EXTRA EFFORT AWARD on WRAL-TV. If you go on line to WRAL.COM it is available for viewing. Good going Andrew!

Lady's tennis rebounded nicely from their first loss of the season whitewashing Edenton 9-0 on Wednesday. Volley Ball traveled to South Johnston Thursday and lost the tie breaker and the match 3-2.

Now it is Friday and do we play or not play? I would suspect as soon as it is light and the East Duplin folks look the field over we will know rather early whether there is any reason not to play. I bet it is clear there already this morning.

So Here we go with this week's games

It is very hard to figure how good or how bad any team is until the season starts unfolding and you see how those other teams you play, play against someone else. Most folks think Rocky Mount must have played poorly last week but I think Northern Durham had a lot to do with it. The same for Northern Nash, It will not take long to see how Cary’s season unfolds to judge. To this point – look good one week and not so good the next. Week three is here and which week will everyone have.

Rocky Mount at 2-A East Duplin. Those of you that don’t know about East Duplin they compare with Tarboro. Rocky Mount showed last week it is critical for them to get into the lead as the passing game probably will not win many games coming from behind. They sure won’t win many with six turnovers in a game. Who does? This is a tough one to call. I’m going with the home team here.

East Duplin 26 Rocky Mount 20

Tarboro at Northern Nash This is a really important game for Northern. You know the past five years have not been the best football years in school history. The mental state is critical as Northern needs something good to happen to them in a game that the team they are playing is better. Nash Central just played Tarboro two weeks ago and held the Vikes to 20 but couldn’t score. Northern needs to hold them to 20 and score regardless of whether they score enough to win.

Tarboro 38 Northern 6

Southern Nash At Beddingfield This is the second game this season in which Northern Nash can compare how they stack up against another County school. They already have played Beddingfield to a 21-13 victory. I doubt this one is that close. Southern Nash controls this game. I suspect this year if the Firebirds hold on to the ball it will be hard for anybody to beat them

Southern Nash 38 Beddingfield 12

Nash Central at Hertford County The Bulldogs rebounded well from their opening defeat to Tarboro. HC is not the same team as last year. NC has a shot to win this game but they are on the road. Bulldogs win by a nose


Nash Central 26 Hertford County 21


Southwest Edgecombe at North Edgecombe The score of this game will be what ever Raymond Cobb wants it to be. This will not be a game to look at and judge how good SWE might be. I don't think Raymond wants to embarrass his old stomping grounds. He does however want his players to execute the way they have been taught.

SouthWest Edgecombe 46 North Edgecombe 6

Weird, Just Plain Weird

Back in the late 80's Jack Buck did the call of the the home run by Kirk Gibson of the LA Dodgers who hit the pitch hit home run to beat the A's in the World Series. "I can't believe what I just saw" was the call and tonight I have just watched a JV game that everyone went home saying to themselves I can't believe what I just saw.

Rocky Mount JV's beat Broughton in triple overtime as J T Smith threw a pass to Chi-Ali Bunn and then added on the two point conversion and held off Broughton who's two point conversion fell harmlessly to the ground.

Michael Hines intercepted a pass eight yards deep in the enzone and everyone hollering for him to down the ball, Hines avoided a tackle at the one and broke another at the three and preceded to rumble 108 yards for a score to put Rocky Mount up 7-0. The very next drive Broughton punted and Mark Shaw pick up the pigskin and rambled 60 yards and the Gryphons lead 14-0.

Ahead 22-14 at the half the only second half score for Rocky Mount was a J T Smith hooked up with Chi-Ali Bunn on a 85 yard pass . Broughton scored with eight seconds left but the winning extra point hit the right upright after a high snap from center and the triple overtime started tied 28-28.

The first overtime Rocky Mount lost ten yards and then Broughton did no better. Each team was stopped on the one on their second try before both teams scored and Broughton missed the two point attempt just to try to get it to a fourth overtime.

Take away the three big plays and Broughton dominates this one but every play counts and the Baby Gryphons steal one at home 36-34

The reason this game was played on Wednesday is East Duplin does not have a jv team so the Gryphons played the Broughton jv's because the Broughton varsity is playing Thursday this week because of the holiday weekend.

Yes, as of this hour Thursday looks worse for the game with East Duplin so the game is still on for Friday night at 7.30. If we are lucky Hurricane Earl it will be long gone by Friday night.

Lady Gryphon Volleyball beat Southern Vance 3-0. 25-14,25-22 and 25-22 tonight at the gym. Thursday they travel to South Johnston and Friday they go to Southern Vance. Volly Ball is now 5-1 on the season.

Girls tennis lost their first match of the season Wednesday losing to Eastern Wayne 6-3.

Here Comes Another Hurricane

Two years ago the warning signs were issued of an impending hurricane and the folks at Northern Vance decided to wait until the last minute and at the last minute had to postpone our game at their place until later in September.

Once again this Friday the Gryphons are scheduled to play a non-conference game on the road and warnings are every where of impending bad weather for Friday. Let's hope the game is moved to Thursday to prevent another such fiasco. Our biggest problem with this game is it is in Duplin County, on the coast and they may get rain out of this storm even if it stays off the coast while we might not get any rain at all in Nash County.

Right now Thursday may not even be available depending on how far ahead of the storm the rains are. I am not sure of why but the JV home opener is tonight. Playing on Wednesday has nothing to do with the storm as this game was changed last week before any one knew anything about this storm.

The soccer team seems to have recovered from their opening day loss at home to Roanoke Rapids. Tuesday the soccer team beat D H Conley in Greenville 4-3. Matt Williams scored twice along with a goal each from Andrew Morales and Lee McAvoy. The Gryphons are now 3-1-1 on the season.

Volley Ball has a home match tonight against Southern Vance. JV's play at 4.30 and the varsity pretty quickly after that.

I really like the idea of the NFL dropping two pre seasons games and adding two regular season games. The only problem I have is 18 games just does not work as well as 16 in scheduling.

The way it is now all teams play every one in their division twice for six of their games. They also play another division in their conference which adds four more. They play another division in in the other conference. Then you play the other teams in your conference that you tied with last year. In other words since you already play one division in you conference every team in that division you play the teams you are tied with in the other divisions. All third place teams play each other.

Under this format I could count on the Carolina Panthers playing their Southern division teams Atlanta, New Orleans and Tampa every year. Every three years they would play every other team in their conference and every four years play every division in the AFC.

When they go to 18, how are they going to divide it up where everyone is playing the same teams. As it is now all teams in a division play the same others teams in other conferences and divisions.

Look what money does to the world.