Paint It Pink Game Is Today

Today is Senior day in Tennis and Volleyball as they play their last home games during the regular season. Tennis meets rival Northern Nash at Sunset Park while back at the gym Volley ball collides with Northern.

Today the gym will decorated PINK as much as possible as Northern and Rocky Mount collide in the last regular season game of the year. Rocky Mount is already secure in the #1 spot in the playoffs and in next weeks tournament but Northern is still trying to make it to the playoffs.

It was less than a month ago when the idea started circulating to do this game for the Susan G Komen Breast Cancer Foundation and it has ready taken off with both Tabitha Wilcox and Northern Coach Patricia Haggerty leading the charge for their team.

Sponsors were gathered and 150 tee shirts were printed and both sides sold out of their allotments. The Dental Care Center, Old Dominion Freight Lines, Jamie Mitchell Auto Sales, Griffin Food Stores and RTS Screen Printing help pay for the tee shirts.

Parent have bought bake good and drinks and Chick-Fil-A sandwiches will be sold during the event with all proceed going to the Susan G Komen breast cancer Foundation. Rocky Mount High School is donating one dollar from every ticket sold to give to the foundation.

The JV's start playing at 4.30 and the varsity start 30 minutes after they finish. If you have never been to a volleyball game today is the day that you need to make it your first game. Rocky Mount's 19 game regular season conference win streak is on the line. Northern is still trying to qualify for the playoffs and if for no other reason both sides are supporting the Susan G Komen Breast Cancer Foundation today. Oh Yeah Northern and Rocky Mount are playing each other in volleyball.

Come out and help support a great cause.

Down The Stretch They Come

Lady Gryphon Volleyball clinched out right the regular season championship yesterday beating Southern Nash 3-0. The scores were 25-15, 25-23, and 25-15. All they have left in regular season is the Thursday finish at home against Northern Nash and the paint it pink day for Susan G Komen. The ladies do have the Susan G Komen event Saturday in Winterville at South Central but several players will not make the trip because of SAT's.

The victory guarantees the Ladies at least one home game in the playoffs which start in two weeks. They also have earned a bye in next week's opening round of the conference tournament.

Tennis also finishes up regular season this week but as a couple of sports finish up football is just beginning to get down to business.

Back in August I made these predictions. Southern Nash would finish 4-1. Northern Nash, Hunt and Rocky Mount would be 3-2 with Northern getting second, Hunt third and Rocky Mount fourth. Nash Central would go 2-3 and Fike 0-5.

We talked then of how the conference would be a jumbled mess and after six weeks of non-conference action that statement should still hold. Southern Nash, Northern Nash and Hunt seem to be established as the top three and Rocky Mount, Nash Central and Fike the bottom three.

Every team needs to be in the top three to assure themselves a playoff spot and this Friday Rocky Mount at Nash Central is a game both schools need. The loser of this game is probably destined for the lower tier of the conference.

There is a possibility that 3-2 could tie for first. Any team in the Big East that goes through the regular season unbeaten I would say has a dog gone good chance of playing for the eastern title again this year. I don't think anyone will go through the regular season unscratched.

The fun part of it all is four weeks from right now we may still be sitting here wondering who's going to win first place and who makes the playoffs.

Giving It All You Got.

Ever since Rocky Mount and Rose High in Greenville started playing football against each other the Rampants have been a good barometer as how good Rocky Mount can be. When ever they beat Rose most of the time it meant that the Gryphons had a good ball team. Tonight in Greenville Rose uses all four quarters to beat the Gryphons 21-14.

Once again Rocky Mount plays well in the first half only to falter in the second. The Gryphons lead 14-7 late in the third quarter only to see the Rampants score twice to win 21-14. If we can use the Rampants as a barometer then the Gryphons will hold their own in Big East play. Tonight's loss drops the Gryphons to 2-4 in their non-conference action and they begin the conference Friday night with the short trip to Nash Central.

When I heard this score I had to ask three times if the score was right but tonight at Northern Nash Rocky Mount soccer beat The Knights of Northern 12-0. That is not a misprint. This is the first action for the Gryphon boys since they lost at home to Hunt and it looks like the Gryphons took out some of their frustrations on Northern. Soccer is home Tuesday as they play Southern Nash.

Volleyball and tennis travel to Southern Nash Tuesday and if volleyball wins they clinch first place out right heading into the conference tournament next week. Tennis plays Greene Central on Wednesday and finishes up their regular season Thursday hosting Northern Nash.

The so called minor sports hardly ever have more than mothers and fathers at any game. This Thursday is the final regular season game in volleyball and and Northern Nash and Rocky Mount's jv's and varsity have come together to do a fund raiser for Susan G Komen Breast Cancer .

Almost 130 pink tee shirts have been sold at this point even before the game is played. If you never go to another volleyball game in your life Thursday at 4.30 the jv's tangle and the varsity takes to the court thirty minutes later. One dollar from every ticket sold will be given by RMHS to the Komen foundation. A 50/50 raffle, baked goods and a whole lot of fun for a good cause.

Come Join us Thursday.

Dilemma In Chapel Hill

I have not taken the gloves off to throw punches at the North Carolina situation with either the papers written for athletes or for the agent paying athletes. Honestly I think both those situations go on every where to some degree.

I think this , that it is the responsibility of each person whether it is academic or athletic scholarship that once you sign the dotted line you owe that school a tremendous about of graditude. If you go to Carolina on a Morehead scholarship or athletic you owe it to the school to be a good citizen.

I have no problem what so ever that if any person on scholarship if they break the law revoke their free ride. There would be no need for a coach to decide a disciplinary action because they would be dismissed from school and if you are not in school you can't play for that school.

Carolina's case involves no laws being broken but NCAA rules violations. To me that is the same. Yahoo sports reported last week that they had bank statements from the agent in question paid to the Carolina coach. It seems everyday the hole gets deeper for North Carolina.

The only way to stop this agent business is the NFL must tell these guys if you want to represent a player in our league you must not violate any NCAA rules. Any violation relating to the NCAA we will pull your license to work with us.

How much did Butch Davis know? When ever the dust settles in Chapel Hill we may still not know how involved Davis has been from the get go. Davis drives the football bus in Chapel Hill and is responsible for the end result. I know this that it is hard for the bus driver to know what is going on in the last seat of the bus.

I really don't see any way that Butch Davis is coach at Carolina in 2011. The best scenario for Carolina would be to finish 4-8 this year and that's an easy firing. If Carolina finishes 8-4 that would be a great coaching job under extremely rough conditions this season. What happens to Davis then?

A Jumbled Mess

Let's see if we can figure out exactly what the athletic schedule is this week for Rocky Mount Fall sports. Last week's rain has brought on several changes this week.

We will start with soccer, to this point they are 11-2-1 on the season and have scored 81 goals in 14 matches. That's just a tad bit more that 5.5 goals per game. When ever the Gryphons step on the field they need to score at least three goals and they will win. They have two losses and a tie on the season and in their two losses they scored two goals in one game and one in the other. Their tie on the season that didn't score at all.

This week they travel to Northern Nash Monday night. Tuesday they host Southern Nash and Wednesday they are at Nash Central.

If one sport has been hurt the worse by the weather it is Tennis. They now are supporting a 4-3 conference record and have three conference games this week plus one non-conference match. You see for tennis this is the last week of the regular season.

They start Monday Hosting Fike, Tuesday they travel to Southern Nash, Wednesday they hit the road to Greene Central and they finish up their regular season Thursday at home hosting Northern Nash. Four straight days the tennis team will be dragging by Thursday.

Volley ball being an inside sport has not lost a day due to the weather and they have two conference matches this week. Tuesday at Southern Nash and Thursday a home match against Northern Nash to cap off the regular season.

Thursday match will be paint it pink day as both Northern and Rocky Mount have been selling pink tee shirts that say Rocky Mount-Northern Nash dig for a cure. Around 100 tee's have been sold so far. It is up in the air right now whether Rocky Mount will be able to be in the South Central volleyball tournament on Saturday. Several players are taking PSAT's Saturday. That match was moved from the second to the ninth late last week.

Football is of course at Rose Monday night making up for the rain that fell on Friday. They then play Nash Central on Friday to start conference play.

If there is one thing that we don't need this week is more rain. If rain should play with this weeks schedule then they may have to cancel some games.

Wdnesday cross country will make their weekly conference run this week at Fike.

"19" Enshrined

Every time Terrell Hudgins walks into the gym at Rocky Mount High he is reminded of his athletic career. Since he won the North Carolina High school Athlete of the year in 2005 he can look on the wall and you know he must have a flash back to something that help lead to that Banner to make it to that wall. Football,basketball or baseball all three together help make him the best athlete in North Carolina .

Today every time he walks into Rhodes Stadium at Elon University there will be another reminder. This time it will be solely for football as Terrell Hudgin's "19" was retired and will hang forever along the facing of the playing field at Elon. I was very lucky to be behind the mic for Terrell's three football season, two in basketball and baseball.

Photo's Courtesy of Darius Hudgins a very proud papa.

Cross Country ran in the D H Conley invitational this morning and Lady Gryphon girls finished second and the boys finished fourth. Gryphon James Bond won the boys race.

There are no more undefeated teams in the ACC as Virginia Tech proves tooo much for N C State. Carolina gets a big intra state rivalry win beating ECU. The Pirates just can't stop anybody.

Last night in non-conference football Southern Nash out scored Nash Central 42-27. Rocky Mount plays Greenville Rose Monday night in Greenville. Nash Central plays Rocky Mount Friday night in the first conference game for both schools and I think the loser will not make the playoffs.

Rain, Cancellations And Postponements

Rocky Mount's Total of rain from Thursday alone was more than four inches. Greenville over twelve inches and New Hanover County was over twenty two inches of rain since midnight Sunday.

High School sports has taken a hit this week from all the wet stuff except for those who play the inside game in the fall. Rocky Mount's volleyball team traveled to Fike hoping to clinch a tie for first place in Big East VB and they did. In doing so they clinch first place during the regular season with only Hunt able to finish 8-2 should the Lady Gryphons falter twice next week but Rocky Mount having clinched two victories over Hunt they have the tie breaker.

They beat Fike 3-0 yesterday. Volleyball will be in a tournament this weekend at South Central and they once again will be in that let see how much we have improved mode. Last year during this Susan G Komen event in Winterville they lost to both New Bern and South Central. In fact they were dominated in both matches. Due to the excessive rains in Winterville the Saturday event at South Central has been poseponed until Oct 9th.

Rain forced tennis and soccer to reschedule their Wednesday and Thursday matches to next Monday. Soccer already having lost Monday's game this week to the weather now has two matches to make up. Tennis and soccer will play Monday in what should have been yesterday's matches. Tennis will then play Tuesday and Thursday their final regular season matches. Soccer will reschedule last Monday's match later as they still have a couple of weeks of regular season to go.

The JV football game hosting Rose has been cancelled altogether with no make up. The varsity game has already been pushed to Monday.

I don't know whether you have noticed this or not but Volleyball and tennis the sports that play each conference member twice has a really weird conference schedule this year. They both started with four straight home games and then finished up the first time around the schedule on the road. Then they had four more road games before the final games of the season will be at home. Volleyball going to the tournament in South Central tomorrow that will give them seven straight road games. Soccer with the two rain outs this week and all the schedule juggling going on they may escape having to play five in a row on the road.

Would love to be at Elon on Saturday but will be following volleyball in Winterville. Terrell Hudgins number 19 will be retired. Terrell's Mom Leslie has promised pictures and if that comes true will have them either Saturday night after we get back from Volleyball or on Sunday's blog.