Carolina Keeps Coming To Rocky Mount

Two Former Rocky Mount High school athletes Danny Talbott and Phil Ford are names that any Tar Heel Fan knows. There is no doubt that through the year the Tar heels have signed many Gryphons athletes to athletic scholarships. This week Benton Moss added his name to Mike Fox's commitments from Rocky Mount and will enter Chapel hill next summer.

Moss will join freshman Hobbs Johnson a Gryphon last year now a Tar Heel looking to survive in Chapel Hill. It seems that there is a run of Rocky Mount star players who are finding making it four years in Chapel hill is tough.

Sophomore Brian Goodwin will sit out this spring on Mike Fox's baseball team and his future is in doubt with the Tar Heels. Adam Weaver, Mike Mason, Paul Jenkins and Carter Harrell all signed with Carolina but none of them played out their eligibility there all in the last ten years or so.

It is better sometimes to be lucky than good. State catches a deflection in the end zone and scores a touchdown. A two point conversion bounces all around and hits the ground and Carolina loses to the Wolfpack by two.

I have now seen all three State, Carolina and Duke play basketball and Duke may be better than I thought. They seem to be able to play a big team or bring in the quick team. Playing Minnesota Friday night which is by the way a very good team Carolina had a hard time in the half court game and it didn't seem the point guards knew how to get the ball to the scorers. Isn't that the same problem they had last year? State is much improved in the guard play which has been their biggest weakness during Sidney Lowe's tenure. They are still mighty young and skinny.

Tonight on the "Stretchlon Sports Show" an hour with the Nash Central Cross country team. Showtime is 8.00pm

State-Carolina

It has been 1979 since N C State won the ACC football championship. Carolina can't say much to Wolfpack fans about that cause they haven't won the title since 1980. Let's face it neither one over the years has been as good in football as they both think. Today for the first time in a long while the Pack here the next to last week on the regular season can win a division title but depending on what happens at Maryland if Carolina takes them down today could get eliminated. With all that has happen at Carolina this fall with all the investigations beating the Pack would help ease all the disappointments that this year has brought. Kick off is noon on the Big Five.

I don't know whether you have heard this or not but the Illinois-Northwestern game being played today at Wrigley Field in Chicago will only let the offenses go in one direction. Seems the right field wall which is all most on top of the the back of the End zone is too close to the playing field. After every change of procession the teams will turn around and go the other way.

Sounds to me like a preseason scrimmage. I wonder who is going to scrimmage on the other end of the field. Those of you that think playing at Wrigley with the wall so close to the field is crazy. The Chicago Bears use to play all their games there. I fact in the history of the Bears they still have played more games at Wrigley than they have at Soldier Field. I wonder whether the Big Ten has ever heard of padding used in every high school gyms in the country to help cushion the players when they run into the walls. Just a thought!

Wolfpack basketball has lost Foward Tracy Smith through December. Despite that the Pack beat George Mason in Charleston and will play Georgetown Sunday night in the finals of that tournament. The three freshman all had good second halfs in pushing the Pack to victory

Carolina had a tough matchup last night against Minnesota losing their first game of the year. Like last year Point Guard play killed the Heels down the stretch. Duke romped over the Tooth Paste school Colgate.

Northern Nash and Hunt will square off next Friday night at Hunt with the Winner of that game representing the Big East in the Eastern Finals. Every conference has a reputation one way or the other and there is no doubt that the Big East/NEW-6 was known for football and it is being proven out again this year in the east.

Just in case you haven't seen this Jacksonville soccer who beat Rocky Mount 1-0 then in round four knocked off Hunt 2-1 in overtime, lost in the east finals to Cardinal Gibbons of Raleigh 3-2. rocky Mount has had a tough time with beating Jacksonville. Jacksonville can't beat Cardinal Gibbons.

Big Night For Big East

Northern Nash made their second trip of the season to South Central. Way back in September they traveled there for a non-conference game. The Northern Defense did a good job while the offense did just enough to beat South Central 14-12.

This season the Knights offense has gotten better and better and the defense has stayed steady while the offense has grown and grown as the season has passed by. Clinching second place the Knights find themselves in the second round and facing a team that they have already beaten and again at South Central.

Tonight Northern has shown the folks in the Coastal conference that they are for real as they have gone to South Central and laid a whipping on the Falcons 37-10. Rashad Hedgepeth and T J Marshall both rush for over a 100 yards .

This victory sets up a rematch their third of the playoffs as they will meet up against #1 seed Big East Foe Hunt a team ironically the Knights have already been to this year. Tonight Hunt beat Coastal conference West Carteret 37-17.

Thanksgiving Friday the Knights meet the Warriors.

Roanoke Rapids spotted Tarboro a 35 point lead earlier this year when they met during the regular season and did all they could to give Tarboro a heart attack in that game before finally losing 42-35.

Tonight the Yellow Jackets tried the same trick spotting Tarboro a 21-0 lead at the half mainly because of three Jacket turn overs which Tarboro converted into 21 point.

RR score midway in the third quarter to cut the lead to 21-7 but Tarboro has proven over the past three years or so that they don't like losing at home. Tarboro adds two fourth quarter scores to take down the Jackets 35-14. The Yellow Jackets had five turnovers and the Vikings converted four of them into 28 points. The Jackets finish with two losses both administered by the Tarboro Vikings.

Tonight's victory #13 for the Vikes with zero losses heads to East Duplin Thanksgiving Friday night. East Duplin did host Rocky Mount the third game of the season and beat the Gryphons 14-0. Neither has play a common opponent so they will have to rely on film exchange to see each other.

Northampton West has come to North Edgecombe and ended the Warriors season 14-6. This is after the Warriors had won the regular season match 38-6. Other games of interest Northeastern beat Beddingfield 28-26 another shocker Bunn 26 Kinston 7.

Tarboro and Northern Nash advance to round three.

Another Bombshell From Chapel Hill

Baseball America reported yesterday that former Rocky Mount Gryphon and rising UNC sophomore center fielder for the Tar Heels Brian Goodwin has been suspended for the Spring semester 2011 for violating university policy. He will be eligible for the 2011/2012 academic year. UNC has stressed that this is in no way related with the on going football investigation in which UNC turned over their part of the investigation this week to the NCAA.

UNC and NC State both are taking part in two different basketball tournaments this weekend and both opened up with Hugh wins yesterday. Harrison Barnes played like the All American that he has been picked to be as a freshman scoring 19 points in the first 15 minutes of the game. The heels took care of Hofstra 107-63.

The Wolfpack is in Charleston SC and played ECU as Freshman Lorenzo Brown and Brian Harrow delivered as promising freshman. The most heralded freshman of them all C J Leslie tried to make superstar moves early and found himself on the bench for most of the game but Brown with 16 points and Harrow 11 points 10 assists and no turnovers were too much for the Pirates. Pack 85-ECU 65.

Tonight Tarboro and North Edgecombe are at home in the high school football playoffs while Northern Nash hits the road at South Central. It is possible that tonight will be the last home game any of our high school teams play as they try to survive and advance in the playoffs. Tarboro does have an outside chance of playing the eastern finals at home but that is still two weeks after tonight.

This Sunday night on the "Stretchlon Sports Show " we will have the seniors fro the Nash Central cross country team on live. This group finished in the top ten in the state four years in a row.

NFL weekend of football got off and running last night as the Bears beat the Dolphins 16-0. As a Charger fan that is a good win for the Chargers as they see another team ahead of them in the wild card race in the AFC fall. The Dolphins drop to 5-5 and if you are a Minnesota or Brett Farve fan Chicago winning last night was not good for you as the THE BEARS now are 7-3. The Vikes are behind both green Bay and Chicago by three games.

Too Much Football On TV

I was clicking around the sports dial last night and came up on the ESPN College Football game being played at Akron. I got to that channel just as they were coming out of commercial and had an overhead shot of the stadium. The must have been at least 125 people at that game.

If the local area people don't even care to go to the game why should we as a national audience want to watch that game for. I chuckled thinking to myself that 24 hour a day television is way too much for the networks coming up with anything worth watching. I wonder what team the other night was the live basketball game at 4.00am in the morning when ESPN was showing 24 hours of live basketball.

I did watch the last few minutes of the Baylor-U Conn women's game when U Conn winning streak almost came to an end. If they had of been playing at Baylor U-Conn would have lost by 20.

Tonight you can get a look at the Gryphon basketball teams as Westover High from Fayetteville on the door step of Fort Bragg will be here. The games start for real next week.

Round Two of Football playoffs:

Northern Nash @ South Central- This is the second week of Northern's replay of their regular season as they disposed of the Firebirds last week for the second time. Friday night they should know the way to South Central since they have already played there once this season and won. There is no perfect format for the playoffs but it sure seems that if you have already won against your playoff opponent at their place already in the same season then you would be seeded higher than them for this one game.

Both of these team have improved drastically as the season wore on. Northern does have one thing that I like about this team. Their backs love to punish the tackler and none of them fall backwards while a tackle is being made. That wears on a defense as the game goes on. Northern will make it to thanksgiving Friday taking down South Central 20-14.

Roanoke Rapids @ Tarboro- The game is already sold out. They played each other earlier in the season and Tarboro had to hold on for dear life as Roanoke Rapids threw the ball at will in the second half. Former Tarboro coach Russell Weinstein will not wait to half time this game and will come out chunking the ball from the get go. Running teams know how to stop the run and Tarboro is a running team. Roanoke Rapids 34- Tarboro 28

All three local games involve teams they have already played before. North Edgecombe whipped Northampton West earlier in the season big. They will do it again. North Edgecombe 26 Northampton West 6

Last week I was three and two in the first round. Both the Northern and Tarboro games could go either way so they are toss up games. I could easily miss two out of three this week. This has probably been the hardest season ever to get a grasp of how all the teams are playing from week to week.

Rocky Mount Sports Facilities

I am not only an announcer on the Stretchlon Sports Show but I am also the producer on shows in which I take part. Real television when the credits roll at the end of the show when it list who the stars are and those behind the scene the word producer will pass at some point in the scrolling. All a producer is the person who provides everything needed in a show. A chair to sit in in case there is no press box. The biggest part of any show is what will be on the show? The producer lines up the guest, the events. That's my part as producer what game will you see?

We did a live show last Sunday night which we featured the senior soccer players from Rocky Mount High who are the winningest class in school history. This Sunday we will have the Nash Central Cross Country team's seniors who four straight years finished in the top ten in the state four times.

Live shows are a celebration most of the time of teams that won State Championships. We had several shows on the little league state tournament held here in July. The Nash County Volley Ball Tournament held in August. We had planned to carry the Big East soccer Semifinals and Finals but rain killed that idea. We were caught short on taped shows when fall sports were done waiting for winter sports to kick in. Thus two live shows in a row.

Basketball is cranking up and you can expect the round ball on several times in the next three months. There is one sports that doesn't get a lot of play but because of the Harrison Family YMCA can be shown is swimming. The Rocky Mount YMCA is connected just enough to the sports complex that visitors think it is part of the complex. Swimming is treated just like cross country and the Big East has a weekly swim meet where all the conference members bring their teams to the same meet.

Swimming is hard to cover because the swimmers don't have a number and no team has a roster that you purchase as you walk in to see who is on the team. A race starts every team puts a swimmer in that race and off they go. As soon as that race ends another group get up to the starting line and off they go. There is no break for a commercial or a chance to go to the concession stand, if there were you would miss a race or two.

Most people pay attention to their light bill more than the facilities that we have in Rocky Mount. We have the use of a Olympic Size swimming pool. Baseball and softball has a facility hardly no one else in the state can match. I hear this past weekend there was a major little league tournament moved here when Charlotte canceled out as the site.

Even in swimming when a conference meet is held the city gets a few dollars from those that eat before they go home or buy gas to get back home. Who knows they just might stop and buy something at the mall before they leave. Once the Gryphons move to their new football home I think it would be wise for the city when it takes over the stadium to enlarge the visitors side. I could see the football Stadium hosting the Eastern Finals in football just like Greenville has hosted basketball for the past several years.

If there is one thing this city has been progressive in is sports. Why stop with what we have now let's become the sports capitol of North Carolina. I think you can already calls us the little league and softball capitol why stop there?