Christmas Tourney Starts Monday

Rocky Mount High School will host the the Nash County Christmas tournament for the last time in the old gym starting Monday night. The next time the Gryphons would be scheduled to host the event they will be in a new location and and the new gym will be less than two years old.

The event kicks off Monday night at 5.00pm with Northern Nash and Nash Central girls tangling with the winner not playing again until Wednesday at 6.30. The loser will play Tuesday at six. Game two of the night will have the host school the Lady Gryphons taking on Southern Nash. The same scenerio applies for the winner and loser as the NN-NC game.

The anchor game of the Monday night event will be the defending State 3-A champs Rocky Mount taking on county rival Southern Nash. This will be the Gryphons first action against any one else in Nash County since they won the 3-A title back in March. This game is scheduled for eight with the loser not playing again until five on Wednesday and the winner playing in the final game of the tournament at eight or so Wednesday night.

Day two will only have two games as the girls consolation game will begin at six and the Northern Nash Boys will take on the Bulldogs of Nash Central at 7.30. The boys loser will play again at five on Wednesday while the winner does not take the hardwood again until eight Wednesday night.

The Stretchlon Sports show will be taping all four of the opening round games and the two championship games. Wes Bradshaw will cover all three of the boys games this week and yours truly will handle the girls.

Tonight on the show will be the replay of Pam Gainey's 300th career victory a couple of weeks ago at SouthWest Edgecombe. Wes Bradshaw who if I recall has not been behind the mic since the State Championship basketball game will handle the historic event.

Whether getting behind the mic to doing radio or TV or just to do PA you develop friendships with people over the years and one of those people who I like a lot while covering his son playing for Northern Nash and Nash County Legion was Terry Woodley. We meet Saturday morning while getting tires and an inspection and spent several minutes rehashing old times and Terry giving me an update on Zach's life.

Zach is now a Junior at ECU and will not play baseball for the Pirates. Zach had arm trouble at Pitt CC and spurned an offer from Mount Olive to continue his baseball career. It is a pleasure to be around friends when you listen to them talk about their children and how proud they are of the people that they have become and the places they have been because of sports.

Gryphons sweep Rampants

Those of you that were in attendance at the boys game between Rose and Rocky Mount two weeks ago probably left as I did that night thinking that the Rampants would beat the Gryphons at Rose.

Not so fast my friend. Rose started quickly bombing away three point baskets and getting every loose ball and shot to a 21-9 lead early in the second quarter. Looking at the score board you would think the Gryphons were lucky to be so close, but then it happened. Those bombs stopped falling and the Gryphons took control of the boards.

A nice spurt by the Gryphons just before the half cut the lead to 27-23 Rose. Rocky Mount scored the first seven points of the third quarter and from that point on the Gryphons ran and ran and ran beating Rose 70-59. Towards the end those early three point bombs started falling again for Rose other wise this one would have been near a twenty point win.

Exzavier Cooper lead the scoring with 18, but this was not a one man night tonight as every man that played did what the team needed to win. Kenyatta Bullock netted 13, Tecoby Hines added 13 in the second half. Donte Battle as a six feet four inch freshman finds himself lined up every game against the other teams biggest player and tonight Donte added 7 points. MJ Gainey score 7 off the bench Tevin Taylor is beginning to find his shooting eye tossed in 6.

The Gryphons won the war on the boards 34-29 with Battle corralling 9, Exzavier snagged 7 and Tecoby Hines and Tevin Taylor each had six.

The girls game found the Lady Gryphons hitting the floor minus J'Kyra Brown who tweeked her knee that she had surgery on last year and sat tonight just for precaution. Tia Hudgins decided that she would pick up the slack and when the first team left the court with two minutes and 36 seconds to go in the game Hudgins had 27 points and Rose had 24. The bad news for Rose was that Tia's other teammates added 22 more as the Lady Gryphons pound Rose 49-29.

Marquita Hines and Tyais Cooper scored six points a piece, Timisha Walker had five, Kushunn Seabreeze collect 3 and Carmen Richardson rounded out the scoring with 2.

Rocky Mount dominated the boards winning that 40-22 with Hudgins getting 8 and Walker 7. The Lady Gryphon defense caused 27 turnovers but one major area of concern is at the free stripe. The Lady Gryphons were a dismal 10-28 so can you imagine what the score could have been in this one.

Both gryphon teams are now 9-2 and have games Monday in the Nash County Christmas Tournament. The Ladies play the second game Monday night at 6.30 and the boys follow at 8.00pm. They both play Southern Nash.

Not often do you ride to Greenville and win at any thing against Rose and tonight including both JV teams the Gryphons come home with four wins.

Unfinished Business

There are times when there is too much going on and it is hard to get all the info you know out in a timely manner. I am late with the all-conference Big East football team.

I don't know how many times there has ever been an all conference team with three brothers on it but Northern and Hunt lead the way with the team. T J Marshall and brothers Travonne and Tevin are part of an 11 man Northern squad making the all conference team.
T j is joined on the offense by Rashad Hedgepeth, Mitchell Wells, Rob Richwalski and Tavis Richardson.

Northern defense is lead by Travonne Marshall who was voted part of a trio as Big East defensive players of the year. Brother Tevin, Brandon Dawes, Quan Silver an Donavan Cooper make up the biggest Northern all conference team in quite a while.

Coach Mickey Crouch joined Hunt's Randy Raper in being named co-coach of the year.

Nash Central placed four members on the offensive team - Jalen Hendricks, Keiffer Griffin, Greg Arrington and Dequan Battle. They added another four on defense- Jeffery Lucas, Mason Wallace, Letovis davis and Chris Bullock.

Southern Nash placed four on offense and four on defense. Tracy Coppedge, Trendell Lynch, Terron Huffman and Tony Williams were the offensive players while Brandon Jones was also part of the three person defensive player of the year, AAron McFarland, Alkeen Thomas and Josh Sessoms were the defensive all conference players.

Rocky Mount placed six player. Rodquez Greene, Damien Strickland and Conner Daughtridge were the offense players while Nah'jerrelle Graves, Miguel Valdez and Darryn Lewis were the defense.

Rocky Mount had two tough basketball games Wednesday at Hertford County but both teams won. Tonight they travel to Rose in their last action before Monday's Christmas Tourament. I would suspect tonight's boys game will be a nail biter as the game here last week was a run and gun game with a court full of athletes on both sides.

Mabry's Freshman Year Ended

The Modesto Bee the newspaper of Modesto California reported in their Tuesday addition that TaShawn Mabry former Rocky Mount High and All State basketball performer tore his Achilles heel over the weekend and had successful surgery on Monday to repair the injury. His injury will make him miss the rest of his freshman year At Modesto Junior College.

Mabrey after signing with Rhode Island last summer transferred to MJC before classes started this fall and has had a really nice beginning to his college career until the injury. The injury occurred while simply running down the court.

The deadline for those wanting to take part in the Coleman Pitt American Legion baseball camp is December 20th. If you want to get in the camp for $75. The late fee is $100 to attend if you sign up after the 20th.The camp will be during the Christmas break at Nash Central High School. Grades 6-12 are eligible to participate which will be held on the 28th and 29th starting at 1.00pm

If you still think you could play pro basketball then December the 19th at the South Rocky Mount Community center there will be a tryout for the Renegades a team from North Carolina which will be joining the ABA next season. The tryout begins at 5.00pm

This morning I have to end talking about a non sports item. I'm sure we all have heard the forecast has been for snow to begin sometime this morning near dawn and snow this morning and later in the morning turn to freezing rain and by early afternoon change to rain.

There have been hundreds of school systems and businesses to announce time changes today base on the forecast. I know it is always better to side with caution over waiting too late but I need to ask this question this morning.

Where in the forecast if it is going to start at dawn and snow and later in the morning change to freezing rain and taper off to rain this afternoon, where does this forecast tell people it will be ok to delay schools two hours? Nash County has to start rolling buses two hours ahead of the bell ringing to get them all there on time so where does the forecast say it will be ok to put the buses on the road at 8.00am.

If we are going to decide the day before on whether to have school or not base on the forecast the weather is telling me the roads will still be getting freezing rain around lunch so why not go ahead and not have it at all. There are a lot of families who have to make arrangements about their children whenever the schedule changes and they are being held hostage by a half a decision.

Now I will get off my soap box.

7-2 Gryphons Hit The Road

Tonight the Gryphons basketball teams make their longest trek of the season with a visit to Hertford County. Both the boys and the girls are 7-2 thus far this season.

Next Monday night the Gryphons host the Nash County Holiday Tournament. This is the first time that the tournament is being played before Christmas and I suspect the reason is to allow any of our teams that might be invited to the Glaxo tournament in Raleigh to be available. The Nash County tournament is just not the same when all four county high schools are not in it as happened in 2008. The Gryphons got a late invite last year to return to the Raleigh but had to with draw when they could not find any team to take their place in our home county tourney.

It will be a three day affair this year with three games opening night next Monday. The girls of Northern Nash will take on their counter parts from Nash Central in the 5.00pm opener. Second game of the evening will feature the Lady Gryphons playing Southern Nash. The night cap will put the Gryphon boys on the floor playing Southern Nash.

There will only be two games on Tuesday. The consolation game between the girls losers from Monday night will start at 6.00 pm and the Nash Central boys and Northern Nash boys will follow. Do you see what they are trying to do here? Gryphon boys are the Monday night attraction hoping for a big crowd. Tuesdays collision between Nash Central and Northern Nash boys the head liner on Tuesday. This also eliminates a long day two days in a row for the host school having to put on four games two days in a row on a school day.

Wednesday night's 5.00pm game will be the boys consolation game then the girls championship and boys championship will follow.

Tickets are $6 Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday for the championship night is $8.

You need to check out the Rocky Mount Telegram this morning. I reported here on this blog last month about Rocky Mount sports legend Danny Talbott dicovery that he had Cancer. The Telegram has a nice piece on Talbott today. Good read!

The Streak Is Over

Finally it is over!. This clamoring will he play, will he retire, will he come back and play again. You know Brett Farve's streak of starting 297 straight games at quarterback is not as big a deal as TV has made it out to be. If he really started every game he would have lined up on the kickoff team and either run down the field to make a tackle or block for someone if his team was receiving it.

Starting on the offense means half the time you wait three minutes while the defense goes to work before you do. So all this bunk about starting 297 times did he really? If you get credit for being a starter and the defense goes out on the field before you do then why is the punter not given credit for being a starter?

I did not hear all this bellowing about streaks when Jeff Feagles retired. I bet you didn't even know Jeff Feagles had retired. Even better I bet most of you don't know who Jeff Feagles is? Jeff Feagles punted in the NFL for twenty years. 1988-2007. He holds the record for the most consecutive games played in 352. Yet he is not given credit for being a starter. If you are the only punter on the team and you answer the call when it's time to punt then aren't you a starter?

Jeff Feagles played for almost every team in the NFL over his twenty years. He punted 1,713 times which is the NFL record. The news media will tell us that Brett Farve passed for 71,775 yards that's more than 44 miles of passing yardage. Jeff Feagles punting yardage was 71,211 yards. That's more than 44 miles of punts sailing through the air. The media neglects to tell you that Farve did not throw the ball through the air for all 44 miles but receivers ran real far after they caught his passes most of the time.

Brett Farve's last pass in the NFL was an interception which oh by the way Farve is the NFL leader all time in that department. Jeff Feagles last kick in the NFL was a coffin corner kick which went out of bounds inside the twenty yard line. That was the 497th time he had done that which is the most in NFL history.

Streaks if we think streaks are important then the Iron Man Streak in the NFL is Jim Marshall. The former Minnesota Viking defensive end started 270 straight games. When he line up against the other teams tackles he had several head knocking, power lifting plays on every play while he was on the field. He was where the action is in the NFL, the interior line. Any man that starts in 270 consecutive games has to be famous for something and Jim Marshall holds the record for the shortest play in NFL history.

Yes we all know about this one the famous fumble recovery where Marshall ran the wrong way 66 yards for a saftey. In the NFL record books it is known as the shortest play in NFL history minus 66 yards. I can forgive Marshall's flub since on every play of his career there is helmet to helmet contact. He played a position where a man is a man. Not that glamor spot where you keep your hands warm under the centers butt. Then when the ball is snapped you run away from the real men and when they chase you you throw the ball to someone else.

Despite his record play Marshall was also the hero of the day later in that same game. He was not pining on the bench about his mistake. He had a sack fumble recovered by teammate Carl Eller which he ran the right way for a touchdown and the Vikings won the infamous wrong way game 27-22.

TV has to tell us something every second that we sit in front of it to hold our attention. Let's be real here. Brett Farve played 16 games a year. Lou Gehrig played in as many games in two years as Brett Farve played in twenty in the NFL. It least it is something for the TV to talk about.

Stretch Run In NFL

I think Tom Brady has put a stamp on the MVP of the NFL. Michael Vick will probably finish second. The NFL is a week to week league and it matters not what you did last week.

The Chargers last week gave up over two hundred yards rushing to Oakland and this week Kansas City comes one play of their lowest total yards total in their history. Oakland shuts down the Chargers run game last week and couldn't slow down the Jags Sunday.

Three weeks ago the Jets Mark Sanchez was being tauted as the great quarterback of the NFL future. Today he's the bum of the month as the J-E-T-S go two straight weeks without a touchdown.

The roof has fallen in on the Minnesota Vikings as their game with the Giants has been moved to Detroit and will be played tonight but you can only see that game if you have Direct TV. Brett Farve says if the game was played yesterday he would have not played. I guess that means he will tonight. Oh by the way how is Farve's broken foot. I wonder whether his foot was ever broken to begin with?

Are the Atlanta Falcons as good as their record 11-2. WOW! You had better keep an eye on the Saints as they are playing like Super Bowls Champs again.

Someone from the NFC West is going to win that division and with three weeks to go it looks as if the NFL will have their first division winner with a losing record. St Louis and Seattle at 6-7 are tied for the lead and San Fran at 5-8 is still alive.

The Tarboro Vikings celebrated the State Football Championship Sunday by riding in the Tarboro Christmas Parade. Luckily for the parade it was on Sunday instead of Saturday or no one in Tarboro would have seen the parade. They were all in Winston Salem pulling for the Vikes. The whole town!