It Is ECU's Time

Those of you that were around in the mid 1970's know that probably one of the greatest College administrators Of his time was Leo Jenkins at East Carolina University.  He had the audacity to
ask for a medical school for Eastern North Carolina.

Those in Raleigh and Chapel Hill fought tooth and nail  to keep it from happening but just maybe the tilt in ECU's favor was NC State scratching ECU's back that if we get a Veterinary  school we will vote for you to get a medical school.  Down right politics at it's best.  At the time ECU was just one of the other schools in the UNC system.

Today Pitt Memorial no longer but Vidant is now the epicenter of medicine in Eastern North Carolina.  One square mile from the hospital  medical clinics are every where.   The city of Greenville has gone from a town about the size of Kinston 15,000 to over taking Rocky Mount as it hits 60,00 and still growing.

Today ECU no longer just one of the other UNC campus's to the second largest in the system.  It will probably be hard to pass NC State in the number of students because ECU is about out of real estate while State has lots of acreage in the centennial campus left untouched.

Many years now ECU has begged the ACC for membership.  The TV set world the ACC needed and already with four schools in state what could ECU give to the ACC.   So the  Pirate nation has gone to anybody in any conference that would have them.

Both candidates running for governor looking votes have both sent letters to the Big 12 and giving their thumbs up for ECU admission.   There are 22 Power Five conferences schools smaller than ECU.  There are not many that have grown at the rate ECU has.

ECU has a top rate football stadium filled every Saturday.  Not many baseball teams play in any thing better than the Pirates.  Basketball has never got out of the shadow of the Triangle but the Big 12 is a football conference first so the Pirates could hold their own.

ECU has played second fiddle long enough.  It's time for the Power Five for ECU!!!!!  Texas and Oklahoma the Pirates need your votes.  If they come ECU's way everyone else in the Big 12 will follow.

Everybody Today Is Undefeated

Monday is the beginning of the new school year sports season.  The glamour sport is football but soccer, cross country, volleyball, women's golf and tennis all start their seasons too.  In every case every team or indivual sport everyone right now thinks they can win a championship.

In every case every single player will dedicate themselves to their sport.  The very first time each player performs in action some will be better than others while some not so good.  As the season progresses some of the better performers will improve and some of those who were not that good in the beginning will bring their level of performance that will make them proud.  Some will never improve more than one of he worse on the team.

Whatever level our kids will be there is a common thread in each.  Some will give up never expecting to improve.  Those that stick it out to the end will have a deep love for what they do.  Their is something in their soul that everyday they will go to practice to get better regardless of their performance level.  When their season is over those who stuck it out will have a swelling in their heart knowing they did their best.

All sports have something in common.  Every time their is an event parents, family and friends will be the only people there  to watch them.  Football of course is the exception.  Every sport except football no one will be their to watch.  So every time an athlete improves few will know of it. Parents will watch as if it is life or death regardless of the level of their child.  When the event ends tears of joy for  the winners and pride of those who tried their best.

Once each season ends champions will be named. Allstars recognized and it will be time to begin the process all over again in winter sports.  Those who are there when there sport ends will all be better for their experiences.   They will all be able to say  I finished something I started.  Sports is one of the great teachers in life.  You can take the easy way out and quit.  Nothing is accomplished by quitting.

Who Is Really A Super Star

This weekend the final of the so called majors golf championships is being played out in Pennslyvania.  Last year at this time Jordan Speith was the sensation of golf and was the heir apparent to be the next Tiger Woods.

Exceptional athletes regardless of the sport generally speaking play their sport at a higher level than most other players everyday.  It seems in the golf world when players hit hot streaks they stay hot for about six weeks.  What is a hot streak.  Just about any professional golfer can shoot 70-72 with their eyes closed every day.  If they can't they will not make the cut week after week.  The Jason Days of the world throw in a 65 almost every weekend.

When the great ones are in that zone they make every putt.  They make those 35 footers that break three feet.  They don't miss anything inside five feet.  The putter makes the dough.  If you ever notices during those hot putting streaks the great one's will last about six weeks.  There are exceptions to the rule Like a Tiger Woods and Jack Nicklaus who never had bad stretches.  A bad week was 10th place.  You hardly ever heard where Jack or Tiger missed a cut.

Jordan Speith started out like the latest great sliced bread.  Yet he has his weeks where he plays like he has never played golf before.  Most of the time it is because his putter is not saving him.  Tiger Woods could hit a golf ball three thousand miles but he was not that accurate a driver but what he could do is make every putt.

Most all the the great ones these days hit it a country mile.  When the putter is working they are great.
The putter makes up for those wild tee shots.  Probably the longest hitter on tour is Dustin Johnson. I am glad he finally won a major because he has been so close and yet either his putter or the rule book have cost him in the past.  He could probably have at least four majors if he could putt.

Today golf equipment is so advanced that if you can't hit it 300 yards and keep it out of the deep rough you can't shoot 67 everyday.  The Majors are most of the time played on the so call tough courses where anything in the 60's is good.  Most of the time the great ones each week are  making  the putts.  This week because it is called a major the winner will be called a great one.
       

McCarthy To Coach East-West Soccer in 2017

Long time soccer coach at Northern Nash Joe McCarthy has been named the 2017 East coach during the East West All Star  boys soccer game  during the North Carolina High School Coaches Association convention next July.

Rocky Mount's Jason Battle will assist Scotland County's Richard Bailey  during the football game next year.

During the 2015/16 school year I announce that Nash Central basketball coach Renny Taylor had won from the Sons Of The American Revolution the History teacher of the year award.  He received the award this month in Charlotte.  Read the story in this week's Nashville Graphics.

During my blog yesterday I stated that the Gryphon football team needed to stay healthy as last year's team seemed whenever a player went down someone was there to pick them up.  Yes the rumors are true Sherrod Green has a broken hand in a non-football injury.  He should miss the first three games.

The Brian Goodwin watch continues as the Major League trade deadline approaches.  Trea Turner started in centerfield for the Washington Nationals Wednesday  getting three hits in what could be Brian's place in the outfield.  He is doing everything he can to get other teams to notice as he hit home run number ten on the  season which is  Syracuse's number two  HR hitter.  He is hitting 293 with 25 doubles tops on the Chiefs.  Sure looks like no room in Washington for Brian Goodwin and the clock ticks on the trade deadline.

Benton Moss is 5-7 in the Florida State League in Port Charlotte Florida.  His ERA is 4.17 having pitched 99.1 innings.  He has given up 95 hits and struck out 92.  Benton has walked 27 batters in 99 innings which is a  desire of every pitcher to keep men off base by the free pass.  Any thing under three per nine innings is excellent Benton stands at 2.45 per nine innings pitched.There is no reason at this point that AA  is next stop up the ladder next year for  Benton Moss.

Collins Cuthrell is not having the season he needed to be noticed by any major league team.  His averaged is 211 with eight home runs which is the leader at Florence Kentucky.  Since Florence is not a team associated with any major league team and Collins' year is not what he expected this is probably the last month coming up of his playing career.  Might coaching be next.

Hobbs Johnson headed Monday to Iowa where he would like to pitch for the rest of the summer  to stays in the eyes of all major league teams after being cut by Milwaukee last month. Thursday his named appeared on the roster of Sioux City X's.  The Explorers are in the American Associations which is an independent league where all players looking to impress major league teams just like Collins Cuthrell has been doing with Florence Kentucky.

How fleeting is success.  Just two months ago Whit Merrifield was the talk of Kansas City.  He had acquired the nickname two hit Whit referring to getting two hits every game.  Wednesday Kansas City sent Merrifield back to Omaha after batting just 170 in July.  There is hope in Kansas City's eyes for Merrifield as they announced he would be back in September if not before.

Daggers Will Fly At Gryphons Now

It is a wonderful thing to be able to say I am a champion.  Come Monday Rocky Mount High School Gryphons will no longer be the champions of 3A football but the defending 3A champions.  Every team that plays the Gryphons this season will have a little more jump in their step when they take the field because there will be a respect paid to the champs.  Every team now knows that  Rocky Mount has proven they can win the big ones.  Every team will give a supreme effort to be the team to knock off the champs.  They don't want to be embarrassed by the champs.

Often forgotten when you continue to win each Friday night is how close you came to losing. Ten minutes left in the state championship game the Gryphons trailed 21-14.  The truth be told they trailed in every playoff game except the Eastern Finals when they ran into an over confident Eastern Alamance team that the Gryphons slapped in the face early and Alamance had no answer for the Gryphon speed.

Looking even further they trailed almost every game in conference play at some point.  Seemed the defense took a quarter to get their stride and the offense just kept pounding on everyone  and that pounding takes it's toll after a while.

There is always luck that falls your way.  Thought knowing in the fourth quarter we were going to win over south Johnston and heard that Havelock had fallen and another home game coming.  Did not hurt at all to play Eden Morehead at home and then took the last play of the game to win after trailing by 9 points in the fourth quarter. I think the crowd at the Morehead game was the biggest crowd ever at the new stadium.

Early on Sherrod Green was the fullback but switching him to middle linebacker only and Nick Bynum to fullback was probably the move of the year. Made both the offense better and the defense more solid.  We found out in the state championship game just how good Forest Bell was at quarterback.  He was as they say the field general who directed the Gryphons as Jason Battle wanted without mistakes.  Seemed every time someone got hurt there was somebody who stepped in to fill a hole.

The fourth year even Jason Battle made great strides as coach.  No longer was this team losing games because of penalties of sportsmanship both on the field and sidelines.   He made changes in his coaching staff  and maybe the biggest was from within himself.  When you look at Jason's four year record and already a state championship under his belt the Gryphon nation will now have to watch out for the wanna-a -bees looking a coach in 4A.  Remember Wake County is building five new high schools in the next few years.  why not get a proven winner as your coach?

This team will have to replace the quarterback.  That is the biggest hole to fill before the season starts.  Stay away from injuries.  The line might not be as good as last year.  Saw last week in the Telegram where Coach Battle was preaching staying hungry.  There is no doubt about that.  Last year's team earn several opportunities to play college football because of the exposure they received during the playoffs.  Winning brings college coaches to ask why and they come and look.  Right now Rocky Mount has a flock of good athletes  that will get their looks.  The coaches  will look deeper if you keep winning. There is where the six or seventh best players are found out about.

Starting Monday the real get ready for 2016 high school football season gets going.

TV Coming To Thursday Night High School Football

The North Carolina High School Athletic Association has been a bastion over the years about live TV coverage of high school events by saying no.  You can't turn on a TV now days that ESPN or any of the upstart sports cable channels don't have some high school sports on to fill their 24 hour a day schedule.  Around ten years ago the NCHSAA gave Time Warner Cable the exclusive rights to all the football and basketball state championship games.

I am sure many people stayed home during the 3-A state championship football game last December and watched the Gryphons bring home the glory.  Both the 2010 and 2012 basketball titles could be watched on Time Warner if you lived within their cable area or go on line and Stream the games.

The NCHSAA has not allowed a live coverage of a regular season sporting event but the money trail is too tempting and starting this year there will be a High School Game Of The Week  live on Thursday nights this football season.  Now just like the NFL games do, there is a chance that you might hear that say the Rocky Mount at Southern Nash game may get flexed and moved to Thursday night because TV deems it to be an important game from around the state. I am not saying it is going to be a state wide TV but that is an example of what might happen.

Charter/Time Warner have the rights and will be picking the games to be seen.  I have not seen a schedule and don't know at this point how they plan on picking the games from around the state.  You will of course need to be on the Charter/Time Warner systems to see these games or live stream.

The old question of does carrying a game live on radio or TV hurt attendance at any game. There use to be a day when AM radio was the only source of any high school sporting event.  Many AM radio stations through out North Carolina are day time station which means they sign off at sunset or reduce power.  Many recorded football on Friday night and played the game back on tape Saturday mornings.    The early 70's when FM stations came along and had no restriction of signing off it was then possible to carry high school games on the radio live.

I think what high school athletic directors learned was the better the team the better the attendance. When your team  from what they heard through radio was good fans tend to come watch live.  Games with threat of rain were the games hit by low attendance.  I think that is true whether you have radio coverage or not.

You may have noticed to soften the throng of high schools that might protest live TV on Friday night the games will be on Thursday.  Do you remember several years ago when ECU had the first Friday night college game on TV and coaches and administration bellowed to ECU from stealing potential patrons to high school games?  Least for now Thursday night TV football has a path to least resistance.  Wait to they try to expand to Friday's.

Rocky Mount High School will be hosting a football scrimmage on August 11th.  Details will follow later.

Rowan County wins the NC American Legion state tournament beating Union County 3-2 to go unbeaten in the tournament.  It is their 9th state title tying Gastonia  and one behind Wilmington with 10 titles.

Parent Student Meeting Monday Night August 8th

Over the past several years the The North Carolina High School Athletic association  has required that all parent and students  planning on playing any sport in a high school must attend a require meeting.  The meeting for all fall sports at Rocky Mount high school will be Monday night August 8th in the gym.  This meeting is mandatory for both a parent or guardian plus the student athlete.

Monday is the first day of try outs for fall sports at Rocky Mount High. Here is the times for each and their first practice.
Cheerleading- Coached by Shira Parrish will be from 6-8 pm
Cross Country- Coached by Dee Davis will be at 7:30am at Battle Park
Football-Coached by Jason Battle starts at 5:30-8:30pm
Golf- Coached by Michael Morris 3pm at Northgreen Country Club
Soccer- unnamed coach- 1st session 7:30 am and second session 10:30am to 12:30pm
Tennis-Coached by Barry Nettercutt 8:00 -10:00am

All players must be eligible and meet the NCHSAA and Nash-Rocky Mount Eligibility Requirements.  You must have an updated physical before the first practice.

I am sure all other Nash County schools have the same requirements and their own practice times scheduled.  Call the school for the student/Parent meeting and first practice schedule at your school.

I have another athlete left off the playing college sports somewhere in the fall of 2016.  Jack Wellenhofer Rocking Mount is heading to UNC Charlotte where he will play football.

The North Carolina State American Legion State Tournament started Monday with one unbeaten Rowan County and three with one loss Caldwell County, Whiteville and the host team Union County.  The Legion whenever there is an even number still alive the undefeated team plays too.  The afternoon game saw Whiteville take on the host team Union  County.  This one went just seven innings as the host were not very hospitable to Whiteville the team who lost for the first time Sunday night.  Whiteville goes home losing 14-3.

Rowan County as the lone Undefeated team can knock Caldwell County out making Tuesday the Day Union County has to beat them twice.  Should Caldwell County win Rowan County gets a bye In Tuesday first game and Union County and Caldwell play for the right to play Rowan for the title
Tuesday.   Should Rowan lose they would have lost their having to lose twice Tuesday.

Down 5-4 in the bottom of the eighth inning Rowan plates four runs to take an 8-5 lead.  Caldwell loaded the bases with no outs in the top of the ninth but  a double play ends Caldwell County tournament and this sets up Union County the Host team having to beat Rowan County twice in order to win the state championship.  Should Rowan win the first or second it would be their ninth all time state championship.