Showdown Tuesday

Tuesday afternoon at 5.30 in the Rocky Mount High School gym the Lady Gryphons will try to avenge their only loss of the volleyball season.

They play host to the Northern Nash Lady Knights. This will be the rubber game this year as each side has won and lost against each other.

The Lady Gryphons beat the Lady Knights in the season opening tournament, however during conference play, Northern got the best of our ladies.

A loss would eliminate the Lady Gryphons from any chance of taking home the regular season crown.

Debbie Webb's team is off to an 11-1 start heading into this showdown with Northern.

I watched the boys soccer game against Northern on the Stretchlon Sports Show Sunday night.

If you pull for Northern, the word Gryphon sends chills down your spine while when Northern shows up in green, all Rocky Mount folks see is red.

You know what I mean - the soccer game was intense and victory for the Gryphons.

The Northern-Rocky Mount football game is only 18 days away.

Friday night's football game is Homecoming. Should be a large crown of alumni (like the Class of 1978 in town for their 30th Class Reunion) on hand to watch one of the best football teams in the state.

I'm not sure whether the football team is going to wear their new gold jerseys or wait until the Northern game.

I think it is official that the baseball team will be honored in front of the Northern Nash crowd and receive their state championship rings.

I wonder why they won't give them out this weekend???

YOU KNOW WHY ... IT'S NORTHERN!!

I watched the replay of the Rocky Mount-Hertford County game Saturday morning. I enjoy watching the game again because I can see things that you can't see when you have to follow the ball on every play.

I can tell you this - Hertford County is a good football team.

We made them look average.

I understand that Tuesday is dress-down day at Rocky Mount High School. Morgan has been giving us a fashion show here at home tonight as she is going way down on the dress down.

The Cast of Characters

One of the worst things that can happen to the Rocky Mount Gryphon football team is to start believing all the press clippings.

If at any time during the next seven regular season games they think they have won the game before they step on the field, that will be the game where five fumbles occur and they'll never get on track and a loss slaps them in the face.

The varsity Gryphons have won 17 straight games on their home field. The JVs have won 25 games in a row.

The culture of winning is in the air for the Gryphon Nation. Coach B.W. Holt will not accept anything less than their best effort. Now in his sixth year leading the Gryphons, coach Holt has spread his Gospel through the entire program now and no one that plays football at Rocky Mount knows no other way.

Teams that lose regularly at some point in each game have the thought "what's going to go wrong tonight"? Winners think what can I do to help us win?

Let me show you some examples from this past Friday's game against Hertford County.

Jordan Ford's 57-yard touchdown run was highlighted by the pancake block that was thrown by offensive lineman Torey Lee around the Bears' 20-yard line.

Torey is a 255-pound lineman whose job it is to make hole way back up the field at the line of scrimmage. This play, the line of scrimmage was the Gryphon 43. What he is doing way down there?

Hustling!

During the third quarter, there was a running play on the HC sidelines in which back Ron Gatling, the Bears' best runner Friday night, took off around the end and seemed headed for the end zone. Trailing the play by five yards, linebacker Chris Pittman put on a burst of speed and ran Gatling down before he could score.

Even though Chris was out of the play, he was hustling.

Hiawatha Bunn was the Gryphon quarterback last season. Coach Holt can afford to move Bunn to the defense with the emergence of Collins Cuthrell as the signal caller. Hiawatha leads the team in pass interceptions (four).

Bunn playing defense has strengthened the defense and Collins gives the offense a weapon with the pass.

Hiawatha Bunn is a team player.

These are just a few examples of players doing what they have to do for their team to win.

There are many other examples by others members of the team which go unnoticed, but it is all part of winning.

The last two victories by Rocky Mount over Rose and Hertford County speak volumes about how good this team is.

Just remember this....

We have only played four games. Two-thirds of the regular season is still to be played. If we should make it to the state championship game, that contest is 12 games away.

That's still a whole season to play!

Goal Post Still Standing

Earlier this week I made the prediction here on this blog that N.C. State would beat East Carolina and protect the goal post at Carter-Finley Stadium.

The goal post are still standing tonight.

Just two short weeks ago there was doom and gloom in Raleigh. In Greenville, the Pirates had just won what was possibly their biggest game ever and there was talk of a BCS Bowl game.

If Rocky Mount Gryphon fans can take hold of one thing that happened on the football field is that you can't look past anybody.

Were the Pirates already thinking of a BCS bowl game? If they were, that's all they will do as the major bowl for ECU is a distant hope now.

Two weeks ago the Wolfpack may have been the worst team in Div. I football, and today they are the most improved.

Wolfpack in overtime over the Pirates on Greenville's Andre Brown overtime touchdown run, 30-24

In Chapel Hill, Carolina's dreams of playing in its first ACC championship game took a big hit against and old crafty coach Frank Beamer.

The Hokies, with quarterback play which looked like N.C. State until today, stole victory away from Carolina.

Former Rocky Mount Gryphon Stephan Virgil sealed the deal with a late interception for the Gobblers as they moved to 2-0 in the division and in the driver's seat to play for the conference championship.

How much worse can it get for first year Greenville Rose coach Todd Lipe?

During the summer, a Rose football player was critically injured while at a water park. The players were at a team outing when defensive end Garrett Ball hit his head on a water slide. Ironically, Ball served as honorary caption of the team Friday night,

Last week, Rocky Mount put an end the longest scoring streak in North Carolina high school football when it shutout Rose 36-0.

Today word comes that backup running back Jaquan Waller was stricken on the field at Rose's home game last night and has died today.

Waller carried the ball five times for five yards in the game against the Gryphons last week.

Every time a player steps on the field, injury is a possibility on any play. Waller becomes the third North Carolina High School player to die this year from football-related injuries.

There is not a game played in any sport that is worth the life of any person.

My heart is deep with sadness for all of the Rose coaches and players. You know we play Rose as much as we play our own conference members and we all know the coaches as well as any in our own conference.

I send out prayers tonight to the family of Jaquan Waller and to the entire Rose High school community.

Clash of the Titans

Friday night's game featuring Hertford County against the Gryphons was a special moment for me.

I was in the booth covering a game against the team that I basically covered for 22 years. It all started in 1971 covering then-Ahoskie High School and ended 1992 as Murfreesboro and Ahoskie merged in 1988 to become Hertford County.

Earlier this week, I had done a radio interview with old friend Gattis Hodges, who took my place behind the mike and has a Thursday night hour of sports on the Murfreesboro radio station.

Once I left Ahoskie and moved to Fayetteville in 1992, I came to Wilson one Friday night and Gattis let me do the play-by-play for the whole game.

I think it was 1994 when Hertford County played Conley in the in the playoffs and Gattis, his color man, could not be there and I filled in for him on a Thanksgiving Friday night.

We were able to greet each other in the press box. I hadn't seen Gattis in a while. I think the last time we were together was during the Watermelon Festival, which is in Murfreesboro in August several years back. Gattis was doing spot reports for the radio station and we happened to bump into each other while walking through the crowd. Gattis interviewed me on the radio that day.

Once the kickoff occurred, the Clash of the Titans became a re-run of Gryphon first-half highlights.

So far this season, the Gryphons have been scoring 24 points in the first half of every game and this game proved no different. Twenty-eight points raises the Gryphon average to 25 in the first half and a disappointing score for Hertford on the last play of the half ruined what has been a perfect season in the first half for the D-Block - giving up its first points of the year in the first half.

Hertford County came in scoring 50 per game and its average dips while the Gryphons came in averaging 41 and they got it again.

If there has been any question about whether Rocky Mount might return to the eastern finals again this year, this squad looks more and more like anybody who wants to win the state championship will have to beat Rocky Mount to do it.

Rocky Mount 42, Hertford County 14

Northern Nash traveled to Bertie and gave the Falcons all they wanted but come up short. NN, with the game tied at 22-all very late in the game, went for a 4-and-3 on its own 35 and was denied. Very soon after, the Falcons scored the winning TD.

Bertie 28, Northern Nash 22

Southern Nash spotted Hunt a 7-0 lead, but scored twice and held Hunt out of the end zone after that to pick up a 13-7 victory over the Warriors.

Fike remains the only undefeated team in the NEW 6 battering C.B. Aycock 35-6

SouthWest Edgecombe hammmers Southern Vance 45-13

Nash Central found an offense, but its defense continues to play well as Nash Central pounds Washington 34-zip.

Tarboro traveled to the land of the pulp mill - Roanoke Rapids and continued to thrill the Viking faithful 48-0 over the Yellow Jackets.

Now that we are four games into the season, trends are developing with this Rocky Mount team and the most impressive trend is when those players get off the bus, they are ready to play.

Championship teams play great defense and giving up 14 to one of the highest scoring teams in the state is very impressive.

If this Gryphon team stays healthy, you might need an overcoat in December to go watch the Gryphons play.

Some Games Are Bigger Than Others

Tomorrow night's battle with Hertford County is just another football game.

If you believe then that what have you been drinking?

Even though this is still a non-conference game, it is more important to Rocky Mount than Hertford County and I will tell you why.

Both teams this year played endowment games. So that means they are able to give up a loss during the season and still have a 10-0 record according to the NCHSAA.

Since we had to forfeit a game ,we already have our loss. So in order to reach a possible top seeding, we cannot afford to lose any more games.

If at the end of the season there are three teams that have undefeated records, they will be put in a hat and a drawing will be held for the top three seeds.

Now let me throw another wrinkle at you....

Let's say we beat Hertford County tomorrow night and that is the only loss they have all year their record would be 10-0 according to the NCHSAA.

If Rocky Mount doesn't lose another game all year they would also show a 10-0 record.

If Hertford is 10-0 and we the same should we not get the seeding ahead of them?

Not so fast my friends.

If two teams or three teams are 10-0 in the eyes of the NCHSAA no one has beaten any of those teams they are all equal.

All equal teams are put in a hat and the seeding fall as they may.

That could mean Hertford County could get the No. 1 seed and another team could get No. 2 and Rocky Mount get No. 3 just by the luck of the draw.

If everyone remembers Nash County has never done well in drawings just ask Jim Brett and his 9-1 team at Northern Nash that failed to make the playoffs because of a drawing a few years back.

That fiasco is why almost every team in the state makes the playoffs now. The state association did not want a 3rd place team Like Northern Nash not make the playoffs when they had a 9-1 record.

So it is possible that Rocky Mount could have to go to Hertford County in the playoffs even though they might beat them Friday night.

If Hertford County wins then Rocky Mount has 2 losses and can only be at best 9-1 and all this what iffing is down the drain.

How important is seeding?

The No. 1 seed could possibly get four home games. Number two three home games and the Number three seed two home games and a possible third game at No. 2 and a fourth game at the No .4.

This is, of course, only occurs if the top seeds win all games as expected.

If I have totally confused you, join the crowd. The NCHSAA has tried to make seeding as fair as they can. Regardless of what system they use there is always someone who gets bit by the system and this year it could be Rocky Mount.

The Gryphon Stat Sheet

I love to look at maps. I can take a map and see something that I have never noticed before every time I look at one.

I am the same way with a stat sheet. Charles Alston's e-mail sending out the official stats after verifying with game film is like a road map to me. I see different things everytime I look at one.

Marquavis Alston is last of all the ball carriers with a 4.8 yards per carry. The team is averaging 5.7 yards per rush. We have six players over 6-yard averages.

Our top two players in attempts have not started any games. Damien Bynum has 26 rushing attempts, as does and L'Var Silver.

One half of all our rushing touchdowns have been scored by non-starters.

We are averaging 41 points per game despite playing usual 3-A power in Wilson Hunt and two 4-A schools.

The Gryphon defense is giving up 1.77 yards per attempt.

The pass defense is allowing 5.03 yard per attempt.

What do those two figures tell me?

Two runs and a pass and it is 4th and 1.

The Gryphon defense has faced 130 plays so far this year in three games.

The results: six quarterback sacks, four fumble recoveries and five interceptions. That does not include any play that was for no gain or minus yardage or and incomplete passes.

In our three games to date, we have averaged leading 24-0 at the half. The third quarter has been our second best quarter of the year, behind the first quarter.

We have averaged 12 points per game in the third quarter.

This tells me the old ball coach B.W. Holt is really prepared at the start of the game and then makes adjustments at halftime. It also tells me he doesn't let the Gryphon sit on their laurels coming back after the half with a big lead.

Jordan Ford has carried the ball 20 times this year for a 10.8 average per attempt. He also has a reception for 30 yards. Did I mention he also has a 99-yard kickoff for a touchdown?

Nick Hahula has kickoff 21 times and 14 have been touchbacks. Two of his kicks were brought back with one foot in the end zone.

Twenty different players have at least one tackle so far this year led by Chris Pittman with 18.

Keith Strickland is averaging five catches per game. If he does that all year, he will have 55 at the end of the regular season.

Finally tonight, here is a really good one.

Nick Hahula has punted three times for a total of 76 yards. We have six backs that have rushed for more yards that Nick's punts have gone.

What does that tell me? We are not punting a lot and we are dominating the line of scrimmage.

Please make plans to be at the stadium Friday night. This could be a special game between two super powers of the East.

Come early and bring your Walkman to listen to the game on AM 1390.

Be there or be square.

Baseball Ramblings

I realize this was a Northern Nash player, but I met Mike Tyson, former second baseman for the St Louis Cardinals, during the summer of 2007.

I met him when he came home for his father's 80th birthday party (Wayne Tyson) at Sunset Avenue Baptist Church.

What is all this leading to?

Coaches in the minor leagues hope to work their way up just like players do.

I am happy to report today that Torre Tyson, son of Mike and grandson of Wayne, who this past summer was the manager of the Charleston Riverdogs, was called up to be a part of the Yankee coaching staff this September - just like several players were called up.

Torre, who is named after Joe Torre who played with Mike in St Louis, may be the next manager for the Yankees. The way the Steinbrenners go through managers, it may be sooner rather than later since it doesn't look like the Yankees will make the playoffs.

Even though Torre was born in St. Louis, there is a Rocky Mount connection.

Remember Joey Devine, the N.C. State fireball relief pitcher who was drafted by the Atlanta Braves and made history by being the first pitcher to give up two grand slams in his first two appearances. Well, don't look now, but Devine won his sixth game of the season Sunday and in 36th relief appearances for the Oakland A's. He has an ERA of .066, one of the tops in the league.

Now that the era of the juice ball is over is there a better home run hitter that Ryan Howard of the Phillies?

Looks like Tampa Bay and Milwaukee are running out of gas toward the end here in their bids to bring the little guys in baseball back to prominence.

If you think Rocky Mount should be a big favorite Friday, Hertford County is coming to town averaging 50 points per game which includes a big win over Winston-Salem Parkland.

There could be a 100 points scored Friday!