Northern will have announcement soon

Word is that the Northern Nash Knights have selected their man to be the new football coach. It's a matter of crossing the T's and dotting the I's. Expect the official word soon.

Thursday night is the Gryphon sports banquet for football. Hope you will be there to show your support.

The Northern Nash-Rocky Mount basketball games are Friday night at the RM Gym. There will be no advanced sales of tickets.

One dollar from each ticket sale will go to the American Cancer Society. This is in conjunction with a statewide event going on Friday with the NCHSAA and the American Cancer Society.

Sometimes thing just happen to fall your way. I got home tonight from church and turned on the b-ball game Duke and Wake.

Before tip-off, I channelled surfed and did not realize that WRAL-TV was carrying the Kay Yow Memorial service live. It didn't take long to forget basketball to watch the service.

My guess is about 5,000 people were there

I did not realize that as a coach representing the United States, Kay Yow's teams over the years were 21-1, including winning the 1988 Olympic gold medal.

Got back to the Wake game and saw the second half. Wake won on a layup at the buzzer. I can tell you right now, Duke, Wake and Carolina will make the Sweet 16 and further this year. I just have a feeling one of the three is going to be the NCAA champ. I am pulling for the Deacs to win their first NCAA title.

This year's best three ACC teams are reminiscence of 1974 when N.C. State, Maryland and Carolina only lost during the season to each other. At one point in 1974, the three teams were 1, 2 and 4 in the polls.

The Charlotte Bobcats are a team on the rise. Last night, they beat Kobe and the Lakers in L.A. The Lakers have only two teams in which they have losing record to. The Boston Celtics and the Charlotte Bobcats. In their five years of existance, the 'Cats are 5-4 against the Lakers.

Nash Central boys have won the NEW 6 Conference swim championship. The Gryphons finished third. Fike won the girls with the Lady Gryphons finishing fourth.

Gryphons miscues lead to downfall

With just under four minutes to play, the Rocky Mount Gryphon boys basketball team had managed to push out a five-point lead at 59-54 over Nash Central and had the ball in their Tuesday evening NEW 6 tilt.

But an ill-advised quick 3-pointer that missed turned into a 3-point basket for Nash Central. Then five straight turnovers and a lone free throw and the Gryphons still only trailed 61-60. The Gryphons were doomed as they had four straight turnovers before a final futile trey missed as Nash Central stayed unbeaten in conference play taking down the Gryphons 69-60.

Tashawn Mabry had 27 points to lead the Gryphons, but what they needed more of was some outside shooting to take the pressure off the inside game lead by senior Philip Wilkins. Once the ball went inside, the Bulldogs were triple-teaming the ball. Three-point shots were few made and far between.

The Gryphons now find themselves in a need to win their game Friday night when they host Northern Nash, a team that was riding high until two players failed to qualify to play second semester.

In the girls action, the Lady Gryphons find themselves riding high and all alone in first place after scorching the Lady Bulldogs. The best I remember, the score was 77-49.

The offense struggled for most of three quarters, but Pam Gainey's press defense took its toll on the Lady Bulldogs and once again the Lady Gryphons scored big numbers with defense.

Senior Dyonna Battle led the way with 21 points and freshman Tia Hudgins added 15. The Lady Gryphons (13-4) have gone through the first cycle of conference play and stand 5-0 in conference.

Admittance to Friday night's Northern Nash game at Rocky Mount will be first come, first served. There will be no advance sale of tickets. Three weeks ago at Northern, the gym was full by 6.15 and if that happens Friday night, they will start turning people away even if you have a Gryphon pass to get in the game. So you need to be there early.

Friday night, $1 from each ticket sold will go to the American Cancer Society as high schools around the state are taking part.

Did the PA tonight at the Nash Central-Rocky Mount games so I failed to see the Wolfpack's overtime win over Miami. Seems like they play better without my coaching anyway.

Do you realize that in college basketball this year they have been three teams that have been ranked No. 1 and all three are on Tobacco Road - Carolina, Wake and Duke?

UConn sits awaiting as Duke travels to Wake Wednesday night. If Wake wins. UConn will be No. 1 next week if it can win twice this week.

I think between Duke, Carolina and Wake, neither of them will have more than four losses by ACC tournament time.

Wouldn't be something if all three got No. 1 seeds at NCAA tournament time!

It's Time To Pick Super Bowl

The Gryphons play host to Nash Central Tuesday in basketball. Four games are on tap so the varsity girls will begin some where near 6.30 p.m .

Everytime we play Northern Nash, it is always on a Friday night. Regardless of whether it is at Northern or Rocky Mount, it is a sellout.

The schedule makers need to arrange the schedule to where Nash Central and RM also play on a Friday night for the biggest crowds.

Next year when Hunt joins the conference, Fike needs to schedule it on a Friday for the same effect - a sellout.

Sorry, but Southern Nash just doesn't bring out the crowds that NN and NC do, so they should join Fike and Hunt for Tuesday games. There has to be a way to make that happen.

Yours truly will be in the house doing the PA Tuesday.

Time to make a decision:

Who's going to win the Super Bowl?

Best Defense: Pittsburgh! However, this game will be played in sunny Tampa, not 20 degree Pittsburgh.

Best Offense: Arizona They have scored at least 30 in every playoff game.

Strength: For Pittsburgh. pass rush against a quarterback in Kurt Warner who is not mobile at all. For Arizona, no one in the playoffs has been able to cover Larry Fitzgerald.

Who has best quarterback? It's a wash. Both are good!

Injuries: For Pittsburgh, Hines Ward is a question? For Arizona, J.J. Arrington is their question mark. Both injured their knee in the conference championship game.

What do I think will happen? Pittsburgh will get Warner to turn the ball over twice in the backfield. Fumbles. Warner can beat the blitz by throwing to Fitzgerald.

In a game that is a shootout, I don't think Pittsburgh can win that means their defense is not playing well. I do think Arizona can hold Pittsburgh into the twenties.

Arizona 31, Pittsburgh 23. I just have that feeling.

Bravo to the UNC women's basketball team wearing pink uniforms against Maryland Sunday to pay tribute to Kay Yow.

Monday night, the Sidney Lowe radio show gave way to a tribute to Kay Yow during the radio show hour.

Do your realize that Kay Yow is the third N.C. State basketball coach to die from cancer? The obvious answer is Jim Valvano, but you may forget the greatest Wolfpack coach of all time, Everett Case. People forget that Reynolds Coliseum is called the "building that Everett Case built."

Case is one of four Indiana High School coaches to win the Indiana State championship four times and 725 high school games. He started coaching at State in 1946 fresh out of WWII and proceeded to win 377 college games and record a .737 winning percentage. State won the last six Southern Conference titles and the first three ACC championships under his leadership - all in a row.

He died just after the 1966 season.

He is buried in a cemetery on a hill over looking U.S. 70 North headed to Durham. He wanted to be able to look at the team as the State bus passed on the way to a game with Duke.

Show Up and Start Filming

Rocky Mount High school basketball teams are heading in opposite directions.

The boys have now lost 9 of 12 after losing at SouthWest Edgecombe Saturday night. The lost drops the Gryphons to 1-3 in conference play and right now are in jeopardy of not making the playoffs unless they can turn the season around.

The Lady Gryphons on the other hand have won 12 out of 16 games on the season and after whipping Southwest Edgecombe girls Saturday night have the out right lead at 3-0 in the conference standings.

Tuesday night the boys will face Nash Central who is undefeated in conference play while the girls will try to get revenge on the lady bulldogs from the loss during the championship game of the Christmas Tournament at Nash Central.

Now that the conference plays all four games at the same location JVs and Varsity, the Girls should tip off about 6.30 at home Tuesday night.

I have been doing ball games mostly on the radio, but in the last ten years TV has joined the menu.

When you follow one team as Wes Bradshaw and myself did this past football season you have a week to prepare for the up coming game.

In the case of TV games on the Stretchlon Sports shows they are some times not decided on until the day before which game we may cover.

When that is the case it is most of the time show up an hour before the game get the line ups and start filming.

This past Friday afternoon we covered the NEW-6 swim meet. There were eight teams there and twelve different events. There is no program to buy as you walk in letting you know who is swimming and what race or in some cases which leg of the race a swimmer is swimming.

I wish we could be like the Networks and show up three days before a game, let the announcers talk with the players and the technical people set up cameras at just the right place for best possible shots.

When we arrive it's me as the announcer and George on the camera. There is no tractor trailer truck parked around back with the director telling the camera men the shots he wants.

George is close enough to me he can hear what I'm saying and can get a close up on what ever I might be talking about. It is done as they say on the fly.

I wish we could tell every child's name and pronounce it correctly as we do a film session. That's what happens when you show up an hour before a meet, match, or game.

The Harrison Family Aquatic center has no press box to lay all the info that I might have out in front of me to use. In the case of Friday's swim meet it was stand in the corner and all the info you have is in your hand while holding a microphone.

I applaud Richard Sarmiento for his effort in producing the "Stretchlon Sports Show". It is a small way to high light our youth regardless of whether we call their name or not.

Sandra Kay Finally Falls to Cancer

Sandra Kay Yow went to be with the lord on Saturday Morning January 24th 2009. It ended a nearly twenty two year battle which Kay fought until her last breath.

I had meet Kay Yow several times at Wolfpack meetings over the years,but I never appreciated her until a June in 1993.

At the time I was working for a radio station in Fayetteville. I had just been named the radio voice of the Fayetteville Generals baseball team. There were no games being carried on the radio, but I was my job to create for the station the sponsorship to get the games on the air.

We were also a member of the Wolfpack Sports Network. There was a radio meeting at Carter-Finley Stadium for all affiliates to hear about the upcoming football and basketball seasons.

Just about five minutes before the meeting started the phone rang in Finley fieldhouse and it was Dick Sheridan saying that he would not be able to attend.

He was suppose to be the main speaker to get everyone fired up about the up coming football season. In walks Kay Yow, she is going to fill in for him.

After a few minutes of radio talk about the network Kay stood in front of our group and gave the most inspiring speech that I have ever heard. She talked Wolfpack and how great it was to be a Wolfpacker for thirty minutes.

When it was all over I was ready to play football for the pack.

As we have found out that is the way Kay was all the time. I have met her through the years several times and each time it was like she was so glad to see me, even though I knew as she was talking to me she probably had no Idea who I was. She might have recognized the face but no way she could remember my name.

By the way that day when Sheridan had called to say he wasn't going to be able to be at the meeting was the day that he resigned as football coach at State.

N C State hired Kay Yow to be the women's basketball coach before Title IX was even thought about. In the old days there was no NCAA women's basketball but North Carolina had a State Championship that just about every four year college play in.

Elon had won the Championship twice with Kay as coach. Willis Casey then Athletic director at N C State hired Kay to really start the basketball for women at N C State.

N C State dominated women's basketball in North Carolina until 1982 when the NCAA mandated by Title IX started women's basketball where all schools had to give women equal number of scholarships as men.

Kay was so well respected as a coach she was an assistant coach to Pat Summit in the 1984 Olympics and she was the head coach in 1988.

August 5th 1987 Kay was told of her breast cancer. By the time the season started in December she was on the court coaching.

Off and on for the next twenty some odd years Kay fought the fight the way she talked to us that day in June 1993. She gave it all she had.

The only women's basketball coach in N C State history has gone on to be with the lord. She leaves foot prints too big for most of us to even attempt to step in.

But, she has effected every one of us in some way.

God Bless you Kay Yow.

Timing is Everything

Sometimes in life you stumble into something because you were there at the right time. The"early bird gets the worm".

There are other times when you are primed to take the top prize and the rug comes out from under you. 2008 football team would be a prime example.

This years boys basketball team has had a hard time finding itself. Last night the Gryphons without TaShawn Mabry for the 4th time this year gave a good battle but came up short at Fike by a 63-58 score. This evens the Gryphons at 8-8 and most importantly and drops them to 1-2 in conference play and they find themselves two games behind league leaders Fike and Nash Central who are three and zero.

This team has had a hard time getting any timing and practice time is limited as the season barrels toward the end.

Yesterday I was at the conference Swim regular season final meet of the year.

Though the so called football, basketball, and baseball are considered to be the glamor sports. The real athletes are however working out daily in their sports without much fanfare.

Those runners who can run in cross country, wrestlers who have to go face to face against someone else, and swimmers who even swimming fifty yards a major task are just as good of athletes as the major sports if not better.

Some of the best athletes in the NEW-6 were swimming at the Harrison YMCA yesterday. It is a shame for all of us who profess to be sports announcers, or reporters that the names of those are not in the head lines like the big three sports.

I guess everyone has heard by now of the girls high school game in which one team won 100-zero. The school is so embarrassed they have asked to forfeit the game.

I ask why wasn't there one person at the game willing to put a stop to this travesty. Now that it is over I don't think forfeiting is the correct answer. Suspending the coach for the rest of the season would be better as far as I am concerned.

A coach is like the captain of a ship, he is responsible for everything that happens. Having a full court press even with the end of the bench in the game and the score 98-0 is the coach fault.

The players on the team earned the victory when they made the score 2-0. Don't blame them and take away a victory because the leader of the team wanted to set some record.

FIRE THE COACH

Basketball Push Begins

The second half of the high school basketball season takes off starting tonight.

The Gryphons have two big games in the next twenty four hours.

Tonight a trip to Fike and they follow that up with a Pinetops ride Saturday Night.

We will know a lot about the direction of the conference standing by midnight Saturday Night.

The next home game is set for Tuesday when Nash Central comes calling.

Yours truly will be working the PA for the Nash Central games as Wayne Wallace has a PA night at NC Wesleyan that night. This is the only conflict the entire season of NCW and a Gryphon home basketball game.

The conference swim meet is today at 4pm at Harrison Family YMCA.

Next Thursday night is the football banquet. It is being held separate this year from the other fall sports due to the fact the fall sports awards night was the Tueday before the Eastern Final football game.

The conference has a rule that they will not vote on any sports awards like all conference until after all teams have finished their seasons. Sounds to me like a good rule maybe the NFL needs to follow. Since the Gryphon football team was still playing when the fall sports awards were scheduled the football team needed to have their awards night.


Is it just me:


Has anybody noticed that Wake Forest basketball player Al-Faroud Aminu looks like Former Greensboro basketball player and Kansas player Danny Manning. I know Deacon fans hope they he can win the Deacs a National Championship like Manning did at KU.

There is still hope for the Deacs. I heard the other night that the last six years that the last undefeated team in the NCAA had all at least made it to the National Championship game. After the Wake loss there is no undefeated college basketball teams.

The Super bowl has a lot of potential to be one of the greatest games ever or one of the most lopsided ones.

During the regular season the super bowl teams played five like opponents with Pittsburgh winning three while Arizona was 1-4.

JJ Arrington right now is a question mark whether he will be ready to play by Super Bowl Sunday. Arrington hurt his knee is Sunday's win over Philadelphia. Yesterday was the first practice for Arizona for the Super Bowl and Arrington did not practice.

North Carolina women's basketball team was suffering a hang over from their thrashing that they received Monday night from U Conn. Last night in a conference game at Georgia Tech they suffered their second straight loss.

Basketball is a sport where in college you play at least twice a week. Whenever you get on a roll and finally lose a game, the Carolina Women had won 16 straight until the U Conn loss,
sometimes you lose a couple of games before you get back on track.

Hope to see you at th YMCA at the swim meet!