Oliver Named Telegram Male Swimmer of The year

Kyle Oliver Rocky Mount High School swimmer was named the Rocky Mount Telegram male swimmer of the year. Oliver a senior in the last two swim seasons has not lost a conference race in the NEW-6.

Way to go Kyle

Dyonna Battle has signed to play basketball at Queens College in Charlotte. Dyonna has been the girls leader the last two years if not longer. If there was such a thing as the all decade team which there isn't she would make the starting line this decade. Maybe only Latoya Armstong has been a better player for the lady Gryphons this decade.

I don't know how many of you go on line every day and get your news from WRAL.com. There is a story in the local news section that I would ask you help for.

The story says fire department needs your vote to win a fire truck. The fire department is Powellsville fire department and Powellsville is five miles from Ahoskie in Bertie but it is close to the county line.

Growing up I live about two miles from Ahoskie and my father was a member of the Powellsville Lions Club. We live about half way between Ahoskie in Hertford County and Powellsville. I got the job of cutting grass at the Powellsville community building for about five years and with that came cutting the Powellsville Cemetery.

The cemetery is about two or three acres at the time most of the vaults were above ground. During the summers if I didn't have a church league ball game or a little league game that night I would push my mover to the cemetery at 8.00am and stay and cut grass all day.

There was an acre which was all grass and the other part I had to cut around the plots. I could cut the grass in about eight hours. The hard part was taking the old timey scissors and trimming the grass around the vaults and head stones. My parents when they got off work would come help me finish up the trim. It was a all day deal.

Powellsville is a community of about 400 people with a stoplight on highway 42. The fire house is about a hundred yards from the community building so to say the least all those kids that I grew up with are now volunteer firemen in Powellsville.

A community of 400 there is not a great tax base an there is always a struggle to get any equipment. I don't think they had been able to buy any new equipment in more than 30 years. If you look at the article on WRAL.com they are in a contest with five other small fire from around the USA to win a new fire truck. The most votes on line wins the fire truck.

Oddly enough the fire truck manufacturer is E-One from right here in Rocky Mount but Powellsville is the only North Carolina fire department in the running.

Please go on line and vote for some of my old pals and help them get anew fire truck. There is nothing you have to buy other than taking the time to vote.

Thanks

It's Now The Final Two

North Carolina like they have done in every NCAA game this year came out of the box and had control of the Wildcats early.

Too much Ty Lawson, Danny Green, Wayne Ellington, Tyler Hansbrough and of all people Bobby Frazier. Of all people Bobby frazier had seven rebounds and never took a shot but when ever there was a loose ball on the floor Frazier grab it for the Heels.

Heels 83 Nova 69

Big East Power basketball took a big hit Saturday losing both games. U Conn was beaten badly by Michigan State guards and the Huskies didn't have all that much advantage inside as the power Big East was suppose to have.

Louisville losing last week cooked my goose winning any NCAA pools. Now that the Heels are playing Monday just getting Louisville to todays game would have put me in good position.

Shoulda, coulda ,woulda

I'm kicking President Obama's butt in the NCAA bracket. He stands in the 46 percentile while I'm at 71% in the ESPN Tourney. I have Carolina Monday as well as Mr president .

I am a solid 1 million two hundred thousandt place out of 5.5 million on the ESPN.

I like the floor being raised up six feet. That was neat.

They must of had Big East refs for both games. The rule Saturday was no fouls unless blood. Neither game was any thing close to pretty basketball with all the bumping pushing and arm wrestling.

A victory Saturday night by the Carolina Hurricanes gets them into the playoffs for the first time since 2006 when they won the Stanley Cup.

They have won eight games in a row and eleven straight at home.

They have three games left in the season so they are fighting for at least the opening series home ice advantage. If they can win out they could get more series home advantage if they advance in the Hockey tournament.

Gryphon baseball has most of the week off for Easter. This week all three games the Gryphons saw left handed pitchers and Brian Goodwin was kept off the bases. When Brian gets on he worries the pitchers and the rest of his team mates benefit with more fast balls.

Key for the offense is to get Brian on base. For the defense keep up the outstanding pitching. If the other team doesn't get base runners on it helps the defense. Whenever any team has runners running all over the place it puts extreme pressure on any defense to make a plays.

Finally!!!!! Baseball ON Saturday

The Gryphons baseball team has not been able to get in a baseball game on the last three Saturdays for an assortment of reasons , all related to rain.

Today under pouring(Normally on Saturdays rain inserted here) sunny skies the Gryphon's took on the team that they met for the Eastern 3-A title last May D H Conley.

The day did not start very well for Jason Mills the head coach of Conley as when he arrived this morning to get ready for the trip to Rocky Mount he discovered that the field house at Conley had been broken into and ram sacked.

One thing both teams had plenty of was pitching. Conley started Jordan Deloatch and he got into the fifth inning before being removed and replaced by Chad Hardee.

The Gryphons first hit did not come until one out in the fourth as Collins Cuthrell hit a line drive home run off the light pole in left center field. It hit the pole and came back onto the playing field and for a few moments Cuthrell kept digging thinking he had a double. Ben Fish followed the home run with a solid single but on the first pitch to Thomas Berry was caught trying to steal second. Wouldn't you know it then Berry hit a triple off the wall in right which would easily score Fish but was not to be.

Hobbs Johnson follow up his brilliant effort against Northern Nash with five inning of shutout baseball. Johnson's five inning he struck out six, walked one batter and allowed three singles and a double.

Benton Moss came on to pitch the sixth inning for the Gryphons and promptly hit the first batter on the hand and that run made it all the way home after being sacrificed to second and a two out hit scored him. Moss struck out the side in the seventh to bring the Gryphons to bat in the bottom of the seventh.

One out Parker Helms walked off Hardee. Spencer Bell who walked three times on the day coaxed another one to put runners on first and second with one out. Brian Goodwin who has been 0-for the week so far hit a sharp grounder to right field where Parker Helms scored on a bang bang play.

GRYPHONS 2 Conley 1

The Gryphons win their seventh game in a row to move to 9-1 on the season. Brian Goodwin was 1-4 but had the game winning rbi. Collins Cuthrell was 1-3 with a homer. Ben Fish was 1-3 and Parker Helms was 1-2 and scored the winning run.

Benton Moss gets the win with two innings of relief giving up one run on one hit. His lone free pass was the first batter he faced who he hit.

This is the third game in a row in which the Gryphons could only muster five hits. Once again Gryphon pitchers have proven all they need is two runs as in 21 innings this week the Gryphon pitchers have allowed just one run and have two shutouts on the week.

Gryphons will not play again until next Friday night as they go to Southwest Edgecombe for a conference game. Nash County Schools are out this week for the Easter Holiday

North Carolina plays sometime around 8.00pm tonight in the final four of college basketball.

Xavier Macklin the Nash Central graduate who is playing baseball at North Carolina A&T was the MEAC rookie of the month for March. Macklin hit 341 with two homers and 15 rbi's.

Xavier Joined Dillion Cockrell, Ben Fish, Gabe Brown, Cameron Ramsey and Brian Goodwin who were some of the members of the 13 and 14 year old Babe Ruth players who played in the Babe Ruth World series in Wilson and Quincy Massachusetts in 2004 and 2005. Northern Nash also has three players on those teams Tyler Joyner, Mike Williams and Tyler Clark.

Monumental Night

Ever since the inception of the NEW-3-A conference Southwest Edgecombe has been the smallest school by about two hundred students.

They have been the second best team in football during the conference history and in most sports they have been in the middle. But not in baseball. Southwest has been the door mat of the league all three years they have been in the NEW-6.

Tuesday they lost to Fike by a respectable 6-4 score and maybe that should have raised some eye brows. Last night SWE beat Nash Central for their first NEW-6 conference victory ever. After 31 straight losses the Cougars beat the Bulldogs 5-3.

The Gryphon baseball team plays at 1.00pm Saturday at Gryphon stadium against D H Conley. Nash County schools are out for Easter break next week so the Gryphons will not host the Easter baseball tournament as is the norm.

A real quirk in the conference scheduling they will play Southwest Edgecombe Easter Friday at SWE. Then make up two games with Riverside in a double header on April 12th at home.

The magic is back for the Carolina Hurricanes. They won their tenth game in a row at home last night and as of right now are one point ahead of Philadelphia for fourth place in the standings. Philly however plays tonight.

The latest NHL power ratings have the Hurricanes #1.

Carolina Tarheels are in Detroit ready for the final four on Saturday night. The big stir out of Detroit is that Ty Lawson won $250 on the crap table at a Detroit casino.


I don't have any qualms about the gambling as long as he's 21 and everything is legal. What bothers me is that Roy Williams has given the team a 1.30am curfew.

What in the world can you do in Detroit after midnight other than be in a bar or gambling house. The recent history of athletes and guns, 1.30am out on the town sounds like asking for trouble.

If they lose Saturday, Heels fans will have every reason to question Williams.

In a final note: I would like to congratulate Vann Pennell, Principal at South Brunswick high school. I first met Vann when he was a football assistant coach at Ahoskie in the 80's and he migrated toward administration. He left Ahoskie to be principal at Camden High school.

Yesterday Vann was named North Carolina High School Principal of the year. Vann was always smiling and I bet no doubt that whenever a student has to be in his office they leave feeling good about themsevles even after being punished.

I had lost contact with Vann over the years but I will send him an e-mail today.

Gryphons Homer Firebirds

If there was ever a game in which Rocky Mount was set up for a big let down, today was the day.

Just two days following a victory over your top rival in Northern Nash on Tuesday night. A dreary day. In fact so dreary the game started thirty minutes before the rescheduled early start was suppose to be.

Yesterday due to the weather forecast the game was moved up to 4.30 from the 7.00pm original start time only to start at 4.00pm instead. By games end it proved to be a smart move starting early as the drizzle had started.

If there is one thing that this Gryphon team has brought to every game this year is pitching and the Gryphons got that again today. So far this season our starting pitchers had lasted through four innings in every game.

Benton Moss who has kind of been the odd man out this spring as he has been the starting pitcher in the second game of the week and we have had so many rainouts Benton hadn't pitched in a couple of weeks. Due to the lack of work Benton walked five batters and hit one but allowed only one hit through four inning and left the game winning 4-0.

Nick Hahula pitched the final three innings and scattered four hits and gave up an earned run in the fifth. The Gryphons could only manage five hits themselves but two left the confines of Gryphon stadium.

Collins Cuthrell blasted a solo shot to dead center field in the first to get the Gryphons on the board. Ben Fish in the sixth hit a line drive shot down the left field line that plated Collins Cuthrell who had walked.

In the bottom of the second two runs scored on a Brian Goodwin sharp fly ball to right that was dropped and two runs came home. In the third Hobbs Johnson doubled bringing home Collins Cuthrell. The Gryphons sixth run scored off a Thomas Berry double with Collins Cuthrell scoring again.

Collins Cuthrell was 2-2 on the day with two walks, three runs scored, a homer and an rbi. Ben Fish collect a homer and two rbi's. Thomas Berry had an rbi double and Hobbs Johnson also had an rbi double.

The Gryphons are back in action Saturday at 1.00pm at home against D H Conley who if you remember they beat to win the Eastern regionals last year.

Today's victory is #8 on the season with the lone blemish being the extra inning loss to Rose.

On the day the Gryphons had two doubles and two homers an one single as the Gryphons go to 2-0 in conference play beating Southern Nash 7-1

But It Is Only One Game

Last night's game at Northern is just the first game. Both teams now must regroup and and focus on the next game.

Northern Follows Rocky Mount with a trip to Fike while Rocky Mount must forget and get ready for a home game Thursday.

Northern girls won the softball game with Rocky Mount up the hill beyond left Field from the baseball field. 7-3 was the final.

Leaving the game last night there was a mob of people in the parking lot. The baseball game had a hugh crowd, I didn't see how many were at the softball game but both games got over at about the same time and the parking lot was jammed leaving. To top that off the Northern Track and field team was returning from a meet and they were unloading their activity bus in the parking lot.

If only the Charlotte Bobcats were in the same division as the LA Lakers. Last night the Bobcats kept their hopes alive for a playoff spot by beating LA for the 6th time in the last seven meeting.
The Bobcats trail the Bulls by one game for the final eastern division playoff spot.

Heard on ESPN that the Carolina Panthers my try to get Jay Cutler from the Broncos. Looks as though Denver is feed up with Cutler' s cry baby ways and are ready to unload him. If I was Denver I would ship him off to Detroit where he will have to run for his life to survive.

I just don't get these rich athletes. Denver had the second best offense in the league last year. Where can Cutler go that is better than that, that would want him. He is not in a position to tell them where he wants to go so he is at their mercy.

Plaxico Burress is holding out a plea deal to not have to serve time for shooting himself in a bar in New York City. The Governor and the Mayor of New York have publicly stated he needed to go to jail and whenever a government official says something like that you can bet the prosecutor is listening.

Michael Vick just can't get out of his own way. I need to study up on the details but it has something to do with selling pensions. Next we will find out he is selling guns to the Contras.

I doubt you will see Vick or Burress on an NFL field any time soon.

Plenty Of Pitching

I don't think too many people thought before tonight's game that with Tyler Joyner and Hobbs Johnson pitching that there would be too many runs scored, and there weren't.

Tyler Joyner needed four strikeouts to reach three hundred for his career at Northern. He had that after the first four Gryphons struck out. In all Joyner struck out 15 Gryphons and eight of the first nine batters were strike out victims.

Junior Hobbs Johnson found out early if he wanted to win this game he had to be just as good as Joyner.

Johnson gave three singles, all three never left the infield. The difference in the pitchers tonight was that Johnson while striking out 12 only hit one batter and no Base on Balls while Joyner had four free passes and one of them came home to score the first run.

Goose eggs were across the score board until Carter Varnell walked to leadoff the 6th inning. Brian Goodwin also walked to put men on first and second with no outs. A double steal attempt came up roses for the Gryphons as Tyler Clarks throw to gun down Varnell sail into left field with Varnell scoring.

Nursing a 1-0 lead Johnson Hit the leadoff batter in the bottom of the 6th Tanner Smith. Steven Moore the Knights centerfielder had attempted two bunts to try to get Smith to second but had failed to do so, he slapped a hot grounder to third baseman Collins Cuthrell who was still playing up in case of a bunt with two strikes. Cuthrell made a diving backhand grab got to his feet and made a throw to second to get Smith for the first out. If that ball gets out of the infield it was heading for the wall and a run. It was not to be as Collins made the defensive play of the game.

Hobbs Johnson knew he still needed more runs to be safe belted a Joyner pitch off the right field wall for a double. Two batters later Parker Helms knocked him in from second to give the Gryphons all they would need and more

Johnson pitch a perfect 7th inning in completing his first game as a Gryphon and goes to 4-0 on the season. Johnson line was seven inning 0 runs, three hits, one hit batter and twelve strikeouts. No knight runner got past second base.

Tyler Joyner is the hard luck loser for Northern. His line was 7 innings, three hits, two runs, one unearned fifteen strikeouts and four base on balls

Michael Whitehead, Hobbs Johnson and Parker Helms got the only three hits the Gryphons could muster.

Tonight the little things went right for the Gryphons as pitching and defense get the defending State champs off on the right foot in their quest to repeat as state champions.

Gryphons 2 Northern 0