Twenty-four Hours To Go

Rocky Mount goes after its fourth basketball state championship Saturday night in Chapel Hill.

This is their first visit to the Big Dance since 1982. Concord, its opponent, just won it all in 2006 for its only title.

This game will hinge on whether we are as quick as they are. The Spiders have seven players who score nine points or more and will press all over the court. If we reasonable match up on speed team-wise, we will be all right. They don't have any height to match Mabry and Jenkins inside. Bottom line is we must protect the ball.

WZAX Jammin 99.3's coverage begins at 6.30 p.m. We will have a one-hour pregame show and will stay on through the interview process in the media room. Our thanks goes out to all those people who stepped forward to help us bring the game to you live.

We will have the team on WHIG-TV Sunday night at 8 p.m. We will show some of the game while we talk with them.

The baseball team went to the No. 3 starter today at home against Webb High School and the results were good. Jeremy Trevathan pitched five inning and got the win. Spencer Bell pitched the final two inning as the Gryphons went to 4-1 with a 10-1 victory over Webb.

All I can report to you tonight is heartbreak for the girls softball team. Leading 18-7, Tarboro scored 12 runs in the bottom of the seventh to win 19-18.

I don't know whether I will blog Saturday morning or not. It kind of depends on how fast my day starts. We have a soccer game to go to, to watch our granddaughter Madison play in Garner. Carolina plays baseball at 2 p.m and we will be in Durham to watch Brian Goodwin and Carolina play at Duke. I hope he didn't use all his hits up for the weekend tonight.

Just before I started blogging, Carolina was ahead in the bottom of the ninth 22-9. Brian was 4-for-4 with a home run and five RBI. I hope he has some hits left for me tomorrow.

I will be in the Dean Dome about 5. If I don't blog first thing Saturday, it will be after we return after midnight Saturday. I hope we will be at the gym waiting on the state champs . Midnight is their scheduled time to return to the gym. Be there, win or lose.

Morgan, who is the official Hi-Noc-Ar yearbook photographer for the state championship game, will be taking pictures and we will post them Sunday afternoon.

GOOD LUCK GRYPHONS!!!!!!!!!

Plans, Plans and More Plans

If you don't have a plan in life, you may find yourself going nowhere. WZAX Jammin 99.3 FM will be broadcasting the 3-A State Championship Saturday night from Chapel Hill. This week, after the Gryphon victory last Saturday in the East regional, at least 11 sponsors have stepped forward which will allow us (Wes Bradshaw and myself) to bring you the game from the Dean Dome.

This will be my second basketball broadcast of a state championship game from Blue Heaven. I was there in 2005 when SouthWest Edgecombe girls won the 2-A title. I have done a couple of football state title games and in baseball, a couple of state title Babe Ruth games and I have been privileged to do two Babe Ruth World Series title games in which Nash County has been involved. I don't care how many Super Bowls you do, every one of them is special and for me and Wes, doing these games are big moments in our broadcast careers.

WHIG-TV has met every requirement that TimeWarnerCable has required of them except one. They want the tape to record the Rocky Mount game in their hands at 10.a.m Saturday. Part of the problem is there will be four games for them Saturday and once they start their live feed to their Time Warner customers across the state, they don't want me banging on the the door of their truck with a tape for them to record on at 7.30 p.m. We are still working on that problem.

Mike Gainey, his coaches and players have agreed to be on the Stretchlon Sports Show Sunday night live at 8 p.m. - win or lose Saturday. Mike also told me today that they have two buses full of Gryphons heading to Chapel Hill. By the way, Rocky Mount will be the visitor in this game and will wear navy blue, so I think they want all Gryphons fans to wear navy blue Saturday night.

Those who attended the Eastern regionals, whether it was a boys game at ECU or a girls game at Rose High, know that Greenville is a really good venue for the regional. It's not too big, but just about the right size for the regional. However, there is a real possibility that Greenville will no longer host the regional.

University Health Systems of Eastern Carolina, which has been the title sponsor for the last 10 years, from what I hear is pulling out as sponsor. That's too bad. Probably the best thing to happened to eastern North Carolina in the past 30 years was ECU getting the medical school.

University Health Systems of Eastern North Carolina has branches out all over eastern North Carolina and it now owns many of the little hospitals around the East that feed into Pitt Memorial. What a better way to advertise that to sponsor something that connects the entire eastern North Carolina together. Last week, teams from Weldon, Rocky Mount, Goldsboro, Kinston and Pender County were just some of the teams that played in the regional.

If it doesn't stay in Greenville, it may very well go to Fayetteville and then. whenever we play in the regional, we will be making the long trips instead of heading just down the road as it is now. Sometimes you don't miss something until it is gone.

Baseball Wins Again.

Senior Hobbs Johnson second trip to the mound this year for Rocky Mount was a lot better than the first as Johnson pitch six solid innings leading Rocky to a 5-3 victory over Riverside. Rocky Mount's first four game have been against 4-A schools and they now stand at 3-1. Not bad considering the competition.

Johnson left the game leading 5-2 and Parker Helms pitch the seventh for the Gryphons. The third game of the week will be Friday afternoon at home against Webb High School and it will be interesting to see just how good the Gryphons are as both the aces on the staff Benton Moss and Hobbs Johnson have already pitch this week and Coach Kent Cox will be looking to find that third pitcher to help fill important spots on the staff.

Like last year the hitting is a sore spot to this point as in the first four games pitching has kept the score down. Rocky Mount has scored 4,3 and 5 in their three wins and only 2 in their lost. Hopefully 4-A pitching has something to do with the low offensive production but only time will tell us that.

Boys tennis played their first match Yesterday and lost. Today they were en route to a match when they were hit with rain and had to turn back home.

It looks like softball is in for a tough season. Tonight they lost to Southern Vance 20-0. A bright spot for the lady softball team is Prescious White the catcher. The sophomore plays like a boy (that's a compliment) behind the plate and if she can get her bat going colleges will be all over here by her senior year.

I hope my eyes did not deceive me. Morgan is the score keeper for softball and of course we have attended both home games this week and I did walk down the left field line and tried to see the girls soccer score board. It surely look like soccer beat Conley 3-1 today and if that is so they are off to a 4-0 start.

I know several fans from Rocky Mount will be stopping in Durham Saturday afternoon to watch Carolina and Duke open up the ACC baseball conference schedule. Former Gryphon Brian Goodwin after an 0-9 start in his first two plus games in right field for Carolina is hitting 340 since he got his first college hit. I think as a freshman Brian has play every inning of the 13 games Carolina has played so far. The biggest surprise for me is Mike Fox has him hitting 5th in the lineup. Sunday he even hit him in cleanup and Brian responded with a homer. As of today Brian has a 8 game hitting streak and his average is 289. You go Brian!

Seventh-inning Comeback For Baseball

It looked as if Benton Moss' six innings of two-hit baseball was going to be wasted. But a three-run seventh inning propelled the Baseball Gryphons to their second win of the season. Jeremy Trevathan pitched the bottom of the seventh to earn the save.

The baseball schedule has been shifted due to the fact the baseball team was scheduled to play Saturday afternoon at home. There is a very important game going on in Chapel Hill Saturday night in which the baseball team would like to see since they have had their own cheering section during Gryphon home basketball games.

Friday's Riverside game has been moved to Wednesday afternoon, which will now be the home opener for the Gryphons. Then Friday afternoon the Saturday game will be played. Both games start at 4 p.m. Friday's game will be against Webb High School from Oxford.

No comeback for softball as they were beaten by Farmville Central 18-1 in five innings.

I am glad to be able to announce that the State Championship basketball game will be live on the radio Saturday night on WZAX Jammin 99.3 FM. Our pregame show will start at 6.30 from Dean's Dome.

I got home from doing the Relay for Life show on Monday night and I had a voice message from Mike Pearce. Mike left me a message to tell me that Alex, his son and former Nash Central Bulldog and now a sophomore at UNC Pembroke, had the game of his college career Saturday afternoon. Alex started behind the plate and went 3-for-3 and all three hits were doubles and three RBI..

The past few years I have done radio and TV baseball games and PA announcing and there is something about baseball where there is more time before and after games to get with the families that follow their children. I have done many games that Alex has played in and his family both his parents and grandparents have followed him all over the east coast playing ball.

It is a joy for me to hear the excitement and pride that I heard in Mike's voice as I listened to the phone message. Mike, call me any time and let me know how Alex is doing. I hope the next time you call I will be able to talk live with you and not have you on Memorex.

If any of you have any thing that you want me to pass on to others I would love to do it. I hope you can tell I don't report negative stories about our young people and coaches. Call me on the phone, fax me, e-mail me or tell a friend to tell me, but I love it when I hear from you on things I haven't heard yet. Yes , I will fuss about high paid college coaches and such but our local coaches are just like me and you trying to make it pay check to pay check because they love working with our kids.

One day last week I went online to the Greensboro News and Record seeing what I might find out about last week's Regional semifinal opponent Northern Guilford. What did I see as the headline? Deloatch sinks Aggies. Michael Deloatch, formally of Northern Nash and Norfolk State, scored 37 points including the game-winning shot to beat the Aggies of North Carolina A&T. If you remember Deloatch made the ESPN top ten plays of the day in another game. Could the NBA be waiting on Michael Deloatch?

Hallways Are Abuzz

Social time on the campus of Rocky Mount High School was all basketball today as students talked of Saturday's regional final victory and whether you were going to the Dean Dome this Saturday.

A contingent of folks from RMHS were on hand today at the press conference discussing Saturday's state championships. Mike Gainey talked about his Gryphons and their path getting there.

Concord's head coach spoke. Scott Brewer is a former state champion coach with Central Cabarrus in 2000. Concord will be making its third trip to the State championship game in the last five years. The Spiders won the 3-A crown in 2006, the year before Brewer took over. Concord is on a 16-game winning streak and has not lost a game since January 10. Its record is 25-6 and the Spiders are the champions of the South Piedmont Conference and, of course, the Western regional champion.

You can never trust a team's program, whether it's football or basketball, as a football team might list a player at 190 pounds, when he is actually 225 to make you think he is smaller. In Basketball, they are listing 6-foot-3 as Concord's tallest player. So we will not know for sure until tip=time how accurate that is. They are a run-and-gun team maybe even more than we are.

The Gryphons brought 1,000 tickets back with them to sell for the game Saturday. They will go on sale Tuesday morning and will not be sold past Thursday. I just can't imagine that the tickets will last that long. They will be on sale in the school office. Tickets are $9. If you wait and stand in line at the Dean Dome, they will be $10. Coach Gainey has too much going on this week to add ticket sales to the biggest week of his life.

WZAX 99.3 is trying to get advertising sold so Wes and I can bring you the game back for those of you who don't go to The Hill on Saturday. I hope on tomorrow night's blog I can give you a thumbs up on the radio live broadcast.

Sunday night we will be showing a replay of the state championship game on WHIG-TV beginning at 8 p.m. Gainey and the Gryphons will be there as we always do when we celebrate a victory and hope not defeat Sunday night. Regardless of the results, just making it to the big dance is something special and needs to be recognized.

I think I got a thumbs up from wife Pat, but, of course, there is always a catch. We have a grandaughter that plays in the Raleigh Soccer League. She is eight and has a game Saturday morning somewhere in Wake County. She says she will go to the Duke-Carolina baseball game under one condition. It has to be a pretty warm day. She says she will go see Madison play in the rain and freezing cold, but to watch Brian Goodwin and Carolina, it has to be warm. The five-day forecast calls for 60s Saturday.

So I have a big sports day online for Saturday. Soccer in the morning, Carolina baseball at Durham at 2 p.m. and Gryphon basketball Saturday night. I wonder if I can find a softball game, somewhere!

You Have to Plan Ahead

Some people might say you are putting the cart before the horse but in order to make things happen you must plan ahead. The Nash County Relay for Life doesn't just happen three hours before the event April 23rd.

Knowing that Time Warner Cable has the broadcasting rights to the State basketball tournament next week in both Raleigh and Chapel Hill, I spoke with Rick Strunk of the NCHSAA earlier this week about broadcasting the Rocky Mount game if they made it and he referred me to Time Warner.

Promptly I received a call from them and to my surprise since Rocky Mount is not tied in to Time Warner but with Suddenlink they have given us the right to replay the State Championship game next Sunday night on WHIG-TV. Here is the real winner. It's free to WHIG since we are not in Time Warner area. I am delighted we can get a copy of the game.

We also started trying to get one of the local radio stations to broadcast the game live Saturday night from the Dean Dome. WZAX 99.3 is in the works trying to sell advertising to get the game live on Radio. Please contact Wes Bradshaw or myself if you can be a part of the state championship broadcast. We will not get on unless the can get enough support(MONEY) to do it.

My wife Pat saw her first Gryphon basketball game since we moved to Rocky Mount in 1995 yesterday. I started on the way home from the game giving her wouldn't this be neat to go to the Carolina baseball game Saturday in Durham as Carolina and Duke begin ACC baseball season and watch Brian Goodwin play for Carolina an then head to Dean's Dome for the basketball game. At least she hasn't said no to that yet.

The Gryphons will play Concord the champions of the South Piedmont Conference. They are 25-6 over all and we will talk more on them as the week progresses.

Baseball suffered their first defeat of the season losing to Ardrey Kell 7-2 yesterday in Cary.

Finally let's give a big clap to Nancy Thai is she has won the Park Scholarship to N C State. Like athletes when several schools are trying to lure you to come to their school Nancy is in the running for several other scholarships and will wait before deciding to accept or not.

Emily Capps of Northern Nash also won the Park and I be lived she has already accepted.

Gryphons Going To The "Ship"

Thunder Dunk by Tashawn Mabry

Photo by::
Morgan Doughtie



Charles Alston asked Mike Gainey in the media interview room following the game how he felt having just won the Eastern 3-A regional. Gainey couldn't fine the words but did say this "It feels good, All I know is we are going to the SHIP". For those of you who aren't up on the talk in the hallways of Rocky Mount High school the State ChampionSHIP is next Saturday at the Dean Dome in Chapel Hill.

Rocky Mount was bigger and just as fast as Northeast Guilford and the combination proved deathly for the Rams. Guilford jumped out to a 7-2 lead but the Gryphons spurted on a 17-4 run and never looked back in beating The Rams 85-64.

Rocky Mount made an astounding 37 out of 39 free throws and by having the lead forced the Rams to fouls when they couldn't steal the ball. Northeast Guilford trailed 56-42 at the start of the fourth quarter and cut the lead to 60-51 when Rocky Mount exploded as they went to a spread offense but instead of holding on to the ball they attacked the basket. The Gryphons scored 29 points in the fourth quarter including 20 by Tashawn Mabrey who maybe played his best basketball game of his career as he scored 37 points.

Billy Young controlling the ball took it to the hole where several times Mabrey was free to send a Thunder dunk into the bottom of the net, Just over a minute to go one of those dunks almost took two Rams with the ball which put the Gryphon crowd into a victory frenzy.

Games like this aren't won by just one player as Tecoby Hines who failed to score played brilliantly on defense as did Terrell Hilliard coming off the bench. Detrail Jenkins once again scores double digits with 15 points and missed a double double by one as he had 9 rebounds.

The Gryphons play next Saturday night at 7:30pm at the Dean E Smith Center on the campus of UNC for the State 3-A Title. Right now I'm not sure who we play and at this moment don't care who we play but we will be there in the SHIP.