Everybody's Still Undefeated

There has been a period of five years or more where Northern Nash has been at the bottom of the conference instead of near the top. Last night Northern fans who saw it are jumping for joy this morning after the Knights looked impressive in the jamboree held at North Johnston.

Northern took on North Duplin, North Johnston, Rosewood and Louisburg and at times looked dominate. This is a far cry from the past few years and Northern fans are guarded that they may be back.

In the same Jamboree Southern Nash and South Johnston went head to head in a repeat of the eastern finals last year. SJ had a slight edge in this head knocker.

Tarboro's Jamboree the SouthWest Cougar fans held their throat in the hands for a while when their starting QB went down. Understand he has a shin bruise.

Rocky Mount and Nash Central are jamboreeing today at Southeast Raleigh High School. Rocky Mount takes on Garner at 3.00pm. Nash Central plays later.

Passed by the new Rocky Mount High school Friday afternoon. The metal frame work is up for the gym and cinder blocks are forming the class rooms. WOW!

Benton Moss will play today at 1.00pm on MLB.COM at the Under Armour All- American Baseball game being played at Wrigley Field in Chicago.

I am not really in favor of going to an 18 game NFL schedule. As a fan I understand that season ticket holders should not have to pay full price to see starters play ten minutes and watch players that will not be on the team next week play.

The simple solution to me is add four more teams to the playoffs. Drop two pre season games. The first weekend of the playoffs only have eight of the playoff teams in action. The second weekend the other eight. That gives nobody a bye but three straight weekends of doubleheader playoff games on Saturday and Sunday.

Higher ratings, higher income from advertisers. That's the whole purpose get more moola and still end season by first weekend in Feburary.

Under Armour Game Saturday For Benton Moss

Benton Moss and family are in the windy city of Chicago today as Benton prepares for the Under Armour All-American baseball game which will be played at 1.00pm Saturday at the home of the Chicago Cubs Wrigley Field.

The game will not be on any tv network but can be seen on line at MLB.com. Moss who has verbally committed to Mike Fox at North Carolina is the second Gryphon who has played in the Under Armour as he will join Brian Goodwin who played in this game two years ago. Each team has 18 players and as Benton is a pitcher he may only get one inning of work in this game.

Gryphon football scrimmaged at Wake Forest-Rolesville last night. Girls Volley ball beat Beddingfield in a scrimmage at Beddingfield.

I had the Cowboy game on NFL.com game tracker last night while I watch the Panthers lose to the Ravens 17-12. Hoping to see Terrell Hudgins make a few plays but into the third quarter he had none before I went to bed. Dallas blew a 9-0 lead in the second half and lost to Oakland 17-9.

I think the Panthers have upgraded the best position on the field in quarterback as Matt Moore just to me looks like an NFL quarterback. The way Jake Delhomme played for the Panthers last year the only QB in the league worse than him was in Oakland.

Now that Oakland has improved their quarterbck situation at least a little, you can look out. They have had one of the better defenses in the NFL the past couple of years but had no quarterback. They at least have an average QB in Jason Campbell now. It would not shock me if the Raiders make the playoffs.

If we carry Gryphon football on the radio this year and that is still up in the air as to this point we do not have enough sponsors tonight is the last free Friday for a while.

Hope everyone survives Friday the 13th.

Rail Hawks game

Had a chance to see my first professional soccer match last night as my family attended the soccer game between the Carolina Rail Hawks and Rochester New York. The reason we were there our eight year old grand daughter Madison, who is a really good soccer player in CASL league in Wake County won an award in her age group the Sportsmanship Award. CASL gave away the awards at half time of the soccer match.

These guys that play for the Rail Hawks are excellent soccer players. I saw last night first hand what I saw watching the World Cup. The higher the level of soccer the better defense they play regardless of how good a player is handling the ball. Soccer is exploding in America but for it to pass the NFL they have got to figure a way to get more scoring. Why in the world can't they stop the clock when a player is injured. The extra time without the clock is ridiculous.

The game was played at the Wake Med Soccer Field in Cary which use to be called SAS Soccer Park which is a nice facility which holds about 7,000. Last night was really CASL night and there were probably 2,000 kids there in their uniforms. If you don’t think soccer is big, CASL has 8,000 kids playing soccer in Wake County.

Yesterday the football coaches voted for who they think is going to win the Big East football title. The coaches picked Southern Nash, Hunt, Rocky Mount, Northern Nash Nash Central and Fike in that order. One vote either way and first could have been picked fourth the vote was that close.

I understand while the coaches met behind close doors transfers was one of the topics of discussions.

Rocky Mount girls Volley ball kicks off their season tonight at Beddingfield. Yesterday they handled both Faith Christian and Rocky Mount Academy in scrimmages.

The Stretchlon Sports Show will kick off the fall sports by taping the Nash County Volley ball tournament being held this year at Northern Nash. It is set for Aug 21st. We will tape all four games.

Carolina has announced that the players who are in question by the NCAA will not play until the NCAA gives them the ok to do so. They don’t want to have to give games back should they play this year and then the NCAA rules they are ineligible. Carolina is playing it safe. I think that is a wise choice in this matter.

I listen to 99.9 the fan in Raleigh a lot. They have interviewed the guy who broke the story on Carolina and he said yesterday on 99.9 that Carolina may have had an ineligible player last year. Holy Cow! When all this eligibility stuff first came up and Carolina said they were asked by the NCAA not to talk about it, now we know why if last year is in the question. Carolina may have to give up all their wins from last season. If you are a State fan and looking for anyway to get a winning season from last year, sorry, State beat Carolina so Carolina will not have to give that one back if these stories are true.

I have talked about this before but how in the world can Tiger Woods be 119th on the PGA tour money list this year and still number one in the world. They have got to look at how the rankings take the past two years.

Phil Nicholson announced earlier this week that he has arthritis which you know has to effect your golf game. That may be why he has not shot past Tiger to the #1 ranking. Steve Stricker if he should win the PGA Championship could go to #1.

If you look at the Major League baseball stats it sure looks to me like Josh Hamilton of Raleigh is a shew in as MVP of the American league. Talk about a made for movie but his life since high school is what movies are made for. Top of the world, falling into a bottomless pit and then getting back to the top. Even though they gave up a five run lead with Cliff Lee on the mound last night to the Yankees, the Texas Rangers are good. They took two of three from the Yankees this week

Getting Down To Business

Today is coaches meeting day for the Big East Conference. All coaches involved in fall sports will meet at Southern Nash and discuss issues related to their sport that needs to be hashed out among the coaches. Then at the end they will vote for who they think will win their conference.
This will go on for all sports football, volleyball, boys soccer and cross country.

Here is my guess of how football will turn out in the conference. I don't think there is a dominate team in the entire league so I think everyone will lose once.

1. Southern Nash - They have a talented squad and last years playoff run just may pump life back into the Firebirds which has been missing since the four County High schools went into the same conference. 4-1

2. Northern Nash- They hit harder on defense than any other team in the league last year and I don't see why that should change this year. A better offense and Northern will be back. 3-2

3. Wilson Hunt- You can always count on Hunt to be competitive. First they live by the run. In the past ten years Hunt has been really good when they could throw some to loosen up the defense. 3-2

4. Rocky Mount- This team is better than last year. Seven road games could become burden as season wears on. 3-2

5. Nash Central- In a league where everyone is equal there is a thin line from first to fifth. 2-3

6. Wilson Fike- Fike has floundered ever since Richie Pridgen tried to retire and coach football. Pridgen is on the staff at Northern 0-5.

This is a league without a proven quarterback. The team that gets the best play there may prove to be the best. First to fifth is just a fumble difference in any team. This should be an exciting football year. Since the league is so balanced very well could get a team to eastern finals again this year.

The Rocky Mount High girls volleyball team scrimmages Faith Christian and Rocky Mount Academy starting at 1.00pm today in the gym. jvs and varsity will see action. The varsity plays Faith at 2.00pm and RMA at 6.00pm.

I like it when the public schools get together with our local private schools. I realize not all sports are compatible but basketball,baseball, soccer and tennis could join volleyball and competing with our neighbors.

Summer Is Almost Gone

Here it is the 10th of the month and I have not yet been to a football Practice. I had better start learning numbers so we can be ready for the first game on the 20th of August.

Right now every team thinks they will be great. Rocky Mount has to replace Collins Cuthrell at quarterback and the greatest Gryphon runner in history Marquavis Alston.

Nash Central will carry 55 on varsity. That's the number of varsity jerseys they have.

They have been down for the past five years but there is no more optimistic team any where than at Northern Nash. If Northern finds a decent quarterback look for them to contend for the title. Everyone tends to forget that Northern was one yard from the playoffs last year and Rocky Mount was one yard from not being in the playoffs.

My guess is Southern Nash will finish first and Fike last. Everyone else could fall anywhere in between.

Rocky Mount will get their first licks in against other people Saturday when they take part in the jamboree going on at South East Raleigh at 3.00pm. They will play Garner.

I am worried about TIGER Woods. Up until his nine iron incident last Thanksgiving in which the back on his head was in the way of his swinging wife, Tiger Woods always had the edge that he knew he was better both as a player and the mental edge. What little bit of low lights that I have seen on ESPN of this weekends play Tiger no longer has that edge.

Tiger no longer thinks he is invincible and no other player thinks it any more either. He is just one of the regular guys. After being so dominate can Tiger ever get it back? I doubt it. After being so dominate will he want to play every week just to make the cut. The only reason I see for Tiger to keep playing is to get a pay check since it looks like his wife is going to get Tiger Inc in her pocketbook.

That will be sad to see, If it happens that way.

I'm Back

If you have never been on a cruise I have to tell you save up your pennies and go once. From the time we boarded the ship Carnival Fantasy Wednesday at Noon until 7.15 am Monday morning we were in a dream world. Friday I had no idea what day it was and really didn't care.

Highlight of the trip was snorkeling off Nassau right where Bond, James Bond had nearly fifty years ago made the movie Thunder Ball. A taxi driver told us Sean Connery still lives in Nassau. Morgan, Samantha Morgan's friend and I brought home three of the largest Star Fish that I have ever seen. Each one was bigger than my two hands put together and then some.

Let's get back to reality:

I see in his Pro debut Terrell Hudgins had two catches for Dallas in their opening preseason game for 17 yards.

Tiger Woods shot his worse four round golf score in his career. His putting has gone to pot. He no longer has the mental edge on the other golfer that he once had.

Kernersville the State Champs of North Carolina American Legion are in the SouthEast regional finals.

URGENT: Kernersville has won the Southeast American Legion Regional in Tennessee. They beat the host team Columbia Tennessee 10-2. Kernersville will now head to Spokane Washington August 13th to open the American Legion World Series against Las Vegas Nevada.

It is nice having friends in high places and sometimes low places. Like to thank Don Johnson for passing along the Legion score.


This is great news I saw on the Rocky Mount High Web site that Andrew Morales a rising senior at Rocky Mount has committed to Duke to play soccer in 2011.

Any body notice that Rocky Mount has has had a slew on players that have signed D-1 in several sports the last couple of years.

Cousin Lauren missed the cut by one shot again this weekend and only has two tournaments left to make the Futures Tour Top 90. She now stands at 116. She need a top five in one of those two.

Now that I am back from Fantasy Land need to go hard on Gryphon football by the end of week. Still don't have enough sponsors to get Gryphon football on the air yet this year.

Wes or I will see U this week!

Time Flies

Sunday marked the second anniversary of this blog. Charles Alston created the Rocky Mount High website I think it was in 2004. I talked him into letting me do a weekly comment on the RMHS site which got me stirred into doing a blog of my own. It finally occurred on August one 2008.

It didn't start out to be a daily blog but within a month or two I could not save up for several days, I just had to report items when they happened. The best time for me is just before bedtime, I have just gotten home from a game. The biggest reason is I can get the computer then when others in the household have gone to bed with the chickens. There is so much going on in the world whether it is right here in Nash County in ACC country I have never had a time when I sat down in front of the computer and had nothing to write.

Last year during the Christmas Holidays my Wife won the grand prize of the door prizes that her company gave away to each employee at their Christmas party. We won a trip to the Bahamas. Unfortunately for me second prize was a 37 inch flat screen TV. Never can win anything good.

We debated all during January trying to line up a time when it worked for both our schedules. August 4th was the winning date leaving from Charleston SC.

I just told Pat Sunday night that it looked like we were going to miss any Tropical storms which happen to occur this time of year. Lo and behold last night I see a depression is out in the Atlantic and guess where it is heading. The five day forecast has it about 200 miles east of the Bahamas Saturday. We are suppose to be in Nassau Saturday.

After work today we are heading to Charleston tonight to get on the ship at noon Wednesday. I have cleaned out everything I would love to throw away in closets and utility rooms and will be leaving them in our carport hoping someone will steal them while we are gone. (Only kidding)

We leave our house in the hands of our neighbors and we have these killer deer that love the figs in our back yard and they do not like to be messed with during eating time.

Since I have been doing this blog I have only missed a couple of days. I understand there is a room on the shipped with Internet but I plan to avoid that room at all cost. I don't want to see a cell phone, computer,ESPN or anything that I normally see on a daily basis.

I will volunteer to be a storm chaser and will see whether we can get the Captain of the Carnival Fantasy to head into the eye of this depression.

Wouldn't that make a trip to talk about.