Nash Central wins East Regional Cross Country

Will Bass Of Nash Central continues to seem to never have a bad day running as he lead his Bulldog teammates today as the Bulldogs not only have the Eastern Regional individual champ but are the team champs also. They quality for the State championships being run next weekend in Kernersville.

The girls side of the ledger West Carteret lead the way and two Big East teams finish Second and third as Fike is Second and Rocky Mount finishes third. Finishing third is good enough for the Lady Gryphons to qualify for next weekends state run in Kernersville.

Rocky Mount's James Bond finished 6th in the boys race and after the the results were in that was good enough to qualify him for the boys run next weekend


Disappointing news in the girls tennis semi-finals today from Burlington as Nash Centrals Randi Price lost in straight sets 6/0-6/0 but the consolation is she lost to the eventual state champ.

This is the first opportunity that I have had to comment on NC States big win over Florida State from Thursday night. WOW . If you were to ask me if I am behind in a game and trying to comeback whether I want the lead and to be the team trying to come back. For me the answer is easy, there is never a guarantee in football a fumble, a penalty, so many things can go wrong . Points are never put on the board until you earn them.

Basketball is the same If I am ahead by one point and you are shooting to win , I will take my chances with the one point lead. There is a lot more things that can go wrong over you making the ball go in the hole.

Having the past that Wolfpack football has had we have been here many times on the verge, only to lose a game we should have won. Next week the Wolfpack travels to Clemson a place when they had never had many successes.

Everybody seems to think the World Series is over but all that has happen so far is the home team has held serve. Now if San Fran wins one game in Texas then that is a different story.

Texas starting pitching has done ok but the bullpen has been awful. i still think this is a seven game series.

Only Three At The Top

The Only Big East football game on this Friday night where both teams were tied and playing each other was at Nash Central. I had picked Nash Central to finish fifth in my preseason guesses and tonight they played like a fifth place team and Hunt delivers a solid whipping on the Bulldogs 29-0.

Hunt was able to put twice as many points on the boards as they had their last two games and Nash Central gets shut out at home. Hard league to figure.

Way down east in Gates County North Edgecombe played for the Tar River title tonight and this proves to be the only good game from the area and the score is not good for the Warriors as The Red Barons edge North Edgecombe 19-18. WOW!

Out of the corner of their eye Northern Nash was hoping for some help from Nash Central but they decided they had better take care of their own business scoring the first five times they had the ball and then putting the game in the hands of their defense as they rip Fike 49-3.

Southern Nash put the ball in Tracy Coppedge's hands for 169 yards and had over 300 yard rushing in the game until they put their second team in the game and they lost yardage on the last drive to put them under 300 yards running for the game. Regardless, The Firebirds handle Rocky Mount 34-7. This lost knocks Rocky Mount out of the playoffs as they can finish no better than fifth.

I was worried that Tarboro might have a let down against Farmville and they did. They let the Jags score 20 on the night. So that means the Jags only lost by 47. The #1 team in 2-A is playing like the defending champs they are.

I knew SouthWest Edgecombe would be ornery tonight and they were hammering Greene Central 52-7.

I was 4-2 on the night missing the Hunt game and North Edgecombe.

So Northern Nash, Hunt and Southern Nash all remained tied at the top of the Big East at 3-1. Between the three they have beaten each other. Northern has Rocky Mount and Hunt has Fike next week. Southern finishes the regular season with Nash Central.

The ADM's are out and If I understand the count all four of the Big East top seeds will be in the 3-AA bracket. Hunt has the most students coming in at around 1275, followed by Southern Nash, Northern Nash and Nash Central all with over 1250 students. Fike has just over 1200 and Rocky Mount just under 1200. This might tell you why this conference is so competitive as all six schools are with 75 students from being the same size.

Southwest will once again be 2-AA while Tarboro comes in the 2-A as they are 7th from the smallest 2-A school in the east. North Edgecombe will play in the 1-A playoffs.

The State Tennis tournament is going on in Burlington Randi Price of Nash Centralis still alive and will play in the semi finals Saturday Morning. Sister Kaley won her opening match but lost in the second round.

Rocky Mount's doubles team of Lindsey Thomas and Carolina Nelson won their opening round match but fell in the second round.

Cross country runs the east regional in Greenville Saturday Morning. Nash Central will be the boys favorite. Rocky Mount has an outside chance of qualifying for the state. In the girls Both Fike and Rocky Mount will have shots to make the state title jog next week.

Top Four Soccer Seeds In Place

Finally Wednesday night they put two soccer games together and called it the opening of the Big East Tournament after two nights of rainouts. The expected seeds won. Southern Nash Beat Northern Nash and Fike beat Nash Central.

This part of the story is speculation on my part but here it goes. If they play the semi's tonight that means either the Championship on Friday going up against football or the championship game on Saturday. I suspect the coaches said no to both possible days. Since the top four seeds are all in let's just go into next weeks playoffs with the regular season seedings. If that was the verdict this is how the Big East begins the playoffs next week.

#1 Seed Rocky Mount will host the # three seed from the Eastern Carolina. @2 Hunt will host the #3 from the Coastal. #3 seed in Big East Fike will travel to #2 seed from Eastern Carolina. The Big East #4 will travel to #2 from the Mid State.

Friday is Tennis State Championships in Burlington and five girls from Nash Central, Northern Nash and Rocky Mount play Friday morning.

First game of the World Series the big pitching match up was won by the hitters and San Fran won out 11-7,

Big Football game in Raleigh tonight for the Wolfpack. This is the biggest game since State went to Clemson in 2003 with a 7-0 record and beat Clemson 38-0. 38-0 will be fine but a one pointer will do fine.

High School Football Time:

We haven't paid much attention to North Edgecombe this season other than the close game they played against SouthWest Edgecombe. They travel to Gates County Friday which is their last game of the season and they play Gates who is also unbeaten in conference play. Gates lost to Hertford County 21-20 and forfeited one other, those blemishes are all they have showing against them. Gates has one game left after tonight so for the most part this is the championship of the Tar Roanoke 1-A. It seems everyone that NE has beaten the point differential has been higher than Gates County. North Edgecombe 26 Gates County 14

All Northern has to do is win their last two games and they tie for first at least. If someone helps them beating Hunt and it is Northern championship to lose. After a Topsy turfy game last week against Nash Central will their be a let down. Not against Fike Northern 35 Fike 7

Rocky Mount won for the first time in conference last week so their is optimism that they still have a chance. If Southern will put the ball on the ground they do, but this is Rocky Mount who they get up for to play checkers and also revenge from the long touchdown that Rocky Mount threw in the last seconds last year to steal one from Southern. Southern 28 Rocky Mount 7

I think Nash Central is the best overall team in Big East. They travel to Hunt who all of a sudden scored only 14 against Rocky Mount and zero against Southern. When I say best overall they can pass the ball, none of the other three tied for the lead have shown they can when it is 3rd an 8 and make a first down. Nash Central will go to Hunt and win Central 21 Hunt 14

Tarboro plays their last two games of the season on the road so you had better look out for a let down at Farmville Central Friday. Beating SouthWest Edgecombe you know Tarboro chest is sticking out pretty far right now. Even with the letdown Tarboro beats Farmville 27-7.

SouthWest Edcombe plays host to Greene Central. Greene Central comes to SWE at the wrong time when the Cougars are champing at the bit to take last week's lost out on somebody. SWE 35 Greene Central 14

So far this season I am 25-11, but only 7-5 since the conference games started.

Soccer Tournament A Weather Nightmare

Once again on Tuesday the Big East conference tournament was hit with rain issues and the opening round has been delayed until Wednesday. The forecast is not very promising for tonight so we will have to wait to see what unfolds.

If they are able to get in the opening round tonight Rocky Mount awaits the winner of Southern Nash-Northern-Nash game tonight. The Gryphons would play at 5.00pm Thursday. The big question is if they do get tonight in when will the finals be played? Friday or Saturday? Those questions are up in the air and we will have to wait until we see how Wednesday and Thursday turn out. If tonight gets rained out then there is a big mess and the only way to solve it we be play Thursday-Friday and Saturday

Friday is the State Championships in tennis for the singles and doubles and Nash County is well represented when they get under way in Burlington. The Price sisters(Randi and Kaley) from Nash Central are the top two seeds in the east in singles and they will be joined by Emily Modle of Northern Nash who finished third last week in the regional. The Rocky Mount duo of Lindsey Thomas and Caroline Nelson will be the second seed in the east in the doubles matches.

The Eastern Regional in cross country is Saturday in Greenville. Nash Central is the favorite in the mens division as the #1 seed from the Big East. They will be joined by Rocky Mount who finished second. Fike and Rocky Mount are also running in the girls division after finishing 1-2 in the conference meet.

The top two teams in the regional qualify for the team event at the state championship and then the top individual runners are invited. It is hard to tell who gets invited as individual runners due to the fact the the winning teams may have three runners that would qualify as individual runners but because their team is in they run automatically. Their spots are then filled in by the top runners not on the qualifying team.

Monday is tryout day for winter sports. basketball, wrestling, indoor track. You must have a physical before you can try out for any sport.

Gryphon Legend Needs our Prayers

There are only a few names in Rocky Mount athletic history that if you call their first name out everyone knows who we are talking about. Phil, Danny, Buck or Terrell.

There have been 56 ACC players of the Year and three of them came from Rocky Mount High School. Phil did it twice in 77 and 78 and Danny was player of the year in 1966.

During our prayer request time in my Sunday school class on Sunday Danny Talbott’s name came up. Distressed by the news I called Danny this morning to hear he has the BIG C. He will be going to Chapel Hill next week to get a second opinion on how he needs to proced.

If there was ever a person who kept himself in shape Danny has been a athlete all his life having in the past been a top amateur tennis player in his age group.

Listening to Danny talk he was very optimistic about his recovery but the most important thing I heard is Danny is letting the Lord do his will. It is great to hear how upbeat he was trusting in his savior. Good Luck Danny, We all are praying for you.

NFL injuries may be claiming two of the NFL’s big name quarterbacks. It is for sure that Tony Romo is out at least eight weeks with a broken collarbone. Brett Farve has two bones broken in his ankle but he may play Sunday.

If you remember last season there was a game in which The Minnesota coach Brad Childress wanted to take Farve out of the game and Farve would not come out. There comes a time when there has to be a decision as who is the boss. Farve has two broken bones. He sits as far as I am concern. The heck with any Lou Gerhig record for most starts. Do what is right for the team not for Brett Farve.

By the way seems as if the NFL had a pretty good week despite what some players were saying that they were trying to make the NFL into A Pansy league by not letting the players spear.

I still can’t believe that the NFL says that the ref made the right call in the Pittsburgh-Miami game giving Pittsburgh the ball on the foot line.

The Carolina Hurricanes who have already been playing for a month finally have their home opener Wednesday night at the RBC center. The Hurricanes played two games in Europe as part of the NHL global attraction of foreign players. They then went to the west coast and have played five games back in the good old USofA. The NHL wanted to help avoid the crowding with the state fair’s 11 day run . The 4-3 Hurricanes just might be good this year since they are above five hundred and still haven’t played a home game.

FYI: Everyone knows that Tashawn Mabry has left Rhode Island to play in Junior college in California. There are all kinds of rumors one way or the other as to why he left. I can tell you this of the six incoming freshmen at Rhode Island four have transferred before they ever played a game for the Roadies, so it is just not TaShawn.

By the time I blog again the World Series will be underway. I don’t plan to do my next addition until after the soccer semi’s Wednesday night.

Soccer Washed Out

The opening night of Big East soccer at Northern Nash High school was postponed until Tuesday after the gully washer rains we had Monday afternoon.

Tuesday lineup will feature #4 seed Southern Nash taking on #5 seed Northern Nash and #3 seed Fike meeting Nash Central.

The Southern-Northern winner meets Rocky Mount at 5.00pm Wednesday and The Fike-Nash Central winner plays Hunt at 7.00pm.

The championship match will be Thursday night at 7.00pm. Barring any rains the tournament would finish on time just no down time between the semi-finals and final match.

I don't know about you but about 10.00pm last night we had a window rattling thunderstorm even after the big rains from yesterday afternoon. I'm glad I wasn't on any field while that storm was going on.

Despite all of the no defense that ECU started out with this year they are turning things around and are looking like a good football team. They are headed to the C-USA championship game again this year if they don't stumble over their own feet. There sure is a lot of excitement coming from Greenville with the high power offense.

I know Carolina fans are disappointed after the second half against Miami. Saturday was the first time that not having backup players caught up to the Heels.

Thursdsay night the ACC is prime time on ESPN as Florida State comes to Raleigh to take on the Wolfpack. Thursday night will tell us a lot about who will be one of the teams in Charlotte in the ACC championship game. I have a feeling the Charlotte game will be the best attended Championship game so for for the ACC.

I know the non North Carolina schools want to be able to host championships but North Carolina is slap dab in the middle of the ACC and is not a burden on too many teams to get here. Boston College and Miami are the only two that their fans would have to fly to get here. Everyone can drive to the game. Regardless of who plays I'm guessing 60,000 this year which will more than double any other game in Florida. Atlanta is a good option but the Southeastern Conference has already had their championships there since they started the championship games.

World Series- A Loser Has To Win

Both the Texas Rangers and the San Fransico Giants are in the top ten for franchises that has gone the longest without having won their league's top title. In baseball of course it is the World Series.

The Giants most famous game is the Bobby Thompson home run in 1951 when the "GIANTS WIN THE PENNANT" game occurred. They lost the World Series to the Yankees in four straight. The Giants did win the World series in 1954 and the Willie Mays over the head catch was made in game one. So it has been 56 years since the Giants have won Baseball's Crown Jewel.

Making matters worse for the Giants they moved in 1957 to San Francisco leaving the Polo Grounds which by the way was only five blocks from Yankee Stadium. The hex of the Polo Grounds has carried over in California and the Giants have never won the big series there.

The other side of the field has the Texas Rangers who became the Texas Rangers because the Washington Senators vacated Washington twice in ten years. The World Series less Senators never won the World Series in their franchise history from 1899 until 1960 when they packed up and Moved to Minnesota.

Not wanting Washington without a baseball team the Sentators had another team from 1961-1970 when still a World Series win was still not in Washington. The Texas Rangers were born and the Rangers have never won a World Series in their 39 year history or is it 49 years if you add the Sentators as the same franchise.

Either way a loser is going to become the Boston Red Sox of this decade while the loser will remain on the heels of the Chicago Cubs as the losingest team the longest.

Baseball's Tv ratings have been terrible and now that the team everyone loves to hate the Yankees are done, I suspect this will be the lowest rated world series since color TV came to be.

I will be pulling for Josh Hamilton not only because he's from Raleigh but becasue of his life's story and his freely admitting with out others help he would be a drunk or dope addict. Most people would be in denial and never stand in front of a camera a say "I am a weak person and I need help". That kind of person is hard not to pull for.