Some Pride Restored

So far this high school football season I am perfect for the second week in a row.  The good news is I got them all right this week not all wrong.  All four Nash County high schools were winners and everyone is happy.

The Raymond Cobb Bowl went just as expected as SouthWest Edgecombe continues to be undefeated while playing North Edgecombe with Cobb as the Cougars coach.  Cobb who didn't lose many at home while at North Edgecombe and he didn't lose last night 30-14 over the Warriors.

Tarboro  gets their second win of the season over a 3-A school as the Pam Pack of Washington fall to the Vikings 34-21.  The last four years the Vikings have played for the State title winning the last three.  There is no reason from the first two games to make anyone think that Tarboro could still be playing football in December.

Southern Nash goes to 2-0 as they hand Beddingfield their first lost  with a 40-13 win over the Bruins.  remember  this was one of those games to compare scores since Northern Nash lost in a close tilt last week to Beddingfield 27-20.

Nash Central rebounded nicely  after giving up 42 to Tarboro to hold SSS to three points.  Not quite a shutout but holding them to no touchdowns will do.

Last week Rocky Mount gave up field position every time they kicked the ball.  Bertie takes one to the house so the Gryphons still have plenty to work on.  Good news for them they have scored over sixty in two games and no touchdowns given up by defense last night.  Jason Battle notches career victory number one.  Another compare score game was Bunn at Fike and Fike whips Bunn 20-13.  Conference foe Fike wins a close one at home over Bunn while Rocky Mount lost a relative close one to Bunn at home.

There is plenty of good news for Northern Nash.  The last few years they have struggled to score points but the first two games they have put up 20 and 35.  The 35 got them their first win of the season over Southern Wayne 35-22.

The old Geezer can still coach can't he.  Rocky Mount Academy lost 28-27  to Cary Christian as B W Holt has made the RMA a competitive team in less than a month's practice.

Rocky Mount Volleyball last 3-0 to D H Conley  Friday. We have been doing a lot of score comparing tonight and in the two matches Northern play against  the Conley Vikings Northern won two games and one game.

Friday night and all day today was spent watching volleyball at ECU.  Campbell beat ECU Friday night in five sets with a 17-15 win in the final set.  They lost to UNC Charlotte 0-3 this morning and beat Bethune Cookman 3-0 early this evening

I'll Try To Do Better This Week

Here it is the second week of the high school football season and I will try harder this week to get a prediction right. 0-6 is not exactly the way you hold on to your job of master high school predictor so let's try to turn it around.

Washington At Tarboro:  Ok Viking fans Tarboro proved to me last week ripping a part a really good Nash Central defense that the Vikings will not give up a chance to win four state titles in a row with out giving it their very best old school try,  This is a good Pam Pack team but this game is in Tarboro.  35-20 Vikes.

Time to start comparing scores.  Last Week Northern lost to Beddingfield, this week it is Southern Nash's  turn to try out the Bruins for size.  This one is also in Wilson County but a different winner this week.  S Nash 28- Beddingfield 20.

Southern Wayne 0-1 travel to Northern.  Here is Northern's shot at victory #1 on this season. Rumblings of discontent in Red Oak.  The best way to stop that is win a game.  If they don't the rumbles could get louder.  The Knights settle down 20-13 over The Saints.

Nash Central has a shot to get on the winning ways in 2012 as they travel to Smithfield Selma.  The Bulldogs need to chew on a bone  and this will be a  nice juicy one.  Nash Central 35- SSS13.

Last week Bertie beat Gates County while Rocky Mount played well but lost to Bunn.  The Falcons come west this year and Rocky Mount will find  the win column as the beat Bertie 34 -14..  If you are in to score comparing Bunn this week travels to Fike.  Gryphon fans will have a good chance to see whether the lost to Bunn was good or bad after this game.

The final game this week has SouthWest Edgecombe going to North Edgecombe.  Raymond Cobb returns to the field where he produced two state champions.  It will be the final game against his old team.  No way he loses the last one in Leggett.  SWE 34 NE 18.

I will not be on a football field Friday night but will be attending my first college volleyball game ever as the FIGHTING CAMELS OF CAMPBELL travel to ECU.  GO CAMPBELL!!!!!

There Is Something Wrong With The Schedule

I must be old fashion but we are on the verge of the second week of high school football.  Soccer, Tennis, Volleyball and Cross Country have all had two or more matches and yet school has not started for the year.  To me there is something morally wrong with that idea.

Back when Morgan attended Winstead Ave Elementary they were on the year round schedule.  Like every thing that works with the government it is very hard to do anything halfway.  If you have a child in year round and another child in regular your life is pure torture.  In order to get the entire system in  year round you would need to put all schools year round not just a few. My point being year round would solve athletic scheduling problems especially basketball having to wait for football playoffs top end.  I loved the year round schedule.  Of course we only had one child in it not three or four.  Most folks who have several children in both hated year round and I can see why, if you have one in each.

Wednesday there was an eight team cross country event held and Southern Nash, Northern Nash and Rocky Mount finished 1-2-3.

N C State basketball has offered a basketball scholarship to a player that will not graduate high school until 2015.  Good Lord, pretty soon before a kid can decide what elementary school he should attend he's going to have to declare for college.  By the way this kid is almost seven feet tall and right now is a five star prospect.  You got to do what you got to do to land a good player.  Has any body besides N C State fans noticed but now every basketball recruit in the country when he list his choices includes the Wolfpack.  Mark Godfried  has only been there one year and he has already put to rest State can't recruit with Duke and Carolina.

Northern Nash Volleyball swept South West Edgecombe 3-zip this week and Beddingfield 3-1.  They lost to Conley 3-1.  Once again they were very competitive with Conley.

Former Nash Central baseball player Alex Pearce  who was the UNC Pembroke pitcher of the year is spring is student teaching this fall in Lumberton.  He will return to Pembroke where he will enter graduate school in January and be a Grad assistant on the baseball team in 2013.  Nice going Alex.

The Next Step

Every step in life always has a question mark of am I capable of doing this.  JV players always wonder will I do as well on varsity as I have on JV's.  Those that go on to college wonder will I be able to handle college life when I am pretty much on my own to make my own schedule when I am not in class.

Tarboro high school football has two names that stand out.  Kelvin Bryant was outstanding for the Vikings went on to Carolina where he was a top runner during the Dick Crum era.  You may forget that he signed with the USFL or World football League or what ever it was called before he joined the Washington Redskins.

  The other name that come to mind when you talk Tarboro football is Todd Gurley.  He lead the Vikes to three state Championships and stunned the entire town of Tarboro when he chose Georgia to go play college football.  All of the preseason hype coming out of Athens is that Todd Gurley just may be in the starting backfield when the Bulldogs open the season.  Sounds like Todd has made a nice adjustment in his next step in life.

The Seattle Seahawks announced Tuesday that Russell Wilson will get the start in the Hawks third preseason game coming up this weekend.  I can tell you this that a rookie does not start game three of the preseason unless they were planning on starting him opening day.  The former Wolfpack Quarterback seems to doing nicely taking that next step.

A judge in Raleigh has ruled that Butch Davis must allow his personal cell phone record to be looked over to see if he is part over the coverup going on in Chapel Hill in the wake of the academic problems going on at THE Flagship of the UNC System.  I think we will know where this Carolina deal will go soon as all his calls are looked over.

Other players are bailing out on Upper Room now that the school is being screen to see if they are giving their athletes the proper courses in order to play Division 1 sports.  I think it is smart on their part to look out for themselves  and not wind up not knowing whether they will be eligible to play big time college ball.  The NCAA has cleared Rodney Purvis to go to school and attend classes but have not ruled whether is can play basketball.  That's like inviting someone to go to the beach with you for the weekend but we may not let you get out of the car when we get there.

Fun Race

This past Friday night while High school football played in front a crowds of people, cross country teams from around the area met at Gillette Field in Wilson and Fike hosted the event and 15 teams from around the state including Northern, Nash Central and Rocky Mount took part.

Five runners from each team ran 2,500 meters or about 1.6 mile per runner each and it was run in relay style so only 15 runners were  running at any one time.  Rocky Mount finished 6th overall after posting a 45:15 time.  I guess this has happened before but I like the idea of a relay.  It truly make cross country a team sport.

The big question is how do to set up your runners?  Dee Davis ran her #1 runner in the first leg and Mason Holt had the gryphons in the lead when he handed off the second leg.  Do you save the best for last or what.  All together all five runners from each team ran about 8 miles and I like this idea.

There were several races including girls and other races.  The A and B field in which the three boys teams from Nash county ran in didn't even start until 9.30 Friday night and they had started all  the races at 6.00pm.  Interesting.

Northern Nash's Volleyball team will be trying to repeat as regular season Big East champs again this year. Last week they beat Bunn in five sets and on Friday turned around and took Conley to five sets.  The Bunn five set match was not a good outing for the Lady Knights as Bunn is normally not that strong in VB.  How ever the five set match with Conley shows you what the Lady Knights are capable of this year.  There are not many teams in the Big East that can win a set against Conley and the Lady Knights took them to the wire.  Tells me when Northern shows up ready to play they will be good again this year.

Rocky Mount will get their shot at Conley Friday as they travel to Greenville.  This will be a good compare match with how Northern went five sets can the Lady Gryphon's get it into five sets?  Will not be going to a football game Friday as Campbell VB team opens it's season Friday night at 7pm at ECU.  The Doughtie's will be there.

You know it is funny how we feel about people until you get to know them.  Morgan has met the Conley Libero who is also a freshman at Campbell and they have become buddies.  We feel the way we do about people until we meet them  and then we find out they are not what we thought they were.  In most of our lives that is true in most cases until we actually know someone.

Cousin Lauren did not make the cut in last weekends Futures Tour Event and she has fallen to 17th in the money list.  They are down to four tournaments to go  and she needs another top five finished to get back into the top ten.

Alter The Course

I admire the decision that the Washington Nationals have made concerning only letting Steven Strasburg to pitch 180-200 innings this year and when that comes they are going to shut his pitching down for the year in order not to wear his arm out.  A former number one draft pick who has already had reconstruction surgery on his arm the Nationals  are taking it easy with Strasburg.

The problem for them is they are in the playoff picture and can very easily win the National League East and be in the playoffs and at the rate Strasburg is pitching now they will shut him down before then.  My question is knowing they were going to limit his innings why they don't just pitch him one time a week  There are 26 weeks in a major league regular season at if he pitches six innings every week for 26 weeks that adds up 156 and he would still have enough for the playoffs.   Every plan has to have a plan B an I think the Nationals should be working on B right Now.

The dilemma facing N C State incoming freshmen Rodney Purvis is not as uncommon as we seem to think.  Purvis one of State basketball's top five in the nation  incoming freshmen basketball class is being held out of school by the Wolfpack over the NCAA's checking of Purvis's high school records to make sure his private high school was teaching him core courses that would make him eligible to be in college.  This is a private school issue and I know of a couple of kids right here in Rocky Mount who graduated high school from a private school here that could not get accepted to go to college at certain schools because their high school did not teach the core classes that most colleges require.  I'll be shocked if he plays for the Pack.

I have to admit that my picks last week in high school football was about as rotten as you can ever get.  I was 0 for the night.  There is good news however.  It can't get any worse.

It is funny sometimes how we are all enemy's when we go to a ball game but when the game is over most of our kids hang out with each other or are at least friends.  Last week ECU women's soccer played a match at Campbell and Morgan saw and talked with Ally Glover former Knight of Northern Nash.  Ally is the starting goalie for the Pirates.

Not A Bad Beginning

Bunn came into last night's game with Rocky Mount highly rated and there are times you can just look at players the way they wear their uniform and tell they are football players.  Bunn had that look last night.  You could tell they have been in the weight room and the entire team just had that look. The Gryphons have a few players that look the part but in general not the entire team.  With that being said take the kicker for Bunn out of the game and the Gryphons just might have won that game so there is plenty to feel good about this morning.

 The line is undersized  so this team will have fourth quarter worries as they get beat down during games.   J T Smith did a good job at quarterback as he was the best quarterback on the field.  If Mason Hines stays healthy the Gryphons will have a good running game.  This week they will surely pay more attention to kick coverage.  First time out for new coach Jason Battle his team gave effort until the end which is a drastic difference from last season.

One worry that I had at any new school with the way the parking surrounds the school is getting out when the game is over.  There were no issues as before the game you could not get into the school from the 301 entrance but when the game was over you could leave that way.  That really help traffic flow. 

Girls tennis is off to an impressive start as they went 2-0 on the week including beating highly  rated C B Aycock 6-3 on Thursday in their home opener.  I understand that three of the top six for the Lady Gryphons are freshmen and if that is true the future is brite for tennis.

Volleyball went 1-1 for  the week and as always the starting team doesn't have any height at all.  They will always struggle against anyone who can put up a wall at the net.  The good news how ever is they are quick but volleyball is won by the team that slapdown on the ball at the net not up and over.

Gryphon cross country will be good  as the guys are probably the favorites.  Hope you had a to chance to get to go to the open house last night and I know many stayed for the game.  The band has grown as there was almost 60players as well as flag corp on the field as even the band got off to a good start.