Review Of 2016 Jan-June

How easy we forget when important sports events occur that a year has already past in some cases.  Today we will look at what came to pass through the eyes of this blog in 2016.  We will work our way forward starting in January.

January:

Nash Central basketball player Josh Mullin score 39 points in a basketball game which was good enough to earn him Male North Carolina High School Athletic Association Performer of the week.

Northern Nash girls 33 straight Big East Conference win streak comes to a close after  Fike wins 49-45

The Carolina Panthers win the NFC Championship beating Arizona 49-15

February:

Tarboro's Todd Gurley wins the NFC offensive Rookie of the Year award after rushing for 1106 yards  ten touchdowns and a 4.8 per attempt average.

Carolina Panthers lose Super Bowl 24-10 to Denver.

Nash Central's Lady Bulldogs 4x400 Relay team wins the State indoor Championship. Team members were T'Keyah Macklin, Caresha Leonard, Anaiya Harris and Teona Hill.

Southern Nash Boys win Big East basketball tournament after a three way tie for first during regular season with Rocky Mount and Northern Nash.

Rocky Mount's Wilson Smith wins his second straight state championship in wrestling at 126 pounds

March:

Nash Central wins all of the Conference basketball awards.  Josh Mullins Player of the Year boys. Renny Taylor Boys coach of the year.  Robbie Allen girls player of the year and Terri Cash girls coach of the year.

The ACC gets six teams into the NCAA Sweet 16

North Carolina wins the Final Four semi final game over Indiana 101-86

April:

Carolina Stunned with a final shot in NCAA Basketball  Championship game

Three former Gryphon Baseball players head off to minor league baseball.  Brian Goodwin AAA Syracuse NY, Hobbs Johnson AA Buloxi MS, Benton Moss Port Charlotte FL.  Collins Cuthrell headed to Florence Kentucky hoping to find a major league team.

MAY:

Three teams tie for Big East baseball 1st place  Rocky Mount,Hunt and Northern Nash

Forest Bell receives a visit from Tom Suiter and wins the WRAL Extra Effort award

Baseball returns for Post 58 American legion Baseball after one year absence.

UNC Men's and Women's Lacrosse team wins NCAA National Championships

Southern Nash's Jaquay Mitchell the NC High School Athletic Associations state Championship in the Triple Jump

Rocky Mount's Sherrod Green  wins the state championship in the shot put

Nash Central's girls win the 4 x400 relay team won the state championship.  T'Keyah Macklin, Carisha Leonard Kiera Ashby and Myka  Hedgepeth  were the runners

Lander University returns to the NCAA Div II College world series in Cary with two coaches and a player who use to be Gryphons.  "Baseball" Britt Johnson 3rd base coach, Jim Leggett Pitching coach and senior Thomas Berry DH.

Northern Nash's Rebekah Beal finds Tom Suiter back in the area as she wins the Extra Effort Award

June:

Tom Suiter announces his full retirement from WRAL-TV.  The former Rocky Mount resident had spent his entire working career at WRAL after graduation from college.

John Haggerty a college baseball umpire from Nash County earns his way to the college world series as an umpire.   He worked in every other game each day and called behind the plate in the Florida/Texas game.

Tarboro's Todd Gurley was voted on by other NFL players as the 22nd best player for the season ended in 2016. It was announce during NFL Networks Top 100 players of 2015

Brian Goodwin makes the International League All Star team

Tomorrow we will look at July through the end of the year.

Brian Goodwin Keeps Plugging

Last year at this time Brian Goodwin was clinging on life support to any possible further baseball career after more than a year of injuries had drug his career from AAA to AA and just maybe out of baseball.

Healthy Goodwin  traveled to Venezuela to play fall ball.  The key word healthy Goodwin played well enough in South America to be invited to spring training to play on the big club the Washington Nationals.  Hit 250 in the spring and was one of the last sent to AAA Syracuse.  Remember he had finished the 2015 season back in AA so Brian was back on course and had stopped the downward backtrack in the minors.

Off to his best start in his minor league career Brian made the International League all Star team and scored the winning run against the Pacific Coast League.  Finally the call.

Brian spent 15 days with the Big club when an injury made  room.
His first major league hit and limited play and after his cup of coffee back to Syracuse.

Continued good play earned his second call to DC.  The call came before the August 31st deadline for trades which meant when the September roster expansion occurred he  was already on the roster  and just might make the playoffs.

Good play at all three outfield positions made him valuable for playing any where in the outfield. Hitting 286 his last five weeks plus his first 15 days gave him a 286 average for his stay in DC.
Decisions of who needs to be on the roster for the first playoff series found Brian the odd man out.

Trea  Turner is moving to short stop. Nationals have been wheeling and dealing and Brian is sent to Mexico for Winter ball and one more time to double check his play.

Today ends winter ball and Brian has played better than all of last season hitting 320.  His strikeout ratio is 1 in 5 which is his best ever in pro ball.  Life is good for Brian Goodwin and when he heads to spring training this year he expects to come out of spring training no worse than a member of the Washington Nationals.

High school basketball Thursday
Northern Nash 67 Eastern Wayne 52 Knights 12-2
Rocky Mount 75 West Johnston 55 Gryphons outscore WJ 28-4 in 2nd quarter
Wake Forest 51 Southern Nash 42
Fuquay Varina 51 Nash Central 48
Girls action
Nash Central 51  Clayton 46

No Thursday Night NFL

Twelve teams will play more football in the NFL next week while 20 this is it for this season and this week always brings on a quandary.  Those team that know they are in are they going to play their main players while those already out of the playoffs are they  mentally already in the off season?  Last week 8-8 which brings my total for the year to 163-80. 

Ravens @ Bengals:  Baltimore is better   26-17

Texans at Titans;  Losing your quarterback to a broken anything is bad.  Texans win in Nashville 26-13

Panthers and Tampa:  Might as well finish up a disappointing season with another one in Tampa 30-16 Bucs

Browns at Steelers:  You won one don't expect two and if most of the main Steelers sit.  27-10 Steelers.

Cowboys At Eagles:  Just might be a good time to let Romo play a half and get hurt again.  Eagles 27 Boys are resting 24

Bills at Jets:  Both teams backed it in.  Jets 22 Bills 17

Bears at Vikings:  Might be last game for Fox in Chicago.  Vikes 27 Bears 24

Jags at Colts:  Colts finish with a win 33 23

Pats Dolphins:  Just like the Pats to not play any players  Fish 26 Pats 23

Chiefs at Chargers:  Chargers lost a couple of more player to IR last week.  I'm waiting for a call.  Chiefs 26 Chargers 20

Cardinals at Rams:  rams waiting for next year.  Cards 26 Rams 17

Raiders at Bronco's:  This will be interesting to see how Raiders offense works against top defense with new quarterback.  Bronco's 20 Raiders 16

Giants at Redskins:  Redskins spoil Eli's day 26-21

Seahawks at 49'ers:  Look out 9'ers on a one game winning streak.  Oh, it was just the Rams Hawks 26 SF 20

Saints @ Falcons:  Do I play or sit my stars.  Falcons 30 Saints 24

Packers @ Lions:  I think heart is now out of Lions  Packers 26-24

Wednesday high school basketball action Rocky Mount fell behind by eight in the first quarter in the Cleveland high tournament but won all three of the remaining quarters to win their second game of the year 70-63 over Fuquay Varina.  The Gryphons  jump to 2-3

Northern Nash had a much better second night in Bunn scalding Durham School of the Arts 84-49.  The Knights are now 11-2.

The Lady Gryphons  have not been effected by the football playoffs played most of their games unlike the boy.  More defense last night led the Gryphons to victory number 7 in eight games as they take down Fuquay Varina 50-31.

Southern Nash takes on 4A Wakefield in Bunn and puts up a good fight before losing 66-58

Can You Believe That

The D3 All American football teams are being announced and so far not one has the name of North Carolina Wesleyan wide receiver Malik Adams from Selma.  He has been named to the All South Region team.  If nothing else this seems to me to be a slap in the face of USA South Athletic Conference who does not get one player on 1st, 2nd or honorable mention All American.

All South is swell for Adams to receive but when he graduates he will be the all time touchdown catching receiving in the history of the USA South with 47 touchdowns.  Just this year alone he caught 53 balls in nine games for 881 yards which works out to 16.6 yards on every catch.  11 went for touchdowns. 

There have been some NFL scouts on campus sniffy around check Malik out for a possible future in the NFL.  They must know something that the All American committee doesn't know.

Both Rocky Mount Prep basketball teams played in Ahoskie against Elizabeth City Northeastern Monday night in the Herald Christmas Tournament.  The Jag boys lost for the first time this year losing to the Eagles 82-44 while the girls were beaten 58-11

Rocky Mount boys met 4A Sanderson High of Raleigh in the Cleveland High Christmas Tournament and trailed by 10 at the half and by 20 at the end of the third?  A small rally cut the final score to 68-54.

Northern Nash found the step up in the tournament play against Wake Forest to be the same as the Gryphons found the result as they were outscored by 14 in the second quarter and the result a 75-60 loss?

The Bulldogs of Nash Central tried their own luck with a 4A Raleigh school as they played tough but came up short against Athens Drive losing 68-62.

The only winner in boys action Tuesday was Southern Nash as they knocked off Bunn Wildcats 68-51

Rocky Mount used the Pam Gainey defense to hold Kinston to single digits in all but the 4th quarter and then gave up only 11 while the Rocky Mount girls produce 42 themselves and win 42-28 over Kinston.

• The ACC is 3-0 in Bowl games as the Demon Deacons of Wake Forest win the Military Bowl 34-26 over Temple.

Pack Avoids Losing Season

I hope you know that as bad as I hate the five game playoffs in the high school  football playoffs there is  no reason for any college football team to  get to a bowl game when they have lost as many as they have won.  So for any team that thinks winning five and losing seven  deserves more than spring practice is right after Christmas is all you should get.

One of the biggest issues for any team playing in a no name bowl game getting their players motivated whenever the stadium is more than half empty.  If you are playing for  the national championship
You should have no trouble motivating people in practice.

If there was more than 2O,000 in the stadium they didn't pay to get in.  The Wolfpack avoided a sluggish first quarter to send Vanderbilt to a losing season 41-17.  The ACC won twice yesterday with BC dumping Maryland 36-30.

The Demon Deacons of Wake Forest are next up for the ACC playing at 3:30 this afternoon in another no name bowl.

Just before Christmas First Flight High School set a North Carolina high school record making 28 three-point baskets in a high school basketball game.  Oddly enough the basketball team from Dare County lost to Bertie 120-107.

Now girls basketball:

Another state record fell last week when Clinton's Mikayla Boykin scored 62 points in a girls basketball game breaking the record by one.

The Rocky Mount Lady Gryphons  will join their boy mates from school in The Cleveland High Tournament as they will take the court today as they will play Kinston.

Southern Nash 2-6 has a non conference game during the first week of January against Smithfield Selma before they begin their own conference schedule against Rocky Mount at Rocky Mount.

Both Northern Nash 5-5 and Nash Central 3-4 are off until conference play begins in January.

Post Christmas Basketball Tournaments

If you have plans on watching any of the  public high school boys basketball action this week you will travel in order to see any as all your public high schools are in tournaments some where else instead of Nash County.  Both tournaments begin on Tuesday

Northern Nash 10-1 will take part in the Bunn Tournament where their opening game will be a step up to 4A when they will take on the team who won the 4A football championship Wake Forest 5-6. Already having played 11 basketball games you can see the difference when you have 2000 students compared to 1200.  Plenty of players to play both sports at the same time.

Southern Nash 4-5 will also be in Bunn where they will also be in the Bunn Tournament  and they will get to play the home team opening night in the Wildcats?  So far this season the Bunn Wildcats are not quite as good as their football team as they stand at 1-7.

Nash Central will head west as they will be heading to Clayton to take part in the Cleveland High Tournament.  The Bulldogs 7-1 will step up in class facing Athens Drive of Raleigh?  Athens is 6-3 so far this year?

The Rocky Mount Gryphons 1-2 will also be trying to uphold the Big East in the Cleveland tournament.  They will meet Sanderson in their first game 4-6.  Rocky Mount having  played only three  games so far because of the extended football playoffs can expect several weeks of three games a week to catch up on games.

Rocky Mount Prep off to a 7-0 start will be heading to Ahoskie and Hertford County High school to take  part in the News Herald Holiday Tournament and they will step up taking on 2A Elizabeth City Northeastern 4-0 which if records are any indication this should be a real test for the Jags.

Both Faith Christian 8-5 and Rocky Mount Academy 2-4 are off until the first of the year when RMA resumes play on January 3rd at Grace Christian in Raleigh and Faith waits until the 5th when they travel to Bethel Christian.

Merry Christmas 2016

Today Christians celebrate the day recognized as the birthday of Jesus Christ.  Regardless of your thinking of religion I will celebrate today in the belief that Jesus was born of a virgin mother Mary.  He died on the cross to forgive all people of their sins and he came back from the grave before he ascended into heaven where one day he will return. 

Jesus died for all our sins but in order for us to be accepted into heaven we need to be the very best people we can be in life.  No one is perfect and we are all sinners.  What makes a Christian different from those who don't believe is when they sin they don't ask for forgiveness because by being a non- believer they don't even know they sinned.

Please have a happy and joyous day to rest, open gifts, celebrate with family and give thanks to your lord.  He died for me and you and he is waiting in heaven for those who believe.  If you have no idea what I am talking about find a person who can tell you the story of the Bible.  There is not one passage in the  Bible  that has ever been proven  wrong. 

Don't miss out on the chance to live  eternal life in a place called Heaven. One day we  will all be gone from this earth.  Where will you be?  Instead of broadcasting sports I be blogging what a great place heaven is.  I hope you are there to read it.

Merry Christmas