Wrestlers Start Practice for Another Season

The Gryphon Wrestling Team started practice this week in preparation for it's upcoming season. Coach Jermaine Jones brings his team into the wrestling room for practice after he finishes up his coaching duties for the Gryphon Football Team. As Coach Jones begins his fourth year as the Head Coach, he will continue to work on building a formidable program.

Two years ago, in Jones' second year as head coach, the Gryphs narrowly lost out on a Regular Season Conference Championship when they tied Southern Nash on the mat in a conference duel, falling only to criteria. That season saw his grapplers qualify for the State Team Tournament; the first time since. . .well, since anyone could remember.

Last year, he guided the team to a Conference Co-Championship with Nash Central, as the rivals split their two conference duals. The Gryphs wrestled away bragging rights from the Bulldogs, however, by winning the Conference Tournament. (And proud to be one of a record 10 Conference Crowns by Gryphon sports teams in '07 - '08).

Excitement is growing within the program for the 2008 - 2009 campaign. The team lost only two wrestlers from last year's championship squad. This year's hopefuls are led by Senior, Three-time Conference Champion and Two-time State Qualifier Francisco Alfaro; Senior and defending Conference Champion at 171 pounds and the team's other State Qualifier Dedrick Silver; Two-Time Conference Champion, Junior Chandler Phillips and 112 pound Conference Champion Ahmir Scott. A strong returning contingent includes Seniors Guy Williamson, Darryl Cross, Ralph Bennet and Grant Wilson. Junior returners include Johnny Stewart, Justin Atkinson and Anthony Miller. Sophomore Robert Barnes rounds out the returning veterans. There are several new faces and Freshman ready to compete for mat time, also.

The Gryphons open the season at home against a perennially strong Greenville Rose team at 7:00 PM on Wednesday November 12. Rocky Mount will also host the first Conference Dual Tournament on Saturday, December 13.

The Gryphs will battle each of the other five NEW 6 Conference foes starting at 10:00 AM.

Mark your calendars and come out to support another Great Gryphon Wrestling Season.

Rain Rain Go Away!!!

This entry is all about rain. Rain, and cold. And their effects on sports lately.

Rain has been in the sports news the last few days, both local and national. First, Rocky Mount and Southern Nash played their high school football game in a steady rain on Friday night, the only two area schools to play Friday. The Gryphons were fresh off playing on Monday night against SouthWest after being postponed the Friday before.

All other teams postponed until Monday night, and they waited all weekend and finally took the field on Monday night to a steady rain and cold weather. Lose lose situation - postponing because of rain only to play in the rain.

Now to baseball, where the Tampa Bay Rays, my pick to win the World Series in 6 games, are battling the Philadelphia Phillies. Going into Game 5, the Rays were down in the serie 3-1, so my pick can only slightly be right.

But on to the topic of Game 5, which is another issue within itself.

First off, the Phils had Cole Hamels starting, who had yet to lose this postseason. And it appears he won't lose Game 5 either, though it appears that he won't be getting the win unless the Phillies score in the bottom of the sixth whenever the teams make it back on the field. That is, if they can still find the field.

Much of game 5 was played in a downpour, and frankly shouldn't have been played at all. I have to question that if this was a regular season game, would the game have been played? Probably not.

Listening to ESPN all day, I've heard a few people say that the game was started for a few reasons.

1- Television. National audience, prime time. Enough said, but Major League Baseball wanted to place its product out there for everyone to see.

2 - The season as a whole is drawn out too long. It will surely be the weekend before the Series is over and that means November. News flash - - - it's cold in the Northeast in November. October is cold enough.

--- Can I just throw in the hats that the teams are wearing with the built in ear flaps are genius. Too bad that they're no where to be found on the online stores....Someone should have come up with those years ago!

Once the game was started, it should have been stopped way way before it was. A crucial game in a cold downpour is not the way a Word Champion should be decided. Analysts on ESPN also hinted that Bud Selig was waiting for the Rays to score and tie or take the lead so he could suspend a tied game. By rule, any game in which 5 or more innings are completed is considered an official game. With the game tied, Selig avoiding awarding the Phillies the World Championship without technically winning the fifth and deciding game.

Honestly, I think Selig made the best decision he could. He played the card he was dealt. Mother Nature cannot be stopped, only worked (or played) around.

Catching up...

Have you ever realized how nice it is to have a weekend with nothing to do?

This was a great weekend full of nothing for me, as I was able to sit back and watch football and the World Series on Saturday and Sunday.

Friday was an early morning, leaving the house and Rocky Mount around 6:30 am to make the drive down I-95 and my 9 am class. I will admit that I wouldn't trade the opportunity to meet Trot Nixon. Friday after class I regestered for classes this spring and that was promptly followed by a rather long nap.

Friday night was a volleyball game, which was a loss for the ladies of UNC-P, but a win for me as I won a UNC-P athletics shirt during the intermission serve-off - basically a bunch of college kids going to try and serve a volleyball across court and hit one of three t-shirts laid out on the oppostide side of the court.

After the game, I was able to take in Boise St. at San Diego St. and I like the Broncos of Boise State to make another BCS game appearance.

Saturday was filled with....football. Nothing else. All day. Glad to see that Carolina won, among other games.Michigan is ridiculously horrable, and Ohio State and Penn State was the game of the week, as stated, and was a good one to watch, and a good one to end the night on.

Congrats to Terrell Hudgins, who now holds every recieving record at Elon. And he's done all this in two and a half years. Not bad for a guy who was a quarterback for the Gryphons and transferred from ECU so he could be on the offensive side of the ball. Good job to both him and Stephan Virgil, who's shining in his first season as a starter on defense at Virginia Tech.

On to Sunday, where it seems like the Panthers have had to come from behind every game that they've won. Have they actually been ahead and controled a game at any point this season? The Saints beat the Chargers in a game played in London, which is a total bad idea - all the way around. Sending a team across an ocean to be exposed to a media frenzy and fans all week, while throwing off player's preperation habits and keeping them away from their families is not a step in the right direction.

The NFL said they would like to play more games in Europe in the future and possibly have a franchise located there someday. Can you picture a team having to travel across the ocean every week to come to the US and actually having success?

I'm sure that there are many cities across the country that would gladly accept an NFL team right now if given the chance. An football was played in Europe before - it was called NFL Europe, which was abruptly shut down. It was the league's only sort of minor league, a way for teams to help younger players develope and help them out in the future. And the fans weren't complaining. Every game I ever saw on tv was in front of filled stadiums cheering on their teams. Only a few years later, now we want to place a team overseas? Sure, great idea.

SEAM Night of Champions

Last night I was able to meet and talk to Trot Nixon at the SEAM Night of Champions dinner. Nixon as well as others were guest speakers at the event. Before the night started there was a silent auction to help benifit SEAM, as well as a autograph/book signing session with Trot and his wife. His wife helped co-write a children's book, The Spirit of Baseball, and both were extremely nice people.




To start, I was slightly nervous meeting a major leaguer and a former member of the Red Sox, who was sporting his '04 World Series ring on his hand. I think I was trying to say something to the degree of 'nice to meet you', but what came out was 'man, that ring's huge.' As I stood realizing what I said and feeling like an idiot, Trot smiled and said 'yeah, it's pretty big' as he was taking it off. 'Wanna hold it?' Huh? You're gonna let me hold a world championship ring?

As many of you have seen, the Rocky Mount Baseball team's State Championship rings are rather large, but I felt like mine was nothing comparing it to Trot's, which was easily double the size.


To throw in, I walked away from the silent auction with two Jerry Narron signed player cards, and a Narron manager picture for $15. Not bad. Throw in the 3 baseballs and 3 cards signed by Trot, and that's a pretty good night.

Too competitive...

Maybe it's because I've played sports so long. Or because I think the game is about more than just having fun. But above all, it's probably because I hate losing. Hate it.

With that being said, maybe next fall I shouldn't play intermural flag football. Writing this, I have just come in from experiencing a pounding defeat in the first round of the playoffs. This shouldn't have been too suprising, considering the team only won one regular season game, by forfeit never the less, but I hated that I had to stand there while another team was celebrating and pulling trick plays and trying to run up the score...give me credit, I'm sitting here with two scrapped up knees after diving after a guy trying to juck past me into the endzone after picking me off. (I shouldn't have thrown an INT, but that's what happens when you're playing against teams full of former high school players who have enough guys to play offensive and defensive players and still have subs, while my team's out there with the required 7 - including a girl. Don't count out the girl, she hauled in two of my rare completions, and she's a member of the volleyball team here at UNC-P.

Speaking of volleyball, our team has begun practicing for the winter intermural indoor season, and we do have girls that played in high school, so we may have a chance.

Staying with volleyball, I read that the Gryphon girls lost in the second round of the playoffs, ending the season and Coach Debbie Webb's career. She was a great person and I'm sure a great coach, and she will be greatly missed next season. Best of luck to her!

In other Rocky Mount news, the way I read it, I missed the game of the year on Monday in Pinetops, as SouthWest held the Gryphons offense to a 7-0 game, Give credit to the D-Block, keeping a shutout despite four tournovers.

----

The World Series starts tonight and I'm picking the Tampa Bay Rays in 6.

They beat the Sox, and I like their young team.

Dickie-V likes 'em, so I will too.

A Nation in mourning....

The Boston Red Sox had come back from behind in postseason series' before, which is why I think everyone felt they could do it again....and they had Jon Lester on the mound. Lester had not lost back to back starts all year...until tonight.

The Sox just could not come through with the big hits in their chances tonight. And they had chances. Even though David Ortiz did not have a good series, you still had to like his chances with the bases loaded, but he couldn't deliver. Other big bats had chances in good situations, but could not pull it out. The 3-4-5 hitters in the middle of the line-up had no hits on the night, and the entire team was a combined 2-28 after Dustin Pedroia's 1st inning HR.

Hats off to the Rays. No one thought they had a chance at the beginning of the year. They didn't give them a chance even after their start, not a shot at the start of the playoffs, and definately not against the defending champs. But after watching them in this series, I have turned into a believer in the Rays, and I am leaning on them in the World Series vs. Philidelphia.

--

In other news, I just finished putting together my four-year plan. FOUR YEARS. Four years, as in I just figuratively planned out every class for the remainder of my college life. Although it seems as if it will be helpful in later years to just look at a checklist while registering each semester. But at the same time it felt weird to be placing classes in a column titled Fall and Spring 2010, 2011, and 2012.

I guess since its after midnight, the Gryphons and the Cougars will line up and go at it Monday Night Football style as they play for what looks like it's gonna be a NEW 6 Conference Championship...it appears that there will be a pretty good game going on in Pinetops kicking off around 7 p.m.

Sox still alive...

Maybe the Boston Red Sox should just spot the opposing team a few games next time they make it to the ALCS. Seems like they like to play from behind, and don't get serious until their backs are against the wall.

With that said, the Sox were able to stay alive last night, thanks to a few key players.

First, Josh Beckett has not been the pitcher he was last season, and might still have something wrong with him, but he turned in a solid effort that allowed the Sox to move on without having to go deep into the bullpen.

Also, Jason Veritek got his first hit in a LONG time, but what a way to snap out of it, a home run to help silence the Rays fans at the Trop. Plus, David Ortiz hit the ball hard agian after breaking out of his slump with the big home run in Game 5.

So the fate of Boston and Red Sox Nation rests on the shoulder and arm of Jon Lester. Lester has turned into the Sox ace this summer and has been the guy they've turned to in big-time games. This is the same guy that survived cancer and came back last year to pitch in a crucial game in last year's ALCS as the Sox came back from down 3-1 against the Indians. Lester went on to start the World Series clincher against the Rockies and then throw a no-hitter against the Royals this summer.

He's got another big game in his hands now.

Holt's Prediction Comes True....

Sitting here today, a freshman in college and away from home for the first extended period of time, I look around and see many reminders of home and Rocky Mount High School. A baseball hat, a Gryphons mini football and basketball (thanks to cheerleading coach Lou Buck), and walls adorned with newspaper clippings of the Gryphons baseball team’s state championship run. As one of the team’s biggest fans, Wes Bradshaw, says, we were the Boys of Spring, capping off a season like no other, and for us five seniors, going out on top to finish our high school careers.

But this story is not as much about the baseball team winning or the great stories that everyone has from those few weeks, it’s about Rocky Mount head football coach B.W Holt. As my eyes wander to the framed picture of the exuberant dog pile in Five County Stadium’s infield, I hear Coach Holt’s voice saying ‘I told you so.’

You see, this story goes way back. Back beyond the beginnings of this past year’s graduating class’ high school endeavors. This story has its roots in the Edwards Middle School gym.

The year was 2004, and Rocky Mount football had just experienced its first year under Coach Holt. I remember that spring there was a meeting for anyone who had thoughts about playing any sport at Rocky Mount. I vaguely remember Coach Donald Thomas talking about reminders about physicals and the sort, but remembered this man standing off to the side.

As a naïve middle school student, I didn’t attend any of the Gryphons football games the previous fall in Coach Holt’s first campaign. But it soon became apparent what Coach Holt’s visions were for athletics at Rocky Mount High School.

Only a few words into his talk, mainly introducing himself and a word or two about football tryouts, when he came out and said “By the time your class graduates, you will have won a State Championship in some sport, I don’t know which one, but we will have won one somewhere.”

I’m pretty sure we all thought Coach Holt’s words were crazy, words trying to get us excited about high school and high school athletics. Who was this man to say what would happen in the future?

We were quickly turned into believers as we saw Holt’s football teams quickly began to turn into state contenders, and now have become powerhouses.

In 2007, the Gryphons’ Chalonda Silver brought home an individual championship in indoor track. But it was not the fruits of our class’ efforts.

As the weeks wound down towards graduation, it appeared Coach Holt’s words would not be fulfilled. Then a magical run began, both literally and figuratively.

First, Jacobi Jenkins outran the competition in the Eastern Finals to earn a spot in the state Championships. There, he captured the Championship in the 110 meter hurdles and brought the Class of 2008 its first champion. But again, the championship was an individual one.

At the same time the Gryphons’ baseball team was beginning its run through the playoffs. I remember Bradshaw announcing Jacobi’s results and the applause he received. Inside, I believed that he helped push the baseball team that much harder, because we wanted to have that same feeling.

After a run through the playoffs, and a hard-fought Championship Series, the Gryphons baseball team was finally able to celebrate.

Now there was no question – Holt’s promise was complete, both individually and as a team. He was in the stands in Zebulon, along with many of Rocky Mount’s other athletes.

Seeing the celebration, will it now push those athletes in the other sports to want it that much more? What will Coach Holt’s next speech be, now that the Gryphons are serious contenders?

As I look at the celebratory pictures again, and the ring that represents all of the hard work that was put into it, I remember taking time out of that late afternoon in May from celebrating to think back to those words so many years ago.

Call me crazy, or random, or whatever, but along with the memories and feelings from those magical weeks, I will forever remember Coach Holt’s words. Thanks Coach, for instilling the dream and pushing us along the way, even if you didn’t always realize it.

Game Changed...

Just read off Tony's Doughtie's blog that the Rocky Mount-Southwest Edgecombe marquee matchup has already been postponed til Monday night....as I am writing, I just recieved a text-message confirming the decision.

But as I look at the radar, which shows the rain is definately coming, the big rain is not here yet. Even if it does rain during the game, what's wrong with a little water on the ball, and mud on the jerseys?

I'll tell you - money. Now I don't know everything about that sort of thing, but a good indicator of a big game is when tickets are sold starting earlier in the week. This game is being said to have somewhere around 3,000 people or more. And I don't doubt that estimate at all, but if tonight's game was played in the rain tonight, how many of those same fans would be there? Just look at last week's Rocky Mount-Northern Nash game. A short, light rain about an hour before gametime and the crowd was less than expected. Even though the rivalry has lost a little bit of its hype over the last few years, I still believe that the crowd would have been larger with no rain leading up to the game.

So it's now official - Monday Night Football will continue for another season. Each year of NEW 6 Conference play these two teams will have played on Monday night. Dare I say that the Gryphons and Coach Holt will continue this game as a non-conference opponent? Will they still have to play on Monday nights? Or will they finally play some Football Friday???

Interesting thoughts, but the crowd should still show up for Monday night, in large numbers. I will go out on a limb and say thaat there will be more people there on Monday than there would have been tonight. Something about rain and watching football don't mix for fans in the Twin Counties.

Rocky Mount Gryphons Football

Rocky Mount vs. Southwest Edgecombe

Tonight is the night that most fans on both sides have been anticipating for weeks. Since the start of NEW 6 play, the winner of this game has come away as the Conference Champs. I don't see this year as any different. Also, each year of this conference matchup has been played on Monday night instead of Friday night....will the final NEW 6 meeting bring change???

Fans should show up early, I wouldn't say it's a stretch to show up around 6:00 - 6:30....seriously. And by then you still might be in the standing room only portion of the crowd.

Even if you're gonna have to stand the whole game, this is a game that you don't wanna miss.....trust me.....I've seen some good games over the last few years.....

This Rocky Mount team is as good as any in the B.W. Holt era....go out and support them.

How 'bout those Sox!!!

For those of you who missed it, or those who turned away early, the Red Sox have lived for another day after coming back from 7 runs down to beat the Rays 8-7. The comeback was the second largest in playoff history, behind only the Philadelphia Athletics (yes the A's played in Philly....way, way, way back) in 1925.

The Sox now have to go back down to Tampa Bay and the Trop....how come that name never stuck 'til the Rays finally began to win? Personally, and maybe slightly biased, I think the Sox have the better chance to come back and win two straight on the road. The comeback showed them that they CAN do it, and the Rays have got to be feeling some pressure after being 7 runs up with 7 outs between them and the World Series.

Regardless of what happens, Game 6 on Saturday night (and, hopefully, Game 7) should be a good game. Also, my pick to win the World Series is the American League winner, regardless if its the Rays or the Red Sox. I like the Phillies, but I just think that a) the Red Sox experience combined with coming off a 3-1 defecit, or b) the Rays and their young talent will be too much for the Phils.

For those of you that have been to Fenway Park, I envy you. Hearing that place roar last night makes me want to visit there even more. The history there, the Green Monstah, and the Sox combine to make it a magical place.

Welcome to my blog...

Being an avid follower of Rocky Mount sports, I finally got tired of reading Charles Alston, Wes Bradshaw, and Tony Doughtie talk about the Gryphons.

I will use my new blog to talk about the Gryphs, as well as my thoughts about current college and professional sports topics, and maybe a word or two on what's going on in my day-to-day college life.

So here I go....take it or leave it. Thanks to everyone who reads this and I hope you enjoy!!