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.