WPDE Sports Blog

Rich's Blog: Can the Gamecocks get right?

2011-10-03T17:51:00.001-07:00

Thanks to an open week for Coastal, I was able to get my first look in person at the 2011 Gamecocks. I can certainly understand the frustration of being a USC fan right now. After all, you have two potential top 5 NFL picks on the offensive side of the ball (Alshon Jeffery and Marcus Lattimore) and yet the offense is in the midst of a horrific two game slump. Here are some of my thoughts from Saturday's upset loss to Auburn:

The end of the game
I was shooting the last play of the game and saw Bruce Ellington go down to put the Gamecocks in field goal range. I was expecting to see Stephen Garcia scurry to the line and try and snap the ball to the ground and set up a game tying field goal attempt. Instead, what I saw was Auburn celebrating. When you look back at the TV feed, it's clear to me that the clock should have been stopped with two seconds left. The SEC stood by the officials call, but I don't know why you can't go up to the replay booth and get it right. It would have been a 46 yard field goal attempt - by no means a guarantee, but USC at the very least should have had the chance to force overtime.

The eyeball test
It's always different to see players up close as opposed to on television. It is stating the obvious, but the two guys that jumped out to me on defense were Melvin Ingram and Antonio Allen. I think both of these players have the credentials to be considered for All-American honors. Allen just does it all - he made so many great run stopping plays and just seems to be in the right place to make big plays.

Stephen Garcia
I almost want to take the challenge of being Garcia's defense attorney, but it's tough to defend his past two performances. He had just nine completions against Auburn. Of those nine, I think he only threw four good balls (his 35 yard pass to Bruce Ellington to set up the go ahead Marcus Lattimore TD was the best of the bunch). Take that throw, along with his 13 yard pass to Ellington deep in his own territory and the last two passes on the final drive and that's all you have. The Alshon Jeffery TD pass was just an amazing play by an elite receiver. When it comes to interceptions, sometimes you can place blame on other things other than the QB, but in this case, both picks were on Garcia. The INT's came on a 2nd and 2 and a 1st and 10 and were both overthrown balls. Garcia did not talk to the media after the game. His grandfather had passed away late in the week and requested to not have media responsibilities on Thursday.

Spurrier promised changes after the game to the offense. Does that mean benching Garcia? Perhaps it would be beneficial to take out some old film of Garcia beating Alabama or winning at the Swamp and figure out a way to get his confidence back. He's proven that he can win in the SEC. While Gamecock fans are ready to pull the plug on Garcia, I wonder if he shouldn't get one more chance to get back on track against Kentucky before ushering in Connor Shaw.

Field Position
One thing that hurt the Gamecocks offense in a big way was field position. Six of USC's 15 possessions started inside the 12 yard line (you can throw out one of those thanks to the Melvin Ingram interception at the end of the half). The other big field position stat comes from CC Whitlock's interception that was fumbled away. If Whitlock had fell on the ball instead of going for some extra yards, the Gamecocks would have had the ball in Auburn territory with a 13-9 lead late in the third quarter. Instead, Auburn got the ball back, ran off nine more plays and 41 more yards before Whitlock redeemed himself with a tremendous pick in the corner of the end zone. Perhaps, a little bit better field position could have gotten the ground game going with Lattimore and one more score would have likely given USC a victory.

Getting Right
I was standing on the sidelines at Sanford Stadium at the University of Georgia. Earlier in the week, David Bennett shared another one of his unique phrases that was part coach-speak and part Southern charm. When looking at the film of Mark Richt's Bulldogs, he told me that Georgia was going to "get right" and have a great year. Unfortunately, for Bennett, Georgia started to get right at the expense of his Chanticleers. With Georgia already up 21-0 in the first quarter, I glanced up at the Sanford Stadium scoreboard to see that Auburn had a 21-7 lead over Clemson in Death Valley.

Like many, I was ready to write Clemson off. If you could take an instant poll at that moment, the majority of Tiger faithful would have written off the season and had cardboard boxes at Dabo Swinney's office ready to send him off forever. But Clemson got right just in time. The Tigers went on to beat the defending national champs and then backed it up with wins against Florida State and Virginia Tech. Three weeks earlier, they barely got by FCS Wofford and looked like they were on the road to medicority. Now, Clemson is a legitimate top 10 team and the favorite to go to the Orange Bowl.

Which brings us back to the Gamecocks. There's plenty of time for USC to "get right". Steve Spurrier reminded the media after the Auburn loss that USC lost to Auburn and Kentucky last year and still found its way to Atlanta and the SEC championship game. This team is 4-1 and can still get to the Georgia Dome.

The internet seems to be the place where players and coaches can be instantly condemned. I can remember a lot of Tahj Boyd bashing in the summer months, but that's certainly not the case anymore. Today, you can find plenty of anti-Spurrier and anti-Garcia sentiments. I assume that both Spurrier and Garcia are not investing any energy in the negativity and working on getting right.

Rich's Blog: Thigpen's perfect storm

2011-07-27T18:33:00.001-07:00

Coastal Carolina's football locker room has the look of an NFL locker room. Normally, there's the chaos of a hundred athletes occupying the space. During the summer months, everything is quiet. There's no dirty towels, no athletic tape stuck to the floor. Last week, we hosted our high school media day there. I entered the room and took in the serenity. I had never really been in there without any hustle and bustle. I thought I was alone. After spending a good minute unloading my camera gear, I saw someone in the far left corner sitting in a locker stall with a towel draped over his head. It was Tyler Thigpen.

The NFL might have been locked out, but Thigpen was not. You would think that the NFL quarterback working out at his alma mater would have fanfare, an entourage or a "look at me" attitude, but Thigpen blended into the background in the empty locker room. His humbleness, work ethic and quiet leadership are why he's respected by teammates and revered at Coastal for being the first "legend" in the program's history.

Playing quarterback in the NFL is getting thrown into the fire. There are endless scenarios that play out in a quarterback's mind during one play and he has seconds to pull the trigger and live with the decision. Throughout his NFL career, Thigpen has been thrown into intense situations with little time to prepare. On Monday night, it happened again. When the NFL lockout ended on Monday, four months of off season activity were about to be condensed into four days. Before the lockout, Thigpen was ready to return to Miami as a restricted free agent, but thanks to the new labor deal he was on the open market.

The dominoes were going to fall quickly on Tuesday when free agency began. Joel Turner, Tyler's agent, got the phone calls right away. Six teams in all: Miami, Tennessee, Washington, Arizona, Minnesota and Buffalo. It became a two horse race. The Vikings and the Bills. Minnesota drafted him in 2007 and tried to sneak him on the practice squad before the Kansas City Chiefs snapped him up. It was said that head coach Brad Childress was furious that Thigpen slipped through the cracks. Buffalo's head coach, Chan Gailey, was the man who retooled the Kansas City Chiefs offense to fit Thigpen's ability to work out of the spread and become the NFL's leading rusher for quarterbacks in 2008.

Minnesota has Christian Ponder, a rookie from Florida State who may or may not be ready to step in on week one. The Bills have Ryan Fitzpatrick who is the starter for sure in 2011, but has just one year remaining on his current contract. The first phone call Chan Gailey made when the NFL was back open for business was to Tyler Thigpen. And now, in his Myrtle Beach home, Tyler Thigpen was in the pocket. Not the pocket he was used to, but the pocket that was his career. In a normal off-season, Thigpen might have had a little time to mull things over and make a move. But, the free agency quarterback merry go round was in full effect and he had to pull the trigger. On late Monday night, Thigpen made his decision. He became a Buffalo Bill. Quarterbacks survive on instinct. It was instinct that ultimately led Tyler Thigpen to Western New York.

Gailey has brought the Kansas City offense to Buffalo. Learning an NFL offense is like speaking another language. Thig will know the terminology and get up to speed quickly. He'll be reunited with the person who made him a fantasy football dream in 2008.

Thigpen hasn't had the breaks go his way in his NFL career. He played much better than his 1-10 record as a starter in Kansas City (six losses by seven points or less). He had just two days to prepare for a Thursday night start against the Bears last year in Miami. He's gotten endorsements from two of the biggest names in the game (Tony Gonzalez and Brandon Marshall), yet is branded as a "wild stallion" or someone who can't be a starter in the NFL.

But the new labor contract opened the door for something that is rare for a non-superstar in the NFL: leverage. In a free agent market where Matt Hasselbeck was the top QB name, Thigpen was a commodity. It gave Tyler two things - a choice of where he wants to play and a handsome pay raise.

The terms of the deal have not been announced, but he's gone from the $500,000 per year range to probably six times that amount. If you woke up tomorrow and you found out you had gotten a 600 percent pay raise, what would you do? I think some type of celebration would be in order. What did Tyler Thigpen do? His contract was done just before 11pm on Tuesday night. On Wednesday morning, Thigpen was zipping balls in the Adkins Fieldhouse weight room to former CCU wide recevier Marquel Wilis and he was back in that same empty locker room. He's ready to blend in the background at Buffalo.

Twin Killings lead to Twin Titles for Gamecocks

2011-06-29T15:17:00.000-07:00

"Defense Wins Championships"

It's the cheesy cliché that usually applies to football. You don't hear it tossed around when you talk about a baseball champion, but when it comes to the 2011 national champion South Carolina Gamecocks, it truly was defense that won them a second straight title.

I marveled at this team's ability to deliver a clutch double play when it needed to and then went to the boxscores to confirm how remarkable it was to see how many double plays the Gamecocks converted in the post-season. As a matter of fact, the Gamecocks had at least one double play in every single one of their post-season wins, 18 in all:

Gamecocks Double Plays in the Post-Season

Georgia Southern 2
Stetson I 1
Stetson II 1
UConn I 2
UConn II 3
Texas A&M 1
Virginia I 2
Virginia II 4
Florida I 1
Florida II 1

It would be awfully tough to rank the key defensive plays in this championship run. The John Taylor induced 1-2-3 DP's and the double plays in the extra inning Virginia game is a good start. But Scott Wingo's 4-2-3 DP against Florida in game one has to take the top prize. 18 double plays in ten games is a pretty stellar stat and then when you factor in the pressure of post-season play, it shows why this team is holding the national championship trophy.

Ray Tanner knew exactly what kind of team he had. He talked on more than one occasion that he didn't have the kind of club that could roll out and put up a crooked number. The Gamecocks had 11 players drafted in the MLB Draft, but when it comes to the high draft picks, just two.

Top 10 Round MLB Draftees in CWS by School

1. Vanderbilt - 9

2. Virginia - 5

3. Texas - 4

4. Florida - 3

4. California - 3

5. North Carolina - 2

5. Texas A&M - 2

5. South Carolina - 2 *Jackie Bradley in Rd 1A, Matt Price in Rd 6*

With two local products on the roster making key contributions in Colby Holmes and John Taylor, local Gamecock fans should get even more attached to this club with the possibility of Shon Carson and Tanner English roaming in the outfield. Carson has said he's definitely a Gamecock, English makes his decision sometime soon.

Ray Tanner's legacy is cemented as one of the all-time Gamecock greats in athletics. Beyond the obvious of winning back to back championships which is rarified air and the shuffling of over 40 different lineup combinations during national championship number two, there are two stories that will stick with me that tell the real story about Ray Tanner.

Two of Tanner's former assistants who are now head coaches, Monte Lee from the College of Charleston and Stuart Lake at Charleston Southern, both received a package in the mail last December. It was Gamecock championship rings and a handwritten note from Tanner thanking them for helping to build USC into a champion.

Then there's the Gamecocks annual trip to the Omaha Children's Hospital when they make it to the College World Series. The furthest thing from a ploy to get good publicity, Tanner and his USC team met a boy named Charlie Peters in 2003. The youngster fought through and beat cancer as a five year old. Now 11 years old and healthy, Peters has been the Gamecocks batboy in Omaha for the past two years.

And just like the Gamecocks double play combination sparked a national title, Ray Tanner brings a double play combination of his own: an elite manager in between the lines and an even better person off the field.

Rich's blog: The Gamecock Dad who quit his job for the CWS

2011-06-22T10:28:00.000-07:00

Here's an example of public relations nightmare 101. It all started with a simple tweet:

@MRoth29: How's this for dedication? My dad had to quit his job to make it out to Omaha. #novacationdays

Michael Roth's father works at a car dealership in the Upstate. His son came out of nowhere in 2010 and went from reliever to College World Series hero, helping the Gamecocks win its first baseball national title. David Roth couldn't be there in Omaha and wasn't about to miss his son pitch there in 2011. With no more vacation time, Roth amicably resigned from his job and saw his son pitch on Father's Day in the Gamecocks 5-4 win over Texas A&M. The story went from a sidebar to national attention.

Yahoo.com: Father quits his job to see son pitch for the Gamecocks

It didn't take long before the name of the dealership surfaced. I'm sure Steve White VW/Audi of Greenville got more than its fair share of phone calls and emails about the situation and had to release a statement on its web page, citing that "The decision to terminate employment with our organization was entirely David Roth's.

Steve White statement regarding Roth

David Roth has turned down interviews with every outlet both in the state as well as ESPN who is covering the College World Series. There's no question that the car dealership is being painted as the "bad guy" in this even though both sides are saying that the split was amicable.

The trip to Omaha and the College World Series is a long one and an expensive one. If the Gamecocks go the distance like they did last year they will have been there for 13 days. That's a whole bunch of vacation time and when you factor in the fact that David Roth used a lot of vacation time to see his son pitch during the regular season, you can see the dilemma on both sides.

But for the car dealer, it's an absolute PR nightmare. Gamecock nation is loyal and strong and will soon not forget this story. As for David Roth, at 57 years old he has made a risky move to say the least in this current economy, but I'm sure there will be plenty of car dealers who would jump at the opportunity for the great PR by hiring David Roth. My guess is he won't be without a job for long.

Once again, we've learned about the passion of sports in the Palmetto State. College baseball is a niche at best around the country, but in South Carolina it makes the slow summer months awfully exciting. I keep hearing how special the overall experience is at Omaha and the College World Series is. David Roth would agree and paid quite a price to be a part of it.

Rich's Blog: Meet the John McKissick of HS Hoops and how to take SC high school sports to the next level

2011-03-28T10:51:00.001-07:00

South Carolina is the home of the most accomplished high school football coach in Summerville's John McKissick who has accomplished numbers that are absolutely mind boggling. The dean of high school basketball comes from Jersey City, NJ. People in the Carolinas know the name Hurley. Bobby Hurley, Junior was one of the great Duke point guards of all time. His father, Bobby Hurley, Sr. is the legendary coach at St. Anthony's in Jersey City. The Friars finished a perfect 33-0 season by winning the New Jersey Tournament of Champions and for the 4th time in the Hurley era will finish #1 in the USA Today Top 25. Here are some numbers which make this feat even more impressive:

What is St. Anthony's home record: 0-0
St. Anthony's does not have a gym. Every single game is a road game.

What is Bob Hurley's salary: $9,500
That's his stipend this year. He has turned down numerous college offers, but elects to stay at St. Anthony's.

Beyond the sports story is the fact that this school in a pretty rough neigborhood survives because of its basketball prowess. 60 Minutes profiled Hurley and the school following the Elite 8. There's always a fear of promoting "another network", but this is worth watching:

Adrian Wojnarowski, who's on the NBA beat for Yahoo Sports today, followed St. Anthony's during the 2003-2004 season in the Miracle at St. Anthony's. It's a great read that shows the balance of the old school coach and his mission of making lives better for young people.

The Miracle of St. Anthony's book excerpt

St. Antony's won New Jersey's Tournament of Champions. What New Jersey does, which I think is brilliant, is take every state champion and have them play each other to determine one school that is the best in the state.

Imagine, if you will, if South Carolina let the state champions play each other in a tournament format. This wouldn't work for football as the season would go too long and I don't think you would want to see Byrnes play Scott's Branch in a first round Tournament of Champions game.

I'm thinking of this because of an article I saw in GoUpstate.com about the SCHSL expanding the football playoffs yet again:

GoUpstate: Class 2A to split into two divisions

So now, if this passes this summer, you are going to have seven state champions in high school football. Only Class 3A will have one state champion. If I was in charge of the SCHSL, here's what I would do:

First, I would lose the Divsion I and Division II monikers. I would rename the classes to Class 1A, 2A, 3A, 4A, 5A, and 6A. Doesn't it sound better to say that you won a Class 5A state title instead of a Class 4A Division II title???

The next thing I would do is institute the Tournament of Champions format in every sport except football. 5A and 6A get first round byes with 4A playing 1A in one round, and 3A playing 4A in the other matchup. If you want to expand to seven divisions like football, fine: Let's invite the SCISA champion and have eight state champs playing for the overall title.

Think of the excitement it would bring. You have the Hoosiers element where the little 1A school that won a state title tries to pull off the improbable. Would Raymond Felton's Latta teams had the moxy to win a T of C? How much fun would it have been to see if Khadijah Sessions and Myrtle Beach were good enough to be the overall state champ. If Saint James wins the 3A baseball title this spring, how much excitement would there be if they went all the way and claimed a true state champ.

There's enough support and passion among all sports is South Carolina to make this a no-brainer. The Tournament of Champions format would take high school sports in this state to another level.

Rich's Blog: The best cinderella story of March

2011-03-21T19:41:00.000-07:00

While the brackets played themselves out and Cinderellas like Richmond and VCU emerged in the NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament, there was another bracket going on that provided a truly inspirational story.
At the NCAA Wrestling Championships in Philadelphia, Anthony Robles of Arizona State won the individual national title at 125 pounds. Robles was born without a right leg. Watch the video from our ABC affiliate in Phoenix: it might be my favorite entrance into the ring.

Robles will not pursue the Olympics and instead become a motivational speaker:

USA Today: Anthony Robles retires

March Madness is great. The first four days of the tournament are among the most enjoyable days for a sports fan. Now that I've been covering sports for nearly 20 years (old guy alert!), I can say that going to "The Dance" is at the top of the list of things I haven't experienced in my TV career. Three times I came close with Coastal, but I have not yet been to the Tourney.

Things I'd like to cover

1. NCAA Tournament - what will come first, CCU in the Dance or my alma mater Saint Bonaventure? I was supposed to go to Cleveland in 2000 when the Bonnies lost in 2OT to Kentucky, but it was my first Darlington race weekend.

2. The Masters - I've been trying for 11 years to get credentials to Augusta and I'm hopeful that I'm getting closer to accomplishing that. Dustin Johnson...help!

3. Olympics - It's tough to cover the Olympics if you are not an NBC affiliate. Perhaps I can talk the bosses into a trip to London to cover Amber Campbell

Things I've covered
========================
1. Super Bowl - went to Houston for the Panthers loss to New England and had a one on one interview with Adam Vinatieri after kicking the game winning field goal (a real thrill). I also attended Super Bowl XXI (The Giants first Super Bowl win against Denver) as a fan (thanks Dad)

2. World Series - I was covering the Red Sox in Bangor, Maine and in a glitch by MLB was given World Series credentials in 1999 when the Yankees won it all. I went live on the field from game four before Roger Clemens won and got all the celebration afterwards.

3. NBA Finals - 1995 working in New York....what I'll always remember about this was not the Rockets and Knicks, but being at MSG when the OJ van chase began.

4. Stanley Cup - another thrill - the Rangers won the Stanley Cup and I was there for game seven and all the hoopla. I did an interview with Mark Messier that was used on the CBS Evening News the following day.

5. NCAA Hockey Tournament - The Maine Black Bears won it all in 1999. I went to Worcester, Mass and Anaheim for an amazing season. Maine won the Frozen Four and Championship game in overtime. The game ended at 11:07 pm on a Saturday night and we were able to do a live interview in the locker room in the midst of the championship. Kurt Russell (pre Herb Brooks in Miracle) was there and I closed the show holding the national championship trophy.

6. NBA Draft - Raymond Felton getting selected by the Charlotte Bobcats. I remember the room upstairs at MSG and the ABC people not promising that I would be able to get Raymond for an interview. He saw me and walked right over and sat down with me and gave me his first interview after being drafted. I'll never forget that.

7. 1999 MLB All-Star Game at Fenway - Ted Williams meeting all the players at the pitchers mound, Mark McGwire before steroids tainted his legacy and going live with Mike Mussina when he was with the Orioles (why?, because he was on with the ABC in Washington DC before my shot - he was great)

There was plenty of other cool stuff (US Open at Pinehurst, two NIT's, two NCAA Women's Tournaments, all the Gamecock and Clemson bowl games). The best part of the job is watching our local kids at the highest level of their sport. I enjoy catching up with Raymond Felton and Ramon Sessions at NBA games and look forward to seeing Everett Golson at Notre Dame and Jordan Lyles with the Houston Astros. Thanks to the great talent in this area, I'm excited to be adding to this list.

Rich's Blog: The Trick Shot QB and is he really plugging soccer and the View?

2011-02-14T23:49:00.000-08:00

In the world of the internet, things can go viral in a hurry. Last week, I stumbled upon this video and meant to share it with everyone. Next thing I know, there's over 4,000,000 YouTube hits. So if you've seen it already, I'm sorry I'm not on the cutting edge, but for those of you who haven't it's a fun watch.

Johnny McEntee is a third string quarterback at UConn. He may not be in the starting lineup, but his trick shots are incredible. Sure, he probably needed a few takes, and what he's doing in shorts in an empty fieldhouse doesn't translate to success on Saturday's, but I'm a fan.

I'm a lukewarm soccer fan. I get excited during the World Cup and I always root hard for the US, yet I'm not rushing to get MLS season tickets or watching the table in the English Premier League. However, I did get to see Manchester United's Wayne Rooney and his goal last weekend and it was off the charts! YouTube doesn't have the rights, but this British newspaper has the video below:

Wayne Rooney's Bicycle Kick Goal

Like most males, I have not seen the View (weekdays at 11am right here on WPDE) for more than three minutes. However, I did get to see this story which was heartwarming and inspirational. A 13 year old boy from the Philadelphia area was the victim of senseless bullying. When you read the story, it breaks your heart. But the fact that he was able to go public with his story gave him the chance to meet his sports hero, Eagles WR DeSean Jackson. ESPN.com's Rick Reilly tells the story.

Reilly: Eagles over the Wolves in a rout

I always remembered DeSean Jackson as a showboater who excessively celebrates. This was better than any touchdown he'll score.

Super Bowl, Felton's All-Star miss and the CCU ranking debate

2011-02-07T20:47:00.000-08:00

When I first saw the headline "400 fans lose seats at Super Bowl", I thought about the PR nightmare the NFL would be dealing with and after reading this article on ESPN.com, I think the NFL did an admirable job of making the best of a bad situation.

Displaced fans get Super Bowl tix for next year

My take is this: the fans got into the stadium, they got $2400, they got to go on the field for post-game which had to be a thrill and they get to go to next year's Super Bowl in Indianapolis. I remember when I covered Super Bowl 38 in Houston, there was a mixup with our press passes and we were shut out of the media area during the game. I wound up having to watch the game in the satellite truck area and hit the field for postgame. The post-game scene on the field was a thrill and worth freezing in the Reliant Stadium parking lot.

RAYMOND DOESN'T MAKE ALL STARS
Raymond Felton did not make the NBA All-Star game later this month in February. While the homer in me was hoping that Raymond got the honor, there's no one on the East roster that doesn't deserve to be on there. There's just 24 spots in the NBA All-Star game, the smallest roster by far among the major sports (it would make sense for the NBA to expand the rosters to 15 especially since the game itself is a glorified pick up game) It was a big boost for Felton to just be in the discussion and you never know - an injury could bring him to LA. Reading this article from the NY Post shows Raymond's personality.

Bloodied Felton defends Knicks' record after All-Star snub

When Raymond signed with the Knicks and I interviewed him here in Myrtle Beach, he said the Knicks were getting a warrior. Felton has been durable throughout his NBA career and playing with injuries is one of the reason that Felton is respected throughout the league.

CCU's QUEST FOR THE TOP 25
Coastal Carolina's 20 game win streak continues to increase the Chants national profile. Coastal got 26 voter points in the latest AP Top 25 good for 28th in the latest AP Top 25 poll. There are 13 voters who put CCU in their top 25. Here's the story I did on CarolinaLive.com that breaks down who has CCU on their radar.

Coastal basketball climbs the polls

It is important to remember that the AP and ESPN/USA Today coaches polls have absolutely no bearing on the NCAA Tournament committee when they choose the field for this year's Big Dance. Which means, hypothetically, if Coastal were to get into the top 25 and still lose in the Big South Tournament, their time in the Top 25 if there is any time would not help them get an at-large bid.

That being said, the symbolic value of Coastal reaching the top 25 would be priceless for this program. On Sunday's Cliff Ellis Show, the coach compared his program to TCU or Boise State in football. Is Coastal basketball like a Boise State football? That's up for debate, but the same argument for "the little guy" is being used about being ranked. Things like, "Coastal wouldn't be 22-2 in the SEC or ACC or Big East (absolutely true) and "they don't play anybody". The bottom line is this: people are talking Coastal basketball beyond the Conway city limits. I think that the Chants will crack the top 25 next Monday if they can get two more wins and a couple of those schools ranked 21-25 stumble.

MY ALMA MATER
I tip my cap to the Coastal student section that crowds Kimbel Arena and provides a great energy to the Chants at home. It will be this rabid group that could ultimately push CCU to the NCAA's by creating that special atmosphere in early March. It goes without saying that the Chants have outgrown Kimbel Arena and the new facility set to open next season is much needed.

I wanted to share with you my alma mater, Saint Bonaventure University and the Reilly Center, which has the reputation as one of the toughest places to play in college basketball. Below is a look at the Bonnies upset win over previous A-10 unbeaten Duquesne on Saturday night.

Saint Bonaventure has an enrollment of just 2,500 students. Coastal is nearly four times that size. Here's hoping that the new CCU basketball home becomes a house of horrors.

This week's links: Dustin, Bracketology and a trip Down Under

2011-01-24T20:40:00.000-08:00

It blew up on Yahoo, then the New York Post's Page Six ran a blind item about his personal life. Dustin Johnson is learning that he has become an international star when rumors of him dating Natalie Gulbis ran rampant. When Dustin withdrew from the Sony Open to return to Myrtle Beach, the false rumor ran that he came back to the Grand Strand because his former girlfriend did not know about his relationship with Gublis. The link below sets the record straight.

Johnson denies Gulbis rumors

ESPN's Bracketology is a required stop every Monday as Joe Lunardi does his best forecast on what the field may look like in the NCAA Tournament. Because Coastal Carolina is atop the Big South standings, you'll find them in the projections.

ESPN Bracketology for 1/25

CCU will be no better than a 14 seed and most likely a 15 seed even if they run the table. Keep in mind that Coastal must win the Big South Tournament and has absolutely no chance of making the field as an at-large. CCU has zero wins against teams in the RPI's top 100 and just two wins against teams ranked between 150-199. The best win on CCU's resume at this point is the win against East Carolina. If LSU can climb the SEC, that may become a top 100 win, but as impressive as Coastal's dominance has been in 2010/11 in the eyes of the NCAA committee it is not even worthy of at-large consideration. Here is one interesting tidbit:

RPI as of Monday 1/25
Coastal Carolina 70
South Carolina 76
Clemson 91

It will be interesting to see if CCU can stay ahead of the Gamecocks and Clemson as the season wears on.

Congratulations to Darren Stack for winning the WPDE Fantasy Football league topping our executive producer Tracy Vreeland in the championship game. I finished tied in my quarterfinal game and lost a tiebreaker (that's tough to swallow!). It's never to early to study up and below is ESPN's early top 100 for 2011. I paste this link to show CCU's Mike Tolbert in at #79. I thought that Jerome Simpson might have shown up on the list. He'll be a great sleeper for next year.

ESPN Fantasy Football Top 100 for 2011

The first major of the tennis season is underway at the Australian Open. So often, anything on the sidelines or post-game of a sporting event can offer boring and very predictable questions and answers. Kim Clijsters, who is already a working mom on tour, caught former Australian doubles legend Todd Woodbridge off guard in the post-match interview. Clijsters had fun with a text message from Woodbridge questioning if the top player was pregnant.

This week's links

2011-01-10T18:13:00.000-08:00

Rather than call it a New Year's Resolution since resolutions usually fizzle out in a matter of weeks, I'm calling it a "goal" to be a little more connected with social media. When it comes to Twitter and Facebook, I'm often conflicted by a heavy workload with a deadline and tweets and facebook posts go to the backburner.

I'm going to share any interesting tidbits I read along the way and give them the proper credit with a link.

I'll start with Raymond Felton who is having a fantastic season with the New York Knicks. I had said for a number of years that Raymond needed to leave Charlotte and I'm happy about all the success he's having with the New York Knicks. The New York Post's Marc Berman wrote this article ahead of the Knicks loss to the Lakers and lofty praise of the former two time WPDE Mister Hoop Zone from Kobe Bryant.

Kobe not surprised by Raymond

I'm a proud graduate of Saint Bonaventure University (class of 1992) and hope that I can live up to the sterling reputation of the school's Mass Communication and Journalism department. A fellow Bonnie, Adrian Wojnarowski ('91), is one of the best columnists in the country. I particularly enjoyed his coverage of LeBron James. Read both of the columns below for a great take on "The Decision" and some real insight to what the whole Lebron circle is like.

Easy Come, Easy Go for King James

King James wants Spoelstra to bow to him

I haven't mentioned it on the sportscast yet, but it has become a big headline in the world of golf. Dustin Johnson is now dating Natalie Gulbis. I had a chance to interview Gulbis once when she came to Myrtle Beach for a contest promotion. My guess is that she may be spending some more time here.

No penalty here - Dustin Johnson and Natalie Gulbis

We all know that Dustin Johnson is one of the longest hitters in the world and he's gotten the reputation as perhaps the best athlete on the PGA Tour. Everyone talks about how he can dunk a basketball. Here's further proof from YouTube. A left handed drive!

This confirms that if Dustin played 18 holes left handed, I'd still probably get two strokes a hole and lose!

Remembering Jim Hunter

2010-11-01T16:07:00.001-07:00

In January of 2000, I was at Ricky Craven's Snowmobile Ride for Charity along Moosehead Lake when I approached the NASCAR driver to tell him that I was leaving his home state and coming to Myrtle Beach. Naturally, the first topic of conversation was getting to see him race at Darlington Raceway. I'll always remember the first thing that he said when I mentioned the Track Too Tough to Tame. "Jim Hunter. He's one of the most influential people in our sport. He's also one of the most respected people in our sport. Listen to him and always follow his advice."
Craven had taught me everything I knew about NASCAR and the current ESPN analyst was spot on in what he said. When I first got to South Carolina, I was anxious to cover my first race at Darlington. It was Dale Earnhardt, Jr's rookie season and everyone was trying to get a piece of NASCAR's rising superstar. I thought that perhaps Mr. Hunter could give me an in to try and follow Junior for the weekend and chronicle it as a preview for the following race in the fall. He liked the idea a lot, but said that there was another rookie driver who was going to be a big star in NASCAR and that I should follow him around. That driver was Matt Kenseth and I learned that Jim Hunter was a pretty darn good judge of talent. When we did our September preview show live from the track, I was hoping that Earnhardt, Junior would come on the show. Jim Hunter said there's another young gun that needed to come on with us. His name was Kurt Busch. Looking back now, Jim Hunter gave us two Cup Champions on our preview show. Pretty amazing.
Then there was another time when the phone rang in the sports office in Florence. Mr. Hunter asked if I could swing by Governor's Run golf course in Lamar, he had a couple of people he wanted me to talk to about the upcoming race. When I went to the back porch with the camera, there was Jim Hunter in a straw Darlington hat and another guy with the same hat on next to him. "Dale, could you give a couple of minutes to our new sportscaster in town to talk about the Southern 500. It's going to be his first Labor Day at Darlington." Dale Earnhardt, the Intimidator, gave a sly smile and said "Shoot". It was right then and there that I learned first hand that Jim Hunter was one of the most respected people in all of NASCAR. After talking to Dale, Senior, Hunter introduced me to another legend - the Silver Fox, David Pearson. Not a bad couple of sound bites on a Thursday afternoon to get Southern 500 coverage going. You ask every mega-name in the sport about Jim Hunter and you're going to get a story and it's usually a good one.
It was Jim Hunter who helped NASCAR guide through the tough times of Dale Earnhardt's death and became the spokesperson of the sport. It was also Jim Hunter who believed in Darlington so much that the Lady in Black went from the endangered species list to a Saturday night fixture every May for many years to come.
He is one of the sports great ambassadors. For the stories I just shared above, there are countless others in the media who will have their own tales of how Jim Hunter helped them to bring the sports biggest stars to their readers or viewers.
NASCAR's got a long list of worthy candidates for the Hall of Fame. I hope that one day Jim Hunter will be a part of it, because he was one of NASCAR's true pioneers. Even after he left the track in 2001, you could also go to the Media Center that bared his name and see a crowd of people around Jim Hunter. It will be an empty feeling in the Media Center this May when he's not there.

Camp Bennett Episode 1

2010-08-08T16:09:00.000-07:00

The journey to a national title

2010-06-30T11:27:00.001-07:00

Gamecock fans have been waiting for a long time to celebrate and the 2010 USC baseball team's national championship trophy should be front and center in the South Carolina trophy case. Ray Tanner's path to a national title is a testament of what it takes to be the best in the nation. There were so many times where the Gamecocks stared the end of the season right in the face and decided that they weren't done yet.

Friday, June 4th: Bucknell 5 South Carolina 1 heading to the bottom of the 6th

It's the opening game of the Columbia regional. The #1 seeds have a big advantage as they play an automatic bid qualifier. The Bison had the Gamecocks on the ropes and it's awfully tough to play your way from the loser's bracket to a regional title on the first weekend of the NCAA's. Everyone was on upset alert when the score came in. What did USC do? They didn't panic and took care of business and roared from behind to win 9-5. Michael Roth pitched 3 plus innings of shutout ball to settle things down. The Gamecocks went on to cruise the rest of the way and beat the Citadel and Virginia Tech to win the regional.

Saturday, June 12th: South Carolina 4 Coastal Carolina 3 in the 8th inning. CCU has the bases loaded and nobody out

The Chanticleers were ready to bust the dam and win their first ever game in the Super Regional. If CCU simply put the ball in play they were going to at least draw even if not take control of the game. Ray Tanner brought in Matt Price who proceeded to strike out Chance Gilmore and Taylor Motter and then got a bounce back to the mound from Dan Bowman. Price pitches a flawless ninth and the Gamecocks take game one.

Sunday, June 13th: Coastal Carolina 9 South Carolina 7, 2 outs in the 8th inning

CCU just got a double play and were four outs away from drawing even in the best of three series. Austin Fleet had come on in relief in the 6th inning for CCU and was probably going to give way to Anthony Meo in the 9th to shut the door. Jackie Bradley, Jr. grinded out a walk. Adrian Morales doubled to bring the winning run to the plate. Christian Walker launched a three run bomb that put the Gamecocks ahead 10-9. Everyone will talk about the Walker blast and rightfully so, but it was Bradley, Jr. who worked a full count. He was one strike away from inning over and likely game over for the Gamecocks (sounds a little like later on against Oklahoma doesn't it?) The Gamecocks punched their ticket to Omaha with a 10-9 win.

Sunday, June 20th: Oklahoma 4 South Carolina 3 - FINAL
The Gamecocks had their chances to win this game, but simply left too many runners on base. After enduring nine hours to play through rain delays it looked like it was going to be two and done. Surely, the Gamecocks couldn't knock off #1 seed Arizona State and then endure five more wins. That was the thinking on Sunday evening, but as we learned it was the last loss of the year for USC.

Thursday, June 24th: Oklahoma 2 South Carolina 1 heading to the bottom of the 12th

Robert Beary had a single and stole second, but the Gamecocks had two outs and Jackie Bradley, Jr was one strike away from USC packing their bags and heading for home. But Bradley grinded it out again and laced a base hit to right to score Beary and tie the game. Walker walked and Brady Thomas delivered the heroics in a 3-2 walk off win.

Friday, June 25th: Pregame Clemson vs South Carolina
The Gamecocks need two wins to reach the national championship series and Clemson is in the driver's seat. Blake Cooper pitched on Thursday and Sam Dyson can't throw until Saturday. Ray Tanner is hoping that Michael Roth can give him three good innings and that the bullpen can piece together a win. Roth goes on to throw three good innings, then three more and then a final three. A complete game gem that gives the Gamecocks all the momentum. Dyson goes on to stifle Clemson and the Gamecocks reach the national championship series.

Tuesday, June 29th: UCLA 1 South Carolina 1 in the 9th inning
The Bruins load the bases, but Matt Price is there again with the clutch strikeout. Just like the CCU Super Regional all over again. Price delivers when he has to and once again you feel like UCLA used up their last chance and it was South Carolina's destiny to win.

You know how the rest of the story goes. Whit Merrifield goes the opposite way, Scott Wingo leaps towards home and the Gamecocks are national champs. Seven times during the post-season the Gamecocks were on the verge of heading south. In the end they came through each and every time and that's why they are national champions.

This Gamecock team had the star power with Blake Cooper and Jackie Bradley, Jr, and it had the players who rose to the occasion like Roth and Bobby Haney. But more important than all of that was the intangibles. Tanner talked about it and it rang true. Working the count with two strikes, making great defensive plays when they needed to and never giving up.

Tanner loves the college baseball game and knows what it means to simply make it to Omaha. Now he has won the last CWS game ever at Rosenblatt Stadium and will be a legend in South Carolina Gamecock circles for generations to come.

Not quite ready for Omaha

2010-06-13T21:47:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Steve Maass for sending this picture of Christian Walker's blast that sent the Gamecocks to Omaha

One of the most exciting 10 days of covering local sports in Myrtle Beach has come to a close. When it was all said and done, ticket gate still had 40 percent of the crowd wearing garnet and the national exposure for Coastal Carolina is always invaluable for the University.

In 2008, I was in Cary, NC when the Chanticleers were totally dominated by the North Carolina Tar Heels. CCU looked like a program that was not quite ready to step into college baseball's elite. I feel that this past weekend was a big step forward towards the Chanticleers ultimate goal towards making it to Omaha. That's little consolation to Gary Gilmore, who knew that this was a team that had the tools to take that next step.

In a nutshell, I think the two game Gamecocks sweep came down to defense. There were probably a half dozen plays by USC that were worthy of a star in the scorecard. From Scott Wingo's double play to great plays in the outfield and make the routine plays, the Gamecocks didn't give CCU anything extra. If Coastal plays error free baseball on Sunday, they cruise to a game two win. If Matt Rein doesn't turn his ankle on the first play on Saturday perhaps he makes the throw on the next play that triggered the Gamecocks three run first inning.

Gilly was backed into a corner. When it was Saturday at noon he had his two starters that were completely out of gas. Anthony Meo threw just 13 pitches in the Super Regional. If CCU were able to pull out that second game, Meo would have had the ball in game three in what would have been advantage CCU. Cody Wheeler's last game as a Chant was maligned by errors.

Austin Fleet was one pitch away from a 2 run lead heading to the 9th. Jackie Bradley, Jr's patience to draw a walk sparked an Adrian Morales double and Walker's three run blast that seemed to travel to the Sheraton. The Chants were one power arm short out of the bullpen.

If there's one positive that CCU can take out of it is that they learned that they are a national power. There were some across the state and even the nation that thought the SEC big boy would come to the beach and blow away the Big South cinderella. Jackie Bradley, Jr and Christian Walker were quick to answer the question if CCU was an SEC caliber team with a response of "yes".

Gary Gilmore said after the game that Omaha never felt so far away to him. When time passes and the summer months rage on, Gilly will recharge and once again put CCU in the national conversation. It may not be a 55 win team, but as CCU fans are learning, all that matters is what happens in June. It shouldn't be discounted that this is a program that is revered across the nation and one day it will get to Omaha.

Ray Tanner is one of the classiest people to deal with in Palmetto state sports. He is now taking USC to Omaha for the fourth time in his career. The Gamecocks will no doubt be underdogs in the field of eight, but if they can grind like they did this past weekend in Myrtle Beach, you never know what could happen.

Super Regional Game One

2010-06-12T09:44:00.000-07:00

We're not allowed to shoot highlights during the Super Regional, so I'm sequestered in the press box. The big headline prior to first pitch was that Matt Rein was getting the start over Anthony Meo and Cody Wheeler. I saw Meo in the clubhouse prior to the game and he looked as if he was still fighting the effects of the summer cold bug that he got. The fact that it is about 200 degrees on the field didn't help the cause.

1ST INNING

It's amazing how one play can trigger an onslaught. On the very first batter, Rein turns his ankle making the out at first and looked like he was going to have to leave. On the very next play, Rein fielded a bounce back that should have been an easy out, but a wild throw got a three run inning started that had the Gamecocks got for a mere hit.

2ND INNING

Exit Matt Rein enter Josh Conway. The Chanticleers are very fortunate to escape with just one run. It's now 4-0 Gamecocks. With Blake Cooper throwing, it's a huge hole for the Chanticleers to dig out of.

Dan Bowman has hit a screaming liner that cleared the left field fence. It's now 4-2at the end of two.

4TH INNING

Tommy LaStella and Julio Iglesias had back to back singles and Chance Gilmore plated LaStella with a bloop single to left. The Chants had 2 on with nobody out, but Cooper got out of jam. It's 4-3 after four. Ryan Connelly is on in relief for CCU, the third pitcher of the game for the Chants.

6TH INNING

The Chanticleers threaten. Cooper loads the bases with one out. Dan Bowman, who homered earlier smashes one off Cooper's glove. Scott Wingo turns a big time 6-3 DP to get out of the jam. It remains 4-3. Shades of the 9th inning College of Charleston play - Big time play by Wingo there.

7TH INNING

An absolute head scratcher. Anthony Meo pitches a scoreless 7th. Gilly is now burning his ace in a relief role. Can he pitch on Monday if necessary? This will be the big question in the post-game press conference. I can understand if CCU had a 4-3 lead, but down 4-3, Gilly is rolling the dice in a big way.

8TH INNING

Meo pitches 1 1/3 innings in relief and throws 13 pitches. He should be ready to go on Monday if needed. Matt Laney is the sixth CCU pitcher on in relief. Laney does his job. CCU has six outs left.

The bottom of the 8th tells the story. CCU loads the bases with nobody out. Matt Price comes in and gets two strikeouts and a bounce back to the mound. If the Gamecocks get to Omaha, Price is the first key to that happening.

CCU would get two on in the 9th but once again leave ducks on the pond.

4-3 the final. Cody Wheeler will get the ball in game two. A great game. CCU had their chances to win it.

Can They Get to Omaha?

2010-05-31T18:34:00.001-07:00

The days of Coastal Carolina flying under the radar in college baseball are long gone. The Chanticleers earned a national seed (#4) with 51 wins and a non-conference resume that justified the lofty accolades. The program has evolved. First it became a year in and year out NCAA qualifer. Then it became worthy of a #1 seed. Now, it's a legitimate contender for not only the College World Series, but a national title.

Gary Gilmore knows about the walls that this program has knocked down. Now, it has everything you could possibly ask for heading into the post-season. Home field advantage is huge. Not only for this weekend, but for the Super Regionals as well. Coastal does not have to go anywhere to get to Omaha.

Getting to Rosenblatt Stadium is far from an easy path. The Chanticleers have to deal with the College of Charleston who have won five straight games against CCU. Then there's the possibility of a Super Regional showdown with the Gamecocks. If USC comes to the beach facing the Chants with a trip to Omaha on the line, it very well could be a road game for CCU with Gamecock fans doing what they do best - filling the stands in almost every sport.

On the flip side, the Chants have a lot going for them. Rico Noel and Scott Woodward get things going by getting on base and then disrupting the basepaths. From there, you can just pick anyone else in the lineup who is capable of driving in runs. CCU can play small ball and they can play long ball. When regular DH Steve Davis was ruled academically ineligble it opened the door for freshman Josh Conway to become an everyday player. Rich Witten had an explosive Big South tournament and he's still on the bench. Coastal has not been shut out this year and there's no reason to believe that the bats will go silent in June.

The Coastal pitching staff has two proven starters in Anthony Meo and Cody Wheeler. The bullpen has depth with Ryan Connelly and Matt Laney setting up Austin Fleet. Keith Hessler and Matt Rein have proven that they can come in and get the Chants to the late innings when called upon. Rein's worst performance of the year came during CCU's last loss to the College of Charleston. It wouldn't be surprising at all that Rein will get his chance at redemption and it could be the difference between winning the regional or heading home.

The real key to Coastal's Omaha fortunes will come down to the only mystery about the 2010 Chants. Who will step up and be the third starter? It used to be Jim Birmingham and Josh Conway has been the latest experiment. Gary Gilmore has an interesting dilemma. Does he start Conway or Birmingham on Friday against Stony Brook and save Wheeler and Meo for the weekend? Or does he stick with the Friday-Saturday combo of Wheeler and Meo and give the ball to the TBD third starter to try and win the regional? Whichever way Gilly goes, the #3 starter will be the key to CCU's fortunes. If Conway or Birmingham or one of the relievers can step in and give some quality innings, Coastal should be ready to live up to its #4 national seed.

June can be one of the slow months on the local sports calendar, but Coastal Carolina could be keeping us busy for the next thirty days or so. The atmosphere in the 2007 regional at BB&T Coastal Field was incredible and it should be matched starting this Friday. If you haven't seen this team in person, you should do yourself a favor and get a ticket this weekend - you won't be disappointed.

Another Hoop Zone voting question

2010-03-31T22:55:00.000-07:00

As I was making what always seem to be a futile attempt of cleaning up my desk, I came across an anonymous letter that was written to my news director by a concerned high school basketball fan. The typed letter was about a page long and did not have a number, number or any kind of address. I hope that this fan comes across this blog as I am more than happy to answer any questions or concerns our local sports fans have especially when it comes to how we determine our major award winners.

Here's just an excerpt of this letter so you get the point.

"I am writing this letter because of the Mister and Miss Hoop Zone Banquet. First of all, let me say that I believe that this is a good thing that you guys host. However, listening to the public, the coaches, the players and just the public in general, it has turned political. I believe that it is not fair for every kid. We the public would like to know what coaches vote - not that it's is sent to 18 coaches and 2 media employees. We would like to know who these coaches and media people are because it seems that Myrtle Beach must have a horse shoe planted somewhere. Are most voters from that area?
... Myrtle Beach has won Miss Hoop Zone four years straight, Mr. Zoneman 2 years in a row!!! I believe in being air and impartial especially when it involves kids."

From a concerned citizen

I just want to reiterate the process when it comes to voting for Mister and Miss Hoop Zone. The ballot has a first, second and third place vote. A first place vote is worth three points, second is two points and a third place vote is one point. I have absolutely no problem revealing who the list of people who cast a ballot, however I do not think it is proper to reveal who they voted for. Just know that a vote can not be cast for your own player. The two media members are no big mystery here - Mark Haggard and myself have that dubious distinction.

Mr. Hoop Zone Balloters

WEST FLORENCE - Byon Shoemaker
MULLINS - Mark Gerald
LAKE CITY - Willie Thomas
GEORGETOWN - Stitch Walker
DARLINGTON - Ken Howle
HEMINGWAY - Barry McFadden
TIMMONSVILLE - Gerald Wright
AYNOR - Myron Gerald
NORTH MYRTLE BEACH - John Trussell
MARLBORO COUNTY - James Pate
CHERAW - Tony Boyer
ANDREWS - Kevin Branham
WILSON - DeAndre Scott
SOCASTEE - Tommy Johnson
CONWAY - Michael Hopkins
MARION - Pete Ellis
CAROLINA FOREST - Brian Brunson
KINGSTREE - Winston Williams
WPDE Sports: Rich Chrampanis
WPDE Sports: Mark Haggard

Pee Dee voters: 12
Grand Strand voters: 6

By Class:
4A: 3
3A: 7
2A: 6
1A: 2

Miss Hoop Zone Balloters

MYRTLE BEACH - Brian Kiper
MULLINS - Fred Senter
CAROLINA FOREST - Stacy Hughes
KINGSTREE - Sonya Burgess
DARLINGTON - Jesse Barber
MARLBORO CO - Nikita Collins
DILLON - Johnny Dew
TIMMONSVILLE - Perry Stokes
MARION - Leon Sturkey
HEMINGWAY - Sonya Thomas
HARTSVILLE - Pat Hewitt
LAKE CITY - Charm Eaddy
WILSON - Ann Talbert
AYNOR - Matt Burke
SOCASTEE - Marty Jacobs
NORTH MYRTLE BEACH - Jude Hunt
WEST FLORENCE - Kevin Allen
SOUTH FLORENCE - Lisa Jones
WPDE Sports: Rich Chrampanis
WPDE Sports: Mark Haggard

Pee Dee voters: 13
Grand Strand voters: 5

By Class:
4A: 4
3A: 7
2A: 5
1A: 2

A couple of notes here. First of all, every coach is a varsity head coach and the list has all the experience you can ask for when it comes to our area. These coaches know about the AAU circuit, as well as individual and team performances. There is no specific criteria for Mister or Miss Hoop Zone. We simply ask, "Who's the best player in the area". As you can see, there are plenty of Pee Dee voters and I think we have the right balance.

Back in 2008, the voting was extremely tight for both Mister and Miss Hoop Zone. After taking the 20 ballots, I didn't feel comfortable so we took the daunting task of contacting all 34 boys and girls head basketball coaches and took every ballot to make sure we got it right. In that year, Kinard Gadsden-Gilliard of Georgetown narrowly beat Tashan Fredrick, Eric Smith and Lashay Page and Ashley Clarke of Myrtle Beach edged out Rubylee Wright of Latta.

If I ever feel the balloting is up in the air, I would do that again. It took a lot of extra man hours, but we put in that extra effort to make sure we got it right. The bottom line is that we care about the process and we have no agenda. Back in the beginning, Marlboro County won three straight Zonemans with Tymere Zimmerman and Syvelle Newton. Many folks thought we were biased to our friends in Bennettsville back then.

If you look at the list above, that is a group of respected veteran coaches. Why did we choose them? Some of them are year in and year out voters that have earned not only our respect but the entire area's. We also try and make it a point to get balloters that have had successful seasons. We also try to make sure that we have a coach who has a Mister or Miss Hoop Zone contender. On the girls side, we had Darlington, Hartsville and Myrtle Beach to ensure that all three coaches could not vote for their own player and not get an extra advantage.

We've given away 30 trophies (10 for the Zoneman, 10 Mister Hoop Zone and 10 Miss Hoop Zone). I wish that the Finalists who make the podium were given more overall respect as it's a major accomplishment to reach that stage. Right now, it's a Myrtle Beach run of award winners. Perhaps in the next five to ten years, another school will emerge.

If I thought enough people were interested, I'd love to do a behind the scenes look at how exactly Mark Haggard and myself put the entire show together. It's something that we don't just throw together. We take time to not only pick 40 outstanding players, but then do a truly unbiased voting process that selects our winner. The die hard high school fans would probably enjoy Mark and I going back and forth for endless hours in the fall and winter as we pick these teams. It's something that we really care about and really have fun doing.

I hope this answers some questions. I would like to thank all of the coaches above for helping us this year.

Tommy's got a shot

2010-03-30T15:28:00.001-07:00

Tommy Fraser can thank Tyler Thigpen, Mike Tolbert, Quinton Teal and Jerome Simpson for getting scouts from the New Orleans Saints and the Tennessee Titans to come in for Coastal's annual pro day. Thanks to four former Chants on NFL rosters, there is credibility to CCU's pro day.
Fraser's numbers were impressive to say the least, especially when you compare it to the three fullbacks who were invited to the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis.

Name College Ht. Wt. 40 Reps at 225
John Conner Kentucky 5'11 246 4.72 24
Rashawn Jackson Virginia 6'0 239 4.74 DNP
Manase Tonga BYU 5'11 245 4.83 19
Tommy Fraser CCU 5'9 239 4.69 28

Fullbacks are a niche in the NFL. Not every team employs one, and as a result, not many will be drafted. So it's probably a long shot that Tommy will hear his name called on draft weekend. However, the workout numbers and the fact that he has signed with an agent should get him an opportunity to sign a free agent contract. That's how it all got started with Mike Tolbert. With all scouts watching Jerome Simpson's workout, Tolbert quietly put together a great Pro Day workout and got a contract with the San Diego Chargers. Tolbert has had the much better career in the pros than Simpson at this point.

Great workout numbers doesn't always translate to great performance in the NFL, but the most important thing Tuesday's workout did was give some legitimacy to Fraser's pro prospects. If the numbers weren't good on campus, Fraser would have had no shot at an NFL training camp. Now it looks as if Fraser will get the chance to go to training camp and prove that he can stick and may become the fifth Chanticleer to play in the NFL.

UAB Pregame

2010-03-16T15:09:00.000-07:00

The NIT is an interesting mix of elite programs that fell short of getting an at-large mixed in with mid-major's and regular season conference champs from smaller leagues. As CCU gets set to take on UAB, the Chants have the dubious distinction of being the school with the most wins to not make the NCAA field. CCU has the most wins in the NIT 32 team field.

There's no question that while Coastal is disappointed to not make the NCAA's, they are happy to be playing in a post-season tournament. It's CCU's first ever NIT bid and just third post-season berth in the program's history. UAB is now in the NIT for the third straight year. The Blazers were 18-2 and had wins against Butler, Cincinnati, Georgia and Arkansas on their resume. From there, UAB went 5-6 losing their last three games and sliding off the bubble and back into the NIT.

Vegas has UAB as an 11 point favorite in tonight's game and that's about right. There's no question that the Blazers playing at home should win this game. But here's where the NIT gets interesting. Is UAB pumped about playing in the NIT again? It's the question you have to ask the UConn's and North Carolina's who are accustomed playing in the other dance. UAB had to feel like they were a near lock to be playing in the NCAA's a month ago.

CCU still has not had a two game losing streak this year. The Chants have had nearly12 days off. Which team will show up? The one that dismantled conference foes or the team that struggled at home against Winthrop and Radford? We'll know in the first eight minutes if CCU is going to be competitive or not. During that time we'll also find out if UAB is ready to make a run towards Madison Square Garden or if they want to call it a season.

2010 Hoop Zone Banquet

2010-03-12T21:09:00.001-08:00

The 10th annual WPDE Hoop Zone banquet makes it 20 banquets over the past ten years by our sports department. Both Mark and I are grateful to our management team for having the vision of putting the spotlight on our local athletes. It's a special night for kids from all across our community. To think that on the same day we were hosting our banquet we had two former All Hoop Zoners playing in the SEC Tournament (Brendan Knox of Auburn and South Carolina's Sam Muldrow) shows how we've got some talented players that have made it to our banquet year in and year out.

We seem to get a lot of feedback about the voting process. We are always more than happy to explain it.

Hags and I begin in January selecting the team. The roster has expanded from 12 player in year one to 20 boys and 20 girls in year number ten. We have 18 boys coaches, 18 girls coaches and the two WPDE Sports guys select #1, #2 and #3 for top players in the area. First place votes get 3 points, second place 2, and third place one point.

Hags physically collects the ballots over the phone and we compile them. We're pleased with the process as the coaches in our area know what the award is all about and do an excellent job of giving us a landscape of the talent in our area. Coaches can not vote for their own players which eliminates all the bias.

I got this question from Steven Green in Myrtle Beach:

honest question.. how does a player make all-state (julia crews, carolina forest), yet not even get a couple of votes?

First and foremost, Julia was an easy no-brainer lock to make our 20 player All-Hoop Zone team. We usually have a list of about 12-15 players that are in and then we take about 10 more and they are on the bubble so to speak and we make the tough choices to make the team.

The easiest answer to your question is that 10 of our 20 Girls on the 2010 All Hoop Zone team were All-State selections.

Jasmine Phillips and Khadijah Sessions are elite borderline McDonald's All-American talents that are getting recruited by the likes of ACC, SEC and many other major Division I schools. They belong on every ballot in my opinion. Jazz Green is a Division I commitment at the College of Charleston and Geneika Brantley avergaged a double-double and is a state champion. It's a very strong year for girls in our area.

That shouldn't take anything away from what Julia did. Like I said, she is a no-brainer lock to make our team and we're happy that we were able to honor her at the banquet.

Here are some game notes from the 2010 Hoop Zone Banquet. We enjoy looking back on the history of the banquet and the awards.

Hemingway's Quintin Brown and Myrtle Beach's Everett Golson joined an exclusve list of players honored as both All-Zone football players as well as members of the All-Hoop Zone team.

Two Sport All-Zoners
Jarod Gerald, Mullins
Tymere Zimmerman, Marlboro County
Syvelle Newton, Marlboro County
Andy Blondmonville, Myrtle Beach
Cliff Matthews, Cheraw
Jordan Lyles, Hartsville
Everett Golson, Myrtle Beach
Quintin Brown, Hemingway

Over 10 years, 30 of the 34 schools in our area have been a part of the Hoop Zone banquet. Four schools are still seeking their first post-season basketball honor:

East Clarendon, Lake View, Lamar and Waccamaw

Here are the schools with the most Hoop Zone invites over the years:

Schools with most All Hoop Zone Boys selections

1. Hemingway 14
1. Marlboro County 14
3. Myrtle Beach 13
3. Wilson 13
5. Socastee 11
6. Mullins 10

Schools with most All Hoop Zone Girls selections

1. Myrtle Beach 17
1. Wilson 17
3. Darlington 12
4. Timmonsville 8
4. Mullins 8
4. Andrews 8

Schools with most combined Hoop Zone selections

1. Myrtle Beach 30
1. Wilson 30
3. Hemingway 19
4. Marlboro County 18
4. Mullins 18
6. Darlington 17

Signing Day hat switch

2010-02-02T18:16:00.000-08:00

Gamecocks fans should be esctatic with Marcus Lattimore choosing USC over Auburn. I had a chance to spend some time with Marcus after he won South Carolina's Mister Football in Myrtle Beach in December. It was refreshing to be with a young man who was so grounded and mature for his age. I really enjoyed talking with him and I thought he handled the entire recruiting process with class.

Lattimore made the announcement on the night before signing day at his church in Spartanburg. I thought it was neat that Marcus included former NFL great and Auburn running back Stephen Davis as part of his announcement. When Davis came out, everyone had to be thinking it was Auburn. Then, you saw the Auburn hat come out of a burlap sack, but underneath it was a Gamecocks lid and the ultimate answer to everone's question.

It reminded me of another famous "hat trick". On the eve of Signing Day 2003, Syvelle Newton agreed to come to the WPDE studio and announce where he would attend college. It was down to South Carolina and Clemson. It was seven years ago, and it reminds me of how far technology has come. There was no YouTube back in the day and web video was just coming to the forefront. I remember posting the story on our website along with the video and it fried our server due to the overwhelming traffic.

It was something that Gamecocks fans and Clemson fans talked about for many years as the story became folk lore as to what Syvelle did to the Clemson hat. The real answer is below:

The guy standing in the back during Syvelle's announcement. That's Robert Ayers who is now with the Denver Broncos. Right before the commercial, Syvelle leaned into me and whispered "I'm gonna shock the world". I thought that meant he was going to UCLA or Nebraska, but Syvelle should be credited for one of the most talked about announcements in Palmetto state history. It was in all of the newspapers the next day.

Syvelle never made it to the NFL. To this day, he is the most talented player I've seen in ten years of covering high school football. I think that if he would have stayed at quarterback during his entire time at college he would have been a superstar. I'm pretty sure that Steve Spurrier would agree with me on that.

Advances in Technology

2010-01-23T14:54:00.000-08:00

I'm sitting in the sports information office at Charleston Southern at 5:55 pm and I'm not stressing out. I was looking back on an old blog entry where I detailed the trials and tribulations of getting stories filed to the station and I marvel at how far things have progressed. I got to Charleston at 4:30 pm and was able to preview the game send the piece back to Myrtle Beach by 5:30 pm in plenty of time for our 6pm newscast.

It used to be that we had to have a gameplan to jump through a bunch of hoops to possibly get some kind of story for one show, but now it takes is a laptop computer and internet connection to report from just about any place. Last year, I would have had to furiously sprint from Buccaneer Field House to the ABC station in Charleston and try and get into an edit bay and rush to the back and buy a satellite window and hope that we could dial in the coordinates and have a five minute clock to make it all good.

Tonight, I will connect my camera to the laptop at halftime and the highlights will be in the sports edit bay in Myrtle Beach during the second half. This allows us to bring more information back to the viewer when the biggest sporting events happen.

Sometimes slow connections can make things a challenge, but in time, we should be able to get information back from the field almost anywhere. This is great news for big events like state championship games, NCAA coverage and even places like Darlington. I think it is going to significantly enhance the way we can cover local sports (it already has).

We are getting ready for Signing Day 2010 and should have an update on carolinalive.com sometime this week. We're looking at about six I-A signees and a whole bunch on the lower levels. As always, we will air a 30 minute special on February 3rd at 7:30 pm.

My Heisman Ballot

2009-12-07T18:43:00.000-08:00

I spent a good two hours going back and forth with my Heisman ballot. I logged on to the secure site two times and hit the back browser as I went back and forth. I said it last year and I will say it again that the Heisman needs to expand the voting to a top 5 ballot and have five finalists go to New York each and every year. I'm glad that five players are going this year.

I'm started the weekend with six options and had it narrowed down to four by Sunday night. Tim Tebow was my first place vote for the last two years and Colt McCoy probably would have had my vote if there wasn't a Big XII title game. Ndamukong Suh from Nebraska was the guy I left off that I wanted to put on. I'm both relieved and very happy that he made it to New York in the final five as he totally deserves it. I watched him in person at the Gator Bowl last year and I can't see why he won't be the number one pick in the draft. I blame Suh for my stressful Sunday night. I had four guys that I wanted to put on the ballot and three spots - it's as simple as that. I think it's fantastic that there is a defensive player that is a legitimate contender for the award. I also think that if the Gamecocks had reached the SEC title game, Eric Norwood could have been in the same situation with a monster game on national TV.

Now on to my ballot:

at #3, CJ Spiller - Clemson. In nine years of voting, I have never voted for a Gamecock or Tiger until now. I saw Spiller in person twice this season and numerous times over his career. When he returned the opening kickoff for a TD against South Carolina, I was ready to put him first on my ballot, but then the Gamecocks defense took care of that. Spiller only produced 18 yards on the ground in that rival game, but he bounced back with a Heisman worthy performance in the ACC Championship game. So why is Spiller on my ballot? Quite simply, he is the most dangerous big play man in college football. I don't know why a coach would kick or punt to him knowing that there's always a chance he can bust one. If it weren't for the Gamecock defense, Spiller would be in New York. If CJ put together two big games to close out his senior season, he would have been in New York. I thought he deserved to be in New York on Saturday night and I'm sorry that my vote didn't help that cause.

#2, Mark Ingram - Alabama. Ingram's best game statistically came against the Gamecocks and it was awesome. Racking up yards against South Carolina's and Florida's defense and the clutch factor in the SEC Championship game are all major check marks towards hoisting the Heisman, but two rough games (Arkansas and Auburn) are the ultimate reason he ends up 2nd and not first.

#1, Toby Gerhart - Stanford. College football is not a perfect world (see the BCS and no playoff!) I was not going to penalize Gerhart for not playing on championship Saturday. He stepped up against ranked opponents and week in and week out. His worst game was at Wake Forest (82 yards), yet he still averaged nearly five yards a carry in that game. I don't know if Gerhart will have enough juice to win it, but I feel like he'll be a great representative of this great award.

I don't know who's going to win on Saturday, but it should be interesting to say the least.

On the Horizon

2009-11-06T13:55:00.001-08:00

I'm not grading out when it comes to updating the blog, but for good reason. These are busy times in the sports world. Here's what we have coming up in the home stretch of the 2009 year:

WPDE Zone Plays of the Year: Beginning on Monday, November 9th, carolinalive.com will have the 2009 Zone Plays of the Year. There are six categories and six finalists in each category. It's always great to see all the great video we've captured during 11weeks of football and it's fun to see which communities rally and get their fans to stuff the ballots with votes.

Cliff Ellis Show : Our final David Bennett Show airs on Sunday November 22nd. On the following Sunday, November 29th we will have our first Cliff Ellis Show. We'll look back on an exciting November for the Chants highlighted by a trip to Cameron Indoor Stadium to face the Duke Blue Devils. We'll take the month of December off and return with shows every Sunday at noon beginning on Sunday, January 3rd

10th Annual WPDE All-Zone Banquet: The banquet will take place on December 10th, and our special will air on Sunday, December 13th on WPDE. This year we are incorporating a North Carolina All-Zone squad as well as a SCISA player of the year. We'll announce the Zoneman Finalists in mid-November and see if Everett Golson of Myrtle Beach becomes just the second two time winner of the Zoneman, joining Marlboro County's Syvelle Newton.

North South/Mr. Football Special: This will air on Sunday December 13th right before the Zone Banquet at 1:30 pm. This is a statewide special that airs in Columbia, Charleston and Greenville and spotlights the exciting week for the North South All-Stars here in Myrtle Beach. In addition, we'll profile the finalists for Mister Football and talk with the 2009 winner.

On Christmas Day, we'll look back on the top 10 local sports stories of 2009. We'll also post this on carolinalive.com as well to look back on another great year of local sports.

So there you have it - a full plate and we're looking forward to another exciting playoffs on the gridiron.

WPDE Fantasy Football

2009-09-09T20:17:00.000-07:00

In case you wondered if the love for the pigskin extends outside of the sports office, you need to look no further than the WPDE Fantasy Football League. Besides making our weekly Palmetto Picks along with you on palmettopigskin.com, we have a 12 team league that's going five years strong.

I have always said we should televise our fantasy football draft, as it is 90 minutes of hilarious entertainment (we may need to put a few beeps in there to keep it off cable!) The highlight for me is having Ed Piotrowski hurry people along with his picks and then watch time stand still as he pours over sheets and takes his time to make a decision. It wouldn't be a WPDE fantasy football draft if that didn't happen!

Rather than bore you with who got who, I wanted to share with everyone some fantastic team names in our league: My squad is called Technical Difficulty, but it can't hold a candle to these teams.

The Heyyyymakers: Allyson Floyd - Allyson's catchphrase is a southern belle "Heyyyy". Great name

The Franchise: Ed Piotrowski - the defending champ and the nickname I coined for the glue of WPDE 10 years ago. It's been 10 years, but Ed still isn't comfortable with the lofty title.

The Rubes: Graeme Moore - another nickname I gave to our young and ambitious reporter. He had the #1 overall pick in our draft (getting the number from a crumpled piece of paper in a Green Sea-Floyds football helmet). He went against the grain and picked Tom Brady and probably got the most ribbing for his interesting picks.

and the team name of the year goes to WPDE weekend anchor Mola Lenghi:
Back to you Myra......

Last month, Ed and I had the chance to play in the Know Your Score celebrity golf tournament at Long Bay to help raise money for Prostate cancer. Among the celebrities on hand were Craig T. Nelson, the great actor from Coach, Blades of Glory and many other films and TV shows. Realizing he was in the presence of a local superstar in Ed Piotrowski, Nelson hammed it up to our cameras and hammed it up with Ed joking about the weather and then totally ad-libbing and tossing back to the studio with the now infamous "Back to you Myra!"

Mola was on the desk when this happened and even though he was totally making it up, who knew how close Myra was to Mola. So no matter what happens, Mola has wrapped up the title for best Fantasy Football team name in 2009. Who would have known that Craig T. Nelson would have such an impact on our fantasy football league???!!!!

Angry College Football Fans: It's not our fault!!!!!

2009-09-05T14:12:00.000-07:00

It seems as if I write this blog every college football season, but it needs to be mentioned as often as possible.

Like many of you, I'd love to be watching the Georgia/Oklahoma State game right now, but unfortunately, ABC has us showing the Baylor/Wake Forest game. WPDE knows the passion of college football fans in our area and that's why our management has secured the SEC regional package (the 12:30 pm Saturday games that air on CW 21) as well as additional college games whenever we can carry them (two CCU games will air on CW 21 as well).

Our general manager, Billy Huggins, was well aware that fans here would much rather see Georgia/Oklahoma State than Baylor/Wake Forest. For the past 10 years I've been working at WPDE, the 3:30 ABC game has always been the ACC game in the regional lineup. It doesn't matter if #1 is playing #2 in the nation, if there is a 3:30 game, we will have the ACC game - mark it down - it will be that way the rest of the season to the best of my knowledge.

Our GM requested to air the Georgia/Oklahoma State game and offered to put both games on (Baylor/Wake on WPDE, Georgia/Oklahoma State on CW21). ABC turned that request down.

I don't know what else we can do as a station. If we had the ability to choose the 3:30 or 8:00 pm Saturday games on ABC, I'd put a poll on our website every Monday and announce which game got the most votes on Wednesday and tell the network which game we want. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way.

A lot of times when you call and complain to the station on the weekend, there are not a lot of people working and fans get more frustrated by not getting a straight answer. This is the straight answer. It doesn't make it any better and it will not fix the problem. It probably is of little consolation, but WPDE does care about its college football fans and we do the best we can to communicate our programming before the game to let people have a chance to find a way to watch the game.

If anyone wants the number to ABC to complain, I'll get it in the office and Monday and be more than happy to pass it along on this blog post.

HS Football Coaches Survey

2009-07-28T14:35:00.000-07:00

During End Zone/PPP Media Day, we asked the coaches to fill out a survey with a variety of questions. There were no names put on the answer sheets so no one can be linked to a certain answer, but the results were definitely interesting. Below are the results and I'll break down what my thoughts are on each subject.

Should High Schools test players for steroid use? 47 % YES 53% NO

This is a bit surprsing to me as it points towards a steroid problem at some area high schools. It would be tough to get the funding and guidelines for a steroid testing program at the high school level.

Do two a day practices in pre-season need to be adjusted due to heat concerns?
44% YES 56% NO

Over the summer, the national high school trainers outlined a highly reccomended schedule for starting high school football workouts in the preseason in an effort to avoid a heat related death. South Carolina has not adopted any policy, while the NCAA has it set up that you can not have two a day workouts on back to back days. It would not surprise me at all to see the NCAA policy trickle down to every high school. The hope is that it doesn't take a death of a high school player in the Palmetto State to force the issue.

Does South Carolina do a sufficient job of recruiting our area? 56 % YES 44% NO

In my ten years at WPDE, this has been an underlying theme. It seems as if the Gamecocks come into the recruiting game late when it comes to players from our area or they do not pay much attention to them at all. Right now, Cliff Matthews of Cheraw is the jewel recruit of this area who went to USC. It is unfair of me to be too critical of the Gamecocks recruiting staff - it seems to me that they are recruiting our parts just as much as everyone else, but they are usually on the short end of the stick when it comes to the elite players from our area.

Does Clemson do a sufficient job of recruiting our area? 79% YES 21% NO

All you need to do is simply scan the Clemson roster to see the success the Tigers have had in our area. From Derrick Hamilton to Anthony Waters and Michael Hamlin to current Tigers Quandon Christian, Jaron Brown, Jonathan Willard, Scotty Cooper, JaMarcus Grant and Malliciah Goodman, Dabo Swinney and his staff have been able to get our elite athletes to come to Death Valley.

Does Coastal Carolina do a sufficient job of recruiting our area? 70% YES 30% NO
The Chants have picked their spots well and have stolen some players from our backyard, starting with Aundres Perkins of West Florence in the first recruiting class. From there, All-Americans Quinton Teal of Marlboro County and Brad Poston from West Florence started a tradition that includes names like Racheed Gause, Chris Walls and Carolina Forest's Tommy Frasier. The biggest challenge for David Bennett and his staff is to convince the 'tweeners that they are better off playing at Coastal Carolina for four years than to sit on the bench in the ACC or SEC for two to three years. The Chants track record of producing 4 NFL players in six years should be sufficient in accomplishing that.

Is there a drug problem at your school? 32% YES 68% NO
I exepcted this number to be a little higher. It's encouraging to see that the majority of our schools are not dealing with this.

Do too many teams make the playoffs? 29 % YES 71 % NO
I would be giving a "Yes" vote to this. It seems as if the first round of the playoffs has too many lopsided affairs. I'd like to see region champs get a bye in round one and let 2 and 3 fight it out.

Are you pleased with the way the SCHSL governs high school football?
85% YES 8% NO 7% Undecided

I would have thought there would have been more "No" votes especially since some of our schools have been disciplined by the league over the years, but Jerome Singleton should be happy with this number.

Who is the coach in our area who you respect the most?
Chuck Jordan, Conway: 23.5%
Jewell McLaurin, Lake View: 11.7%
Burney Bourne, Waccamaw: 5.8%
Tim Renfrow, Socastee: 5.8%
JR Boyd, Lamar: 5.8%
Nate Thompson, Carvers Bay: 5.8%

I don't know this for a fact, but I assume that nearly all of Horry County and the beach area voted for Chuck and rightfully so. Beyond his ability to coach young men on the gridiron, Jordan has literally built the Conway program into something special. He was the catalyst behind the new fieldhouse and he has sent countless players onto college and given them an education that they might not have gotten if he wasn't there. There are so many outstanding coaches in the area who got votes like Jackie Hayes of Dillon, Darryl Page of Wilson and Jeff Calabrese of Hartsville who are worthy of being on this list as well.

Where do you think the HS football state championships be held?
Columbia: 79%
Doesn't matter: 9%
Coastal Carolina: 6%
Home site: 6%

No brainer here. The beach schools and even the Pee Dee have the longest trek to Death Valley. Williams-Brice Stadium is smack dab in the middle of the state and is the most logical place to play the state championships.

In one word, what is the biggest challenge you face as a coach?
Money/support: 20.5%
Attitude/commitment: 20.5%
Parents: 11.7%

I would have thought parents won this before we started, but both money and attitude make a lot of sense as to great challenges.

Our high school football previews begin on Monday, August 3rd and we are working on expanded web coverage as well as some new segments this season. Until then, Hags and I will take turns living in the edit bay and getting ready for the 2009 season.

The Way We Get By

2009-07-17T22:06:00.000-07:00

Prior to coming to Myrtle Beach in 2000, I spent four and a half years in Bangor, Maine as the sports director of the ABC affiliate in town. When I wasn't scraping ice or dodging moose, I was working alongside a great group of people. The tin building we effectionally called "Circle 7" was far from a premiere broadcasting facility (we thought it could serve well as the center of a Stephen King novel), but there were so many talented folks who worked hard to get out of the snow and on to other stops in their career.

Two of my friends behind the scenes, Aron Gaudet and Dan Ferrigan, wanted to have a career in film making. I always thought the TV business was a tough racket, but go ahead and try and make a film and then figure out a way to get it to the big screen without the help and power of a Warner Brothers or some other big studio.

Aron and his fiance, Gita Pulapilly, found the subject for a documentary. Aron's mother, Joan, was living by herself in Bangor and was going around the clock to Bangor International Airport to greet troops as they were leaving and coming back to Iraq.

The Way We Get By took four years to make and is much more than the storyline outlined below. Three subjects are the focal point of the film and it's just as much about how the troops help keep them going as it is the amazing story of the dedication they have to saluting the armed forces and what they do for their country.

Here's what makes this film tremendous. There's no political agenda whatsoever and it gives a respect to the elderly that doesn't get enough credit in society.

Sure, I'm biased - after all both Gaudet and Ferrigan are 11 year members of my Maine Media Roti League and the round the clock promoting of the movie has Aron's Goodfellas in an uncharacteristic struggling season, but this is a great film. The photography and editing is top notch and weaves the story without the typical documentary that has the booming voice setting the table for each segment.

The Way We Get By will be airing across the nation on Veteran's Day on PBS stations and is continuing to work its way around the country winning numerous film festivals. I hope to get it to play at the Myrtle Beach Film Festival. Anyone with a military connection in their family will be touched by the movie.

Look - the next 50 blogs I write will be about sports. For me to step out of my universe and be genuinely moved by a non-sports documentary says something. On a personal note, Aron and Dan were behind the lens when we did a series of Sports Challenges in Bangor. It is amazing to see how far they have come. It's a great lesson to believe in something and see it through even though when things look bleak. I have so much admiration at the perserverance when lack of funding jeopardized the movie ever getting to the screen. Sometimes you get so immersed in a project you can stress yourself out wondering if anyone else will get what your trying to say. Aron and Dan and the rest of the crew didn't give up when times got tough and the result is a pile of awards with more coming.

To see trailers, reviews, etc check this link out: www.thewaywegetbymovie

To see trailers, reviews, etc check this link out: www.thewaywegetbymovie.com

May Mailbag

2009-05-20T17:35:00.000-07:00

Now that Darlington and the high school season in the rear view mirror, I can catch up on some emails. The world of sports is vast, both national and local and it's tough to keep everyone happy, but we do the best we can. I also enjoy letting our viewers know why we do the things we do. So here are this month's questions:

Anita writes:

Why is there sports shows for High School football and basketball, but no reports for any other HS sports, such as baseball, soccer, etc. Are these not just as important? Thanks

Anita - I seem to get these questions all the time. After finishing up the spring sports season, I can give you the best explanation possible. We have had a lot of high school baseball, softball and soccer fans that have voiced their displeasure with our lack of coverage in the months of March and April. In recent years, we've made it a point to focus on the post-season in the spring sports and we really went all out in covering the post-season. We were able to get to a number of teams who made great runs in the playoffs. The logistics of getting from diamond to diamond or soccer pitch to soccer pitch makes things very hard to devote a show to these sports. On Saturday afternoon, I was in Pawleys Island and had the opportunity to participate in John Fox's charity golf tournament at Caledonia. After the event, I went to Waccamaw High School for the Warriors quarterfinal game against Barnwell. I got there with 25 minutes to go in the second half in a scoreless game at approximately 3:00 pm. In a thriller, the Warriors scored a 1-0 win in quadruple overtime. I left the school at 4:30 pm and arrived at our studio at 5:15 pm. Simple math dictates that I invested 3 hours for a 20 to 30 second highlight clip. No complaints here, it was great to get a sudden death game winning goal and the folks in Waccamaw were awesome and grateful for the coverage. But unlike football or basketball where you can get to multiple locations in a span of 2 to 3 hours, it is much more difficult to do that in other sports. On Monday, we had three local teams playing for softball state championships. South Florence and Johnsonville were both playing around 6:00 pm. We had to choose one or the other as we would not have gotten signficant highlights for both.
For high school football, thanks to our tremendous sponsorship we are able to get 8 to 10 shooters to help us put together our 50 minute show. After that, we are a two man department trying to do our best to cover 34 high schools.

Jack Lutes writes:

That's it, I'm done watching WPDE!!!!

Though I totally enjoy watching "most" of your 6, 10 (and sometimes 11 PM) news programs, I can honestly say today, I have watched for the last time. And you can thank your so called sports director, Rich Crampanis for that.

Today, he covered golf in Hilton Head, tennis in Charleston, High school lacrosse, NBA basketball in Boston and Braves baseball. No mention of our local pro baseball team, the Myrtle Beach Pelicans. I understand that people are interested in all the sports and believe me, I enjoy hearing the results of all the other events but would it hurt to at least mention last night's score or a few words about tonight's game?

Come on, give us a break and at least mention our local guys. He fails to mention them more than he does mention them.

Count me as a new viewer for another (newer) local station. They might not have the news and weather coverage of WPDE but the sports coverage has to be better that what you try to pass off as quality sports reporting.

Jack Lutes

Jack was fired up and I called him directly. On this particular night, the Pelicans were playing at 7pm and we didn't do a story at 6pm. The modern news cycle usually dictates a rundown with entirely fresh material. There are some times when we have a big local story at 11pm that we would re-run the following day at 6pm usually with a different twist to it. In the old days, the local TV sportscast would be one of the few places along with the newspaper to get your sports information. The fact of the matter is that you can get the scores of the Pelicans on their website, the Carolina League's website as well as the newspaper. We make it a point to report their score on the 11pm news if they are on the road and we continue to go to nearly every home game during the season. What I find ironic is that Hags and I have been to more Myrtle Beach Pelicans combined than just about anyone (media, front office, etc). That's why I was a little miffed that Jack was coming down on us. You can criticize us about some things, but saying we don't cover the Pelicans well is a little out of bounds. Jack wrote a nice email back which I appreciated and we will continue to do our best in giving extensive coverage of the Birds in 2009.

Carol Colaner writes:

Yesterday,May 13 St James high baseball won their game so to go Lower State Championships.A local team and not a mention on your sports news ?????

Carol - plain and simple we did not get a score called in. We made it a point to focus on the winner's bracket games in our coverage during the playoffs and did not shoot the Saint James win on Wednesday night. Here's the other dilemma we have. I am anchoring the news at 6 and 7pm. I couldn't get to the Finway Park until 8pm and I'm sure the game is nearly over. Congratulations to the Sharks on a great season - I'm glad we were able to get to their district win over Myrtle Beach

The area's greatest athlete passes

2009-04-20T12:25:00.001-07:00

Over the weekend, Felix "Doc" Blanchard of Bishopville died in his Texas home at the age of 84. If Blanchard was playing during the ESPN and internet era, he would have been as big a name as Tim Tebow. The Army running back was the first junior to win the Heisman and won back to back national championships in 1944 and 1945.
In 2004, Mark Haggard and I decided to take on the project of profiling the 15 greatest athletes from the Pee Dee and Grand Strand. We selected a panel of local experts who had a lot of experience and insight in our area to vote on the top athletes from our area. As always, lists like this are subjective. Here is the list we had in 2004:

WPDE's 15 Greatest Athletes of the Pee Dee and Grand Strand

#15: Reggie Sanders (Florence) - MLB

#14: Anthuan Maybank (Georgetown) - Olympic Gold Medal

#13: Buddy Baker (Florence) - NASCAR

#12: Terry Kinard (Sumter) - NFL

#11: Jumpy Geathers (Georgetown) - NFL

#10: Willie Puddin' Head Jones (Dillon) - MLB

#9: Bobo Newsom (Hartsville) - MLB

#8: Pearl Moore (Florence) - women's basketball (FMU)

#7: John Abraham (Lamar) - NFL

#6: Levon Kirkland (Lamar) - NFL

#5: Harry Carson (Florence) - NFL

#4: Cale Yarborough (Sardis) - NASCAR

#3: Freddie Solomon (Sumter) - NFL

#2: Bobby Richardson (Sumter) - MLB

#1: Doc Blanchard (Bishopville) - Heisman Trophy winner

We did this project five years ago. A couple of interesting things. First, our top three athletes came from what would now be considered outside of our viewing area. If we were to do this list again, we would likely exclude the Sumter players, but keep Bobby Richardson as he lives part of the year here on the Grand Strand. At the time, Harry Carson was not in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, but now he is. I always thought that Carson and Cale Yarborough should have been higher on this list.

Five years later, there would be new names that you would argue could make the top 15list:

Raymond Felton (Latta) - NBA
Ramon Sessions (Myrtle Beach) - NBA
Albert Haynesworth (Hartsville) - NFL
Lawrence Timmons (Florence) - NFL
Robert Geathers, Jr. (Georgetown) - NFL
Dustin Johnson (Myrtle Beach) - PGA

This was a fun project that gave us a great history lesson on our area when it comes to athletes. Doc Blanchard was a very private person and we were fortunate enough to talk to him just outside of Manning when he came to visit his sister. Blanchard never got to play in the NFL, because he chose to honor his military commitment. If there's one thing this project taught us, this area is a fertile ground when it come to elite athletes. Perhaps a couple of years down the road, we will re-visit this project and update our 15 greatest athletes from the Pee Dee and Grand Strand.

Just to put Blanchard's legacy in perspective. Imagine if a modern day Heisman winner went #3 overall to the Pittsburgh Steelers in the first round of the draft and went to Iraq or Afghanistan instead and never played pro football. That's what Blanchard did to serve our country and a lifetime of "what if" when it comes to professional football.

The Sports Guy and I agree!

2009-04-18T19:12:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite stops on the internet is to read Bill Simmons columns on espn.com. The Sports Guy hardly needs an endorsement from me, but if you haven't had a chance to read his stuff, you definitely should. I wonder if he gets paid by the word, because if that's the case, he's a very rich man. The Sports Guy recently wrote a column breaking down the MVP race in the NBA starting from 450 and working his way to #1. Now, he didn't actually write about all 450 players, but he came close enough. Here's what he wrote about our two time WPDE Mister Hoop Zone Raymond Felton from Latta:

51. Raymond Felton
The guy I'd pursue this summer if I ran an NBA team. Ten weeks of trade rumors bounced off him and he never held a grudge. He has lottery pick pedigree (fifth overall in 2005), and if we've learned anything over the years, it's that many blue-chip point guards take awhile to "ferment" (for lack of a better word). He's one of the five or six best people in the league by all accounts. I've never seen a Bobcats game where he didn't play as hard as he could. The arc of his first four years looks exactly like Chauncey Billups, and like Chauncey, his game will open up once he starts making 3s. Just a lot to like. Someone will steal him this summer just like Detroit stole Billups in 2002. You watch.

To read the whole article, cut and paste this link:
http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/090415

Now, I'll take you back to the Janaury 14th posting I had on this very blog:

It is no coincedence that Felton's game has picked up since the trade rumors have started. 23 points, 9 assists, 6 rebounds and only 1 turnover against the Detroit Pistons that included the game winning jumper with .7 seconds left may be Raymond's finest effort as a pro. Whenever Raymond hears doubters, his determination raises to an elite level. I saw it in high school and in college and now it's the pros. If I'm looking for a comparison, the best I can come up with is Chauncey Billups who was a top 5 pick by the Boston Celtics and was eventually moved and became a great guard.

Felton is now a restricted free agent and it will be interesting to see which teams make a play for him and if the Bobcats will have the wallet to match an offer.

I am hardly a Peter Vescey or Bill Simmons. My NBA knowledge consists of two guys: Raymond and Ramon Sessions, who both proved they are on their way to long and fruitful careers in the league. This is not worthy of making one of Simmons marathon chats or mailbag sessions, but it's a moment for me. Simmons campaigned to be the Milwaukee Bucks GM and made some pretty valid points. I'm sure he'd agree with my assessment of Ramon's red hot play to close out the season.

Rotisserie baseball: Fantasy baseball on steroids

2009-04-04T14:35:00.000-07:00

With opening night in baseball almost upon us, I made a note to post my 2009 Roti baseball team on the blog so I can keep track of my team throughout the years. For the past 13 years, I've run a roti baseball league that was originally formed in Maine. Among the 10 owners in that original draft, none of us live in Maine anymore! We have kept the same group of owners for the past ten years.

Roti baseball is like fantasy baseball on steroids. When I graduated from college, I was getting into fantasy sports and bought the Rotisserie baseball book and decided to start a league. Fantasy baseball can have a stacked all-star team of elite players from both the American League and National League. Like fantasy football, you go pick by pick and simply select the best player that is available.

Here's the rules for our 10 team roti league:

American League only
$260 budget for 23 players - 2 C, 1B, 2B, SS, 3B, MI (SS or 2b), CI (1b or 3b), DH, 5 OF and 9 pitchers
you may protect anywhere between 5 and 12 players for each draft
10 categories
batting average, HR, RBI, SB, R for offense
Wins, Saves, ERA, WHIP, K's for pitching (WHIP and hits divided by Innings pitched)
You don't face teams in regular games - it's 10 points for leading a category, 1 point for last place in a category.
If a player is traded from the AL to the NL, you lose that player! If a player gets traded from the NL to the AL you can bid to get him on your team. The roster management and strategy is great. Like many teams in real baseball, you get into a spending mode when you have a chance at winning it all; if you are having a bad year, you trade off your high priced players for youngsters who can help you in the future.
Here's the great thing. On draft day, you can literally have any player you want. You simply need to outbid the other 9 owners. Many a championship has been won in the late rounds when you grab a young prospect for a dollar and he becomes a superstar. When you get a player, you get him on a 3 year contract. At the end of three years, you have to pay $5 more to re-sign him.

We held our draft last week. We used to have to get together in groups around the country and do some of the draft on the phone, some via chat room on computer and the day could be as long as 12 hours. Technology is finally in our favor in year three as we had a draft room with all of our rosters, available players at our fingertips. We were able to get the draft cranked out in just under 3 hours.

Here is who went for the highest dollar amount in our draft:

Josh Beckett, Red Sox pitcher: $52
Matt Holiday, Oakland outfielder: $45
Daiske Matsuzaka, Red Sox pitcher: $43

Here's my team for 2009, the * are players I protected from the previous year

* C: Joe Mauer, Min - $15
* C: Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Tex - $5
* 1B: Billy Butler, KC: $10
2B: Asdrubal Cabrera, Cle: $1
SS: Elvis Andrus, Tex: $22
3B: Hank Blalock, Tex: $12
CI: Brendan Harris, Min: $3
MI: Nomar Garciaparra, Oak: $1
DH: Luke Scott, Baltimore: $7
* OF: Mike Cuddyer, Min: $6
* OF: Jermaine Dye: Chi: $12
* OF: Adam Jones, Bal: $10
OF: Jason Bay, Bos: $40
OF: Hideki Matsui, NY: $19

* P: Joey Devine, Oak: $10
* P: Gavin Floyd, Chi: $10
P: Brian Fuentes, Ana: $40
* P: Justin Masterson, Bos: $5
* P: Jeff Niemann, TB: $5
P: Carl Pavano, Cle: $1
P: Andy Pettitte, NY: $15
* P: Joel Zumaya, Det: $5
* P: David Price, TB: $5

After our regular draft, we hold a three round minor league draft. I have had great success with minor league picks in the past. Salty was my first round minor league pick last year. My second round pick was Elvis Andrus. I made a huge mistake by not protecting him. I wound up paying $22 for him when I had him locked in at $5! Hope Elvis doesn't let me down.

I finished in 8th place last year and made a couple of trades for the future. I dealt Mariano Rivera at $40 to a contending team for David Price and Justin Masterson. I also dealt Gil Meche at $6 for Billy Butler and Jermaine Dye.

I had a good amount of money to play with on draft day which allowed me to get Jason Bay at $40 and Brian Fuentes for $40 - a top level outfielder and a closer. I was thrilled to get Blalock for $12 and Matsui for $19, I expected them to higher. My biggest concerns - starting pitching and stolen bases.

SB's is the main reason I overpaid for Elvis. Hopefully he can swipe 30-40 stolen bases and I get some help from Adam Jones and Cabrera. I've got some young arms, but injuries and the Rays sending Price to the minors is killing me right now. I'm looking at Devine and Zumaya on the DL to start the season, Price in the minors, and Justin Masterson in the bullpen. This will hurt my wins and saves. I need Fuentes to be a stud closer and hope that Devine and Zumaya can get saves later on in the season. I'm hoping that Carl Pavano is a steal and I find some young arms to start the season that can get me some wins.

Now that we've been in this league for 13 years, I wish I had my old opening day rosters so I could look back and see what kind of bargains and flops I've had over the years. Now, I'll check back in October and see if I can win my first Roti title. The best I've ever done is 3rd - maybe this is the year for Can O Corn.

Spring football notes

2009-03-25T15:32:00.000-07:00

Just a few local notes as spring football is in full swing at South Carolina, Clemson and CCU:

* Cliff Matthews getting some time at tight end

The former WPDE Zoneman Finalist has been one of Steve Spurrier's favorites and the Ball Coach says he wants the best 11 men on the field. Matthews will still be one of the keys to the Gamecocks defense , but it looks like we may see him in goal line situations. What Spurrier should realize is that Cliff has got a great pair of hands and would be more than capable of making some catches on play action in the end zone. I've got plenty of archive video of big Cliff making some great grabs during his days at Cheraw

* Spencer Benton breaks his collarbone

The Myrtle Beach Seahawk spent spring break snowboarding and broke his collarbone, but will still kick in spring practice for Clemson. The redshirt freshman is the front runner to take over placekicking duties for Dabo Swinney. Spencer is not your typical kicker - he's an excellent wakeboarder. I'm just hoping MTV's Nitro Circus doesn't invite him to try some stunts - Benton needs to stay in one piece over the next four years.

* CCU Pro Day on Friday, scrimmage on Saturday

There won't be the fanfare of last year when Jerome Simpson and Mike Tolbert worked out in front of NFL scouts, but CCU will hold a pro day this Friday with such prospects as Mario Norman, Britt Leggett and Ronnie Mason trying to make an impression.

Gamecocks: Bubble likely burst

2009-03-14T14:01:00.000-07:00

I'm not a licensed bracketologist, but I know one. One of my good friends works closely with Joe Lunardi and the maddening process of selecting the field of 65. Here's a look at South Carolina's resume as it sits on the fence:

Gamecocks Resume

21 wins, 10 in the SEC (SEC East co-champs)
RPI: 59 (as of Saturday)
key wins: Auburn, at Baylor, Florida
key losses: Mississippi State (twice), at Florida, Tennessee (twice)
wins vs. RPI top 50 = zero

When you break down the Gamecocks, you have to look at it this way. USC is competing for an at-large bid. There's no need to compare the RPI's of teams that have won automatic bids - just look at the competition for the at-large spots.
The first thing you have to start with is RPI (Ratings Index Percentage). Normally, an RPI in the 30's or 40's can make you feel strong about getting a bid. Teams have gotten into the Dance with an RPI in the 50's, but it's rare.
The next thing you look at is the SEC, which is definitely down this year. With Mississippi State in the SEC title game against Tennessee, you can surmise that LSU and the Vols are locked into the field. The Bulldogs can lock up a 3rd SEC bid or make a case for an at large by making the run to the SEC finals.
So the bottom line is this: if South Carolina gets an at-large bid, that means that four SEC teams will get invited to the tournament. Mississippi State getting two wins over the Gamecocks puts them ahead of USC in the pecking order. Most years, double digit wins in the SEC would lock you into the field, but this year, that's not the case.
The fact that the Gamecocks are 0-4 against RPI top 50 and they have lost three of their last four are two more strikes when there name comes up behind closed doors.
That's why I think, USC is heading to the NIT. Ultimately, they were one win short of making it. If they had beaten Tennessee at home or topped Mississippi State in Atlanta, it would have been a done deal. Clemson, who's RPI is in the 20's - should be a 5 or 6 seed come Sunday.

March Mailbag

2009-03-12T16:09:00.001-07:00

Now that the Hoop Zone banquet is behind us, I am finally getting the chance to answer some well written and well thought out emails. I'd like to thank everyone below for writing in - it's a delight to answer folks who took the time to put together some great questions and concerns. So here we go!

Garrett Bateman writes:

To Whom it may Concern:
I am writing you this evening concerning the content and quality of your local sportscast. Quite frankly, I am sorry to say that I find it to be rather poor in content. The quality and knowledge is most definitely there and your knowledge and passion are present. However,many other things are sadly lacking. Let me explain what I mean.
I recently moved to N. Myrtle Beach from Phoenix, AZ. Phoenix has all 4 major sports represented in town. In addition, we had Arizona State,NASCAR,boxing, high school sports, golf, etc. They even had time to talk about NAU and that junior college in Tucson. My point is, they talked about local sports and still had time for national sports. That is something that is sadly lacking in your broadcast. You seem to solely focus on the Carolinas or past Carolina athletes now in the pros. Your national coverage is nil. While I do realize that there are not many Sun Devil, D-Back, or Suns fans in town, there are other teams out there. I can promise you that there are plenty of Cowboys,Colts,Rockies,Ohio State,Rockies,Pacers,Rays,etc, fans out there. Please devote sometime to national coverage. It is the only thing lacking in what is otherwise a fine news and sports program. Thank you for your attention.

Garrett:
First of all, welcome to the Grand Strand. You are right on the mark in your analysis. There used to be a time when we were able to show some national sports to go along with our extensive coverage, but those days are gone. Our philosophy has to be extensive local sports coverage. On weekends, we get afforded a little more extra time to show some national stories, but our goal is to have as much local coverage as possible. Quite frankly, there are so many places you can go to get the national sports starting first and foremost with ESPN that it doesn't make sense for us to try and cover the national scene. I can remember growing up that the local sportscast was the only way I could see Larry Bird or Tom Seaver, but things have changed. It is important for us to give viewers things that can not be seen on ESPN which is why what your wrote above is exactly what we are doing. You will still see national sports here and there from us, but honestly, we are being lazy if we show too many national sports stories. It's our job to get out in the communities and cover them through high school, college and our local products playing in the pros.

Howard Gump writes:

Why don't you cover High School baseball ?????

Karen has a similar question:

You give a "Mr. End Zone" award for high school football, a "Mr. and Miss Hoop Zone" for basketball, so what do you give for the high school baseball players? Why is it that friday nights during the fall and winter have full coverage for high school football and basketball, but there is very minimal coverage for baseball? We never see scores for the area high schools - they get replaced by the Pelicans or the Chanticleers. Please make an effort to give them coverage they deserve, after all, they work just as hard as the football and basketball players. Why don't you give the "Mr. Diamond Zone" award for the best area baseball player? Just a suggestion from a devoted baseball fan and a devoted WPDE viewer.

Howard and Karen:

Year in and year out, we get a small yet powerful niche of local sports fans who want more extensive high school baseball coverage. We are trying to make some headway in improving our spring sports coverage. It's true that the Pelicans and CCU baseball are in direct competition and that has an impact on what we can do. I am making an attempt of expanding our coverage on carolinalive.com. We will attempt to have schedules and results posted on each of our 34 team pages on carolinalive.com. The goal here is to get folks to email/call us with scores on a regular basis and build up some interest on the web. We will still go out and get highlights of regular season games. We have always geared up for post-season coverage and will continue to do so.

Karen, I would like to have a long term goal of taking the Zoneman/Mr and Miss Hoop Zone contact and expand it to every varsity sports. Mr. Soccer Zone, Miss Soccer Zone - Mr. Baseball Zone, Softball, etc. We need to get to a point where every single varsity coach can establish regular communication with us and we can organize it in such a way that we can ballot the top players in our area in every single sport. It's going to take baby steps and hopefully the addition of our high school baseball and softball schedules to our website is the first step. I would like to have a Mr and Miss Diamond Zone one day. If we can get 68 coaches to get on board, we will make that our next step.

A Hilliard writes:

Dear WPDE Sports Team:

I watch your sportscasts at least once a day. I pay special attention to any mention of Coastal Carolina athletics and it appears to me that your station is always highlighting every former Coastal athlete that has gone pro with the exception of Quinton Teal from Marlboro County. I am cognizant of the fact that Quinton isn't a high profile athlete, but if you check his stats or talk with the Panthers' personnel they think extremely highly of him. Of course being in the limelight is not Quinton's "thing". All he is concerned with is getting his job done and doing it well. Furthermore, and correct me if I'm wrong, but Quniton is the only Coastal player from your viewing area that has made it to the "big time". Another concern I have is WPDE's lack of coverage of Robert Ayers and his performance at the NFL's combine in Indianapolis. According to most NFL analysts, Robert is now rated as the number one defensive player in this year's draft. One expert ranked him as the best overall athlete in this year's draft. Robert chose WPDE to announce his college decision. I would like to think you would at least give him some recognition for what he has accomplished.
This neglect of athletes from Marlboro County is making me wonder if WPDE has prejudice against Marlboro County athletes in general. Hopefully, I am completely misguided in my opinions and possibly missed your reports on these athletes. I hope so, but if I'm right, please correct this omission. These are two outstanding young men who would deserve recognition even if they had not excelled in sports. And yes, you have probably ascertained that I am from Marlboro County and know both of these men well. Just ask Tonya Brown who her favorite teacher is. Thank you for your time.

Ms. Hilliard:

First off, if you are dropping Tonya Brown's name - that's good enough for me! I can't tell you what an invalauble asset Tonya is to our station. More important than that, she's an even better person! We're so lucky to have her at WPDE. I'm glad you dropped me a line as I can give you a definitive answer on both Mr. Teal and Mr. Ayers. First off with Robert - we have done two stories on him in recent months. The first one was when he recorded a QB sack in the end zone of the Senior Bowl. The second story was when he was at the NFL Combine in Indianapolis. We were fortunate enough to get a satellite feed of his workout in front of NFL scouts and GM's and was able to show it the following day. We also previewed the combine and talked about the very thing you mentioned in the text above - it's a good chance that Robert will be a first round draft pick. We have already done an interview with Dean Boyd that we will run closer to the draft to talk about Robert's amazing progress. That makes a total of three stories we have already done with at least one more coming before the draft.
Now on to Quinton Teal. Your letter above is spot on when it comes to the former CCU All-American. Quinton does not like the limelight at all. He cringes when we ask him to do an interview and it has become a running joke with us over the years. I invited Quinton to be a guest speaker at our TD Club during the Panthers bye week and he backed out at the last minute. I invited him to come to our fundraiser dinner along with Tyler Thigpen and Mike Tolbert, but he said he was out of town.
I promise you, we'll keep trying! I may drop your name the next time he tries to get out of an interview with us. Quinton is a great kid and we're very proud of what he has accomplished.

Thanks again to everyone who has written in! Enjoy the March Madness

The Angry Basketball Fan

2009-02-18T09:59:00.000-08:00

The high school basketball playoffs are in full swing and each game becomes bigger and bigger on the road to the state championships in Columbia. I thought I'd pass along this email from "Batik" and respond:

It's a shame that you missed a very good game between Lake City and Darlington in Lake City Tuesday night. I thought WPDE might actually cover this game, but then I reminded myself that neither school has "Myrtle Beach" in its name. I used to really like your sports segment, but now it's just a joke. I really hate the you ignore so many high school athletic programs just to serve Horry County. It makes one think that the Horry County School District is a majority owner of WPDE.

Batik

I just wanted to share with you our behind the scenes thinking on how we choose what games to cover during the post-season. First of all, I'll give you the rundown of games we covered during Tuesday night's 11pm sportscast:

1. Marlboro County at Myrtle Beach BOYS
2. Georgetown at Wilson BOYS
3. North Augusta at Carolina Forest GIRLS
4. Kingstree at Dillon GIRLS

If you are keeping score, that is 4 Pee Dee schools and 3 Beach schools (if you want to get technical, 2 from Horry County and 1 from Georgetown County). Batik's argument that we are showing only Horry County games doesn't hold much weight when you look at that lineup.
As for the Lake City/Darlington game, there's no question it was one of the better first round games on the board. Here's how we came to the decision to show the four games we did on Tuesday night. The first thing you have to look at is logistics. I anchor the 6pm and 7pm newscasts which means I can not get out of the parking lot until 7:30 pm. From our Conway studios, that limits me to what I can cover with the games tipping off at 7pm. Fortunately, I was able to get to Myrtle Beach High with 3:00 minutes to go in the 3rd quarter and stay until the 6:00 mark of the 4th quarter. With the Seahawks building a double digit lead, I made the call to try and get the end of the Carolina Forest girls game. I was lucky enough to get to the Forest with 2:20 to go in the 4th and a tie game. If Myrtle Beach and Marlboro was a closer game in the 4th, I would have probably stayed the distance and got the end of this game. The other equation is Mark Haggard. Hags has the flexibility of going further away. From January 15 to the end of the regular season, Hags and I are in an evaulation mode. We gather as much information as we can on area teams and begin to construct our watch list for our All-Hoop Zone teams. Our goal here is to get a list of about 20 players that we can narrow down to 15 and form our All-Hoop Zone team for both boys and girls. As we arrive in February, Hags and I begin to look at that list and determine which players we have video/highlights of. We then make it a priority to get highlights of the players on this list. With the first round of playoffs, we have covered about 90 percent of our list. One team that we did not have video of was the Kingstree girls so we made it a priority to grab them in the first round of the playoffs. Kingstree happened to be at Dillon in round one and then we simply looked at what other game we could get and the jaunt down Highway 95 to Wilson was logical.
Here's the irony. If the Kingstree girls were at home instead of on the road, Hags would have went to the Lake City game and paired it up with the Jaguar girls. Unfortunately, that couldn't happen. We've been able to show the Lake City boys three times this year and they are an outstanding team. It becomes a simple math problem: 34 teams boys and girls plus about a dozen SCISA squads. That's 80 teams we cover in boys and girls varsity basketball. We get 2:45 for sports every night. We try to maximize our time and resources. We appreciate the passion that all of our local sports fans have for their hometown team.
I appreciate Batik writing in and am always willing to explain why we make the choices we do when it comes to our sports coverage. We can't keep everyone happy all of the time. I hope that Lake City makes a deep run in the post-season and we can give them the coverage they deserve.

Blame it on the Rain

2009-02-16T11:30:00.000-08:00

Dustin Johnson hoisted his second PGA Tour trophy in Pebble Beach when officials cancelled the final 18 holes after two days of bad weather out west. There are some amazing stats that are now attached to the former CCU All-American.

* Dustin and Anthony Kim are the only two players under 25 with two PGA Tour victories

* Dustin is now 45th in the world and has qualified for the Accenture World Match Play Championships next week

* Dustin has qualified for the Masters and the US Open

* Dustin shot -15 under par, and amazingly, not one of his birdies were shown on the Golf Channel or CBS during their 9 live hours of coverage of the event

This has to be a first in the history of the PGA Tour! This wasn't a low level PGA Tour event - five of the top 15 players in the world were in the field and Dustin was invisible when it came to TV coverage. The tournament was played on three separate courses and the majority of the TV coverage was at Pebble Beach. This is one of two events on tour where celebrities and amateurs play alongside the pros for the weekend. As a result, you saw every Carson Daly bogey putt and the antics of Bill Murray and George Lopez and the actual tournament itself took a backseat. On Thursday, Dustin played Pebble Beach and was in a tie for the first round lead. The Golf Channel showed one sand save and one great recovery shot from behind a tree and a missed birdie putt. The winner of the tournament was on national TV for a grand total of 45 seconds. CBS, to their credit, was able to show two birdies on Sunday from Saturday's round during their rain delay coverage.

Has this ever happened in the history of the Tour? A young gun wins an event that is pretty high up on the food chain on the PGA Tour calendar outside the majors and not one of his birdies makes the telecast? If Tiger Woods shot -15 under over the weekend, why do I have a feeling that the CBS and Golf Channel folks would have figured out a way to get some cameras out to Poppy Hills or Spyglass. Same goes for Phil Mickelson or any other big name.

I understand the appeal of showing the celebrity aspect. In the year round grind of the tour, it's a change of pace and there is a certain appeal for the non die hard golf fan to stop by and watch some A-listers hack it around. But it would have been nice for them to show just a sliver of the pros and set the stage for Sunday when the tournament would be decided. CBS abandoned the touring pros on Saturday with the premise that they would get back to normal business on Sunday. But then the rains came and we never truly got to see Dustin do his stuff in the final 18 holes.

Between Dustin's rainout and Matt Kenseth's anti-climatic rainout win at Daytona, the weather put a damper on a big sports weekend. The good news is that I don't think this is the last time we'll see Dustin Johnson contending for a win on the Tour.

Duke/UNC Update

2009-02-11T12:18:00.001-08:00

It appears that we have a happy ending in regards to the Duke/UNC fiasco. Raycom Sports was made aware of the snafu we encountered with CW and has lifted the blackout on the ESPN telecast in the entire Florence/Myrtle Beach market. This means that regardless of your cable provider, you can see the Duke/North Carolina game on ESPN LIVE at 9pm. The Raycom feed will still air live on HTC Cable Channel 6 and off of digital antenna on CW 21.2

There are many times that programming issues do not have a solution or a happy ending. A special thanks to HTC for jumping on board with us right away and helping us come up with a solution to the problem. Our management did a fantastic job of working on a solution immediately and as a result, a very small portion of our audience will miss the game live instead of the lion's share of our viewers.

A recap of the schedule for Wednesday's Duke/UNC game

LIVE on ESPN at 9pm for all cable viewers in the Florence/Myrtle Beach market (blackout lifted!) - good call by Raycom/ACC

LIVE on HTC Cable Channel 6 at 9pm for Raycom/ACC feed

LIVE on CW 21.2 (off air digital antenna) for Raycom/ACC feed

one hour tape delay on CW 21 (10pm) for Raycom/ACC feed

Duke/North Carolina on CW 21

2009-02-10T13:25:00.000-08:00

I have stated it many times before through emails and previous blog entries that the sportscasters of the world have no say in the programming on a television station. Many times, our management can be handcuffed as well and Wednesday night's Duke/North Carolina game is a shining example.
I'll give you the background of what's going on: As many sports fans know, there is no bigger regular season college basketball game on the schedule than Duke/North Carolina. The game will be televised nationally on ESPN, but will be blacked out in ACC markets. The game is scheduled to air on CW 21 at 9pm as part of Raycom's ACC package. Here's where we run into a problem. The CW network contacted my general manager, Billy Huggins, on Tuesday afternoon and said that if we pre-empt CW programming (which runs until 10pm), we will lose our affiliation and with that every CW program.
In a nutshell, CW is pulling a powerplay on us to air 90210 over one of the greatest rivalries in sports history. To our management's credit, we did everything we could to fix the problem. HTC is airing the game LIVE on cable channel 6 and the CW will air the game on a one hour tape delay at 10pm, but there will still be hundreds of phone calls expressing their anger and dismay. I'm with you! I'm hoping that anyone who reads this blog can understand that we were backed into a corner 24 hours before the game airs. Things will be confusing because people will go to ESPN and it will not be on because of the blackout, then they will go to CW 21 and see some bad acting at the Peach Pit and not Coach K and Roy Williams matching wits on the sidelines. Then they'll get on the phone and blast us.

I'm hoping anyone who reads this blog understands a couple of things:
#1: You should be mad - so am I!
#2: It's not the sports guys fault
#3: It's not WPDE management's fault
#4: HTC is awesome for getting it on channel 6 live
#5: I'm breaking up with the CW - no more Christmas cards, no more "hey that show isn't so bad", it's over.

If I was at home and didn't see the Duke/UNC game on at 9pm as scheduled, I would be befuddled and angry just like many of you will be. The explanation doesn't make it any better - it just gives you the background that you normally don't get when you call to complain.

To recap:

UNC/Duke LIVE on HTC Channel 6 at 9pm
UNC/Duke LIVE on CW 21.2 on digital antenna at 9pm
UNC/Duke on tape delay at 10pm on CW 21 if you don't have HTC cable

Signing Day 2009

2009-02-05T17:40:00.000-08:00

Signing Day has become an unofficial holiday for football fans. I'm amazed at the way things have evolved. Ten years ago, you would be hard pressed to find any kind of coverage about where local sports stars would be attending college. Now, Signing Day has become an event.
When I first came to WPDE, we would visit a long list of schools and do our best to cram a long list of interviews into a five minute sportscast (usually double the time we get). Over the years, we've realized what a special day it is for area athletes and have done a thirty minute special.
It's great to see the future stars of college football come into our studio on their special day. More important than that, we are able to give every athlete on our board a chance to have their moment in the sun on TV. By having the signees come into the studio we can give everyone a chance to have that moment.
Hags and I are a lot like college coaches in developing our own recruiting board in the month of January. When it all got finalized, fifteen schools had 47 players sign on Wednesday. 43 of those players were able to come into our studio. To the coaches and families, we greatly appreciate you taking time to come to visit us during the day.
We started shooting signings and interviews at 12:15 pm on Wednesday. By 3:00, we had shot forty interviews. As the final three people came by, we had to turn around a lot of information in a short amount of time. It's a fun challenge, but a little stressful as the time winds down towards our 7:30 pm show. The end result was a chance for everyone to be part of signing day. All of these kids worked hard to get an opportunity to play college football and deserve some kudos. It is also great to give some of the small college kids some spotlight as they tend to get overlooked when it comes to media attention.
We have many kids going the junior college or prep school route. These are players that have the ability to play in the SEC or ACC, but must take care of business in the classroom. Hopefully, we will have more success stories like Allen Patrick, who went from Hutchinson CC to Oklahoma to the Cleveland Browns.
On a side note, I remember Signing Day 2004 when Lawrence Timmons signed his letter with Florida State. Now, he's a Super Bowl champion. Timmons was the first WPDE All-Zoner to play in a Super Bowl. I'm quite sure there will be many more in the coming years.

Talking with O-Dog and Thig

2009-01-20T20:44:00.000-08:00

The internet has become an invaluable tool to every form of media. The goal of our website is to not only provide the information you see on the newscast, but to enhance it as well. Late last week, I was able to talk with free agent second baseman Orlando Hudson of Darlington and former CCU All-American Tyler Thigpen with the Kansas City Chiefs. In the world of TV news, we can usually grab a few seconds of an interview and put it on the show. Thanks to carolinalive.com, we can give people our entire interviews and a chance to get more than the typical thirty second soundbite.

We were able to go a little bit longer with both O-Dog and Thig during our newscast, yet we weren't able to share all of the content we gathered. Click on the links below to hear O-Dog talk about staying in Darlington during baseball's off-season and his work with autism through his CATCH Foundation. Thig gives his thoughts on the uncertainty in KC and what he thinks the Chiefs should do with the #3 pick.

One other side note - on our newscast we are able to show file video of both Thig and Orlando, but in the world of internet video - we are not allowed to show any NFL, MLB or any other major sport video.

Tyler Thigpen interview on carolinalive.com

Orlando Hudson interview on carolinalive.com

Mister Hoop Zone trade rumors

2009-01-14T14:50:00.000-08:00

I'm by no means a Kenny Smith or a Peter Vescey. When it comes to the NBA, I simply follow two guys, Raymond Felton and Ramon Sessions, who have four WPDE Mr. Hoop Zone trophies between them. Both players have been mentioned in trade rumors in recent weeks as both players are approaching restricted free agent status.
When it comes to Ramon, I'm thrilled that he has proven himself as an NBA point guard. When Sessions left school early and became a second round pick of the Milwaukee Bucks, he was immediately shipped down to the NBDL for seasoning. There are a lot of great players who get stuck in NBA purgatory and I feared that Ramon might be in that predicament, but the former Myrtle Beach Seahawk has taken advantage of the chance he got late last season and now he's going to get a chance to play in the league for a number of years.
The Raymond Felton story is a different saga and his name has been getting headlines in the NBA trade waters. This is Raymond's fourth season in the NBA and the #5 overall pick in the 2005 draft seems to be criticized much more often that he's praised. There's a couple of reasons for this. First, he's a top 5 pick in the NBA draft and that comes with lofty expectations. Second, he was drafted right after Deron Williams and Chris Paul. Chris Paul is the best point guard in the NBA. That's a fact. Deron Williams has averaged 15 points and 8 assists and game in his career - Raymond is 13 points and 6.5 assists a night. I think no one would argue that the Jazz are a better overall team than the Bobcats.
The knock on Raymond is that he's a poor shooter (struggling to get to 40 percent) and that he shoots too much. He's now got the label as a combo guard, mainly because the Bobcats put him in that role. Now, Charlotte has a dilemma. Raymond is a restricted free agent and could lose him with no compensation.
I hope the Bobcats trade Raymond. If you read the anonymous internet folks, they paint Raymond out to be a bust who is solely responsible for all of the Bobcats misforuntes over the past three plus seasons. Here's the Raymond that I know: on Saturday night against the Wizards, Felton was carried off the court in the second quarter when he rolled his ankle over a courtside photographer. Not only did Raymond return to the game, but he sparked the Bobcats to victory. When the Bobcats drafted a point guard (DJ Augustin) in the draft instead of a big man, Felton has been nothing but a mentor to the rookie. Augustin is quick to praise Raymond for showing him the ropes on numerous occasions. Other players would be threatened by a rookie taking their minutes. He's a great teammate and he's been durable playing through pain.
It is no coincedence that Felton's game has picked up since the trade rumors have started. 23 points, 9 assists, 6 rebounds and only 1 turnover against the Detroit Pistons that included the game winning jumper with .7 seconds left may be Raymond's finest effort as a pro. Whenever Raymond hears doubters, his determination raises to an elite level. I saw it in high school and in college and now it's the pros.
If I'm looking for a comparison, the best I can come up with is Chauncey Billups who was a top 5 pick by the Boston Celtics and was eventually moved and became a great guard.
No matter what happens, Raymond has a big payday coming his way. Perhaps the Mavericks fans or some other NBA team will appreciate Raymond's work ethic, leadership and the intangibles he will bring to a team.

2009-01-05T14:58:00.000-08:00

Now that 2009 is here, I wanted to show you the list of the top 15 local sports stories of 2008. Hags and I put this list together and one of the great things about lists is that it sparks great debate. We had a few emails with suggestions on what we may have missed (Wilson/Lake City brawl, Darlington softball winning it all), but I think overall, this list proves that there is a lot of great sports to talk about year round.

15 Kristy McPherson nets over $400,000 on LPGA Tour

We begin at #15 where Conway's Kristy McPherson had a breakthrough year on the LPGA Tour. Playing in her second full season on tour, the former South Carolina Gamecock won over $400,000 in prize money to finish 47th on the money list. McPherson had the lead on the back 9 in the final round of the Northwest Arkansas Championship - she finished in a tie for 4th - her best career result on tour. In all, McPherson had 6 top 10's in 2008.

I did a story with Kristy about four years ago at Burning Ridge when she was first going out on the Futures Tour and trying to make it on the LPGA. I think I played about three holes with her and watching that horror show is probably why it took her a couple of years to get on tour. I happened to be working on the weekend she contended in Arkansas. Hopefully, Kristy can make the list again next year with her first LPGA tour win.

14 Myrtle Beach boys win 3A basketball title

At #14, the Myrtle Beach Seahawks stormed Columbia and captured the 3A boys basketball state championship. Thanks to 25 points from Jamere Valentine, Myrtle Beach routed Greenville 80-55 to capture the 3A crown. On the same day, the Myrtle Beach girls and the Hemingway boys fell short in their bid for state crowns, but the Christian Academy in Myrtle Beach, playing their first ever season of varsity basketball captured the 1A SCISA crown in Sumter.

What was more impressive than the state title game was the Seahawks upsetting Crestwood in Charleston the weekend before. This group embraced the team concept and it is what made them so dangerous. They had five or six guys who were capable of filling it up and there seemed to be no egos on the team whatsoever.

13 Tom Glavine, Mike Hampton pitch for Pelicans

Coming in at #13, two major league legends spend some time in a Myrtle Beach Pelicans uniform. On July 5th, 2 time All-Star and former 20 game winner Mike Hampton pitched five shutout innings for the Birds in a rehab start against the Wilmington Blue Rocks. Then in August, a record crowd of 6,599 came to BB&T Coastal Field to see two time Cy Young award winner and 10 time all star Tom Glavine toe pitch in Myrtle Beach. Glavine threw three innings as local fans got to see a future hall of famer pitch for the Pelicans.

Other than Marcus Giles and Steve Avery a couple of years ago, Myrtle Beach has not been the place for Braves regulars to go on a rehab assignment, but that changed when Glavine and Hampton came in to town. Both players were nothing but 100 percent class - they bought dinner for the entire team during their stay and no doubt gave the Pelican youngsters a glimpse of what's to come in their careers.

12 CCU opens 2008 season at Penn State, Chants go 6-6

The Chanticleers made history by opening the campaign at Penn State - Joe Paterno's Nittany Lions gave CCU a reported $450,000 guarantee to come to Happy Valley. Zach MacDowall's TD pass to Trent Usher gave the Chanticleers a moment of excitement trailing 14-7 in the 2nd quarter, but Penn State pulled away for a convincing 66-10 win. The Chanticleers had off the field distractions with player dismissals and arrests and an up and down 2008 season - finishing 6-6.

The CCU season taught Chanticleer fans the fine line between winning and losing. CCU led Colgate 19-3 early in the fourth quarter before a lightning delay changed the momentum completely. Three fumbles on special teams against Stony Brook changed a game that saw CCU dominate its opponent. Take those two wins and all of the sudden 8-4 doesn't look too bad.

11 Gamecocks win 7 games, reach Outback Bowl

The Gamecocks return to New Year's Day is top local sports story #11. South Carolina shuffled through three different quarterbacks in 2008, but a stingy defense gave the Gamecocks wins over Ole Miss and Tennessee on the way to seven wins. South Carolina was blown out by Florida and lost to archrival Clemson in Death Valley to end the regular season, but seven wins and a loyal fan base earned them a trip to Tampa and the Outback Bowl to face the Iowa Hawkeyes. The Gamecocks scored back to back Outback Bowl wins on New Year's Day in 2001 and 2002.

Now we know that USC didn't belong on the New Year's Day stage. Gamecocks fans have to be bitter after three convincing losses to close out the season. Simply put, USC needs an SEC caliber quarterback and maybe more importantly, an SEC caliber running back to have any chance of taking that next step. Stephen Garcia has three more years to prove if he can be that guy, but USC must find a stud in the backfield during this recruiting period.

10 Kyle Busch wins at Darlington

Kyle Busch dominating the Lady in Black is our 10th top local sports story. Kyle Busch had 20 wins in 2008, 8 in Cup, 9 in Nationwide and 3 in the Crafstman Truck Series. He led 167 laps under the lights at Darlington Raceway and one week after wrecking Dale Earnhardt, Junior in Richmond, embraced the bad guy role in NASCAR taking a bow after winning at the Track Too tough to tame

I remember being in Victory Lane and some folks from Toyota asking us to shoot some custom messages from Victory Lane from both Joe Gibbs and Kyle Busch. The result was getting a one on one interview with Busch and Gibbs. The only other time I was able to do that in ten years was when Ricky Craven won at Darlington. Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good.

9 Jordan Lyles 1st round "sandwich pick" by Astros

Hartsville's Jordan Lyles is top sports story #9. The three sports star was a WPDE Zoneman Finalist in 2007 and a WPDE All-Hoop Zone performer as well, but it was his prowess on the diamond that stood out. After choosing baseball as his top sport, Lyles committed to play for Ray Tanner and the Gamecocks, but was then selected #38 overall in the MLB amateur draft by the Houston Astros. Lyles had a signing bonus just under $1,000,000 and is in the Astros minor league system trying to work his way to the big leagues.

I remember Jordan was a little stressed out about not getting a slew of major college football offers, but it wound up being a blessing in disguise. Apparently, Lyles went to Minute Maid Park in Houston right before the draft and was lights out in his workout and that sealed the deal for him. Great kid, great family - can't wait to see him in the bigs

8 Pelicans win 89 games, host all star game, Rocket manager of the year, DC passes

The Birds won 89 games, the most in franchise history. The Pelicans fell short in the Mills Cup Championship Series, but had plenty of great memories including hosting the 2008 Carolian League/California League All-Star game. Rocket Wheeler was named minor league manger of the Year by Baseball America. The club suffered a great loss when longtime pitching coach Bruce Dal Canton left the team in the middle season. He passed away after a bout with cancer in October.

Much deserved props for Rocket, but it is sad to say goodbye to DC. I know that both Hags and myself have gotten a wealth of knowledge from one of baseball's best pitching coaches. You couldn't find a more humble and respected guy in the clubhouse. He will be missed.

7 Haynesworth named to second straight Pro Bowl

Another Hartsville product makes the top 10. Albert Haynseworth's tremendous season comes in at #7. Haynesworth is regarded across the NFL as one of the best defensive players in the game. The Tennessee Titan has 8.5 sacks and 22 quarterback pressures this year, making him a Pro Bowler for the second straight season. Haynesworth suffered a knee injury in early December, but is expected to be ready for the Titans post-season run.

I wasn't around for Haynesworth's time at Hartsville, but there's no question he's the best defensive tackle on the planet. He's about to cash in a huge payday.

6 Amber Campbell competes in the Olympics

A Coastal Carolina Olympian is our 6th biggest local sports story. Amber Campbell was a five time All-American at CCU in the hammer throw. In 2004, she was literally inches away from making the US Olympic team, but after four years of hard work, Campbell represented the USA in Beijing. She finished 21st in the hammer throw qualifying, 1.5 meters short of reaching the Olympic Finals. Campbell plans to continue to train and try and make the 2012 London Olympics

I remember when Amber just missed out on Athens and couldn't be happier that she reached one of her major goals. A great person who will represent CCU and the US for years to come.

5 CCU Baseball reaches Super Regionals

At #5, The CCU baseball team's trip to the Super Regionals. Gary Gilmore and the Chanticleers have been NCAA Tournament fixtures, but they have never made it out of the first round until 2008. The Chants earned a #1 seed and hosted East Carolina, Alabama and Columbia at Watson Stadium thanks to a makeover that included extra seating. CCU beat ECU 24-11 to reach the Super Regionals for the first time in the program's history. North Carolina defeated the Chanticleers in Cary, NC to reach the College World Series. Gary Gilmore turned down a job offer at Auburn to remain at Coastal Carolina.

Gilly has been waiting years to take that next step. The weekend at Watson Stadium was magical and gave Coastal Carolina athletics another big boost. Kudos to Dr. David DeCenzo for getting Gilmore to turn down an SEC program and stay in Conway.

#4 Four former Chants on NFL rosters

Four former Chants in the NFL is top story #4. In April, NFL Scouts came to Conway to see Jerome Simpson put on his pro day workout. The former Coastal Carolina wideout dazzled in combines and earned himself a 2nd round pick in the NFL Draft by the Cincinnati Bengals.

Mike Tolbert went undrafted, but became the story of San Diego Chargers training camp. Not only did the former CCU fullback make the roster, but he's starting in the Chargers backfield with LaDanian Tomlinson - Tolbert's first career NFL TD came on Monday night football

Quinton Teal continues to be a key part of the Carolina Panthers special teams unit in his second season and Tyler Thigpen went from third string quarterback to NFL starter with the Kansas City Chiefs. Thigpen had his first career NFL win as a starter against the Oakland Raiders.

I often wonder if people around the beach realize how amazing it is for a program that is only six years old to have four guys on NFL rosters. Thig got invaluable on the job training and has gone from a guy who would have been a third stringer for the next 2-3 years to having a legitimate shot at being a starting quarterback in the NFL. Jerome will get his chance in 2009. Tolbert is a cinderella story and Teal has made a living thanks to playing specials teams.

#3 Ex-CCU golfer Dustin Johnson wins PGA event

Dustin Johnson's million dollar day is top local sports story #3. The former CCU All-American's rookie season on the PGA Tour got off to a great start with three top 15 finishes early in the year, but Dustin headed to the fall in danger of losing his full time Tour card. That all changed in Verona, New York.

Johnson's 3 under 69 got him to 9 under for the tournament and a 1 shot win over Robert Allanby. Johnson won just under 1.8 million dollars in his rookie season.

Dustin proved that he has the talent to be at the top of the sport. It will be interesting to see if he can take it to the next level which will be competing in all four majors. Once that happens, you never know.

#2 Tommy Bowden resigns, Dabo Swinney takes over as Clemson head coach

The end of the Tommy Bowden era is our 2nd biggest story of 2008. Clemson began the 2008 season with lofty expectations - a preseason top 10 ranking that quickly went away when Alabama dominated the Tigers in the opener at the Georgia Dome. Following a Thursday night loss to Wake Forest, Bowden resigned and Clemson gave young assistant Dabo Swinney the interim head coaching job with sites on luring in a big name. But Swinney brought excitement and enthusiasm to the program and guided Clemson to quality wins over Boston College and Virginia. Clemson's 31-14 win over South Carolina in Death Valley was Dabo's last chance to impress and it worked - The Tigers named Swinney as the permanent head coach.

Tommy was a nice guy and always great to deal with in the media, but it became obvious that it was time to part ways. Dabo's enthusiasm and excitement is translating in the recruiting circles and we'll see if the young coach can give Clemson a much coveted BCS berth.

#1 Dillon and MB win state football titles

And the #1 local sports story - Dillon and Myrtle Beach win state championships on the gridiron.

Clemson's Memorial Stadium was the site of two amazing performances.

Dillon leaned on its nasty Cats Defense and this 94 yard TD reception by Antwan Blue to shock Central of Pageland 7-6.

Dillon won its first state championship since 1947 - Jackie Hayes was overcome with emotion when the clock struck zero.

Hours later, it was Myrtle Beach's turn to make history. The Seahawks won their first state title since 1984 with a 31-21 triumph over Chester. Everett Golson threw three TD passes including two to Demazio Skelton - the Seahawks finished the dream season with a 14-1 campaign.

It was a long day, but a great day at Clemson. Every single coach in our area pours blood, sweat and tears into their programs so it's always exciting to see towns revel in a title and it was extra special to see Jackie Hayes and Scott Earley win their first state championships.

December mailbag

2008-12-21T22:53:00.000-08:00

I've gotten caught up just enough to finally get to answering some emails. I sincerely apologize for not getting back quicker, but football season leads to seven day work weeks and next thing you know, the Christmas tree is up and the calendar is ready to turn. This is the lion's share of the emails I received over the past six weeks or so. The one "theme" of emails I didn't answer were the classic "Why are you guys showing Game A instead of Game B". For nine years I've been screaming from the rooftops that Mark Haggard and myself have ZERO input on the programming for ABC regional college football. As a matter of fact our station has ZERO input, we are simply assigned a game. If there's a mistake, it's not our fault - trust me! We find it amusing that people think we would have the ability to change the game on WPDE from Penn State to Florida State if we wanted to. That is not the case!

On to the emails:

Andy writes:

I live in Florence and have for 3 years. I find it amazing that you always start sports with Coastal Carolina when you have the 2 big schools, Div 1, USC and Clemson 2nd and 3rd. I understand that Coastal is in Myrtle Beach but citizens of this state have been following the Tigers and Gamecocks much longer. I bet if a poll was done, more citizens of Myrtle Beach would rather see USC or Clemson highlights first. I lived in Columbia for 8 years and they had another school there too. Benedict College. WIS would give them much attention but would start with the Carolina. I grew up in the upstate, and WSPA would do the same, Wofford would then get their highlights second. I want to continue to watch wpde but will have to switch to the other stations when it comes to sports. Thanks

Andy:

I appreciate you writing in. First of all, I appreciate criticism where it doesn't get nasty and your argument is valid. In a nutshell, we made a commitment to be the TV home of Coastal Carolina athletics with the David Bennett Show and the Cliff Ellis Show. I would say the biggest argument for leading with CCU over the Gamecocks and Clemson is that the majority of CCU games are not televised while nearly every single Gamecocks and Clemson game can be seen on major TV (ESPN, etc). The majority of CCU games are at 7:00pm - we have a 7:00pm newscast and I can tell you without a doubt that we've led with USC or Clemson in the early show. If we were not giving Clemson and USC their proper due in the sportscast, that would be a different subject, but the reality is we are doing extended highlights each and every Saturday of all three schools. We are well aware of the importance of the Gamecocks and Clemson to our local sports coverage and will continue to do everything we can to bring as much information on both programs as possible. Our commitment to CCU through the coaches shows will continue as well.

Cindy Moe writes

I have an End Zone question. Concerning the team that wins but aren't favored to. Watching the End Zone the past few Friday nights (Rushing to get home from away games just to see it)This past Friday I had my husband record it so our son could see how their team is making a great come back. When our teams spotlight came up, there was very little said about how our guys worked hard to make the come back, and one thing that eveyone in the community can see and know how the game went is End Zone. We have been very disappointed in the display of your program- Spot lighting the team that lost (but were favored to win) and the only acalade given to the winning team was the final score. It really looked that our team lost if you were just going by what was being said. I feel maybe you should promote the winning team a bit more not just the one that is being favored to win. Just a suggestion. We'll keep watching.

Cindy:
Glad you brought this up. We are using every resource possible to bring our communities the most extensive coverage of high school football every Friday night. Our general manager, news director and Ed Piotrowski (hands down the best football shooter among meteorologists!) are all grabbing cameras on Friday night in order for us to get as many games as possible. What happens is that we have anywhere between 10 to 12 shooters grabbing 15-18 games every week. Doing that simple math shows that a number of our shooters have to grab two games in a night (we call it the double dip). When someone double dips, they start at one game and shoot the first quarter or half of the second and then go to the next game and grab the third quarter. When you double dip, you are always running the risk of missing out on significant action from one of the games. You need to have a little luck go your way on a double dip. For example, if someone were to be going to Loris followed by North Myrtle Beach - if the Loris game is scoreless at the half, the shooter has to leave the game even though there are no major highlights. Hypothetically, if that shooter leaves with no scores and then goes to North Myrtle Beach where the Chiefs have a 35-0 halftime lead, then they are shooting a third quarter where NMB may be a lot more conservative with the game under control. That's a dilemma we have to deal with on a regular basis. It would be great to be able to stay for all four quarters of 18 games we shoot, but it simply can not happen. We earmark a couple of the big games on the board and try and let shooters stay for the entire game, but inevitably we are going to miss some action some of the time. Sometimes we get very fortunate and it works out great. I can remember Mark Haggard shooting a Saint James/Socastee double dip where he got three TD's in the first 16 minutes of game action at the Shark Tank and then arrived at Socastee where the game had four scores in the 3rd quarter. Sometimes it works out like that, and sometimes it doesn't. That is why sometimes you'll see a team that lost 42-7 get their highlight on simply because they scored when our cameras were there. I hope that explains what is going on. Here's hoping that every double dip has a happy ending in 2009!

JD writes:

I was just wondering if you guys cover the CAROLINA hurricanes or anything else besides USC,clemson,or ccu?

JD:

The Carolina Hurricanes have a niche of fans here on the Grand Strand, but quite frankly it's a small niche. That being said, if there's room for the Canes on a night when they are playing, I have absolutely no problem with putting them in the sportscast, but our focus is to show as much local sports coverage as possible. We will do our best to show 'Canes highlights whenever we can.

Carlin Munnerlyn writes:

Why are the points off so badly on the "Leading Tackles" for the End Zone? Someone is not doing a very good job. Jamie Munnerlyn has been leading the entire season up until last week where he is got behind by only 3...Johnsonville had a by. He has 114 points before playing Hemingway. I want an answer. This is breaking his heart....Channel 15 needs to quit putting up stats. if they can't keep them correct. I expect a phone call.

Carlin:
Glad you brought this up. Each Sunday/Monday during the high school football season, I get stats from the area high schools. Each team's stats presentation is different, but it's easy to break down yards, averages, etc. The one unique stat is the tackle category. Some schools have their tackles broken down by solo, assist and TFL along with sacks. You take those four numbers and that is your total tackle number. Other schools credit .5 tackle for assists. To try and be consistent, I was adding the four categories above and counting them as one tackle. Johnsonville's stats were unique in that they had it broken down by solo, assist, assist #2, TFL and sacks. The secondary assist was something that the majority of the other schools did not have so I was discounting it. Jamie Munnerlyn (who had a great senior season by the way) had tackle numbers far greater than everyone in the ara because of that second column. After reading your email, I decided to count Jamie's tackle total the way Johnsonville high school gave them to me. I do apologize as I didn't mean to take away what Jamie was doing. The tackle number on the leaderboard in our stats section has Jamie's correct tackle total as given to us by the Flashes.

Barry Fowler writes:

I was just wondering if WWMB-21 is going to carry ACC Basketball.

Barry:
To the best of my knowledge, CW 21 will once again have ACC basketball games. That schedule gets started up in January.

Mike Pirozzi writes:

I was really intrigued by your segment tonight with David Bennett. Something was said to the effect of "football is a microcosm of life. You can learn more on the field than you can in a classroom." Hey folks, get with it. There are so many football players who can't read, write or even speak proper English. They are brought up in this fantasy world that football is everything. You need to stop glorifying these individuals and start stressing educating them to assimilate themselves into the reality of everday life where you have to actually have to work for working man's wages and raise a family without resorting to somebody else to bail you out of your poor decision making.

Mike:
I guess you can take the quote from Coach Bennett in a couple of different ways. It seems as if the negative stories seem to stick out more than the positive ones. I can tell you from a CCU football perspective that the high character guys who go to class, volunteer numerous hours to different community projects and are overall great guys outnumber the bad apples 10 to 1. Yet we are not doing stories about them on the news. If you've been around Coach Bennett as long as I am he constantly hammers home the message that the priorities of a CCU football player are: God and family first, academics second and then football. The context that Coach Bennett was using football as a microcosm of life was that not everything is going to go your way on the gridiron and that often applies to life. A kid like Jamie Childers was ready to be the star quarterback, then in an instant gets meningitis and has a long road of recovery to get back to where he was. Dominique Davenport is the definition of a student athlete and heavily involved in CCU's Campus Outreach program. He saw his season get cut short early with a broken elbow. He'll spend the next six months working around the clock to get back on the football field. I certainly don't condone with some of the young men did off the field during the 2008 season. That has been well documented. But the majority of CCU football players will graduate and be valued members of society. Unfortunately, those stories don't get on the front page of the newspaper or are the lead story in a sportscast.

Betsy Rowell writes:

When will your applications be avaliable for the college scholarship (sports zone). Thank You

Betsy:

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we will be able to give at least one $5,000 scholarship this year. The entire WPDE Scholarship fund is based on our one day charity golf tournament. With the economy as turbulent as it is, Ed Piotrowski and I are hoping that we will be able to secure the major sponsorship to continue the event. We've got some ideas on trying to keep things going, but it's not a guarantee at this point. Our scholarship fund is a small operation that survives thanks to the overwhelming support of our community. We'll do everything we can to keep it going. If we are able to secure sponsorship, we'll have a deadline of sometime in May for applications and all the information will be online at carolinalive.com

Derron Smith writes:

I think my cousin Antonio McAllister ''Bubba'' from ''Timmonsville'' should be on the north and south team.Runningback/cornerback ''Please'' Select him

Derron:

I've got your back on this one, but we have no say in the North/South rosters. We did put Bubba on our WPDE All-Zone team along with his teammate Fredrick Wilhite. I'm glad we were able to do that as they both deserved the honor. It seems to be quite difficult for 1A players to make All-Star teams. I'm still in shock that Kwame Geathers of Carvers Bay and Lake View's Quandon Christian did not make either All-Star game (both 1A players). Glad that Bubba was a part of our banquet - he had a great year and was always giving us highlights on Friday night!

Pam writes:

I just wanted to know the qualifications for the zoneman award.

Pam: I answered this question in a previous blog entry - I went ahead and pasted it below:

There are many questions every year about the Zoneman and the All-Zone team so I will explain the process. First of all, the balloting for the Zoneman is decided by 40 voters. 34 coaches, Hags and myself, and four other media members and other coaches pick the Zoneman on the first week of November. Each ballot is first, second and third place for top player in the WPDE viewing area. Underclassmen are eligible as well as any player in the WPDE viewing area. The reason we choose the first week in November is so we have ample time to gather the ballots, solidify the podium and order the trophy which usually takes 3-4 weeks to get to us.

Many people will be upset that a certain person was not a finalist for the Zoneman Trophy. The fact of the matter is that there are 10 to 12 solid candidates every single season. I can't think of a better process than giving every coach an equal vote. Many of them watch our show and see the highlights of the top players in the area. We have four players on the podium this year because every one of them eclipsed the 20 point mark (3 points for 1st, 2 points for 2nd, 1 point for 3rd). We always have a minimum of three on the podium and I think this year's group is excellent. We have two future Clemson Tigers (Malliciah Goodman and Quandon Christian) to go along with two Myrtle Beach Seahawks (Everett Golson and Jamere Valentine

RICK FOUNTAIN writes:

Do you cover HS basketball games? Do teams need to call in or email their scores? I can not locate Tuesday night scores online.

Rick:

Indeed we do cover high school basketball. The transition from high school football to high school basketball overlaps each other so what we've done as a general rule is to begin our coverage with the four Holiday hoops tournaments in our area (Holiday Inviational Girls, Shootout by the Sea, Florence Pepsi Classic and the Beach Ball) and then begin our Hoop Zone coverage on Tuesday's and Friday's starting in January. Beginning in January we will post scores on carolinalive.com along with an honor roll of the top performances of that night. I have also put in a request to our content manager to get the schedules of both the boys and girls basketball teams posted on each team's page. Hopefully that will get done by the end of the year and we'll be able to get each page updated with scores and records. Have no fear, the hoops brigade is coming!

Todd Crane writes:

Rich, I can't believe that you NEVER even mentioned the Girls HS Holiday Invitational that starts tomorrow in Myrtle Beach, with 16 teams. Even Crescent Banks who is sponsoring the tourney, advertised on your sisterstation at 7:30 last night about the tournament, and they are giving free tickets! Disgruntled!

Todd:
Have no fear, we are providing day by day coverage of the tournament as well as our other three Holiday Hoops events.

Denita Elliott writes:

On the zone cup standings, Myrtle Beach High school did not make it to the semi-finals of Girls High School tennis. They were defeated in the quarterfinals by Hilton Head not the semi finals. Waccamaw and Johnsonville both made it to the semi-finals with one additional win. Myrtle Beach should only have 25 points not 50 points.

Denita:

Indeed you are correct! I've made the appropriate changes in the overall standings. I encourage all fans of a particular high school to double check my math work so we can have the Zone Cup standings correct! I appreciate the heads up.

As always, I enjoy the questions and the interaction. Hope everyone has a great Christmas and Holiday season. We'll be at both bowls and get ready for the Cliff Ellis Show and all the high school hoops you can handle. Also, we've compiled the top 15 local sports stories which will air on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. If you're not going to snuggle by the fireplace with WPDE news, fear not as we will post the entire list and web video on carolinalive.com!

My 2008 Heisman Ballot

2008-12-12T00:58:00.000-08:00

Now that Everett Golson has been crowned the Zoneman, we can find out who will win the Heisman in 2008. I wonder one day if Golson will win the Heisman. He's got a long way to go, but his makeup off the field is the biggest intangible going his way. I've been fortunate enough to have a Heisman vote for the past eight years.
This is the year of the quarterback and like many ballots, I have three signal callers on my list. I feel bad that Graham Harrell didn't get an invite to New York, as the Texas quarterback deserved to make the podium. I was very close to putting Myron Rolle on my ballot as I think the Florida State safety is beyond the definition of a student athlete. Now that my ballot is cast, I have a little bit of regret that I was afraid to pull the trigger on a "symbolic vote". To be a Rhodes Scholar and play at a high level of college football is simply astounding. I wish that the Heisman ballot expanded to the top 5 instead of just three.
We know that the top three will be (in no particular order) - Tim Tebow, Sam Bradford and Colt McCoy. I am guessing that Bradford is the favorite based on the website www.stiffarmtrophy.com (a great site to check out if your into projections). You can go around in circles talking about the merits and nitpick about all three of these guys, but in the end here's what my thought process was. I voted Tim Tebow first last year and I didn't see anything that made me need to change my pick this year. It seemed as if he fell off the favorite radar after a week four loss to Ole Miss which followed a less than glitzy statline against Tennessee (the Gators won that game 30-6). Now that we've arrived at the end of the year, a one point loss to the Rebels isn't as bad as it seemed earlier in the year. If you look at Tebow's stats in the loss (24 of 38, 319 yards, 1 TD pass, 0 INT and 2 TD runs), those are some pretty good numbers in a defeat. He doesn't have the same mind boggling numbers as last year, but 28 TD's and only 2 INT's really sticks out as a major plus. Bradford and McCoy are both excellent and are both deserving of this award. In the end, I couldn't come up with a reason to take my first place vote for Tebow off the table. So here is my official Heisman vote:

1st place - Tim Tebow, Florida
2nd place - Sam Bradford, Oklahoma
3rd place - Colt McCoy, Texas

It should be a close race and there should be a little bit of drama and uncertainty when the next Heisman winner is revealed on Saturday night.

A major endorsement for Thig

2008-12-10T17:49:00.000-08:00

When Tyler Thigpen was thrown to the wolves in Atlanta for his first career NFL start, I thought the worst. Quarterbacks from Coastal Carolina don't usually get a big window to prove their worth in the National Football League. Three picks and a trip back to the bench was not the cinderella story that CCU fans were hoping for.
But the second chance, changed everything. When Thig went toe to toe with Brett Favre, he proved that he could play with the big boys. What's happened since then is nothing short of remarkable. Yes, Thig is 1-7 as a starter, but he has taken a nightmare situation in Kansas City and has made them somewhat competitive. The Chiefs are an absolute nightmare right now - poor defense, an offensive line that put two quarterbacks on the shelf for a year, and a Pro Bowl running back who has made more headlines off the field than on it.
The Chiefs have three games to go and it will prove to be the ulimate audition on whether Thigpen is named the starter for 2009. The Chiefs will likely have a top 5 pick and have a chance to get one of the top 2 quarterbacks on the board. Thigpen has proven that he belongs in the NFL - if the Chiefs can't figure that out, I'm sure someone else will. Remember, Brett Favre was an Atlanta Falcon before he was a Packer legend and the Saints didn't give Jake Delhomme the starter's endorsement and the Panthers are still thanking them for that.
You can put his numbers up over the last seven weeks against almost any quarterback in the league. But, forget about bloggers and sportscasters analyzing the numbers and being an armchair quarterback - listen to a Hall of Famer (click on link below).

Gonzalez: A disgrace if Thigpen isn't QB in 2009

The Banquet Circuit

2008-12-05T21:42:00.001-08:00

I have a whole pile of emails that need answering and that will come in the coming days as soon as state champions are crowned and the banquet circuit comes to an end. This Thursday, the 9th annual Chevy End Zone banquet will take place at the Holiday Inn West in Myrtle Beach. The very next day is the Mr. Football and North/South awards ceremony at Myrtle Beach high school.

There are many questions every year about the Zoneman and the All-Zone team so I will explain the process. First of all, the balloting for the Zoneman is decided by 40 voters. 34 coaches, Hags and myself, and four other media members and other coaches pick the Zoneman on the first week of November. Each ballot is first, second and third place for top player in the WPDE viewing area. Underclassmen are eligible as well as any player in the WPDE viewing area. The reason we choose the first week in November is so we have ample time to gather the ballots, solidify the podium and order the trophy which usually takes 3-4 weeks to get to us.

Many people will be upset that a certain person was not a finalist for the Zoneman Trophy. The fact of the matter is that there are 10 to 12 solid candidates every single season. I can't think of a better process than giving every coach an equal vote. Many of them watch our show and see the highlights of the top players in the area. We have four players on the podium this year because every one of them eclipsed the 20 point mark (3 points for 1st, 2 points for 2nd, 1 point for 3rd). We always have a minimum of three on the podium and I think this year's group is excellent. We have two future Clemson Tigers (Malliciah Goodman and Quandon Christian) to go along with two Myrtle Beach Seahawks (Everett Golson and Jamere Valentine). It was a fairly close race and we'll reveal the winner this Thursday night and air our special on Sunday at 2pm on WWMB-TV 21.

This year's Mr. Football presentation and the North South All-Star game is going to bring us a new and exciting project. WPDE Sports will be producing a 30 minute special that features the highlights of the North South All Star game and the presentation of South Carolina's Mr. Football. This will be a great opportunity to showcase all the great festivities of All-Star week and we will air the special on Sunday, December 14th across the state (WPDE in Florence/Myrtle Beach, WACH in Columbia, WCIV in Charleston and WYFF in Greenville). It's a great challnege to turn around a lot of material in a short amount of time and distribute it across the entire state, but we're excited to give the North South week its proper due.

Looking forward to answering a host of emails in the coming days!

A Zone Insider remembers Coach Skip

2008-11-17T11:30:00.001-08:00

This season, we started a new section of wpde.com's sports page with individual pages for all 34 teams we cover in our area. We asked each coach to give us a player who can be our Zone Insider who gives us weekly blog updates on how the team's season is going. I'm optimistic that over time, we'll have every page loaded with information on your favorite school. This season we have had about 10 guys who have done an outstanding job of posting blog entries each week. Steven Cobb is the Myrtle Beach Seahawks starting linebacker and plays tight end as well. This is his latest blog entry talking about the loss of Myrtle Beach assistant coach Greg Skipper, who was killed in a car accident the night before the Seahawks 31-7 playoff victory over Airport.

As you have probably heard Coach Greg Skipper passed away Thursday night in a car accident. If you don’t know Coach Skip he spent the better part of his 51 years coaching football and basketball. I’m not going to give an obituary or anything like that, but I do want to talk about my most lasting memory of Coach Skip.

First off, Skip was my b-team basketball coach my seventh and eighth grade years and when I reached high school he moved up too and coached the JV team. Unfortunately, I tore my ACL the end of eighth grade and missed the entire football season and the beginning of basketball. It takes 6 months for an ACL to heal and when I finally got cleared the season was well under way.

The day I got cleared we happened to be on the road against West Brunswick. Earlier that week Skip had told me I would sit that game out and practice the next week and hopefully then get some playing time. I reluctantly agreed and rode on the bus to West Brunswick in street clothes.

In the locker room before the game Coach Skip pulled me aside. He reached in the bulky equipment bag and pulled out my number 33 jersey and pants. He said he knew I had been waiting a long time to play and he was going to let me. I looked at him and told him I hadn’t brought my basketball shoes. He asked me what size I wear and I told him 12. Without thinking he pulled his New Balances off and handed them to me…

This selfless act may not seem like a huge deal, but it stands out to me. Those people who were close to Coach Skipper probably have hundreds of these “Skip” stories; most of them probably aren’t quite as serious (Skip was a jokester). I know the Seahawk family can come together and pull through this tough time. I just want anyone who reads this to pray for Coach Skip’s family and remember what a great man he was. From lending his shoes to a scrawny ninth grader, to his impact on the lives of thousands of young athletes—Coach Skip will not be forgotten.

A lot of times blogs can be filled with a lot of useless information - rambling thoughts and opinions masked as fact. This is a shining example of what great things can com from a blog. Stephen Cobb has made some great plays on both sides of the ball for the Seahawks this season and I've bragged on him in the End Zone on more than one occasion, but this is his best performance of 2008. Thanks Stephen for giving our viewers and readers some true insight on what a great loss the Seahawk family is feeling.

Bennett and Blogs don't mix

2008-10-22T11:35:00.000-07:00

Five years ago, the word "blog" wasn't even a word. Now, it's getting thrown around when it comes to just about anything associated with the internet. I always thought a blog was exactly what I'm doing right here, but it has gone beyond that. So I did a little google work and came up with this definition:

Web LOG is a journal kept on the internet. This journal is often updated daily and contains all information that the person maintaining the BLOG (Blogger) wishes to share with the world. Also applies to websites dedicated to a particular topic and being updated with the latest news, views and trends.

I have to admit that I get a chuckle whenever Coach Bennett talks about bloggers. The first time he made a bold statement about how he doesn't value what bloggers have to say and what people are posting on the internet, my heart actaully sank to my stomach. Coach Bennett writes a weekly column for Palmetto Pigskin Preview. It also gets posted on his website. I tried to come up with a catchy name for it, something with a little bit of alliteration and I came up with Bennett's Blog. Technically, it was a weekly newspaper column, but it really was sort of a personal diary and it was posted on the web so I thought I had a little bit of creative freedom in using the name "Bennett's Blog". As soon as I heard his first "anti-blog" rant, I quickly changed the name. If you pick up the PPP, you will see it is now Coach Bennett's weekly column. Coach and I had a good laugh over this.

At the Stony Brook press conference, Coach Bennett actually got into more detail about his disdain for blogs. When it gets down to it, he doesn't have a problem with the traditional straight forward blog (like this one). It's the message boards where people lurk in anonymity and make random posts with no consequences because no one really knows who they are. This is a part of the new age of journalism where the lines can easily be blurred between credible reporting and a simple spread of rumors. Someone can post on a message board any kind of rumor and it will take on a life of its own. We saw this first hand when Buzz Peterson was rumored to be the College of Charleston's next head coach.

I can promise you this - David Bennett doesn't read blogs (not this one, or any of them). He writes his weekly column on a piece of legal paper and either has me or one of his administrative assistants type it in and email it to me. I've never seen him duck a question or a tough issue in six years. Every single athlete in any sport would be well served to never read a message board as the majority of it is simply stirring the pot in a cauldron of negativity.

"Who's on the blog? Put your real name on the blog!"

That's what Coach Bennett said at the press conference. So I'm here to say this is Rich Chrampanis, on the blog, signing off and taking Coach's advice to find something more productive to do!

Bowden Bailout

2008-10-15T12:02:00.000-07:00

The Tommy Bowden era came to a crashing halt on Monday which was shows you how chaotic things must have gotten in TigerTown. I think after the Wake Forest loss, it was a foregone conclusion that it was the beginning of the end, but Tommy saw things so out of control that he walked away.

On the one side of things, you have to look at some numbers.

72 wins in 9 plus seasons (that's almost 8 wins a year)
7-2 against your archrival (Lloyd Carr would still be the Michigan coach if he had this stat alone)
8 bowl trips in 9 seasons
a pretty solid graduation rate

It reminds me a little bit of what happened to Frank Solich at Nebraska and the Cornhuskers haven't gotten back to that level with Bill Callahan and now Bo Pellini, but it's early.

On the flip side, Tommy Bowden had immense talent on the field. No one can deny that. You are looking at as many as a dozen guys that will get drafted in the next couple of years. The pre-season #9 ranking and the pre-season ACC player of the year to go along with the pre-season favorite to win it all in the conference. Everyone in the country was buying the hype that the Tigers were a lock for Jacksonville and a heavy favorite to go to the Orange Bowl. That was the level of expectations in Death Valley and anything below that would be deemed a failure. When people were calling Clemson a fraud after getting waxed by Alabama, I always thought that the ultiamte goal was very much on the table (ACC title game and a shot at the Orange Bowl). The ACC was down and I thought that Clemson could still reach their ulimate goal. I remember leaving for Greensboro and the Chants game at North Carolina A&T. When we got in the car at the station, Clemson was already up 17-6 on Maryland. By the time we arrived at the stadium, the Terps had started the Clemson spiral towards the end of the Bowden era. With Spiller and Davis, Ford and Kelly and Cullen Harper it is mind boggling that seven quarters without a touchdown could happen.

I was a Bowden defender throughout all of his tenure at Clemson. In 2003, he was one loss away from getting canned. He turned around and beat his Dad for the first time, hung up 63 on the Gamecocks and then whipped Tennessee in the Peach Bowl. That was an 8 week course on how to go from nearly fired to getting a big pay raise. Last year, he was an Aaron Kelly dropped pass from getting to the ACC championship game and maybe Miami (Orange Bowl). If Aaron Kelly catches that ball, does Tommy get a mulligan for this year?

I find it interesting how names get thrown into the mix just hours after a coach leaves. Texas defensive coordinator Will Muschamp is a hot name and so is Bobby Johnson, a former Clemson player, who has done wonderful things at Vanderbilt. Dabo Swinney was a wise choice to ride out the season. He is Clemson's top recruiter and has been in the living rooms of many of the current players on the roster. He can also keep the peace with Clemson's long list of verbal commitments for next season. All indications are that our two local players, Quandon Christian of Lake View and West Florence's Malliciah Goodman are still verbal commitments to Clemson.

On a personal level, Bowden was a class act to deal with. Every December, he would come down to the North/South banquet and the Mister Football presentation and would always give me 15 minutes to do a one on one interview to get ready for the bowl game at the end of that month. He recognized that we covered his program extensively even though we were four and a half hours away. He was always very approachable and noticed when we made the long journey to Clemson. To his credit, he played the game well and got himself a couple of nice contracts. When I start to feel bad that the pressure and the negativity got so intense on Tommy, I realize that he gets $3.5 million dollars to deal with all of that.

The next Clemson coach must realize this:

You better get to Tampa (site of this year's ACC title game), and you better get to the Orange Bowl. Going to bowl games, graduating your kids and winning more than you lose isn't going to cut it at Clemson. With the money poured into the facilities and the talent base that is on the field, these things are possible. Welcome to the 21st century of college football.

Big Mike: A lesson about believing in yourself

2008-09-30T16:12:00.000-07:00

I really need to get the NFL Sunday Ticket. A few years back it would have been great for fantasy football reasons, but now there are so many former All-Zoners and former CCU football players playing on Sunday that I crave the Ticket so I can check in all of our former guys.

The most pleasant surprise of all our of alumni right now is Mike Tolbert. When Tolbert was a nightmare for defenses in the Big South, you tend to not let it translate to the NFL. But now Tyler Thigpen, Quinton Teal, Jerome Simpson and Big Mike have taught us that it is possible to be a I-AA star at CCU and then move on to the NFL.

I will always remember the second day of the NFL Draft in 2008 when Hags and I went to Mike Tolbert's house. There was no big celebration - Tolbert was not drafted. But he was all smiles when we pulled up to his house. He was getting his shot with the San Diego Chargers - a signing bonus of a whopping $5,000 (did the Chargers get a bargain or what!??!!) All Mike Tolbert wanted was a shot. He was determined to make the most of it and he sure did.

We gave so much attention to Jerome Simpson and the hype that came with his dazzling workouts. Jerome has not gotten his opportunity yet as the Bengals struggle. There's no doubt that as soon as he gets his chance Jerome will do some great things in the NFL. Back in April, we thought we'd have a highlight reel full of Jerome catches in Bengal stripes, but instead we have Mike Tolbert with a TD catch, a 67 yard catch against the Broncos and bulldozing holes for LaDandian Tomlinson. Tolbert not only made the roster as an undrafted free agent, he's starting as a rookie at fullback for one of the NFL's elite teams.

I remember being at CCU's Pro Day where about a dozen NFL scouts were on hand to eyeball Jerome. I had put together a DVD of highlights of both Simpson and Tolbert. The scouts were all grabbing the DVD's of Jerome and watching every move he made. Tolbert was second fiddle, but the Chargers were at that Pro Day workout and my guess is they grabbed the Tolbert DVD. If it wasn't for Jerome attracting a big crowd, maybe the Chargers wouldn't have discovered their new starting fullback.

David Bennett was bending every scout's ear who was on Simpson watch. "We've got another one that can play on Sundays", he'd always say. It would have been so easy for Big Mike to get caught up in the hype and resign himself to the fact that Jerome was going to be the guy who made it, but quietly Big Mike made the absolute most out of a minimal opportunity.

The NFL is finding out what already knew - Big Mike can play the game. Tolbert believed in himself and now there's a legion of Lightning Bolt fans and one of the best running backs on the planet who are believing in him.

Mailbag - September Edition

2008-09-09T15:45:00.000-07:00

I really had a goal of posting a blog entry at least once a month and August zipped by before I knew what hit me. 34 high school football previews and getting ready for football will do that to you. I apologize for not answering these emails sooner, but here it goes:

Clara Curry asks: How do you pick the End Zone teams for each week?

A great question Clara. Logistics is the single biggest factor in determining which teams join us in the Chevy End Zone studio. We make it a goal to try and get the best teams in our area the opportunity to come in and be a part of the Friday night Zone. For some teams, it's very difficult to get to our Conway studio by 11:00pm. Teams like Lamar and Timmonsville never get a chance to play close enough to get into the studio. Usually on Sunday, Hags and I look at the schedule and run through the options. We are almost always on the same page and get the invite out ASAP.

Chris Martin asks: I wanted to know if you guys were going to do the Palmetto Pigskin competition like you did last year?

Chris - you probably know by now that the Picks competition is up and running. You can access the picks by clicking on "Palmetto Picks" on the left side of the main sports page at wpde.com or you can always go to www.palmettopigskin.com
If you haven't done the picks, you are missing out. It's totally free and takes just a couple of minutes. Jim, Ed, Ally and I enjoy the friendly competition and I think the contest will grow over the next couple of years.

Marty Parker asks: I was wondering if there is anyway to get some to the video highlights that you have from Cheraw. I want to add them to our school website library.

Marty: Many apologies for not getting back with you sooner. Our new web video player which was launched in April is fantastic and easy to use. I love the fact that you can email a story directly to someone's email. Unfortunately, there was a price to pay with that. We had to lose all the web video we previously had over the years as it was in a different format. If you haven't seen it yet, check out the Cheraw page on wpde.com - it is a new addition to our web lineup and I enjoy having each team getting its own page

Kevin Forsee writes:

Just a thought.... I originally grew up in Ohio and most news programs have a rolling graphic of up-to-date sports scores at the end of the sports segment for all pro team games played that day. Not a single news program in the area uses that type of graphic. There are many locals and tourists that have no way of keeping up with their favorite teams without switching to ESPN or the web. I think it would be beneficial and convenient for the Channel 15 viewers to be the first in the area to have a graphic or "ticker" with their favorite sports teams, not just the Braves or Falcons during the sports segment.

Thank you for your time!

Kevin:

Appreciate you writing in. I just have to laugh off the start, because I see you wrote about the Falcons. There is a stigma among some folks that we show all Atlanta pro sports when that is in fact, not the case. The only time we may show a Falcons highlight is if Lamar native John Abraham does something, but we do not give a steady diet of Falcons highlights. The Braves are the Pelicans single "A" affiliate and the closest MLB team to us and that's why we show them a lot.

Now on to your idea, which is a great one. I am all for it - back in the day we used to do scores heading to break before sports, but that was taken away from us. The ticker would solve that problem - right now I don't think we have that technology at our station. If we did, I think it's a great idea and something that I would be in favor of. Hopefully, that can happen down the road.

Danielle writes: I've been checking the website for over an hour trying to find some high school football scores. Could you please make it easier to find and also please let me know where I'm supposed to look. I've tried just about everything and this is exhausting!!!!

Danielle: I believe I may have shot you a short email right after the show when you sent this a couple of weeks back. When I work on the website, accessibility is the single most important thing for what we're trying to accomplish. I know we have lots of content when it pertains to high school football, but we need to get it to you folks! Our 50 minute show forces me to not post the final scores on wpde.com until 12:10 am at the earliest. I have now made it a point to make that the lead sports story on wpde.com on Friday nights and we will have it updated ASAP. The red banner on top of the main sports page is the portal to our 34 team pages. Hopefully, fans are going to their team's page and being able to see all the web video and insider blog from their school. Getting the content from the Friday night show onto the web is a long process, but our goal is to have it up as quickly as possible and we'll continue to work on doing that.

Angie Smith writes: I live in Ruby South Carolina, and our high school is Chesterfield High. I just wanted to know why all the tv stations can come or cover the Cheraw High School's football team, but never come or even say anything about Chesterfield, which is only a 10-15 minute ride from Cheraw. Yes, Cheraw is state champion for 2A, but Chesterfield is state champion for 1A, and last week in Chesterfield's opening game, Chesterfield won 42 - 0 over a 4A Fort Mill High School. I would just like to have some coverage of Chesterfield. This team has really turned around in the past several years from winning no games to winning a state championship, and I think the team players and coaches deserve to have a least one game covered on tv. Could you tell me if there is a reason why Chesterfield is never on tv?

Angie: I have answered this question many times and you can apply the same answer to other schools like Central of Pageland, Manning and Sumter area schools. About six years ago, we decided to make an exact definition of what schools would be part of the Chevy End Zone family. For the last six years, we have had the same 34 high schools defined as the area that we cover. Chesterfield County is not considered part of the Myrtle Beach/Florence market. That means if every single TV in Chesterfield County were to watch WPDE for 24 hours a day, it wouldn't count in the ratings. I realize that Cheraw is in Chesterfield County, but it is on the border of Marlboro County and Cheraw plays many teams from our area, unlike Chesterfield, who is in a region with many out of area teams. We made the decision 6 years ago to keep Cheraw due to the Braves fans strong following of our station. Another factor is having WPDE on your local cable system. Some of our fringe areas don't have us on there, perhaps that has changed over the years. It is nothing personal against the Rams as they have an outstanding team and passionate football fans.

Cathy writes: Hey Rich, Let's give Socastee their due and update passing and rushing etc... to include them also!!!

Hello Cathy: I am glad you checked in on this. The stats are a big part of what I do on Monday's as I know fans across the area enjoy checking on the area leaders. We have the same routine for the past nine years where coaching staffs have to email or fax us their stats over the weekend or on Monday and we compile the list. At this point, I have not received stats from a number of schools, Socastee included. Hopefully, in the next week or so, we'll get everyone to come on board and get stats from all 34 schools. If I can get ahead of schedule this week, I'll attempt to send an email to all 34 coaches to remind them to email me stats every week.

Marilyn P. writes: Why does Rich ignore Panthers games when we are more interested in them than High Sch.& College, which he seems to prefer? There are many retirees in this area who prefer NFL to local. No mention of the great game the Panthers had Sunday. Shame.

Marilyn: Ironic that you wrote this email on the night that I did show John Fox talking about the Panthers big win over San Diego. I understand your criticism, but I'll explain my philosophy. The Panthers play on Sunday's and Mark Haggard does an excellent job of giving thorough highlights and I would say at least half of the time post-game sound. It's not like Hags is doing just one highlight - he goes in depth. On Monday, I will run John Fox if there's something relevant (injury update, etc). It sounds like you want me to run the highlights that Hags ran on Sunday on Monday - if there's nothing new to add, there's no point. Of course, I think that was an awesome win for Carolina and it was great to see Jake Delhomme back under center, but if there's nothing new to add, it would be lazy of me to re-rack highlights. That being said, I do try and make it a point to run Panthers interviews at least once a week. The NFL will not allow us to shoot video on the sidelines, so unfortunately, it's not worth our time to go to Charlotte and cover a game when we can't shoot highlights. I would love to go up and do a long feature on Quinton Teal for example. I will continue to show the Panthers whenever it's warranted.

Thanks to everyone for writing in! Ed and I are leaving 6am for NJ and the CCU/Monmouth game - that's usually an adventure - I'll recap our journey next week!

There's a guy with one arm pitching a no-hitter at Yankee Stadium

2008-07-15T19:49:00.000-07:00

As a lifelong New York Yankee fan, the All-Star festivities have been special for me and Josh Hamilton's performance in the Home Run Derby may be the last great moment in the House that Ruth Built unless the Yankees rally into the post-season or we see a perfect game.
I've been fortunate enough to see a handful of great moments in the Bronx. The first one came on July 24th, 1983. The Middletown, NJ Swim Club had a bus trip to see the Royals and the Yankees and my Mom (a non-sports fan in every sense of the word), took me to set up shop in the upper deck. With 2 outs inn the 9th inning, Goose Gossage made a mistake to George Brett and a 2 run homer gave the Royals a 5-4 lead. Gossage will be inducted together into Cooperstown and the Baseball Hall of Fame later this month. Yankees manager Billy Martin came out and there was a lot of people in the stands asking what was going on as Brett's bat came out of the dugout and was laid across home plate. As a 13 year old, I remember saying to the fans sitting around me that they were measuring the amount of pine tar on his bat. I was engulfed in Yankee baseball, never missing a broadcast and I remember hearing discussion about Brett using a lot of pine tar on his bat. Umpire Tim McClelland called Brett out and one of the most famous scenes in baseball lore happened. An enraged Brett stormed out of the dugout and it took about half of the Royals to hold him back. (YouTube this if you haven't seen it!) Just by pure luck, I was in attendance in what will forver be known as the Pine Tar Game.
I've been to two World Series games at Yankee Stadium. In 1998, my wife and I on a whim decided to drive from Bangor, Maine down to the Bronx to try and scalp tickets to game one of the World Series. It was a fun adventure, and I was able to get two tickets in the bleachers for $125 each (a pretty good bargain) 10 minutes before the first pitch. Paranoid that I was getting counterfeit tickets, I made the scalper walk with us up to the gate to make sure we got in. We saw a 9-6 Yankees win as Tino Martinez sparked a 7 run 7th inning.
While working in 1999 in Bangor, we covered the Boston Red Sox and were able to secure credentials for the ALCS. My weekend sports anchor was able to go to Fenway and cover the Yankees 4 games to 1 series win. When you apply for post-season credentials, the normal procedure for a local TV affiliate is to get passes until your local team is eliminated. We were surprised to get a phone call in our sports office from Major League Baseball asking if we were going to use our World Series credentials. Calmly, I answered yes. We couldn't turn down a chance to cover a World Series game. Game four against the Atlanta Braves at Yankee Stadium had our chief meteorologist, Rob Nucatola, and I hit the road. I don't know what it is, but weather guys are the best road trip sidekicks (see Ed Piotrowski and about 25 CCU road trips!). I don't know how we did it, but I was actually live on the field at Yankee Stadium at 6:20 pm prior to the World Series. The Yankees won the game, Roger Clemens got his first world series ring and we got a boat load of sound bites on the field. The locker room was so overloaded with media and VIP's, that we were able to get interviews with Scott Brosius, Jim Leyritz, Tino Martinez, Jorge Posada and a host of others virtually one on one. On the outside, you have to stay professional, but on the inside you have goose bumps knowing you are standing on the field that you grew up watching as a kid - that I was standing on the same field as Babe Ruth, Mickey Mantle and countless others.
This brings me to my favorite Yankee Stadium moment. My television career began behind the scenes at WCBS-TV in New York. I was lucky enough to get an opportunity and worked my way to associate sports producer. I was producing the weekend sportscasts for Steve Levy, now at ESPN. Steve began his career at WFAN, the all sports radio station in New York City. He actually worked on the radio early Saturday afternoon before he came into work at the TV station. It was my job to set the table - come in early and get the rundown started and begin recording the games that we were going to show highlights of. It was a Saturday afternoon in early September, 1993 and the Yankees were hosting the Cleveland Indians. Jim Abbott was the starting pitcher. For those who don't know, Abbott is an amazing story. He was born without a right hand and was able to pitch with his glove tucked under his right arm and in a seemless motion, could get the glove onto his left hand by the time the ball reached home plate. He was a very good fielding pitcher. You can get mesmerized just watching him do this alone. On this day, Abbott was dialed in. You never take a no-hitter seriously until about the 6th inning and when Abbott hadn't allowed a hit, I realized that maybe something special was going to happen.
I was a kid. 23 years old and working in New York City. There were so many people working at Channel 2 and I was so low on the totem pole that less than half the people on staff knew my name. There was always a higher level sports producer around or an anchor except on Saturday's. It was about a 20 minute drive from WCBS to Yankee Stadium. If Abbott got through the 6th with a no-hitter intact, I had to go to the assignment desk and get a camera crew and get to the Bronx in case history was made. Sure enough, at the end of 6, the Indians still had a zero in the hit column. I walked from the sports office to the newsroom and went to the woman sitting behind the central nervous system of WCBS. She definitely didn't know my name. I told her I needed to get a cameraman to go with me to Yankees Stadium ASAP. She said to me "I'll see what I can do and get back to you". At this point, for the first time and honestly the only time in my New York career, I got a little courage. "There's a guy with one arm pitching a no-hitter at Yankee Stadium. Trust me, we need to be there right now." Fortunately, I was on my way downstairs and on the West Side Highway to the Bronx. I got to the Stadium in bottom of the 8th which is pretty good time. I sat in the bowels of the stadium and just listened to the roar of the crowd. Even though I didn't see that 9th inning, the crowd dictated to me that history was made. I was in place and was able to get post-game interviews with Abbott, Wade Boggs (who made a great defensive play to keep the no-hitter intact) and everyone else involved. I remember Levy calling in to the sports office and saying to me "Please tell me you just got back from the Stadium" - to which I replied "Yes". If I didn't say yes, I'd probably be teaching tennis in New Jersey and out of the business before I ever really got into it. The fact that Steve trusted me to get the job done was one of the most significant moments in my career. If it was any other day, I would have been holed up in the sports office answering phones and logging highlights. That no-hitter story gave me the confidence that I can work a big story and I went from "Who's that kid" in the newroom to "Hey that's one of the sports producers" (most of them still didn't know my name!). I'm glad that moment happened at such a special place. I'm sure the new Yankee Stadium will be a palace, but I'm sure it won't be the same.

My link with Pete Sampras

2008-07-03T18:54:00.000-07:00

Tonight on my sportscast I showed highlights of Serena Williams advancing to the Wimbledon final with a 6-2, 7-6 win over Zheng Jie. In those highlights, I showed a ballboy who collided into Serena at almost full speed. It brought back memories of my days as a ballboy. That's right, I had the Reebok red and blue outfit in the back row of the 1987 US Open. I went to a tryout at Flushing Meadow and the USTA National Tennis Center and made the cut to work the back row. Basically, I was throwing balls on one perfect bounce to a player and during changeovers, throwing balls across the court to my comrades in the back row. There is a pecking order in the ballboy world. A newbie like myself was not going to get thrown on the stadium court or the grandstand. I never did get on to the main two courts - my highlight of my ballboy career was working a match on court 16 (at the time, one of the larger outer courts in Flushing Meadow) with Carling Bassett-Seguso, who was the Anna Kournikova of 1987. As for the low point of my ballboy career, that would come in a women's doubles match. Raffaella Reggi, who was an Italian ranked in the top 20 in women's singles, was playing in a doubles match. During changeovers, we would have to throw tennis balls across court and I was in my routine of throwing line drives when miss Reggi walked right into one of my throws. It hit her sqaure on the head. Fortunately, there were only about 50 people watching the match, but they all managed to gasp. I thought it was going to be my last match. It probably would have been if it was on the stadium or grandstand, but Reggi laughed, I apologized profusely and she and her partner won the match easily in straight sets.
The highlight of the ballboy experience was getting the chance to actually play at the USTA National Tennis Center. My high school teammate, Chris Gambino, was a highly ranked national player who was on standby to get into the US Open boys singles draw. He didn't get to play in the event, but he was working as a court attendant during the Open and was allowed to practice on the courts because he was on standby. We would get there early and hit balls before the matches got started at 11am. The court attendant gig was way better than ballboy - all you had to worry about was getting towels, and relaying scores.
I can thank Chris Gambino for my one and only significant match as a varsity tennis player in high school. I started playing tennis at around the age of 12 and got hooked. There was a tremendous public courts program that became my summer job and was responsible for my passion for tennis. My high school, Christian Brothers Academy, had the reputation as one of the best tennis programs in New Jersey. For five years, I practiced and took many lessons with the hopes of maybe, just maybe I could start for the CBA tennis team in my senior season. Alas, I got to my senior year and was the 8th player on the depth chart. Unfortunately, seven players play (3 singles and two doubles teams). All of the hard work did not pay off. The beauty of tennis is there is no one to blame about the starting lineup. You beat a player head to head and you move up the ladder. No excuses, I was the 8th best player. Granted, I probably would have started for any other team in the state of New Jersey. That's what many people told me, and I didn't believe them until mid-season.
Newark Academy held a mid-season tournament where the top 8 teams in the state were invited to play head to head and have an idea of who was the favorite heading into the later part of the year. We were ranked #2 in the state and drew the #7 team in the first round. I was ready to ride the bench as usual. Gambino was playing in a pro qualifer tournament the same day as our match. He was playing a world ranked player and he thought he'd be able to come to our match in plenty of time. We were getting ready to leave for our match when our coach got the call - Chris beat this world ranked player and would not be playing in our match. For the first time ever, I got the call to play in a varsity tennis match. I played second doubles with Brian Bocker and won the match in straight sets. While I was playing my first varsity match, Chris Gambino was playing a 16 year old phenom named Pete Sampras (he lost to Pistol Pete 7-5,7-5 if I recall). Our tennis team went on to a perfect season and a state championship and I played in a handful of matches against weaker teams on our schedule.
The confidence of that one match kept me going. I won a doubles invitational with our #2 player Joe Clemente after the season and got a chance to play tennis at Saint Bonaventure. I played three years of NCAA Division I tennis despite playing a grand total of 8 matches in my high school career.
Sure, it's sixteen degrees of separation, but I always feel I'll be forever linked to one of the greatest tennis players in history and if it wasn't for him, I may have never felt what it was like to truly win on a tennis court.

Cashing In

2008-06-24T17:31:00.000-07:00

It has been a busier June than normal, thanks to Coastal Carolina's fantastic run on the diamond. Kudos to the University for making an aggressive play to keep Gary Gilmore in Conway. While Gilly is getting some much deserved coin in his bank account, some of his players are also cashing in.

Signing Bonuses
==================

Jordan Lyles #38 pick of Houston Astros in supplemental first round: $930,000
Pete Andrelzyck, 5th round pick of the Florida Marlins: $185,000
Dock Doyle, 5th round pick of the NY Mets: $167,000
David Sappelt, 9th round pick of the Cincinnati Reds: $75,000

You can see why Jordan said no thanks to the Gamecocks and quickly signed on the dotted line with the Astros organization. These four players would be wise to stock away this windfall of cash. Their salary in the minors starts at $850 a month and $20 meal money on the road. Eventually, the big bucks of the big leagues is on the horizon, but it's a long and tough journey to make it in the show.

The Mad Dash

2008-06-03T15:58:00.000-07:00

First and foremost, a tip of the cap to Gary Gilmore for finally slaying the dragon. For so many years, reaching the NCAA Regional was not good enough for the CCU baseball program. This past weekend at Charles Watson Stadium was a declaration that the Chanticleers are a legitimate college baseball power.
My first year here was the heartbreaking Athens Regional where the Chants were one strike away from a Super Regional before current Cincinnati Red Jeff Keppinger hit a home run to put Georgia into the Super Regionals. Finally, after seven more trips to the Regionals, the Chants slugged their way into college baseball's sweet 16.
This is the second straight year I've covered the regionals and you learn in a hurry that it's a marathon weekend. There is such a premium on staying in the winner's bracket and both Alabama and Coastal Carolina knew it on Saturday night. The game started at 7:30 due to a 30 minute lightning delay. The Crimson Tide took a 10-6 lead on a bases loaded triple and it looked like "Here we go again". Hags came over to the ballpark and picked up the tape of highlights to that point as we both thought it was shaping up to be a Crimson Tide win. But by the time Hags reached the driveway across the street, CCU exploded for 7 runs in the 8th inning highlighted by a Tommy Baldridge 3 run HR to give the Chants a 13-10 lead. Hags got back in the car and came to pick up the outburst. At this point it was about 10:40 pm and we were racing against the clock. Would the game end on time? Would we be able to get post-game reaction? This was the most significant moment in CCU baseball history and we wanted to have it for the 11pm news.
At 11:06 pm, David Sappelt squeezed the leather on the third out and gave CCU the breakthrough win. Normally, we'd have a cooling off period and go to a press conference at Brooks Stadium, but because the game was so late, the NCAA graciously allowed us to do interviews on the field. The clearance to go on the field came at 11:09 pm as the handshakes were completed. Hags is hitting the air in about 14 minutes. Can I get the interviews, run across campus to my car, get back to the station, edit the interviews and send it on our computer server? Vegas probably had it as a 15-1 shot. I got Gilly and Tommy Baldridge and the CCU support staff came to the rescue. I asked if they could golf cart me to my car -- Kelly Moore and I sped towards the athletic offices and realized that the gate was locked up. We sprinted through the offices and into the parking lot on the other side of the fence. It's 11:16 - seven minutes to go. I turn the key and make a sharp left turn and meander around campus towards the traffic light at 501. I call Hags and he realizes that we have a shot at it. A little game traffic, but I'm sprinting into the edit bay at about 11:20 pm. I have to download about 90 seconds of tape into our computer and begin editing. Hags is going to do highlights first so we have a little time. As he goes out on the set, I'm chopping up the sound and sending it to our control room. With about 75 seconds to spare, it's in our system. Hags wraps up the highlights and tosses on blind faith to the post-game reaction hoping it's there. It was. It's stories like this that make the business fun. If I was a minute later, it would have been a very different feeling. The baseball gods were looking out for us.
When I was running to the parking lot, there were some great CCU baseball fans who asked me as I was sprinting that I couldn't possibly get this on for the 11pm news. The next day, they heard that I did make it on the air and we laughed about it on Sunday before the East Carolina game. Surely, with a 7pm first pitch we wouldn't be cutting it close in the title game right? 35 runs, 37 hits, 7 errors, 8 pitching changes and 3 hours and 54 minutes later I was wrong. This time it was 10:54, but there was a championship celebration to deal with. As I was making the same mad dash to the parking lot at 11:06, the same people who saw me the night before looked at their watches and said "You've got plenty of time! If you made it last night, tonight will be easy!" I should mention that my on-camera intro to the celebration was shot by none other than Coach David Bennett who camped out on the third base fence for most of the weekend.
We were lucky enough to go 2 for 2 when it came to getting a big sports story on the air. Hags and I have spent the better part of 10 years shooting games at Watson Stadium in front of intimate gatherings, so we were satisfied that we were able to bring the excitement of the biggest weekend in CCU baseball history back to the viewers at home.
Now it's off to the Super Regional. Hopefully, with some help from our TV friends in NC, we won't be making any sprints through the parking lot in Cary, NC!

Mailbag - May edition

2008-05-22T20:54:00.000-07:00

I got three different responses on the same subject including an old school letter with a stamp on it and everything so I thought I'd dive into one of the biggest single complaints I have received in the past nine years. The emails and letter below are pretty cut and dry in their criticism.

Jim writes:

There are many of us who watch your program every night and we would like to see more national sports highlights/coverage from other area's and less about the Braves and Falcons. Please remember the high percentage of viewers that have relocated to Myrtle Beach from the northeast, (Boston, NYC, Phil and Washington area we would like to see more Pro and college teams from these area's.)

Dan Ward writes:

Rich:

I realize that you only have a very limited time (3 min +/-) for the sports segment of the 11PM news. As a result, the majority of the time available is and should be dedicated to local sports. However, when it comes to professional sports scores the only teams even mentioned are from Atlanta and Charlotte. In other words, 95% of the professional sports team scores are never mentioned.

Due to the nature of the people moving to this area over the past number of years, I believe that a great majority of your viewers are interested the teams other than the Braves, Falcons, Panthers, Thrashers, Hurricanes, Hawks and Bobcats.

With the very limited time available to you may I suggest that you run a banner containing all the available scores during your sports broadcast. This is done very successfully in a number of other cities I have lived in.

Thanks for your kind consideration.

These are valid criticisms, but I do want to point out one thing: the teams I highlighted in bold above are teams that we rarely, if EVER show highlights of. The only time we have showed Falcons highlights is to spotlight Lamar native John Abraham. The Falcons, Thrashers and Hawks are not part of our blood stream. To explain our steady diet of Braves highlights is quite simple: the Myrtle Beach Pelicans are the single "A" affiliate of the Atlanta Braves and we have seen the direct pipeline of Pelicans that are a key part of the Braves foundation at the major league level. We are an official affiliate of the Carolina Panthers, thus our dedication to giving them a steady diet on the show.

Dan's suggestion of a scoreboard is a good one. It used to be that we ran a scoreboard in the tease before sports at 11pm, but it was dropped. The overwhelming theory in this modern day and age is that there are numerous places you can get the national sports scores at your fingertips through the internet, your cell phone or places like Fox Sports or ESPN. The ironic part is that if we were to do the scoreboard idea that Dan suggested, we would most likely put local scores and SEC/ACC fare over the national sports that people crave.

I saved the best for last. I received this typed letter in my mailbox with the words "Consumer Complaint" written in the lower left hand corner:

Dear Sports Editor (I guess that's me)

Through the agony in the months since the World Series, baseball fans catching your offerings as part of nightly newscasts have suffered through golf (a game played in designer clothes) and auto racing (as much mechanics as sport).
So now we are back to the summer and baseball!
But what do we get? Golf and racing!!!
It is as if EVERY weekend race (and all the preliminaries leading up to it) are Super Bowls. And every piddling tournament (especially if we get one more shot of Tiger Woods) is The Masters!
So even on a Sunday evening when old guys out here without a cable are hurting, we get more golf, more racing and maybe two minutes of the Atlanta Braves. What about the American League (and certified Yankee haters?) What about the slump of Ortiz that was over before we heard about it? What managers are on the block?
If you operation intends to serve the public, and not just two special elite groups who have had their way all year long, then it is incumbent on you to put some things on the back burner and recognize what season it is!

Regards, Roy Haymond.

This is such a well written letter. I really enjoyed reading it even if it's a slam on me and Hags to a certain extent. Here are the facts: I'll start with baseball and then address golf and NASCAR. Coming off a show where I just had five different baseball elements, I can say that we are showing plenty of baseball not just the kind of baseball that Roy and some of our transplant fans don't want. A steady diet of Pelicans and Braves to go along with USC, Clemson and CCU baseball are our bread and butter during this time of year.
In regards to golf and NASCAR. Golf is a $1 billion dollar industry to the Grand Strand. That's not an inflated number. While there is no PGA Tour event here, golf is what defines the Grand Strand. I always feel that we can do more coverage of the local golf scene and we do our best to try and get a pulse on what's going on locally on the golf scene. In addition, that industry and the people who play have a high interest on what happens on the PGA Tour. NASCAR was born and bred in the South and I have seen enough passionate fans in our viewing area to know that we will always have a big chunk of audience interested in the week to week grind of Sprint Cup racing. The fact that Darlington Raceway is in our backyard and hosts the elite of motorsports is proof that we have to make a commitment to NASCAR coverage. 7.8 million people watched the Dodge Challenger 500 earlier this month at Darlington. It is the single biggest sporting event on our soil when it comes to the Myrtle Beach/Florence market bar none.

So that leads me to the mission statement so to speak. We don't have a sports handbook, but we really follow a gameplan when it comes to covering sports:

LAYER ONE: The Foundation

High School Sports, Coastal Carolina, South Carolina, Clemson, the Myrtle Beach Pelicans

You can probably count on your hand the number of times in a year that we don't have one of these elements in a sportscast on a given day. These are things that you can not get on ESPN, Fox Sports, CNN, etc.

LAYER TWO: NASCAR, Braves, Panthers, Bobcats, locals in the pros, golf scene

I wish that some of our local stars moved on to places that our transplants want to see. If Jerome Simpson was a Patriots wide receiver, you'd see a lot more Pats highlights on our news. If Tyler Thigpen was traded to the New York Jets, the Gang Green on the Strand would be ecstatic. We're always looking out to see if one of our local products does something at the pro level.

LAYER THREE: Local features, national sports

This week I was able to show a couple of national stories. Jon Lester's no-hitter with the Red Sox and the Manchester United/Chelsea Champions League Final in Moscow. Reality is that we did about 25 seconds on each of these stories, but that's the landscape in 2008. I get 2:45 Monday through Friday and we try to span the local landscape and everything else to get to as many communities and keep as many fans happy as we can.

I've given up a long time ago in trying to keep everyone happy. In the sports office, Hags and I are like a sports talk show talking about all the national things that this one particular niche craves, but we know that local sports is our #1 priority. Hags does a great job on the weekend of finding the balance to show the big national sports games that people are talking about (the Cavs/Celtics game 7 for example). Hags has the luxury of a little more time on the weekends and can craft that into his show.

I had a brainstorm of doing the "Transplant highlight of the night" where people would log on to our website and pick the game they want to see that night on the 11pm news. If I thought we'd get a few hundred votes every night, I would do that and it would probably be real fun.

I do appreciate the input as always and will continue to answer emails as they come my way.

Simpson's Redemption

2008-04-26T22:22:00.000-07:00

When I was in the edit bay listening to Mel Kiper, Jr's comments on Jerome Simpson getting drafted by the Cincinnati Bengals in the second round, I thought back to all the times that I may have had a skewed view of football talent. After all, I cover more Coastal Carolina games and hence, more FCS games than the higher level BCS and perhaps I was caught up in that level. Could Chanticleers really make an NFL roster? Tyler Thigpen and Quinton Teal disproved that theory last season. I always thought Jerome Simpson was a special talent who could actually play on Sundays. I truly thought that he would be the first CCU player to play in the NFL (although I'm more than happy to be wrong thanks to Thig and Quinton). It really is mind boggling that CCU has produced three NFL players (and hopefully a fourth with Mike Tolbert). Kiper more or less said that when talking about all the big school receivers on the draft board and a guy from Coastal Carolina is the Bengals answer to helping a receiving corps that may have an AWOL Pro Bowler in Chad Johnson.

As Cincinnati and the NFL learns more about Jerome Simpson, I will always remember seeing him at Coastal Grand Mall folding T-shirts at Champs Sports like any other college student working a part time job. How satisfying will it be for Jerome to have his jersey in that same Champs store a few years down the road?! More than that, Simpson provides a valuable lesson in bouncing back from adversity.

It's a long lost memory now, but CCU fans will always remember the dreaded Super Safety. Back in 2005, I wrote a column in Palmetto Pigskin Preview about one of the lowest points in CCU football history.

From Palmetto Pigskin Preview
November 23rd, 2005
With ten seconds to go, Coastal Carolina was a mere strategic snap away from everything they were looking for: a second Big South title, a second ten win season, and a reason to watch the Division I-AA football playoff pairings show with a close eye. When I saw Jerome Simpson back in punt formation, it was easy to see what the play call was. You’ve got the guy with the best hands, and one of the fastest on the roster. Take the snap, melt down that ten seconds on your way to the back of the End Zone, and take a safety. All that was left to do was celebrate. But then it happened. Think Chris Webber calling timeout when Michigan didn’t have any left in the NCAA Tournament, or Bill Buckner watching the ball in between his legs, or Joe Pisarcik fumbling for the NY Giants in victory formation, as Herman Edwards gave the Philadelphia Eagles an improbable win.
Jerome Simpson was supposed to run into the end zone, but instead went out of bounds at the 4 yard line, giving Charleston Southern 1.5 seconds to ruin Coastal’s 2005 season. And that’s what exactly happened two overtimes later.
Simpson made a mental error, and there’s no defense for it. The look of devastation on his face five seconds after it happened was all the proof you needed.
In September, Jerome Simpson had the #1 play on ESPN SportsCenter. His highlight in the last game of the season was the antithesis of a top play.
University of Memphis basketball player Darius Washington, Jr. had three free throws in the Conference USA Championship to get his team to the NCAA Tournament last year. After making the first free throw to get within one against Louisville, he proceeded to miss both free throws to lose in a heartbreaking fashion. Washington dropped to the ground and pulled his jersey over his head. As the whole nation watched this, something funny happened. Rather than rip the athlete, people across the country embraced him from emails to letters and phone calls. They were able to give him the confidence to get back on the court and put the miscue behind him. The whole country doesn’t know about Simpson’s miscue, but everyone who is associated with Coastal Carolina football does. The challenge on the entire Chants football family (fans, coaches and players) is to be there for Jerome through a long off-season and keep him on track to get back on the gridiron and excel.
Imagine if your son or best friend was the person making that mistake. We live in a world that has negativity. At some point, Simpson will have to deal with an angry email or unruly fans shouting at him on the field. Hopefully, the support of fans, family and friends will dwarf the bad apples he’s bound to come across.
Football is a “what have you done for me lately” kind of sport. People will forget Simpson’s amazing performance that was a huge reason for the Chants upset of James Madison. They’ll forget him attracting double teams to give other receivers the chance to shine.
Jerome Simpson was supposed to run into the End Zone. He has two more years of football at Coastal Carolina, and will never forget that play. It’s my hope that he does run into the end zone many times in the future, and he bounces back from this adversity.

Fast forward three years. Yes, Simpson did bounce back from that adversity. It's a tired cliche, but the term "Everything happens for a reason" fits in this situation. Jerome could have went the other way and never been the same player he was before that fateful play. If Jerome didn't face that bump in the road, perhaps he would not have trained as hard or stayed humble when success came his way. Instead the opposite happened - Jerome matured and used the pain of that disappointment to become an NFL wide receiver. Jerome and his family were driving home from a flea market when Cincinnati head coach Marvin Lewis called to tell him that he was about to be a Bengal. Simpson pulled over on the highway and began jumping up and down crying tears of joy and celebrating with his family. A whole legion of CCU fans were jumping up and down as well.

Mailbag

2008-04-03T14:08:00.001-07:00

I want to thank the folks who have told me that they enjoy the blog. I now realize that people are actually reading this and I'm not just talking to myself so as a result I'm going to start cranking out some entries. Here are a few of the working titles I'll be writing about in the coming weeks.

"Camraderie on the Diamond"
"My link with Pete Sampras"
"There's a guy with one arm pitching a no-hitter at Yankee Stadium"

For now, I wanted to take the time to answer some questions I have gotten in the past few weeks. We used to have a forum section on the old website where I rattled off responses on a regular basis. I will try and wrangle questions up every month or so and post the answers here. Feel free to email me at 15sports@wpde.com and I'll do my best to try and answer your question. Now on to the mailbag:

Hello,Rick I watch 15 news and I thank you do a great job telling the sports,but would like to ask you why you don't cover Florence Darlington technical College Baseball team,I never hear you say nothing about them.My reason is, my son LA Owens is there he is one of there pitchers. I thank you might remember him from Dillon High School he was one of the wide receivers #3 just wanted to know why you didn't cover FDTC baseball team. - Lucille Owens

Lucille:
I appreicate you getting in touch with us. This is the perfect example of how we put something on the radar and try and cover. We get spread thin during baseball with having to cover the Pelicans, USC, Clemson and CCU. We already did a feature on the FMU baseball team as they are a nationally ranked Division II power and we need to get cracking on high school baseball as the playoffs are right around the corner. I remember LA well on the gridiron playing for Jackie Hayes and I hope that he can use FDTC as a springboard to another opportunity in college baseball. Please keep in touch and while I can't guarantee we'll go out there, I can promise you we'll do a story if he signs to play college baseball at another school.
Has WPDE dropped the Zone Cup incentive they have done for the past three years for high school teams? It's no longer posted, and hasn't been for a 2-3 months.
Has WPDE dropped the Zone Cup incentive they have done for the past three years for high school teams? It's no longer posted, and hasn't been for a 2-3 months.

Has WPDE dropped the Zone Cup incentive they have done for the past three years for high school teams? It's no longer posted, and hasn't been for a 2-3 months. From: Keith

Keith:
The Zone Cup is alive and well. Our website is set up in such a way that stories have a shelf life of about 3-4 days. We updated the Zone Cup standings after each round of state championships. The last update was right after the high school basketball state championships. I think we need to make the Zone Cup a permanent link on the left side of the sports page and will get cracking on that. I have to navigate through the corporate ladder on our new website so things take a little bit more time, but I will get this to be a permanent fixture on wpde.com so folks can keep tabs all year long.

Just wondering why on your web pages under sports, you have USC, Clemson... but not Coastal Carolina University. You cover them well on TV, have the David Bennett show etc..
Give us our own little notch.. Thanks.. Jeff Linder

Jeff:
This is another great suggestion. You guys have got me in the mode to keep our web guys busy. I've come up with a small laundry list of things that I will try and get added to wpde.com in the coming weeks:

1. WPDE Sports Shootout Golf Tournament page
2. Zone Cup Standings
3. CCU News
4. David Bennett Show page
5. Cliff Ellis Show page

Keep an eye out for these things in the next few weeks!

When will the 2008 WPDE Scholarship form be available on-line. Currently the 2007 is loaded. From: Kelly Bridgers

Kelly:

Thanks so much for bringing this to my attention. This is one thing on the list I was able to get crossed off. The scholarship application is updated and is on the link is on the left hand side of the main page. A reminder that any high school senior in the WPDE viewing area is eligible for our $5,000 scholarship. The money we raise from our annual golf tournament goes to the scholarship fund. Our tournament is set for Friday, May 30th at Wachesaw East in Murrells Inlet. We hope that we can continue to raise $15,000 as we have for the past three years. The deadline to get your application in is Friday, May 2nd. We will look through all of the applications and get it narrowed to a top 5-10 right before the golf tournament. Once we figure out how much money we have raised, we will announce the winners in early June.

Why are you guys not giving any coverage to the Southeastern Baseball Classic From: Faile

The Southeastern Baseball Classic is an outstanding annual high school baseball tournament hosted by Hartsville high school. The Red Foxes lost in the finals of this prestigious event. Part of the battle is information. We have many things going on in many sports all year long. If we had a heads up and reminder of the tournament, that would have helped. The other factor was getting scores called in. If either of those two things happened, we would have had a chance to put it on our radar and try and cover it. A lot of times we get information after the fact, and that doesn't help the cause. We are looking forward to covering Hartsville baseball as they make what should be a deep run in the Class 4A playoffs along with Conway.

For Rich Chrampanis: I know that South Carolina touts its 3 sports as football, basketball, and spring football and that WPDE supports this with its End Zone and Hoop Zone awards. But, how about the other "sports" played in local high schools and at CCU? Consider the following:
baseball/softball - diamond zone
wrestling - mat zone
tennis - court zone
track and field - track zone
golf - green zone (not to be confused with an area in
Iraq with the same name)
Well, you get the idea. Let's have some more "zones"! From: Fred Carpenter

Fred:
Appreciate you checking in. We like to think that we have these sports covered with our Zone Cup program. Like the Sears Cup in NCAA sports, we award points to each high school based on their post-season performance in varsity sports, both boys and girls. Especially in the spring, we try and get to as many spring playoff events as possible as it has a direct impact on the final standings in the Zone Cup race. As I mentioned above, we'll be getting the Zone Cup as a permanent link on the site. Every year, we get the Diamond Zone pitched to us. It's flattering to think that people think enough of our local sports coverage to want even more! It comes down to clock and resources. It's just Hags and me and we have a finite amount of time in each sportscast. Our station goes above and beyond the call of duty to devote an amazing amount of resources to our football and basketball products. That being said, I'm hoping that as the years go by, the Zone Cup catches on and it becomes an award that every high school covets. The Zoneman and Mister and Miss Hoop Zone have prestige in our area thanks to our former winners being in the NFL, NBA and WNBA. The Zone Cup should be on the same level as it is the reflection of an entire school's athletic department. We'll keep putting the spotlight on as many different sports as we can during the school year.

For Rich Chrampanis,
UNC's basketball player is Tyler Hansbrough, not Hansborough. His last name is pronounced Hans-bro. From: Shirley Kirby

Shirley:
I went back and checked the tape, and indeed I turned the ball over with my pronunciation. Roy Williams would have me running the Dean Dome steps for that. I have a ton of admiration for Psycho-T. I do appreciate folks keeping me straight and keeping tabs on me.

Our family relocated to Pawleys Island from the Northeastern part of Ohio (Akron) about three years ago. We are avid sports fans (Cleveland Browns & Cleveland Indians)and I have noticed that when you guys have the sports segment of the daily news you never include any of the northern teams. There are alot of people that live here that are from the north and would like to get game results for their teams (Indians, White Soxes, etc.) and also the football teams. The only ones that you guys ever talk about are the Braves, NY etc. It's bad enough that we can't physically see our teams play regularly but we don't hear about what they are doing. Can you accommodate this? From Kathy Eagan

Kathy:

I'm glad you brought this up as I have had to make this response to many different transplants. First and foremost, I am a transplant as well (like Bruce Springsteen says, I come from somewhere in the swamps of Jersey). I grew up on Warner Wolf (he's the reason I became a sportscaster) and my usual fix of Giants, Jets, Yankees, Mets, Rangers, Islanders and Devils. If there's one thing I've learned is that we have packs of transplants who are passionate about many things. If I had to rank them, here they are and what they want:

1. New York Metro area (Yankees/Mets/Giants/Jets)
2. North Carolina (Tar Heels)
3. West Virginia (Mountaineers)
4. Ohio (Ohio State/Indians/Browns)
5. Philadelphia (Eagles/Phillies)
6. Boston (Red Sox/Patriots)
7. Virginia Tech (Hokies)

The days of covering national sports in a local sportscast are all but gone. I've spoken about this many times, but in this new age of information now, you have to bring a product that is exclusive to the area you live in. In regards to the professional sports, you can get all of those things through ESPN.

The foundation of what we cover is high school sports and three colleges (Coastal Carolina, South Carolina and Clemson). Add to that the Myrtle Beach Pelicans. We have both coaches shows at CCU and we do extensive high school sports coverage because 99 percent of the time, you can't get it anywhere else outside of Myrtle Beach. The same goes for the Gamecocks and Tigers - the fan base of both is very large in our area and quite passionate.

The reason we cover the Atlanta Braves like we do is simple: the Pelicans are the Single "A" affiliate of the Braves and we are at the point as we enter season 10 of the Birds at the Beach that the majority of the Braves lineup has spent some time in Myrtle Beach. Jeff Francouer, Brian McCann and Martin Prado just to name a few. In addition, we are the official local affiliate of the Carolina Panthers.

The next layer of our coverage (and this is where a lot of our national coverage comes in) is following our local products in the pros:

Why did we show Milwaukee Bucks/Washington Wizards highlights last night? Simply because Myrtle Beach's own Ramon Sessions hit the buzzer beater to win the game. The same applies to Raymond Felton (Latta) with the Charlotte Bobcats, Albert Haynseworth (Hartsville) with the Tennessee Titans and the list goes on and on.

Times have changed - we used to show major league baseball scores at 11pm in the break before the sports segment, but that has gone away. Again, the mantra that you can get that kind of information on ESPN or by simply logging on to the internet or getting scores from your favorite team texted to your mobile phone.

The other factor is time. We get 2:45 for each show we do Monday-Friday. That time can go by quickly. Five years ago, I could get anywhere between 3:30 and 4:00 - that gave me more time to do the occasional national sports story. I still try and pick the major national sports stories and give them some time, but local sports is first and foremost every day.

I would love to have the transplants come on to the blog and email me questions/comments or thoughts about their favorite teams. Here I have all the space in the world to talk Tar Heels, Indians, or anything.

Since you're an Ohio fan, I will share this - the best pitching performance I ever saw in Myrtle Beach was when a young CC Sabathia pitched a complete game shutout against the Pelicans. I like the makeup of the Tribe - Travis Hafner is an underrated superstar and Victor Martinez is a top 5 catcher that no one talks about. If Carmona can be anywhere near what he was last year and Joe Borowski can get his ERA under 5.00 (that's a selfish request, since he's on my roti team), the Tribe should be able to challenge Detroit and Minnesota in the AL Central.

duckman said...
You are my favorite station to watch for basketball & football scores & highlights. But it seems that when those two sports are over you take a vacation from high school sports. I would like to see more coverage on high school softball & baseball. You not only have some of the best teams in the state right here in the Pee Dee but also in the country.

Duckman:

I appreciate the kind words. It's funny that you say that, because Hags actually did take a vacation after the high school basketball state championships. We have a small window of opportunities to take time off as we generally work 6 or 7 day weeks during football and basketball season. We spend March and April giving attention to college baseball, spring football and the Pelicans. We will go full out for the high school baseball and softball playoffs and get to as many different games as we can over a four week span. We will spend the next couple of weeks trying to pinpoint which teams we need to keep an eye on. Rest assured, things are going to get cranked up with high school baseball and softball!

Great questions from all -- looking forward to doing this again on a regular basis!

Hoop Zone Banquet

2008-03-12T23:50:00.000-07:00

Another banquet is in the books and I have to say that the 8th annual Hoop Zone banquet was one of the smoothest we ever had. It was a great season that culminated in an amazingly busy two weekends as our local teams invaded Charleston and Columbia. I've posted in the past about the process of selecting our All-Zone teams and the voting process for the Zoneman and Mister and Miss Hoop Zone, but I feel it's important to reiterate as we inevitably seem to have a lot of questions.
In early January, Hags and I put our mental focus on the high school basketball season. The first thing I do is take out last year's All-Hoop Zone team and see who's returning. Barring a player suspension, major injury or other discipline types of problems, the players who were on last year's team usually returns to the All-Hoop Zone team. After that, we draw a line and develop a watch list. It starts by combing through box scores and getting calls from coaches on Tuesday and Friday night. We did a Hoop Zone honor roll on wpde.com on those nights and it was pretty easy to see who was on that list every time. We would move those on to the watch list and then go out and eyeball as many games as we can. I'm proud to say we had highlights of 74 games on our newscasts this basketball season which I think is a very impressive number for a two man sports department. Hags and I will try and think of how we can be even more efficient and try and get that number closer to 100 next season.
When it comes to playoff time, we look at #1 seeds (region champs) and make sure they are getting serious consideration for an All-Hoop Zone spot. After that, we go through the rest of the brackets and really study who we haven't seen and who deserves consideration. It is very difficult for a player to make the All-Hoop Zone team if their team doesn't make the playoffs. Of our 40 players on this year's team, only one did not make the post-season - Darryl Edge of North Myrtle Beach. Considering he is a 1,000 point career scorer, a 2007 WPDE All-Hoop Zone selection and received Mister Hoop Zone votes, he's an exception to the rule. I know we have a lot of talented players who don't make the team, but this process is the most fair that we know of.
In the past, our process for Mister and Miss Hoop Zone was to collect 15 boys coaches and 15 girls coaches to decide on Mr. and Miss HZ. This year was so unique that we got to that number (17 total ballots when you include mine and Hags) that I didn't feel right about it. With the 17 ballots, Kinard Gadsden-Gilliard had a 1 point lead on Lashay Page and Ashley Clarke had a 2 point lead on Rubylee Wright. Hags and I usually have very similar ballots, but our three picks were all over the place. It's then we realized that you could make a very strong argument for as many as five boys. The most fair thing to do would be to get every coach in the area (34 boys and 34 girls). That's 68 calls! I knew I'd have the piece of mind knowing that it couldn't be more impartial than to do that. So we got on the horn in a big way and collected each and every ballot. What we saw was the same results when we had 17 ballots (Gadsden-Gilliard was up by 2 on Page, Clarke a 6 point margin over Rubylee). However, I felt relieved that we expanded the process to include everyone. Especially on the boys side, a vote or two different could have completely turned things around. The fact that first and fifth place were seperated by only 8 points was amazing. It was a lot more work, but it was good to get input from everyone in our Hoop Zone family.
My mind is always racing a million miles an hour during the banquet and I never get to talk to everyone I want to. Our goal is to make this night special for each and every player that is being honored. I hope we accomplish that goal, because it means a lot not only to Hags and I, but our entire station. I hope our basketball friends appreciate the support shown by WPDE management to spend thousands of dollars in awards, food, etc. so we can make it a special night.
Eight years of Hoop Zone banquets and there's already an awesome legacy. We've got two NBA players, one more on the way soon (Carlos Powell - we're rooting for ya!) and a WNBA player to boot. From there, a long list of Division I and other college basketball players. One of my favorite parts of our website is the Zone history section that lets you drag down a high school and see all of their All-Zone picks over the years. I would like to get that more prominently displayed on wpde.com so folks can take the time to look over who has represented their communities over the years.
I put the section below on our Hoop Zone page, but wanted to put it here as well so our high school and local sports fans can get a full dose of Hoop Zone factoids and trivia:

Here are some fun facts and notes about the Hoop Zone banquet:
Just how far has the Hoop Zone banquet come?
The first WPDE All-Hoop Zone team did not have a banquet. The top 12 boys and girls had pizza in the break room at the old WPDE studios in Florence. Raymond Felton sat in a folding chair when he was announced the first Mister Hoop Zone in 2001. Based on the success of the first season, the Hoop Zone banquet has expanded to a full dinner and 30 minute special held after the week after state champions are crowned. Raymond's second Mister Hoop Zone featured the first true banquet and the airing of "The Truth", WPDE's 30 minute documentary on the current Charlotte Bobcats point guard which won an Edward R. Murrow Regional Award for outstanding documentary.

Two firsts in 2008
Latisha Harris became the first Aynor Blue Jacket to make an All-Hoop Zone team. The junior should be a contender for Miss Hoop Zone 2009. Also, a first - Khadijah Sessions became the first 8th grader to make the squad. The Myrtle Beach guard will try and carry on the Lady Seahawks dominance on the hardwood.

Waiting to Eat
Of the 34 SCHSL teams in the WPDE viewing area, there are now only four schools that have not had a boy or girl make the All-Hoop Zone team in our eight year history:

East Clarendon
Lake View
Lamar
Waccamaw

The Two Timers
Ashley Clarke joins an exclusive list of two time Mister and Miss Hoop Zone winners:

Raymond Felton (2001,02)
Ramon Sessions (2003,04)
Christina Dewitt (2005,06)
Ashley Clarke (2007,08)

Third time's the charm:
Only 11 players in our eight year history have made the All-Hoop Zone team three times. Mr. Hoop Zone Finalist Lashay Page of Dillon became just the second boys player while Ashley Clarke, Michelle McGee and Rubylee Wright bring the girls "3-timers" to 9:
North Myrtle Beach's Christina Dewitt is the one and only four time All-Hoop Zone selection.

Three time WPDE All-Hoop Zone selections:
Boys
Lashay Page (Latta 05,06 Dillon 08)
RaSean Dickey (Marlboro County 2002-04)

Girls
Ashley Clarke (Myrtle Beach 05,07,08)
Michelle McGee (Andrews 2006-08)
Rubylee Wright (Latta 2006-08)
Tomay Johnson (Andrews 2004-06)
Latasha Hayward (Hemingway 2003-05)
Zaporia Carr (North Myrtle Beach 2003-05)
Andrea Robinson (Wilson 2003-05)
Christina Dewitt (North Myrtle Beach 2002-05) * 4 time selection *
Tyesha Ervin (Darlington 2002-04)
Sasha Reaves (Mullins 2001-03)

Banquet Fixtures
Here's the breakdown of the most banquet appearances in eight years (boys, girls and combined)

Most All Hoop Zone boys selections

1. Marlboro County 12
2. Wilson 11
3. Myrtle Beach 10
3. Hemingway 10
5. Mullins 7

Most All Hoop Zone girls selections
1. Myrtle Beach 12
2. Wilson 11
3. Darlington 7
3. Mullins 7
3. North Myrtle Beach 7

Combined boys and girls All Hoop Zone selections
1. Myrtle Beach 22
2. Wilson 22
3. Marlboro County 15
4. Mullins 14
4. Hemingway 14

Let Me Put You on Hold

2008-02-25T22:28:00.000-08:00

Ok, this blog entry is like a Quentin Tarantino movie -- the buildup just prior to the final scene airs at the beginning of the flick. Then you get wrapped up in the entire story and then the scene airs in its correct order and it ties it all together. This isn't nearly as good as Pulp Fiction or Kill Bill, but you get the idea......

Saturday night 10:47 pm, edit bay at WCIV-TV in Charleston
Three edits to go and the high school basketball story is ready to get zapped into outerspace via the magic of satellite from Charleston to our sports office in Myrtle Beach. All I have to do is book the satellite window from CNN. I have to feed before 11pm because WCIV's newscast can not feed during the beginning of its show. Eight minutes to spare, I can book a 10:55pm to 11:00pm window and get the story to WPDE and recap a long and exciting day of high school hoops. When CNN answers, I calmly tell them I need to book a 10:55 window - and then I hear "Let me put you on hold....." (panic and thoughts of dry heaving are now setting in)

(This is where we do the Tarantino thing and go back to the beginning of the story)

When it comes to the local sports media in South Carolina, the bar is raised extremely high when it comes to covering high school sports, especially football and basketball. For the first time since I've been here, the lower state finals (state semifinals) has been moved to one site. The Citadel in Charleston would play host to eight total games over two days - two on Friday, six on Saturday. When the dust settles after the quarterfinals, we have a total of five local teams playing for a trip to the state championship. The Hartsville girls played on Friday, and the Hemingway boys, Mullins boys and Myrtle Beach boys and girls were all in action on Saturday.

There are two shows on Saturday. The 6pm newscast will have the Hemingway boys and the Mullins boys will be in progress as the show goes to air. The 11pm newscast will be a recap of all four games. This is the part of the job that is nearly as important as being on the air. It's time to hatch a plan to be able to bring back the highlights and post game reaction from all of these games. The loyal fans of these schools expect nothing less than for us to deliver the goods.

There seems to be an unwritten rule in the sportscaster fraternity: you try and help your colleagues from other markets as much as you can. I can't tell you how much respect I have for nearly every sports department in our state as they live to that creed. A phone call down to Scott Eisberg, the weekend sports guy at WCIV in Charleston gets the plan in motion. You have to remember that these guys have a full plate of work to do and can easily brush off an outside market looking for some help, but Scott is the antithesis of that. Not only is he going to help us out on Saturday with an edit bay and feeding out highlights, he's going to grab some highlights of the Hartsville game on Friday so we don't have to come down for two straight days. Saint Scott has got free golf and anything else we can do for him in Myrtle Beach for a very long time.

So now it's off to the Citadel on Saturday morning to get a 1pm tipoff of Hemingway and Bamberg-Ehrhardt. The Tigers are so athletic and put on an impressive display in advancing to the 1A state title game. After shooting an on camera intro and outro on campus, I make a 15 minute journey back over the Ravenel bridge to the WCIV studios where I get into an edit bay with a tape ready to edit. Every station has their editing system set up a little different, so it takes me about five minutes to get acclimated, but in about 25 minutes, Hemingway's story is ready to be told. It's 4:00pm - so I'm on my way back to campus to shoot a little bit of the Mullins game for the 6pm show. Scott had to shoot two college baseball games and the 2A girls game so our paths never cross, but we have our plan in place. I'll grab the Mullins/Burke game for 15 minutes, head back to WCIV where he can have highlights for his show and he'll send the Hemingway piece and Mullins highlights on satellite to Hags at 5:30 pm.

Mullins has a 17-11 lead in the 1st when I leave to go back to the studio. I'm there just before 5:00, crank out a few highlights and hand the tape to Scott. It's now a little after 5:10 and I'm back to the Citadel to get the rest of the Mullins game. 5:30 rolls around and the two stories are on their way back to Myrtle and I get the text from Hags that all is good. Part one of the day: mission accomplished.

Mullins loses an absolute heartbreaker. Dante Cooper made a great offensive rebound and go to the free throw line with 3.2 seconds left. Two free throws and it was likely overtime. The poor kid misses the second shot and Mullins perfect season is over. Mark Gerald is nothing but class, and comes out and answers the post-game questions from the media.

The Myrtle Beach girls finally got past their demon and gave some revenge to North Charleston. Mickey Hunter was all smiles and it's always a great story to interview the local team when they are on the winning side. One game to go-- Myrtle Beach boys against Crestwood. I heard the Knights were extremely athletic and were a favorite to not only get past the Seahawks, but go all the way in 3A. In the back of my mind, I'm set to leave this game at halftime if Crestwood has a double digit lead. It would be pushing 9:15 pm - I can get back to WCIV at 9:30 and have a full hour to recap four games. That's a good cushion. The Seahawk boys changed the plan in a hurry. Darius Hemingway and Everett Golson were on fire and raced out to an 18-3 lead after one. I knew right then and there I was going the distance. Playing true team basketball, MB hung on for a 58-55 win. Now, the clock is ticking. Two quick interviews with DeAndre Scott and Darius Hemingway and the race is on.

9:53 pm - one hour and 2 minutes until deadline -- I can feed at 11:10pm if I have to, but that is always risky. Hags needs to have time to take in the feed, load into our system and turn it around. The first thing I do is call Hags and get him the graphics information so he can at least have that. I've got about a three minute budget for this story which is challenging enough when you have four games, three of the games were wins and the loss was a down to the final second heartbreaker. I took notes on my BlackBerry the whole time and I quickly rattle out the order of the interviews:
1. DeAndre Scott, Myrtle Beach
2. Ashley Clarke, Myrtle Beach
3. Mark Gerald, Mullins
4. Tashan Frederick, Hemingway

It's pitch black dark and I'm on a highway. I see the Ravenel Bridge in the rear view mirror and I realize I'm going the wrong way. It's now 10:00 pm and I'm trying to be like one of those Olympic biathletes. Those guys can lower their heart rate to about 30 beats per minute and shoot a bullseye with a gun from about 500 yards away. I then realize that if I was a biathlete I would have probably shot a volunteer instead of a target and realize I'm not that calm, cool and collected. A quick turnaround and I'm back on my way.

10:13pm - parking lot, WCIV. Camera in the back seat, I pull it on the ground and grab the microphone. Yes, the glamorous world of TV. I'm on my knees in a parking lot and anyone talking by would have thought I was just talking to myself. The BlackBerry notes are lit up and I go through each game as concise as I can. The story is told on tape and I'm on my way into the edit bay. I've got three different tapes that have the four games, post-game interviews, my intro and my voice of the higlights on it.

This is where sportscasting is like sports. The clock is up and there's no timeouts. It's classic risk/reward. I stayed to get the excitement of the Myrtle Beach boys pulling off the upset. I've got a great shot of the fans swarming the court and cheering with the players along with a great reaction from Coach Scott. By doing that, I'm risking all four games making the air. In less than an hour, if the story isn't done, we have what we refer to in our business as a crash and burn. Hags has a three minute hole in his 4:30 show and will have to scramble for a backup plan. You go through game by game - parking lot audio, find the interview, parking lot audio, find the interview (repeat). Then you need to find the baskets to match what you talked about. At 10:32 pm, I've got everything laid down, just need to find the baskets. You go through the tape and one by one, you start covering up the black holes to tell the story.

That's where we get to 10:47 pm, the beginning of the movie. I've got four "holes" left to cover and the piece is done. One Tashan Frederick closeup, two Quentin Brown baskets and a shot of fans to close out the piece. I see the light at the end of the tunnel and know that I can get this done is 5-6 minutes. A call to CNN and I'm on my way. "Let me put you on hold...." That's what the CNN guy tells me. I have to multi task and get the other parts of the piece covered. Frederick shot, in. Quentin Brown hoop and foul, in. All the while, I'm hearing a CNN radio news update while I'm still on hold. Surely, he'll be telling me we're all set for a 10:55 pm feed. I find the second Brown bucket and lay it in - I'm one edit away form completion - it's 10:52 pm. As I'm completing the piece for air, finally I get a human voice. We can't do it at 10:55 pm, but we have you all set for 11:00pm.

First thought: 12 hours of work are about to go down the drain. Biggest high school games of the year, and I'm about to drop the ball. Scott says, don't worry we can do it at 11:10 pm. I book the window for 11:10 and we get it set. It's now 10:57 - and I have to tell Hags to get ready for a late feed. Hags is remarkably calm (that's a very good thing!). As soon as WCIV's first block of news is done, we've got the green light to feed. The satellite window actually opens up a couple of minutes early and we're beaming it back to the Beach.

Happy Ending - the piece runs on the 11pm news without a hitch and we cover all four games in which three of our local teams qualify for the state championship. It couldn't have been done without the help of Scott at WCIV.

That's the behind the scenes world of what we do. This isn't intended to be a "look at me and what we pulled off" kind of piece. The fact of the matter is that my colleagues in this state do these kind of things every single day. They do it in Columbia, Greenville, Charleston and our competition does it in Myrlte Beach/Florence. The TV news business is all about deadlines and you'll find that the balance between success and failure is a very thin line. What's great about working in TV in South Carolina is that everyone indeed tries to look out for each other. Greenville is giving Clemson baseball highlights, Columbia will give us Gamecocks highlights. On this day, I was able to shoot a couple of Charleston games for WCIV and help their cause. It's an honor to be able to be a part of a group of dedicated sportscasters who are passionate about covering Palmetto State sports.

So we get the win for this week -- now it's time to figure out how to get three state championship games in Columbia and CCU's final men's basketball game in Charleston back into your living rooms on Saturday night. Let me put you on hold....I'm going to need a few minutes to figure that out.

Life on the Road

2008-02-13T22:13:00.000-08:00

I'm reading a book by fellow Garden State resident Kevin Smith, who is one of my favorite film makers. He grew up in the same area that I did, although I've never met him. He's responsible for one of the first breakout indie films ever, Clerks, as well as Dogma, Chasing Amy and Mall Rats to name a few. His book is basically a highly detailed blog of his every day life. For some reason, it has inspired me to set a goal of doing a little more blogging than I have been. Sometimes I am reluctant to write about the behind the scenes minutia of my life as a sportscaster, but after reading the same reservation in the beginning of Smith's book, I realize that perhaps folks may enjoy knowing how the sausage is made in the TV sports factory. Besides that, I can have a little bit better of a reference point when I tell these long stories to friends and colleagues years from now. And maybe my kids can enjoy these tales down the road. So with that, here are the adventures of my Virginia road trip.
First of all, road trips are so much better with my wingman, Ed Piotrowski, who shoots highlights and navigates the Southeast almost as good as he forecasts hurricanes. We often joke about how there is always some excitement and drama when we leave the WPDE nest. Flying solo is no different.
The Cliff Ellis show airs on Sunday's at noon, like many coaches shows across the nation. What makes our show a bit of a challenge is that the majority of games in the Big South are Saturday and Monday. CCU is usually home for two games or on the road for two games. The logistics on the calendar pointed to one major challenge: the VMI/Radford road swing in February. VMI is about 7 1/2 hours from home base, with Radford about 6 1/2 hours. In the past, we would split the trip up - I get the Saturday game and drive back to the beach and then Hags getting on the road Monday morning for the second leg. The VMI game was slated for a 1pm tipoff and it left little margin for error with the Friday night show duties wrapping up about 12 hours earlier. I rolled the dice and came up with a plan:

1. Fly to Roanoke early Saturday morning
2. shoot the VMI game
3. drive to Lynchburg, Virginia and go to the ABC affiliate (WSET-TV) and feed out the highlights for the news as well as the Cliff Ellis Show segment
4. SLEEP on Sunday
5. Shoot the Radford highlights on Monday night
6. Fly back Tuesday morning in time to get back on the anchor desk.

After calling WSET and getting the go ahead that I can go to their station and feed our stuff out of their satellite truck, it was time for the mission to begin. Thanks to Coastal's win over Winthrop, coach Ellis and I taped segments 2, 3 and 4 in the studio on Thursday afternoon. All that was missing was a 4:46 second hole that would contain the VMI highlights and post-game reaction.

The plan was all set until a phone call came at 10:30 pm to the sports office on Friday night. WSET said their truck was being used by CNN at Virginia Tech and would not be at their station thanks to a Bill Clinton speech. Blacksburg was about an hour further than the original route and all of the sudden, the deadline got a lot tighter. Thank goodness, the good folks at WSET said I was more than welcome to come to their truck and edit and still feed my stuff out! Stress level is high and what little sleep I was going to get is about to be more restless.

I arrived at the airport at 4:55 am and got to Roanoke no problem. After renting a small blue box from National Car Rental (I'm a company man - got to keep those expenses down), I tooled to Lexington, Virginia and was in the media parking lot at 10:30 am. I had 2 1/2 hours to spare and I took a nap in the car. When I woke up 70 minutes later, I realized something -- I took a nap in this same parking lot in a different cheap rental car two years earlier prior to a CCU/VMI football game. How crazy is that? What frightens me is that I could be doing the same thing this fall, unless Ed makes the VMI trip with me!

The Chants build a 17 point lead in the second half and Jack Leasure is on fire with 9 three pointers. But just like in January, the blue chickens fade down the stretch and lose a game that they really should have won. Final score: VMI 88 CCU 83. Next up is interviews and taping my intros and outros to the segments as well as doing the highlights in the camera. When I get to the satellite truck, I'll cover the sound of the highlights and match them up with the video. Three stories to do and the clock is ticking.

Now it's time to rant about something we call in the trade "one man band". A one man band is someone who has to do it all himself or herself. Shoot the video, do the interviews, the whole nine yards. The biggest challenge of the one man band is shooting yourself on camera. After all, if the picture looks crooked or out of focus, it doesn't matter what your story is, the viewer will be completely distracted. After running the litmus test of setting up the shot, I finally have myself in the center, in focus and looking like there's a cameraman with me. I'm just ready to launch into my on camera introduction when a flying basketball heads right towards the unmanned camera. My first reaction is to dive for the ball like Logan Johnson trying to get a turnover, but I realize it's too late. Fortunately, the camera gently brushes the tripod and the camera is safe, but my shot is now completely out of whack. Back to the drawing board. I'm ninety percent done with my work when I'm told that an alumni basketball game is about to start. Exit stage right and I'm now in the corridor of the VMI gym doing the highlights of the game. I keep track of the plays I'm going to use on my Blackberry and the stray people walking by look at me like I'm a reject from sportscaster camp: on my knees talking in a hallway with great enthusiasm about CCU's first half play. Finally, it's one more camera set up outside for a Monday pregame feature on the Radford game and I'm in the car at 3:38 pm.

Virginia Tech is about a 90 minute drive and I'm doing the math. Best case scenario is a 5pm arrival and the sportscast is 80 minutes away. If I don't get lost, I can get my stuff cranked out for the newscast by 5:30-5:45 pm, feed the story to Mark and phase one will be complete. After that, I'd piece together the Ellis Show segment and the Monday preview and feed that out later on. I call the sat truck and the operator says I'm all set, but I have to be done by 7:15 pm as CNN will take the truck over for former President Clinton's speech in Hokie land. Now the deadline is super tight: one 1:45 news segment, one 4:46 coach's show segment, one 1:30 Monday preview piece to get done in about 2 hours.

Mapquest is my friend! I get into Blacksburg and the good folks at WSET steer me towards their truck at about 5:05 pm. One problem - parking is gobbled up and the open spaces are yellow taped thanks to Clinton. Now the clock is really ticking and I have to talk a Virginia Tech security guard that I am a member of the media and I need to get to the satellite truck even though I'm driving the blue Chevy box that is hardly a TV station vehicle. Video tapes and a camera bag do the trick and the kind Hokie secruity staffers carve me out a spot. I tell them that Bruce Taylor, our Myrtle Beach high linebacker and Hokie recruit will be bringing some extra tackles this fall thanks to the kind deed.

Now it's my gametime. I get the tape in to the editor and start cranking out as fast as I can. Starting at about 5:11pm and getting done at 5:40, I have a tidy recap of the game for Mark's 6pm newscast as well as some highlights for WSET to use on their show. Call CNN and at 5:45, the magic of TV has highlights beaming from Virginia Tech to the WPDE sports office. It's 5:50 and I have 85 minutes to get two more pieces done. Normally, it takes me about an hour or so to go through an entire game and pick out the highlights. I didn't have that luxury, but thanks to adrenaline and nausea, I'm in the clubhouse at 6:40 pm and back on the phone with CNN. At 6:55 pm, the show is beamed back to Myrtle Beach and I breathe a sigh of relief.

This is when fatigue sets in. I'm tempted to find the nearest hotel and crash, but I realize that I have a 6am flight out of Roanoke on Tuesday. Rather than make a 45 minute drive on Tuesday, I'd rather set up shop in Roanoke, go to Radford on Monday and then return to Roanoke and have a short trip to the airport. I push up highway 81 with just about an hour to go before I can seriously relax and forget about the 4am to 7pm run that I am currently on.

I'm not a savvy traveller and with the uncertainty of the TV world, I figure I'd find a hotel no problem. I get to Roanoke near the airport and see a Hyatt Place hotel. I walk in and see the lobby under major construction, but decide to check in anyways. It's a real nice room, but as I turn the TV on, there's only about 10 channels and half of them have horrible reception. I was ready to get some food and watch the Bud Shootout and realized that it was definitely not snowing in Daytona, just on my TV set. As tired as I was, I did something I've never done before -- I walked out. I told the front desk folks, sorry and moved on to look for another hotel. I hit the TGIF for a to go order and pray I can find a hotel with a working TV. 30 minutes later, Courtyard by Marriott has the answer and I'm chilling out by 10pm watching Dale Earnhardt, Junior celebrating a victory. Eight years in South Carolina and I realize that my wife is right -- I am a closet gearhead! I left a hotel because I couldn't watch the race with a clear picture!

I've got Sunday completely to myself and plenty of big plans. No sightseeing, no work, just a simple plan: sleep late, hit the excercise room, watch Dustin Johnson (CCU golfer) play his 4th round at Pebble Beach playing with Vijay Singh in the final group, go to the movies and relax. I wake up at about 11:30 am and realize that the TV won't turn on and neither will the lights. Gusty winds in Roanoke caused a power outage. The front desk said that we'll probably be back with power by 3:00. I ventured out to the IHOP and then did some reading in the room along with a little Tiger Woods 2008 on PSP. Now it's nearing 4:00 pm and still no power. The estimate has been moved to about 5:00 pm. I decide to hit a 4:40 pm showing of Juno at the movie theater.

Movies during football and basketball season are a big treat so I was excited to go even if it was by myself. I was totally buying into the Oscar buzz and one of the most underrated actors in the game, JK Simmons, doing another fantastic performance when with 10 minutes to go, the projector is toast. No fade to black, just cut straight to black. Juno was about 10 minutes away from getting tied up in a nice bow and now a poor 16 year old kid who's handling his first mini crisis comes running into the theater out of breath. The power is out, but we can get a pass to see any movie at the theater in the future. Not helpful for me! More importantly, how does Juno end? The poor kid does about the worse job explaining the end of the movie - kind of like when you didn't know the answer to an essay question in high school and you just fill the blank page up with as much bs as possible to try and get some credit for just filling the space. Finally, a woman in the theater comes to the rescue and gives a much better explanation as she has seen the movie already. My wife was preturbed that I saw this movie since this was on the date movie list and not the "go see that on your own list". Semi-pro with Will Ferrell falls into this category along with a host of other comedies. She wasn't as mad when she knew I got jipped on the ending.

As I leave the theater, I realize it is now pitch black dark as most of the area is in the heart of the power outage. It sinks in that the Marriott Courtyard is probably a black cavern fit for a horror movie. My scouting report was dead on. I am given a flashlight by the staff and I walk by myself in the pitch black stairwell to room 409 and hunt and peck for my belongings. Hauling the camera and the duffel bag it is time to check out of Roanoke and go on another road trip. After getting shot down in Blacksburg, Christiansburg comes to the rescue and I have found a room 10 miles away from CCU's next opponent, Radford.

Monday night comes and the Chants are able to rally for a win against the Highlanders. Coach Ellis and I crank out a show segment so he doesn't have to come into the studio mid-week, I load the camera on to the team bus so it arrives back in Conway safely and I'm back in the blue box. With all that has gone on, I'm ready to come home. I call National to see how much it would cost to drop the car off in Myrtle Beach. I didn't want to get to the hotel at 10pm and know that I have to wake up at 4am to drive 45 minutes north, drop off the rental car and head to two flights before landing at 10:30 am. I was ready to get on the highway and get home. $250 surcharge changed that thought process and I sat by myself at Denny's eating a post-game meal.

I did get up at 4am and got to the airport and landed at 10:30 am in Myrtle Beach. I was back to work at about 3pm and already figuring out the high school basketball playoffs, the Ellis Show and catch up on the dozen or so things that needed attention.

So there you have it - it's like you were sitting in the little blue box next to me and lived the whole road trip. I'm sorry if it was boring or uninteresting, but it was fun to get down on the blog. It was a long trip and it was challenging, but it feels good to have that show on the air Sunday at noon and the die hard Chants basketball fans getting their fix of every twist and turn of the CCU basketball season.

Blog notes
* JK Simmons reference above. Schillinger from Oz (one of the scariest bad guys in cable TV history. Pop in an episode of Oz to a group of teen troubled kids and watch the crime rate go down. He was also Peter Parker's editor in Spiderman and was awesome as the Detroit Tigers manager in the Kevin Costner movie "For Love of the Game" which is also underrated (a little too much Kelly Preston love interest angle, but the Vin Scully play by play was tremendous).

* Dustin Johnson finished tied for 7th and maybe would have done better if I was yelling at the TV to help guide his putts in (oh, well).

* The scariest part of the whole trip might have been me driving down the highway during the wind gusts and the little blue box bouncing around two lanes like Kyle Busch with a loose condition at Bristol.

The Hoop Zone

2008-01-11T21:16:00.000-08:00

I've gotten a number of emails asking about the Hoop Zone and I felt that it was only right for me to explain what we're doing this season for high school basketball.
This was a very difficult decision that I made and spent a lot of time thinking it through. In short, our 30 minute Friday format is no longer on the air, but we will continue to provide extensive coverage of high school basketball. We will also continue our tradition of honoring the top players in our area with the annual Hoop Zone banquet and the presentation of Mister and Miss Hoop Zone.
It used to be that the three members of the sports department could cover 10 high school basketball games on a Friday night and we could get a couple of extra games from our colleagues. Since last year, our sports staff is now at two and we have added a 7pm newscast which is a very important part of what we're doing as a station and something that I'm proud to be associated with.
When you add it all up starting with the holiday basketball tournaments and wrapping it up with the state championships, we'll shoot anywhere between 125 and 150high school games. We're going to devote nearly our entire sports time on Tuesday's and Friday's to high school basketball as well as increase what we do at wpde.com in terms of posting scores and top performers.
The Hoop Zone is alive and well. I appreciate the folks that have written in and asked about the show and hope they understand that we're just going about it in a different way. Feel free to email us and let us know how your team is doing. We will spend much more time on days other than Friday's concentrating on high school hoops than we have in the past. Thanks again to all our great local sports fans and rest assured that we'll continue to work hard to cover as many communities and stories as we can.

Looking Back on 2007

2007-12-23T17:40:00.000-08:00

We've made it a Christmas tradition to air the top local sports stories of 2007 during our Christmas Eve or Christmas Day sportscasts. You can go on our main sports page or the web video player to watch the top 10 local sports stories as it aired. This is something that Hags and I enjoy putting together as it gives us a scope of what we've seen over the past year. We put the top seven stories up on the website for people to vote to set the order.

#10 Local Awards
The Waccamaw Warriors made it back to back Zone Cup championships - the Pawleys Island school had the best overall performance in varsity sports. Myrtle Beach junior guard Ashley Clark captured WPDE's Miss Hoop Zone award while Cheraw's Cliff Matthews captured Mister Hoop Zone before leaving to play football for the Gamecocks -- and earlier in December Myrtle Beach linebacker Bruce Taylor won the 8th WPDE Zoneman Trophy.

Waccamaw has taken great pride in winning the Zone Cup for two straight years and hopefully this award will grow over the years as different schools get the chance to win it. Considering that Cliff Matthews may never take the hardcourt again, I'm glad he got to close his high school career with a Mister Hoop Zone. Cliff finished 2nd in the Zoneman at the end of 2006 - it would have been amazing to have an athlete who won the Zoneman and Mister Hoop Zone. I really feel that Cliff and Bruce are going to carry the Zone banner well not only in college, but beyond that.

#9 A banner year for CCU golf
Alan Terrell's trailed Stanford by just one stroke heading into the final round - the Chants wound up finishing 5th in the NCAA Championships, the highest finish for a CCU athletic team in Division I competition - Dustin Johnson finished his Coastal career as a three time All-American and went to PGA's Q-School and earned a PGA Tour Card - Johnson will compete as a rookie on the PGA Tour in 2008

Alan told Hags and I a couple of years ago that Dustin would be on the tour and he was right on the mark. It's going to be fun to cover the PGA now knowing we've got a local guy who can hopefully do some damage. I don't know if people truly have an idea of how grueling it is to earn your PGA Tour Card through Q-School. It starts with two four round stages and wraps up with six straight rounds that is one of the most pressure filled challenges in all of sports.

#8 Jeff Gordon wins at Darlington
The driver of the #24 Dupont Chevrolet captured a win for the 7th time in his career when he won the Dodge Avenger 500 in May. It was the 78th career Cup win for Gordon who went on to finish 2nd in the Nextel Cup chase behind teammate Jimmy Johnson.

I was convinced that Gordon was going to win the Nextel Cup championship and he would have under the old rules. I remember this race being pushed back to Mother's Day thanks to a Saturday night rainout - Gordon's Mom was in Darlington for the pre-race festivities but didn't stick around until the end. Gordon stayed out on old tires, which is usually a cardinal sin at Darlington. The number of drivers who could pull that feat off at the Lady in Black is a very short list.

#7 Buzz Peterson leaves, Cliff Ellis comes back to coaching

Buzz Peterson left Coastal after two seasons to join the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats as Director of Player Personnel. The Chanticleers were able to lure Cliff Ellis out of retirement. The Former Auburn and Clemson head man came to CCU with over 500 victories and is in the midst of his first season with CCU.

I wrote a blog earlier about Buzz and I really feel fortunate to have been able to work with him closely for those two seasons. His opportunity with the Bobcats is something that could not be passed up and I hope that he can help be a part of turning Charlotte into a winner. Kudos to CCU for going from one big name coach to another. Cliff Ellis has the fire in his belly to build the Chanticleers into a mid-major power. The arena hitting a dead end should also be lumped in with this story as it will be awhile before we see a facility that can really take CCU basketball to the next level. I still think that CCU basketball will get that shot in the NCAA Tournament in the next 3-5 years.

#6 CCU Baseball wins 50, hosts NCAA Regional

The CCU baseball team takes top local sports story #6. Gary Gilmore's crew reached the 50 win mark in 2007 and won a Big South Championship to earn a #1 seed in the NCAA Baseball Regionals. The Chants earned a host bid by playing at the home of the Myrtle Beach Pelicans - the highlight of the weekend was a sellout crowd as #2 seed Clemson outlasted CCU 11-8. The Chants reached the championship game, but lost to the Tigers 15-3 to have their season come to an end.

My two favorite images of 2007 are the top story (see below) and sitting in the bullpen during the Clemson/CCU game and seeing the sold out crowd at Coastal Federal Field. Gary Gilmore has poured his heart into making Chanticleer baseball a legitimate power and the program took a huge step that weekend. The whole weekend gave Myrtle Beach some serious credibility in terms of hosting a major sports event. CCU is close to getting over the hump and making it to a Super Regional. They were literally one arm away from doing that in 2007.

#5 Clemson wins 9 on the gridiron, beats the Gamecocks on a last second field goal
The Clemson Tigers 9 win season is our 5th biggest story of the year. Clemson put themselves in a position to reach the ACC championship game, but faltered late in a loss to Boston College. Following that disappointment, the Tigers went to Williams-Brice Stadium and delivered a clutch performance against the Gamecocks. Mark Bucholz's field goal as time expired gave the Tigers a 23-21 win over their archrival and reached the 9 win mark. Clemson is in the Chick Fil A Bowl on New Year's Eve against the Auburn Tigers.

After losses to Georgia Tech and Virginia Tech, Tommy Bowden was ready to get fired, then Clemson was thinking ACC Championship game until Aaron Kelly dropped a ball that was painful to watch and gave Boston College a trip to Jacksonville. Then Mark Bucholz not only save Tommy Bowden's job, but gives him a big pay raise to boot. I think it's unfortunate that Bowden has spent more time on the hot seat than any other college coach in the nation, but it's amazing how he handles it.

#4 Gamecocks lose five straight, miss out on a bowl
An up and down season at South Carolina is story #4. The Gamecocks were flying high following a Thursday night win over the Kentucky Wildcats and a #6 national ranking, but after getting to 6-1, South Carolina proceeded to lose five straight games and miss out on a bowl invitation.

It was shock on both ends - when the Gamecocks beat Kentucky and sat at #6 after beating UNC, I couldn't believe that USC was a top 10 team. On the other end, I couldn't believe this team was playing its way out of the bowl landscape. Every team has injuries and excuses, but I think that Jasper Brinkley's injury was more devastating than people took stock of. The Gamecock fans continue to be the most loyal and patient fans in all of sports. Steve Spurrier's recruiting efforts over the last couple of years should begin to pay dividends.

#3 - Six players with local ties selected in 2007 NFL Draft

Story #3 is a Draft Day to remember. Five former WPDE All Zoners were selected in the 2007 Draft highlighted by 2003 Zoneman winner Lawrence Timmons selected in the first round by the Pittsburgh Steelers. His Wilson high teammate Justin Durant went to the Jaguars in round two, Lake View's Anthony Waters was a 3rd round selection by San Diego, while Brandon Frye and Fred Bennett were drafted by the Houston Texans. Coastal Carolina got their first ever draftee when Tyler Thigpen was a 7th round pick by the Minnesota Vikings - Thig was picked up by the Kansas City Chiefs and made his debut against the San Diego Chargers - teammate Quinton Teal went undrafted, but has seen significant playing time with the Carolina Panthers.

For Hags and me, this was the clear cut no-brainer #1 local sports story, but I give credit to our local viewers who are passionate about high school sports and I really do respect that. We knew that Lawrence Timmons was going to go in the first round, but it was still surreal to hear a guy that we covered so extensively in high school sit next to Drew Rosenhaus and see his dreams come true. We were also so happy for Darryl Page who had not one, but two guys drafted in the first two rounds. That's crazy! Then there was the total shock when we heard Tyler Thigpen's name called in round seven. We were in the office and five minutes later, I was at Thig's apartment and he already had his Minnesota Vikings hat on. I don't know if anyone realized how good he was until he was gone.

#2 Back to back state football titles for Cheraw
The Braves went to Williams-Brice Stadium and put on a dominating performance against Chapman in the 2A state title game. Cheraw scored on its first 9 possessions and used the star power of Travis Small, Montrell Evans and Jaron Brown to score a 58-14 win. Johnny White's team has now won 28 games in the last two years and has two championship rings to go with it.

I've seen some steamrollers in my day, but this may have been the most dominating high school performance by a team that I witnessed in person on the big stage. On the first play from scrimmage, Travis Small busted one for about 50 yards and all the camera people were scrambling. We all had our track shoes on for the next 90 minutes. I knew Jaron Brown was a good player, but he showed me that he is going to be a great college player with his individual performance in Columbia. Everyone had Dillon pegged to win it all in 2A, but Cheraw bounced back from a couple of early losses to become a juggernaut.

#1 Wilson wins state crowns in basketball and football

Not one, but two state championships at Wilson. The Florence school delivered a 3A state basketball championship in March when Mister Hoop Zone Finalists Dominique Lacy and current Gamecock Sam Muldrow were electric in a 67-50 win over Greenville at the Colonial Center -- the Tigers weren't done there - this time on the gridiron. Wilson won four straight playoff games on the road and then perservered in a 14-12 win against Chester.

Here's the amazing stat of this story. How many home playoff games did Wilson have in basketball and football during their state title runs? Answer: ZERO. Both teams did it as #3 seeds which is indeed a rarity. I spoke earlier about my two personal favorite images of this season. One was the scene at the CCU baseball regional and the second was standing just a foot away from Darryl Page as he got his Gatorade bath and the tears streaming down his face. Fifteen years coaching the Tigers and he finally got to feel what it was like to be a state champion. I hope one day to be there when Jackie Hayes, Chuck Jordan and Scott Earley get to do the same thing.

It really was a great year. Myrtle Beach is not considered a "big time" market, but there's such a great array of things to cover and the list of the top sports stories of the year reminds me of that. I hope everyone has a safe and Merry Christmas and a happy new year.

Ballots and Choices

2007-12-04T19:14:00.000-08:00

I probably should put the effort into voting for the President of the United States that I do for my Zoneman and Heisman ballots, but the fact of the matter is that I will most likely not break down Giuliani, McCain, Obama and Hillary like I do Tebow, McFadden, Brennan and Daniel.

HEISMAN BALLOT
When it comes to the Heisman, I usually like to get a personal list of guys that I really try and eyeball. Here's what I had for this year:

Colt Brennan, Hawaii QB
Chase Daniel, Missouri QB
Dennis Dixon, Oregon QB
Glenn Dorsey, LSU Defensive End
Darren McFadden, Arkansas Running Back
Tim Tebow, Florida QB
Pat White, West Virginia QB

In the end, it really came down to this: Tebow or McFadden for the top vote, Brennan/Daniel/White for 3rd place. Tebow's only real knock is the three losses, but considering all that happened in college football, everyone got knocked down in 2007. I watched McFadden run crazy on both the Gamecocks and LSU. But Tebow is just a freak (I mean that in the complimentary nature, not the join the circus label). Over 20 TD passes, over 20 TD runs - it's never been done. I never have and never will penalize a player for being a freshman or sophomore. Tebow is not the best pro prospect, if that were my basis then it would be McFadden followed by Colt Brennan then Glenn Dorsey. So here is my Heisman ballot:

1st - Tim Tebow
2nd - Darren McFadden
3rd - Colt Brennan

Dennis Dixon getting hurt really showed how valuable he was to Oregon, and the same can be said for Pat White who got hurt in the Pitt game and then the Mountaineers fell apart. It was very tough to pick Brennan over White, but I go with Colt in a photo finish.

ZONEMAN BALLOT

We really use the same criteria for the Zoneman as the Heisman does for its award. Real open ended: the most outstanding player in the WPDE viewing area. The 40 ballots go to the 34 head coaches along with 6 media members representing the area. My ballot is just one of 40 and has no extra weight or influence, but for me the legacy of the award is very important. For me, I will not vote for a player that has questionable grades. It is my preference to have players who are qualified to play Division I FBS or FCS football. I am looking for the total package, both on and off the field. The person who wins this award is a representative of what it stands for. The fact that we have one Zoneman winner in the NFL and hopefully more to come in the future just gives the award instant credibility. There have been years where my first place vote did not win the Zoneman and there are times where the player I vote in the top three doesn't even make the podium (this year is an example).

Here's my Zoneman Ballot for 2007:

1st - Bruce Taylor, Myrtle Beach
2nd - Dakota Derrick, Conway
3rd - Jordan Lyles, Hartsville

When I first posted the blog, I thought my ballot was Taylor/Golson/Derrick, but looking back on some notes, I eventually made it Taylor/Derrick/Lyles. I was torn between the four and finally put it in the order above. I truly think that Everett Golson could win more than one Zoneman if he continues to be the path he is on. Dakota Derrick was the definition of a leader and really fell under the radar. It is a shame that he was not a North South All Star and I'm sure he's disappointed that he's not on the Zoneman podium, but he was on my podium as well as Hags and I hope that it is a small consolation.

PICKING THE ALL ZONE TEAM

The first thing we do is get the Zoneman ballots from our 40 voters. Once that is done, we begin to piece together the 50 man All-Zone team. It is something that Hags and I take very seriously. We've established two criteria to "lock you in" on the All-Zone team for starters:

1. Shrine Bowl selection
2. Division I commitment or offers from major D1 schools

This year, that list was longer than most years (which is a great thing!)

Most times, a North South All-Star selection will get you on the team, but we have left off some North Southers in years past. This year, we took all 13 local NS All-Stars. From there, we get nominations from all 34 coaches and try and assemble the best team we can. I'll admit on a lot of tie-breakers, I'll take the senior over the junior or sophomore, but we have had more than our fair share of youngsters on the roster. We will always have guys who deserve to be on the roster and aren't on for the simple reason of a numbers game. Myrtle Beach's Matt Smith who led the area in sacks and Tashon Fredrick of Hemingway who was tops in interceptions are both off the team and quite frankly should be on. But you run out of spots too quickly. We had 6 Myrtle Beach players, 2 Hemingway's and just couldn't see us go to 7 and 3 - in a nutshell, that's why those guys are not on. You have a seven win 3A team like Carolina Forest get only one player (Devontre Perason) and a seven win 1A team not get a player at all (Green-Sea Floyds). The decisions are gut wrenching. We try to watch as much game footage as we can and those players that stepped up and made a big play in front of our cameras only help their cause. Teams that go deep in the playoffs certainly get extra consideration. Wilson and Cheraw originally had two players each, but after their great play in November they more than deserved an extra player each. Looking at the spread of players in the final issue of Palmetto Pigskin Preview makes you feel good about the roster we picked, but there will always be those 10 guys that we wish we could get on the roster. We've gone from a 40 man to 45 to now 50 along with 3 Zoneman Finalists.
Congratulations to all of this year's All-Zoners. We are putting the finishing touches on the banquet and truly hope it is a special night for the 53 players we are honoring. It's amazing to think that we already have 7 All-Zoners in the NFL!
A special thanks to everyone at the station who chipped in and made the Chevy End Zone a great showcase for high school football.

Long Weekend

2007-09-09T20:11:00.000-07:00

When the clock struck zero and Coastal Carolina suffered its first defeat at the hands of Delaware State (23-18), CCU fans had to be frustrated by being on the 20 yard line and running out of time before gettting off a final play or two to the end zone. Tyler Thigpen was a master of the two minute drill. There's no question that if he was under center, CCU would have won the game. That's not a knock on the other CCU quarterbacks - that's why Thig is in the NFL. Will Richardson had 66 yards to cover in 1:35 with no timeouts and unforunately, ran out of time.
During football season, I feel like we have 99 yards to go in about a minute. Time management is the single greatest challenge I have from August through December. Take last weekend for example:

Friday
9:30 am - radio appearance on 100.1's Bad Boy show to preview Friday night's football games
I'm usually pretty tired when I get on the radio, but when you hear those matchups you start to get geared up for a big Friday of football. I'm real appreciative of Alan Smothers and the opportunity to promote our show and magazine.

11:00 am - run through of upcoming issue of Palmetto Pigskin Preview and organize weekend's work
32 pages of material have to be done by Monday evening and off to the printer first thing on Tuesday. We usually have some of our feature pages done by now (Ben and Jerry's Unsung Hero, Palmetto Pigskin Spotlight, etc).

1:30 pm - arrive at TV station, begin preparations for Friday night End Zone
This is our gameday. Usually, we're just making sure we have everything in order. We're giving directions, checking our rosters and doing any other prep work that we may need to do. I always tape a pre-game radio report for WCRE in Cheraw. Mitch and George do an awesome job up there.

6:20 pm - anchor 6pm sportscast
6:35 pm - tape 10pm sportscast for CW 21
6:45 pm - depart for Conway at Socastee game
I'm hoping for highlights. The fact of the matter is that we have a short window (for me it's the first half only). You want to be able to have enough highlights to spotlight as many kids as possible. There's nothing more stressful than having to leave a game when it's 0-0.
7:30 pm - shoot highlights of Conway/Socastee game
8:30 pm - return to station with highlights
Socastee hung tough in the first half. We got a good Braves drive for a TD along with two Conway TD's (Thanks Dakota Derrick!) and a Logan Heaps field goal.
8:45 pm - edit highlights of photographers returning to studio
This is stressful. We've got 16 games. On the drive back, I find out we had a camera not working in Turbeville. That means no Johnsonville-East Clarendon highlights. I feel awful that we can't show hilites from those two great towns. Now we have 15 games to edit. I march into the station and crank out the Conway/Socastee higlights then wait for the troops to come in. I get my hands on Hemingway at Waccamaw, South Florence/Wilson, Dillon at Latta, Lake City at North Myrtle Beach, West Brunswick at Myrtle Beach, Timmonsville at Mullins, Aynor at Green Sea-Floyds, South Columbus at Loris. Mark Haggard flies in with two games (Georgetown at Andrews, Carolina Forest at Carvers Bay). Allyson Floyd is taking the scores. We take a feed from Florence with four games. We're always chasing scores. We don't get the Carolina Forest score until 11:05 - 30 seconds later the South/Wilson game comes in. My head is spinning when I get out on the set and I hope that it all comes together.
11:15 pm - anchor Chevy End Zone
Not our best show. We had bad highlights at Darlington/Cheraw and Mullins/Timmonsville. Then I make a plenty big mistake. William Lee had an awesome game for Myrtle Beach high and I call him Michael Lee. This is the kind of stuff I beat myself up about. Fortunately, I was able to get him on and correct his name and give him his proper due. We don't want to just throw football highlights up there. We want to tell a story and give all of our towns, big and small, their moment in the sun. We're the SportsCenter of high school football. We want to go in depth and provide entertaining and informative highlights. Over the next three hours, Hags and I will stew and work while trying to figure out how to make things a little better. I imagine coaches do the same thing.

12:15 am - capture show on to internet, post scores on wpde.com
1:00 am - take every game we shot and transfer to internet
The internet is important and we do everything we can to get as much information online as we can. We take great pride that you can log on to our website and get your team's highlights on demand as well as a look at their schedule and results and the ability to go back and look at any of your team's highlights. Then we have a stats page that lists the top 25 players in each category and our high school previews posted from the pages of Palmetto Pigskin Preview.

2:00 am - update team stats, standings pages on wpde.com, provide matchup list for graphics department for next week's show
2:45 am - pack camera gear for trip to Delaware
Hags and I always say we're going to be all business so I can get out early and get that extra hour or so of sleep. It never works out. We always want to do better. You have to put the show behind you now and get ready for the next phase of the weekend.
3:10 am - leave tv station for home

Saturday
===========
9:15 am - arrive at airport for flight to Washington, DC with wingman Ed Piotrowski
I'd probably be in a ditch if it wasn't for Ed. He's probably been to 90 percent of the road trips I've gone on with CCU and it's always a good time. We quickly realize the camera equipment is too big to carry on the plane, but we are able to get the flight attendant's area and stow the camera in a safe position (Thanks USAir!)
10:30 am - depart Myrtle Beach airport for CCU football trip
12:00 pm - arrive in Washington, DC
The original plan is to connect to Philadelphia, but we realize that we were rolling the dice with the camera stuff and we decide no go on Philly and to just rent a car in DC. We stand on line and right out of the movie Planes, Trains and Automobiles, the oddysey begins. After waiting in line for 20 minutes at Hertz, we find out they only have a minivan for $200. $200 for a 90 mile drive? We can get a limo for that, I think. We walk away from this and shop around. After waiting in a couple of lines, we learn it's Labor Day and there aren't many rental cars available. We get excited that there is a mid size available for a good price, but they don't have a drop off in Dover. We get all the way back to Hertz. A different teller gives us the minivan for $137? How did we save $63? I'll never know. Nearly ninety minutes later, we've got a minivan.
1:15 pm - secure rental car - begin car ride to Dover, Delaware
This is where I seriously considered starting to tape this and make it a reality show. We grab a KIA Minivan. Picture me and Ed P in a minivan. We're cracking up talking about what a babe magnet this is. We pull out and are told that we have the wrong rental car! We were one spot off. So we upgrade from the KIA to a Grand Caravan and we're off! We get text updates that App State is beating Michigan and spend a good portion of the trip trying to come to the realization that App is shocking the world.
3:00 pm - arrive in Dover, Delaware
3:15 pm - pre-game meal at Chicago Pizza Uno
The stadium is right on the main road, so we go across the street and get our first food of the day. Vegetable soup was a solid "A". The football stadium is right across the street from the Monster Mile, home of Dover's NASCAR Nextel Cup race. I notice that there is a casino attached to the track. This intrigues me. I talk Ed into making a side trip. We get there a little after 4:15 and I know we have about an hour before we need to get the rental car back and a taxi over to the stadium. After quickly losing $20, I find a 7 way blackjack video machine. With wingman Ed coaching along, we turned $20 into $170. You would have thought we won a million dollars the way we were carrying on. 5:15 we cashed out and then headed to the rental car place.

5:30 pm - drop off rental car at Hertz, get cab to pick us up and take us to stadium
6:05 pm - arrive at Delaware State for CCU opening game
7:00 pm - shoot highlights from top of roof on press box of CCU at Delaware State for David Bennett Show
We're on the roof and got to spend some quality time with Sam Harper, the former Chants defensive end who's now a graduate assistant. It's a great vantage point to watch the game. The CCU defense played well with the exception of four plays and the offense took a while to get on track. The field was a new kind of turf and it looked ugly. That translated to TV. I don't know why Eric O'Neal didn't get his crack until the 4th quarter. You just got the feeling that it wasn't meant to be for CCU.
10:15 pm - head to the field to get post-game reaction
10:30 pm - get the news that charter plane is to leave 1 hour late (1am)
We were able to fly back on the CCU charter. This beats the alternative which is an all night drive back to Conway and less than 2 hours before taping. The plane was scheduled to take off at midnight, but was pushed back to 1am. Had a great talk with Drew Watson, CCU's secondary coach who informed us that Quinton Teal made the Carolina Panthers 53 man roster. It's an amazing accomplishment. Coach Bennett makes sure that there's not a single piece of garbage on the floor of the visitor's locker room. Even when it's a tough loss, you can see why so many people look up to the coach. Finally at 12:15, five buses roll out on the way to Dover Air Force base. Melanie Bennett, the Laura Bush of CCU football, informs us that there's no laughing on the bus following a loss.
12:45 am - arrive at Dover Air Force Base to wait for plane
Now the night is starting to feel long. Ed and I argue for about 10 minutes if a speck of light near the runway is a plane. Ed eventually was right and a big 737 that took Florida International from Penn State to Miami is now in Dover to pick up the CCU contingent.
1:30 am - depart Delaware for Myrtle Beach on CCU charter plane
Ren McKinnon is a warrior. The injured CCU quarterback is on crutches and you would never know that he has dislocated his hip. His career is over and I'm sure he spent much of that flight thinking about that. Sometimes sports is not fair. Ren spent the better part of a year coming back from an injured ankle to get back on the field and his redshirt senior season will last all of 2 and a half quarters. The plane is quiet as can be except for the rustling of bags filled with sandwiches, chips, cookies and bananas. It might have been a little more lively if CCU had a win. When you're running on fatigue, 45 minute naps can feel like 8 hours. That's what I got on the plane.
2:45 am - arrive at Myrtle Beach International Airport
3:15 am - receive camera and tripod from baggage claim
Ed says goodbye and now it's time for the second wind to kick in and get to work on the David Bennett show.
3:30 am - arrive at WPDE studios, begin to edit the David Bennett Show
Hags is at the studio working on some magazine stuff and feeling bad about not getting South Carolina highlghts (I could write a whole seperate blog on that!)
I start cranking out the highlights - going through play by play and pick anything of significance that we can talk about. After laying in about 25 plays, I crank out some post-game reaction and then begin to enter graphics information. Hags took off at about 4:30 am.
6:30 am - complete editing of the Bennett show
I made the quick trip home to try and get my bearings.
6:45 am - 90 minute nap!
This is usually a big mistake. I needed to stay awake, but I had to stay quiet in the house and put my head down - ballgame.
7:30 am - wake up, shower and head back to the studio
This is the absolute worst! I should have never taken that cat nap. This is where you really have to rally.
7:55 am - McDonald's breakfast biscuits
This is a tradition. One week back in season two, I forgot to bring them and coach joked around about it - haven't forgotten since.
8:05 am - arrive at WPDE studios
8:30 am - Coach Bennett arrives
Coach and I go into the edit bay and look at the highlights. The losses always wear on the coaches, and coach Bennett is no different. He likes to stop certain plays and look at them frame by frame. This is the best part of my job. To have an elite coach giving you football 101 and breaking down film of a game. It doesn't get any better than that.
9:00 am - begin taping of David Bennett Show
The goal here, especially after a loss, is to have the smoothest show possible and get in and out. That more or less happened. We were a little bit heavy and had to edit out a PSA or two on the back end, but we were able to have a good show. Some coaches shows are University shills and you can't ask tough questions. Coach Bennett gives me the green light to ask anything. I addressed the Jerome Simpson assault issue and coach gave some great answers. We also looked at the Jamie Childers redshirt issue with Ren McKinnon out for the year.
10:20 am - Coach's Blog for Palmetto Pigskin Preview
Coach sits down next to my computer and I start typing and he starts talking. It's always a great column and some pretty neat insight. Coach takes off at about 10:45 am.
11:05 am - depart WPDE studio
11:30 am - frantic call to our Master Control!
Find out thanks to cable TIVO that the Bennett Show isn't on the rundown on WPDE. I make a frantic call to our Master Control and tell them to make sure the coach's show airs. Imagine all that work and all that travelling and no show. It all works out and the show airs.
12:00 pm - nap
3:45 pm - return to WPDE for Gamecocks feed
5:00 pm - write issue #3 Palmetto Pigskin
Here's the last leg of the triathlon. Hags does an awesome job with the high school info and I slide those into the 34 sections of the magazine. Then it's writing a CCU, Gamecocks, Clemson and Panthers preview along with filling agate information from high school and college. When it's all said and done, it's a 10-12 hour process on Sunday's depending on my energy level. When CCU is at home, I can usually squeeze in 3 hours on Saturday and get Sunday done in 8 hours.
3:45 am - go to bed!

I get a good seven hours of sleep and then it starts all over again, starting with gathering high school football stats, setting the stage for the week in sports and getting the rundown in place for next week's shows. Then when I get home before midnight, it's one last look through the magazine before it heads to press. You have to love what you do to get through this 12 weeks a year. During football season, it takes a little bit longer to return voice mails and answer emails. Like CCU's quarterbacks, I'm trying to manage that clock the best I can. We are truly flattered by all the folks who take the time to watch our coverage of both high school and college football. I hope this blog shows how much effort we put in and try to deliver the best coverage to our viewers and readers. The clock's ticking - I've got to go - another

It's Here

2007-07-22T15:13:00.000-07:00

It was a great sight to see 33 of 34 teams in our area come to Brooks Stadium and get ready for the high school football season. This is the second year we've put on a Media Day and we're getting close to getting things down to an exact science. Each team brought their top five or six players along with head coaches and it was an invaluable resource to have all this information compiled in a four hour period. That one day is going to be a huge tool in how we cover high school football in 2007.
A big thank you to Sonic and Ben and Jerry's who took on the task of feeding 175 high school football players. Once again, Sonic is sponsoring our team of the week segment where we pick a game and the winner joins us live in the studio. Every team will get Sonic combo meals. Ben and Jerry's is on board this season by sponsoring our "unsung hero" segment. This will give us an opportunity to make a fuss over some of the great lineman in our area. Having special segments like this helps take our show to the next level.

Here's some news and notes from Media Day:

* Damien Sowells is back at Dillon There was a lot of talk in the off season about Damien going to play across town at Dillon Christian, but in the end, he's staying a Wildcat. Damien very well could have been the best player not to make the All-Zone team last year - I'm sure he'll be able to get to the banquet and help Dillon contend for a 2A state championship.

* There are three newcomers that everyone is talking about:
Everett Golson, Myrtle Beach
This freshman quarterback is so good he may share time with Drew Ellis who is one of the top returning quarterbacks not only in the area, but the state of South Carolina. This is a very good problem for Scott Earley to have. It makes sense to use a two quarterback system and play the hot hand.

Shon Carson, Lake City
Another freshman who area coaches have been talking about for the better part of two years. The list of people who can step in and start at tailback at a class 3A school is a short list. I'm looking forward to see what this young man can do.

Heath Jackson, North Myrtle Beach
Ohio has a stellar reputation for high school football, so when you see that Jackson caught over 100 passes as a freshman, this transfer should raise plenty of eyebrows.

* It's going to be a good year for recruiting
We already have four Division I commitments sewn up:
Spencer Benton, Myrtle Beach Kicker - Clemson
Bruce Taylor, Myrtle Beach LB - Virginia Tech
Jimmy Howell, West Florence P - Northwestern
TJ Johnson, Aynor OL - South Carolina

Here's four more players with Division I offers on the table
Jonathan Williard, Loris LB - Multiple offers including Clemson, South Carolina, Florida and Tennessee
Ingram Bell, Saint James ATH - Vanderbilt and Duke offers
Jaron Brown, Cheraw WR - Multiple offers including Clmeson, USC, Tennessee and West Virginia
Justin Lewis, Johnsonville OL/DL - NC State offer

That gives us eight and that's just the tip of the iceberg. The Myrtle Beach duo of LB Evan Rose and TE Andrew Power should get some long looks as well as Carvers Bay DL Dyrell Porcha.

What's nice is the fact that all of these athletes appear to have their grades in order and qualifying won't be an issue. When it's all said and done, this might be the best year in terms of number of Division I signees.

The summer vacation is officially over. We're in full football mode from here on out. Here's what you can expect in the month of August from WPDE Sports:

* 34 Chevy End Zone High School Previews - check the full schedule at wpde.com
* Palmetto Pigskin Preview - 15 issues of everything football in South Carolina - high school, college and NFL - our first issue comes out on August 23rd. Don't forget to sign up for the Palmetto Picks contest and pick games against us to win a plasma TV and even more prizes than last year!
* Chevy End Zone Season Premiere: Friday, August 17th - we've got 50 minutes of wall to wall high school football highlights
* Gamecocks/Clemson Preview - Tuesday, August 28th at 7:30 pm - We'll breakdown Clemson and the Gamecocks and hear from coaches Spurrier and Bowden as well as our local players
* CCU Preview with David Bennett - Wednesday, August 29th at 7:30pm - Coach and I breakdown the Chants 2007 season with features and a detailed look at CCU's depth chart.

Looking forward to another great season - if you're looking for me, it's a safe bet to check our edit bay at the station as I'll be living in there for about the next three weeks!

So long Buzz

2007-06-24T20:44:00.001-07:00

He won a national championship at North Carolina. His college roommate was Michael Jordan. He climbed the coaching ladder all the way to the SEC. Everything about Buzz Peterson's resume is "big time". But it didn't take long for me to find out that Buzz had the furthest thing from a big time attitude. Thanks to David Bennett telling Buzz that he should do his coaches show with us, we got an opportunity to do a CCU basketball coaches show for the first time. I have to admit I was a little bit nervous heading into the first season. After all, Buzz was used to ESPN and a coaches show that had a huge staff and plenty of resources. It didn't take long for all of us to realize that coach Peterson was just like one of us. Sure, I'd be a little bit embarassed when I'm setting up the tripod in Radford, Virginia or High Point, North Carolina to tape our coaches show segment, but Buzz never looked down on us. I can recall about four or five times where a tape or microphone wouldn't be working and we'd have to reshoot. As a matter of fact, I always got the feeling he enjoyed the challenges we faced in putting a show on the air each and every Sunday.
It was amazing to see the switch that was turned on in the middle of his first season at CCU. The team really struggled in December and early January, but all of the suddent the Chants bought in to Peterson's attitude towards playing winning basketball and what ensued was a magical run that led CCU to within nine seconds of an NCAA Tournament berth. That wasn't the most impressive thing I witnessed in the Buzz Peterson era. I remember being on the road and Coastal was on their way to a double digit loss. Jack Leasure hit the floor hustling after a loose ball and his body was sprawled on the ground. All four of his teammates on the floor rushed over to help their teammate up. That particular moment, which happened probably hundreds of times over the past two seasons, really to me defines the Buzz Peterson era at Coastal Carolina.
When the first Buzz leaving Coastal rumors started following the 2005/06 season, I learned an important lesson. When stories broke that Peterson was packing his bags for the College of Charleston and that "the deal was done", I was worried that I was missing the scoop. All along, Buzz had kept in contact with me and was up front about everything that was going on. The temptation was there to go with unreliable sources and hope you get the big story, but during the entire four week span that story developed, I only had one source - Buzz Peterson. As he was in the midst of major decisions that impacted not only his career, but his entire family, he always made it a point to keep me in the loops - something he didn't have to do.
It's a bittersweet feeling for me. On the one hand, I'm thrilled that Buzz has an opportunity to be on the ground level of building a winning franchise in the NBA in his home state of North Carolina and to work alongside his close friend Michael Jordan. Trust me on this - Buzz has a great basketball mind. If you spent time in the edit bay watching game film, you would pick up on this in a hurry. On the other side, I am saying goodbye to one of the true highlights of my career (thank goodness I am still getting to spend Sunday's talking Coastal football with David Bennett!) I hope that we get the opportunity to continue to promote CCU basketball through our coaches show no matter who the new coach is, but I will always be grateful to Buzz for giving me a chance to sit by his side and talk CCU hoops. It's the same thing with Coach Bennett - when you sit next to a tremendous coach, great motivator and an outstanding communicator, you get that little extra boost of adrenaline to bring your "A" game even if you are working on three hours sleep on a Sunday morning.
I really think that Buzz could still be at Coastal Carolina. If there was a shovel in the ground in the proposed CCU arena, things might be different. I don't know if certain people on campus appreciated the impact that Buzz had on taking Chanticleer basketball to the next level. If I could use one word to sum up Buzz Peterson it would be class. Even though he's back in the big time, I know that if I set up that tripod at Bobcats Arena by myself and do an interview with him sometime soon, he'll have a big smile and we'll laugh about the old coaches shows and talk some more basketball.

Teeing it up for the kids

2007-06-08T18:05:00.000-07:00

It's 10:00 am on Monday morning and my phone keeps ringing. Every time I pick it up, there's bad news on the other line. This team has to drop out, this celebrity won't be coming to play....I start to feel real despair as it seems that our charity golf tournament is on the verge of disaster. We get to play in so many of these kinds of events throughout the year, and all we're looking to do is give the people who are coming out to support our cause a great day of golf and fun. The stress level gets right to the point of overwhelming and you ask yourself, "Why I am I putting myself through all of this?!"
Sometimes when you get an idea, the hardest thing to do is to stick with your vision and see it through to the end. During my first year at WPDE, I was so moved by the genuine sense of community the high school sports circle has in the Pee Dee and the Grand Strand, I decided to give something back to them by creating a scholarship fund. One thing you'll learn about putting on an event is that you'll find a long list of people who are more than willing to come out and have a good time, but not too many who want to put in the work and effort to make that event happen. The first WPDE golf tournament was held at Wild Wing and we raised a little over $5,000. It was a great start, but it was a real basic nuts and bolts golf outing. Ed Piotrowski was there and told me that he wanted to help me out to make the tournament even better. It was that moment that gave the scholarship fund life and many years down the road will be the most significant thing that happened to the WPDE Scholarship fund. Ed was able to get Steve and Bonnie Hughes from Conway Chrysler Dodge on board. In all honesty, they should name a street after Steve and Bonnie in Conway. They give back in so many different ways, yet always keep a low profile about it. Over the past seven years, we've had so many different things thrown in our direction, but we can always count on Steve and Bonnie's support.
Fast forward seven years and we've raised over $100,000 for high school seniors. I had two good friends who came to play in our first event and I really want them to come back to see how the tournament has evolved. The restaurants on the par 3 have become a staple. Your focus on golf goes away when you have a big plate of Damon's Ribs in the golf cart. We really need to personally thank over 100 businesses along the Grand Strand who don't hesitate to give us a hole sponsorship or a free round of golf.
Most charitable foundations or organizations are structured and have a committee to do just about anything. As I said at the end of the tournament, Ed and I take all the money we raise and put it in the bank and hope we have enough money to promise what we raised. We received over 70 applications for this year's scholarship and we had the unenviable task of picking just three. There were honestly about a dozen who totally deserved a $5,000 scholarship and the WPDE on-air team and our boss, Victoria Spechko, get into a passionate discussion about who wins the three spots. This year, Julian McLain of Dillon, Meridith Lien of Saint James and Myrtle Beach's Mac Sanders won the $5,000 scholarships. Their stories will be airing June 13th to the 15th and be on wpde.com to watch through web video. When you read the essays and see the genuine reaction of shock and joy when we announced at the tournament they won the scholarship, it's all worth it.
My goal is to raise $1,000,000 in scholarships and we're only 10 percent of the way there. Seeing that number on a computer screen is intimidating, but I know that down the road it could happen. I hope that one day, the WPDE Scholarship Board of Directors expands beyond Ed and myself to the athletes that star in the NFL, NBA and MLB from our backyard in the future. With their support, the WPDE Scholarship fund can be providing high school seniors with a big boost for many years to come. Until then, Ed and I will hold down the fort.

The Righteous Path

2007-05-24T13:56:00.000-07:00

If I had to pick the most satisfying aspect of my job, it's when the kids that we cover so intensely in high school go on to bigger and better things at the next level. I got chills when David Stern announced Raymond Felton's name going to the Charlotte Bobcats with the 5th pick in the 2005 NBA Draft, and when Lawrence Timmons hugged his mom after getting selected 15th in the first round by the Pittsburgh Steelers a couple of weeks ago. There's no need to pick sides for me in the Clemson/South Carolina rivalry because I root equally for both schools thanks to former WPDE All-Zoners making key contributions for both programs. Whether it's Anthony Waters or Michael Hamlin running right over after a Clemson win or Syvelle Newton doing the same in Columbia, I always felt proud of our guys stepping up on the major sports stage.

Lately, I've been on the other end of the spectrum with news of former high school athletes getting in trouble with the law. Since we live in a country where you are innocent until proven guilty, it's not fair to get into the details, but there have been two crimes in recent weeks that have involved former high school athletes that were household names on our Friday night franchises. Usually, sports is an escape for potential trouble and the number of positives far outweigh the negatives when it comes to athletes benefitting society. We always try to get a message across to the members of our All-Zone teams on how they represent their community and they are in an elite group that is quickly becoming a legacy. The question that needs to be presented to each of our All-Zoners is this: What path are you going to walk down? Will you be like Lanard Stafford of Carvers Bay who not only walked on to Steve Spurriers Gamecocks and starts at fullback, but is on his way to an engineering degree. The other path is one that never works out. When the news department knocks on our door and asks us if we know the name of a former athlete at Blank High, Hags and I cringe as we cue up the video of a touchdown or a three point basket. Here's hoping that future All-Zoners take the righteous path. Coastal Carolina's David Bennett says the same thing to his team on a regular basis "Do Right". It's two simple words. If people can think about those two words when presented with a chance to walk down the right path, maybe we can keep our former All-Zoners out of the news headlines and back into the sports section.

NASCAR's Coming

2007-05-03T13:53:00.000-07:00

Following the excitement of the NFL Draft, we're getting ready for another busy weekend when NASCAR takes over Darlington. The meteoric rise of the sport when it comes to the mainstream has been nothing short of amazing. It also reflects in the way we cover Darlington weekend. We used to go wall to wall for just about the entire race weekend, but as the sport grew, it has become more and more difficult to deliver the same coverage we have as in the past. It used to be that we would do a 60 minute special on Friday night with live appearances from the drivers. When you look back on those shows, our list of guests included such legends as Darrell Waltrip, Dale Jarrett, Ray Evernham, Matt Kenseth, Kurt Busch and a long list of others. It got to be that it became so hard to get guests to appear on our live race show that we simply can't do it. The fact of the matter is Dale, Junior, Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart and all the other big names have had so much of their time impacted throughout the year that coming on WPDE's race show on Friday night is never going to happen anymore. Five years ago, that was a different story. I like the good folks at Darlington and I applaud the effort they have put in to not only keep their race, but have one of the best weekends on the NASCAR calendar. That being said, local media coverage is a low priority to everyone involved with the sport. What's interesting is that it was local media that really helped bring the sport to where it is today. We'll be doing a 30 minute race special on Saturday night May 12th at 6:30 pm, just before the start of the race. It used to be that track officials and NASCAR would be giddy with getting that kind of exposure on a local television station. That's not the case anymore.
It actually used to be fun to go to the track. I remember when Jim Hunter was the president at Darlington and called me the Thursday before a race weekend and asked me to stop by Governor's Run golf course. He told me he had a couple of guys that wanted to talk about the race - Dale Earnhardt, Senior and David Pearson. That was pretty awesome. My all time favorite piece of video we ever shot was Mark Haggard talking with Dale, Senior while he was grilling hamburgers in front of his hauler after a Friday morning practice. Then there was video of me and Darrell Waltrip doing the Ickey Shuffle to close our race special (I can understand why NASCAR doesn't want anyone to see that). Those days are gone. The entire weekend is such a free for all that I totally understand why the drivers have little to no patience to talk to the local media when they have the national folks followed by the print media and us hounding them from beginning to end. There's no structure to the race weekend.
NASCAR also is very protective of their logo and rights. All of the coverage from the race weekend including our 30 minute race special is not allowed to be show on our website in any way shape or form. NASCAR does this so you have to log on to www.nascar.com to see anything NASCAR on the internet. I would rather see them have the right to link any local television station's coverage of an event on nascar.com and allow the station's to post it on their website as well. How interesting would it be to log on to their site and see all of the local coverage of a race. You'd get so many different angles from media outlets and you'll spend more time on nascar.com which is their #1 goal anyways. The internet has become unchartered waters for professional sports and media coverage. The NFL kicked many local TV stations off the sidelines because of the footage they put on the internet. NASCAR is doing the same thing. What's funny is there will be someone from the front office logging on to wpde.com and checking our site. Don't think we took the weekend off on race weekend when it comes to internet coverage -- we've been called into the NASCAR hauler and been parked on the world wide web.

My first year as a draft geek

2007-04-22T18:42:00.000-07:00

The NFL Draft has become its own sporting event. In the past, I've watched ESPN's wall to wall coverage for two days with an occasional stopping point on my remote control, but this year will be different. In the previous six NFL drafts, we've had a grand total of two local players drafted (Derrick Hamilton to the 49ers and Robert Geathers, Junior to the Bengals). Now, this weekend promises to be an End Zone celebration. It looks as if six players from the Zone nation and maybe even the first Chanticleer will have their name on an index card in New York City.

Lawrence Timmons - Florida State (Wilson HS - 2003 WPDE Zoneman)
I know that he's going to have a lucrative and great career as an NFL linebacker, but I always thought he would be an elite tight end if he played on that side of the ball instead of defense. The mock drafts of the world have him slotted at Pittsburgh at #15, the Bengals at #18 or the Giants at #20. If he's around at 20, why wouldn't the G-men give him a try. The last time they drafted a linebacker out of Florence it worked out pretty well for them. He's got a bust in Canton now (Harry Carson).

Justin Durant - Hampton (Wilson HS - 2004 WPDE Zoneman Finalist)
Darryl Page has got to be the proudest person in the Pee Dee on April 28th. You can imagine the thrill of coaching a player who gets a player drafted in the NFL -- coach Page gets two guys who will likely get drafted in day one. Hags and I were always baffled that Justin was not recruited by South Carolina and Clemson. We always said that he was major Division I quality. The NFL scouts agree. It looks like he'll be a late 2nd round or 3rd round pick.

Fred Bennett - South Carolina (Manning - 2001 WPDE All-Zone)
Scouts look at character during all the pre-draft interviews and this, in my opinion, is Fred Bennett's biggest strength. He's such a class act off the field and got a lot of experience and insight from former Gamecocks Ko Simpson and Jonathan Joseph who are in the league right now. Fred should go in round three.

Brandon Frye - Virginia Tech (Myrtle Beach - 2001 WPDE All-Zone)
I always get a kick out of seeing the footage of Brandon when he was at our banquet and where he's at now in terms of size. You have to give a lot of credit to Scott Earley for seeing his potential and getting him to Division I at Virginia Tech. He's got pagan strength and I'm guessing he's going to have a very solid NFL career. It's looking like he'll be a round 4 selection.

Anthony Waters - Clemson (Lake View - 2001 WPDE Zoneman Finalist)
He's one of my all-time favorites. Whenever I went to a Clemson game, he made it a point to get fired up for our camera. He had a chance to leave after his junior season for the draft, but came back and tore his ACL in week one of his senior year. He's getting a college degree and has no regrets. He's going to probably be a day two pick, but whatever team picks him is going to get a steal. I'm hoping that his knee gets back to where it was, because if it does, he's going to be a great NFL player.

Syvelle Newton - South Carolina (Marlboro County - 2001 and 2002 WPDE Zoneman)
He's one of the most intriguing guys in the entire draft. His pro days were hampered by a hamstring injury so his stock isn't through the roof right now, but we all know that football is much more than running the 40 yard dash. I have to think that someone is going to take a late round chance on him. I can't wait to see how an NFL team will utilize Syvelle. He's going to be anxious to prove to everyone that he can play at the next level. When Syvelle is motivated, watch out.

Tyler Thigpen - Coastal Carolina
I've said this before in the office and people might have laughed at me six months ago -- if Tyler Thigpen was quarterback at Clemson, the Tigers would have won the Orange Bowl. Here's a guy who has greatly benefitted from three pro days (CCU, Clemson and SC State) to go along with individual workouts. Thig will get a contract as an undrafted free agent. That's a 100 percent guarantee, but thanks to some dazzling private workouts, it's become more and more of a possibility that he'll get drafted in the late rounds. The best case scenario is for Tyler to get an opportunity at an NFL camp and work his way up the depth chart and get some seasoning in NFL Europe.

It's going to be a banner weekend for the Zone nation. Like Mel Kiper and the rest of the draftniks, I'll be hanging on every pick from beginning to end hoping to hear some of our guys have their professional football dreams come true.

My run in with Imus

2007-04-13T18:14:00.000-07:00

I remember having the TV on the background and stopping by on a Sunday evening as the Ladies Final Four was on and watching Rutgers put a thumping on LSU. Vivian Stringer was the head coach of the Iowa Lady Hawkeyes when I started my on-air TV career and already had an immense respect for her program. I knew that Rutgers was a very young team and they enjoyed a trip to the championship game losing to Tennessee. Outside of the niche audience, no one really paid attention to Tennessee, Rutgers or anything from the world of college basketball female style. Then Don Imus made the remarks he did on a national radio show. What happened from there certainly transcends sports. Rather than explore the freedom of speech issue or the obvious offensive statement on a racial and female equality level, I truly feel bad for the girls on the team. They should be looking back on an amazing season and enjoy the fruits of their labor. Instead, they led the national news with their press conference responding to comments made by someone they never met. The reason I write about this is because I did have one confrontation with the infamous Mr. Imus. Following my freshman year in college, I was an intern at WFAN radio in New York City. I commuted 90 minutes from New Jersey Monday through Friday and worked as an intern on the 10am to 1pm shift manned by Ed Coleman and Mike Francessa. At the time, Chris "Mad Dog" Russo was an update guy and just starting to become a fixture on New York sports radio. Mike and the Mad Dog is one of the biggest sports radio shows in the nation now. I was 19 years old and thrilled to be working in such a big time environment. The lead in to the show was Imus in the Morning. One of my duties was to bring in carts into the studio for the board operator prior to the show. Normally, I would do this in the minutes before the 10am show went on the air. For some reason, Ed Coleman asked me to bring the carts in early one day. Imus was in his second to last break and I went into the control room. The studio is seperated by glass and I walked in to the control room and stacked the carts where I usually did. I never said a word, but Imus who was in commercial and 20 feet away seperated by glass freaked out asking "What the hell is that geek doing in our studio?" He wouldn't let it go. He was like a tyrant demanding that I leave the area. I was shocked. I have walked this earth for 36 years and there has been only one time in my life that I wanted to physically harm a human being and Don Imus gets that honor. I kept my head down and walked out of the studio. The guys I interned for told me to just laugh it off as they shook their heads. If there is one thing I took out of that day it was that I would never make an intern feel like I did on that day. There was a scene in the Howard Stern Movie Private Parts that showed Stern getting the door slammed in his face by Imus when he first came to WNBC. I always said that was an accurate portrayal. I will not pass judgement on his suspension and the road ahead, but as Don Imus is in the eye of a pretty vicious storm, I wish I could go back in time to the other side of that studio glass and pick my head up and look him in the eye now.

The Augusta Black List

2007-04-04T19:49:00.000-07:00

It is really starting to feel like spring for two reasons: Opening Day and the Masters. I thought I would share a funny, yet heartbreaking story about the famed Augusta National. When I got the sports director job at WPDE in February of 2000, I was excited for so many reasons -- one of them being a chance to cover the Masters with it lying right on the South Carolina border. As I went through my usual ritual of making arrangements and getting media credentials, I discovered a harsh reality. Years before my tenure began at WPDE, the station would regularly cover the Masters. I was told that on one occasion, there was a problem securing a photographer or an extra body to help out, and the station did not cover the event and never picked up their credentials. From that day forward, WPDE Sports has been on Augusta National and their "black list". Every other year I have made the attempt to try and make my plea to get us back in the good graces of Augusta National. After all, I was not here when the infraction took place. Augusta likes their tradition and without fail, I have gotten a polite rejection letter whenever I have requested to get back on the media list. I did not attempt to do it this year, but now with azaleas blooming and my envy of hoping to step foot on the grounds one day, I will make it a point to try and get WPDE back into the Augusta National family. I can promise you this -- if we ever do get back in, we will make sure to cover it year in and year out! One thing about Augusta National, they do things their own way. It is why the Masters is one of the most special sporting events in the entire world (these are the kind of lines I write in my emails/letters, yet I am still locked out of the gates!)

Kentucky fans are rabid....but not that rabid

2007-03-23T19:09:00.001-07:00

Tubby Smith was 10 for 10 in NCAA Tournament appearances, four Elite 8 spots and a 1998 national championship, but in hoops crazy Kentucky, it was not enough. Smith was not fired, but certainly the lofty perhaps unrealistic expectations in Lexington were enough to get Tubby to pack his bags and head to the Big Ten and Minnesota. I wonder the sense of relief Tubby feels for leaving the pressure cooker of Kentucky basketball and heading to a kinder, friendlier domain in the Midwest. In the midst of these thoughts, I got some serious perspective that while we take our sports in America quite seriously, we do not have the problems that other sports do. Take cricket for example. I learned that cricket is a big deal overseas when I watched SkySports, which is the Great Britian version of SportsCenter. I was fascinated by a one hour show that was 30 minutes of soccer news and highlights to go along with 20 minutes of cricket news and highlights mixed in with just a little bit of golf and tennis at the end. How can a sport with a tea break make the steroid scandal in baseball look like a minor problem? Bob Woolmer was the head cricket coach for Pakistan who were playing in a World Cup tournament in Jamaica. Following an upset loss to Ireland on Saint Patricks Day, the 58 year old was found strangled to death in his hotel room the next day. Cricket is not only a sport that is wildly popular in places like India, South Africa and Britain, but has more problems than any American sport as I found out in this ESPN.com article http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/news/story?id=2809756 Blood Doping....fixed matches....murder. Could you imagine how our country would react to something like this happening in the NFL, NBA or MLB? There is no question that we have passionate fans whether it is college basketball, college football, the NFL or our favorite major league baseball team. All of the sudden, Kentucky fans who just want to make a regular trip to the Final Four do not seem so obsessive. I hope we never see the day where one of our national pastimes has a "cricket" problem.

WPDE Sports Manifesto

2007-01-01T19:54:00.000-08:00

I have been the sports director at WPDE since February of 2000 and have taken great pride in our station’s commitment to the local sports scene. In addition to our 19 sportscasts a week, the WPDE sports team locally produces over 40 speciality programs outside the realm of the newscast. I would like to use this space to give folks an outline of what we do throughout the course of the year.

FALL

The End Zone
This is our 50 minute high school football show that has become a Friday night fixture in our lineup. The WPDE team brings you 16-20 games of action each and every week with one of the highlights of the show featuring a winning team joining us live in the studio. wpde.com has web video of the show along with stats and each team’s schedule and results.

The End Zone Banquet
Each December, we cap off the high school football season with a banquet honoring the top 45 players in our area with a live 60 minute show. The highlight of the evening is the presentation of the ZONEMAN Trophy, WPDE’s version of the Heisman, given to the best high school football player in our area as voted upon by area coaches and media.

The David Bennett Show
Every Sunday at noon during the football season, coach David Bennett takes us through every twist and turn of Coastal Carolina’s football season. In addition to full highlights of every CCU game, the show has features on the program and player profiles.

South Carolina and Clemson
The Gamecocks and the Tigers are a statewide phenomenon and even though both schools are hours away from our market, WPDE Sports brings extensive coverage of both football programs throughout the season.

Carolina Panthers
WPDE is the pre-season home of the Carolina Panthers as well as regular recaps of games from Charlotte throughout the NFL season.

Palmetto Pigskin Preview
A free, weekly 36 page football magazine available at Sonic locations in the Florence/Myrtle Beach area. This publication has the full rundown on Coastal Carolina, South Carolina, Clemson, the Carolina Panthers and the high school football scene.

WINTER

The Hoop Zone
30 minutes of wall to wall high school basketball beginning in January. This show is one of the most unique sports programs in local television. The show’s debut in 2001 featured current NBA star Raymond Felton of Latta live with his team in the studio. It’s a chance to shine the spotlight on girls athletics on the high school level.

The Hoop Zone Banquet
The top 15 boys and top 15 girls in the area are honored and awarded Mister and Miss Hoop Zone. The list of previous winners include Raymond Felton of the Charlotte Bobcats, Ramon Sessions of Nevada, and Casaan Breeden of Florida State. Miss Hoop Zone winners include North Carolina Lady Tar Heels stars LaTangela Atkinson and Christina Dewitt.

Buzz Peterson Show
Coastal Carolina’s men’s basketball coach Buzz Peterson’s debut season featured 20 wins and a trip to the Big South Championship game. Coach breaks down each CCU game as well as conducts a coaches clinic and features on the CCU players and behind the scenes.

SPRING
The Zone Cup
Modeled after the NCAA’s Sears Cup, WPDE Sports awards the top high school in the viewing area for overall athletic performance in varsity athletics. 21 varsity sports scored points to a school’s overall score. The competition concludes in May and the first year of Zone Cup competition provided a tie between Myrtle Beach and Cheraw.

Myrtle Beach Pelicans
WPDE Sports provides extensive coverage of the Atlanta Braves "A" affiliate. Over the years, such major league names as Rafael Furcal, Marcus Giles, Jeff Francouer, Brian McCann and Adam LaRoche have called Myrtle Beach home before making it to the show.

Darlington Race Weekend
Mother’s Day weekend is the new home for Darlington’s Nextel Cup weekend. WPDE Sports provides full coverage of NASCAR’s best as they visit the "Fenway Park" of racetracks.

SUMMER

WPDE Celebrity Sports Shootout
Heading into its 6th year, the charity golf event at Wachesaw East has topped $75,000 in overall earnings. The money raised from the tournament goes to $5,000 scholarships to high school seniors who apply to the WPDE Sports Scholarship Fund.

High School Football Previews
Beginning in August, WPDE Sports provides 34 training camp reports from every high school football team in the area to get ready for the season premiere of the End Zone.