The Olympics: my favorite thing that happens every four years (even more than the extra day in February, haha). The one time SWIMMING is what people are talking about. And for the record before I get into anything, I am not a Michael Phelps fan. Good for him for getting all those gold medals and breaking all those records. I will say it was impressive with the water in the goggles, but that’s all I will say about Michael Phelps. I am more impressed with the fact that basically every race that was won, some record was broken. Whether it was a World Record, Olympic Record, American (or Swimmer’s Home Country Record), nearly every race saw some record fall. The big thing was how people were saying the times would be slower because finals were in the morning. Those times were much faster and the pool was fast as well. I was quite impressed. Shout out to Cullen Jones for swimming on that AMAZING Gold Medal and World Record Setting 4x100 Free Relay…..in my opinion the BEST race of the games. And to my favorite swimmer, Aaron Peirsol, for taking gold in the 100 back and in his relays as well. Sadly, I will be tuning out of the Olympics from here on out – except maybe for a couple of things like volleyball and basketball. Swimming and gymnastics are my favorite Olympic sports.

Now, last year in one of my first blogs, I talked about how I went to the Meet and Greets with both the NC State and ECU football teams. Since then, nothing has changed really. NC States was organized and seemed like they put a lot of thought into it. ECU’s on the other hand, while they put some thought into it, they really left fans stranded once again. This year, they had the blow-up games for the kids and music and stuff like that, which was cool. But, the event went from 6-8 and the players didn’t even come out until 6:30. Then, like clockwork, at 7:25, one coach came out, barking at the players telling them to get up and leave, just like last year. Now, they again, left dozens, maybe a couple hundred fans, just sitting there, all for what they were calling a “team meeting”. Now, I didn’t truly voice my opinion on this last year but I am now. Really? A Team meeting? That is something that could wait until the next day or Monday. But, to tell the hundreds of fans who put their butts in the seat and pay for those overpriced tickets every year, that they aren’t worth moving a team meeting for, is ridiculous. I sat through the John Thompson era. If anyone deserves to stand in line and get those tickets, those of us who suffered through those two years should be the first ones. And really, it’s not so much for my benefit as it is for the 10 and 12-year-olds standing behind us in line waiting to get everyone’s autographs or the ones who stood in Skip Holtz or Patrick Pinkney’s special lines for 30-45 minutes, only to be told their wait was in vain. Come on ECU, you can do better than this. Don’t alienate your fans because your coaches and others have things they want to do later that night. We heard all about those rumors and if they are true, I am sorely disappointed in the staff. These are your fans and if you don’t treat them right, they’ll leave.

Countdown til College Football Starts: 9 Days
Countdown til NFL Starts: 16 Days
Countdown til Colts win Super Bowl XLIII: 165 Days

From Green Bay to Gang Green – is anyone else tired of the Brett Favre drama? Maybe now that he’s been reinstated – traded away – and sold massive amounts of Jets jerseys already, the talks will dwindle. Seriously, I understand he is one of the greatest players of all time (yada yada yada) and I don’t deny that at all. But, he made his choice and caused his Green Bay team and front office, a lot of trouble. I’m just hoping folks can move on and Green Bay will still have enough fans to survive.

Favre’s problems overshadowed all of the other water cooler talk this preseason. Stephen Jackson and Anquan Boldin’s contract talks, Steve Smith’s practice brawl and anger management issues. And the fact that the Dolphins STILL don’t have a consistent quarterback. Hopefully those stories will reappear now that Favre found a new home.

And let the games begin (insert cheesy, yet exciting Olympic theme music). The opening ceremonies took place earlier today – but you can catch them on tv tonight. A dozen athletes have ties to our state – one of them is from right here in the east. The group is as follows:

Basketball:
Chris Paul, Lewisville
Canoe/Kayaking:
Heather Corrie, Charlotte
Rowing:
Caroline Lind: Greensboro
Shooting:
Michael Anti: Winterville
Swimming:
Cullen Jones, New Jersey (swam at NC State)
Ricky Berens, Charlotte
Track & Field:
Bershawn Jackson, Raleigh
Lashawn Merritt, Virginia (ran at ECU)
Blake Russell, Winston-Salem
Jesse Williams, Raleigh
Travis Padgett, Shelby
Wrestling:
Dremiel Byers, Kings Mountain

Here’s a link to see all the athletes from the US participating in the Olympics this year: teamusa.org

Boys will be boys, but girls will be girls as well – and sometimes that means brawlin’ like the boys. As if the Palace at Auburn Hills didn’t have enough drama from the Ron Artest battle, now the girls are taking their frustrations out on the court too. While people normally frown on fights like these, I say congratulations because now people are actually paying attention to the WNBA, if only for a split second. Congrats to the WNBA for leaving their mark at Auburn Hills as well.

Now to the Manny Ramirez fiasco. My vote is to trade him or get rid of him. Sorry Boston fans (including my boyfriend) but if you’re going to claim injury but not go see the trainer, I would raise the red flag too. Terry Francona has been patient and good with the media on this one, but seriously, if you’re scared of the Yankees, at least do a good job faking your injury. I know people get bad and say no one treats Manny correctly but Manny should respect them if he wants it himself. I say trade him and see what happens. Remember Boston fans, you thought the world was going to end when they traded Nomar – but then they won the World Series.

And finally, stay away Brett Favre. Enough is enough. He knew he would get the itch come this summer, and he still chose to retire. He KNEW what he was doing. The Packers spent the WHOLE offseason training with Aaron Rodgers. It’s not fair to the offense or to Rodgers to all of the sudden just switch. I know Favre is beloved by all football fans (don’t get me wrong I like him too) but when you decide, you have to stick to your decision. He’s making the Packers look bad and he’s just being whiny. Spend some time with your family in Mississippi. Coach a pop warner football team or something, just don’t try to get back into football Brett. It will end up bad for everyone.

Countdown til College Football Starts: 31 Days
Countdown til NFL Starts: 38 Days
Countdown til Colts win Super Bowl XLIII: 187 Days

It’s a wonderful time this summer, swimming is on every night this week on prime time television and people are actually watching! I love this time, it only happens every four years. I heard someone at Target the other day talking about Michael Phelps and how they were flipping channels and saw the swimming and couldn’t believe he broke the world record. My favorite thing about Olympic Trials is seeing all of the names I recognize, athletes my siblings and I swam against growing up.

There are a couple of girls from my year-round team in Winston-Salem that made trials, Caroline Smith and Kelly Ann Baird. They are so talented and I know it’s a great opportunity to be there. I’m watching one person very closely, Terra Wilson. She finished in the Top 50 in the 200 Free and is seeded in the Top 30 in the 100 free later this week. I think she’ll do much better in that.

There are also kids from Eastern North Carolina who are there as well, two from Greenville and one from Pine Knoll Shores.

Matt Houser and Lauren Perdue are both from Greenville. Houser finished 50th in the 400 IM and Perdue finished 59th in the 200 Free.  Houser is also competing in the 200 IM on Thursday. Perdue will swim the 100 Free Thursday and the 50 Free Saturday. Both teenagers swim for Greenville Swim Club year-round and at JH Rose High School. Perdue holds the NCHSAA State Record in the 50 free.

Chip Peterson is also competing. He’s best known for his open water swimming but Peterson got 31st in the 400 Free and 66th in the 200 Free. He is a member of the UNC Swim Team and went to West Carteret High School. Peterson won the 5 and 10K Open Water Races at the 2007 U.S. Open National Championships.

You can check these swimmers out and all the other ones – dozens more from right here in our state – on www.h2omaha.com. The trials go through Sunday.

Happy Swimming!

It seems the place to be for good sports teams is in the city of Tea Parties …. good ole Boston. My favorite team at the moment, the NEW YORK GIANTS!!! Don’t get me wrong, I love the fact that the BoSox won the World Series and the Celtics beat the Lakers (praise God I can’t stand Kobe), but everyone knows my LEAST favorite team on the planet is the Patriots. So, I tip my hat to the Giants for keeping Boston from going 3-3 in major sports championships. The only thing they’re missing is hockey. But, sadly, I guess if you really want to watch some real athletes, then that’s the place you want to be. You know the Timberwolves are kicking themselves now for not having Kevin Garnett. He’ll always be known for winning a championship in Boston, and not for playing more than a decade in Minnesota.

Or maybe Omaha is the place to be. How ‘bout them DAWGS?!?!?! Two come from behind wins, one against the best team in college baseball in Miami and the other against a formidable Stanford. And Carolina gets sent to the elimination game, I love it. And then it’s on to the pool in Omaha for Olympic Trials in a week and a half. My favorite time of the year, when other sports take a backseat to swimming. It only happens once every four years too. Good ole Michael Phelps and Natalie Coughlin and I can’t wait for the upsets! No doubt I’ll be glued to the tv.

Happy Sporting!!

Contrary to popular belief here in the newsroom, I have entirely too much to do to update this thing as much as I would like. But, since people have been ragging on me for the last week, I have stopped everything I’m doing to write about the lack of my favorite sports being played right now.

You see, this is the time of year where I am kind of bored with sports. College and NFL football are long over, the NFL draft is over, college basketball is over, and the Braves don’t come on TBS all the time anymore. I don’t care too much for the NBA, although I loved the Hornets run into the playoffs. And truthfully, since the Braves are no longer on TBS all the time, I am forced to look elsewhere.

The one thing to keep me going in May, ECU baseball. Seriously. Despite my working lifestyle, I have managed to get out to the ball field several times. And this weekend, I am headed to Myrtle Beach to watch ECU hopefully make it out of the Region and onto Super Regionals and maybe, just maybe, Omaha.

And my favorite event comes around every four years, the Summer Olympics. It’s the only time people actually pay attention to swimming. They’ll choose their favorites, but usually they are ones I’ve already picked from the day after the previous Olympics ended four years earlier. My favorites this year are basically the same as the 2004 Olympics, Michael Phelps, Natalie Coughlin, etc. But, my real favorite that I’m rooting for is training for Olympic Trials right now. Her name is Terra Wilson. She swam with my sister at Gardner-Webb and she is amazing. She’s training in Charlotte and really has a shot at making it. We’ll be saying extra prayers for her.

Finally, when will football season get here? It’s only about three months away, but it can’t get here soon enough! I’m waiting for those Georgia bulldogs to plow through the SEC and win another National Championship. Maybe this time it’ll be on the back of Knowshon Moreno, hopefully he’ll have a year like Herschel Walker did and they can win it all! Go Dawgs!

I love Cinderella!

What started out as the most wonderful time of the year – March Madness – has turned into a bracket buster disaster. I personally, am beyond frustrated, since TWO of my Final Four teams are gone. Tennessee let me down. And so did Georgetown. However, I will let that one slide because I have become the biggest Davidson bandwagon fan. I admit it, and without my Deacs in there, I had to find someone to cheer for. And I was lucky enough to have a boyfriend, the fabulous Kyle Holliday, who had tickets to the first AND second round games last weekend in Raleigh.  So, we got up at o-dark-hundred, which is not really early for most people, but anything before 9am is early to me and made our way to Raleigh. I had a BLAST.

Those Davidson fans were so great! They were loud and fun and excited the entire game. And I can’t forget the best part, when the band broke out in Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline”. The entire coliseum burst into song. It was great. My favorite player of the tournament – hands down Stephen Curry. What would you expect from Dell Curry’s kid. He could not miss – and he still can’t. 103 points in three games. Unbelievable. I know Seth Greenberg is kicking himself for not recruiting him!

Now to the Tarholes. I am still not convinced that they are unbeatable, but they sure are quick. TV does not do them justice. I still think Tyler Hansbrough is not what everyone makes him out to be, I think the rest of the team is just that good. Poor Mt. St. Marys, those fans were so good to their team the entire game.

Georgetown was decent. I was sadly not impressed with Roy Hibbert. Not much excitement during that game and the only things I liked about the Indiana/Arkansas game was Indiana’s striped warm-up pants and Arkansas’ mascot.

Now, to things that irritate the fire out of me. I feel I am a smart person when it comes to picking the better teams and stuff, not that my brackets reflect that obviously, but what irks me beyond belief is the fact that there are people in both my pools who are KILLING me who know ABSOLUTELY NOTHING about sports. They’re the kind of people who pick teams because they like their colors or their furry mascots. And THOSE people are the ones who end up winning. So ridiculous.

Two final four teams still alive – and Cinderella continues dancing, we’ll check back in next week.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year - March Madness! Sadly, there are two downsides to this: 1) Wake Forest didn’t make it and 2) This means extra late nights because of basketball games on WNCT. I don’t think I can complain this year though, I have first round tickets to the four games in Raleigh!! Yay! Again, one downside: I have to sit and watch the Tarholes play. And in keeping with the spirit of the season, I have my Final Four picks - straight from my ESPN and Facebook brackets.

East: Tennessee. They have impressed me. Chris Lofton is sick, but if he has one bad game, they are done. I’m still a fan. And Bruce Pearl is probably the most school-spirited coach in the world. Anyone who paints their chest for a women’s game should automatically get brownie points – and maybe a few extra calls. Go Team.

Midwest: Georgetown. Everything about them impresses me. Their guards, their coach, Roy Hibbert and Patrick Ewing Jr.

South: Memphis. I really hope this is their year to shine. Even though they play in Conference USA, which has a less than stellar teams, they played a strong non-conference schedule, which should give them an idea of what they’re up against. I really think this year is theirs for the taking.

West: UCLA. Two words; Kevin Love. What a great freshman, PAC-10 Freshman AND Player of the Year.  Oh yea, his uncle is Mike Love from The Beach Boys. And Darren Collison - two times in the final four - this year he should win it all.

And who will win it all you may ask? I got UCLA.

Keeping with the basketball theme – I’ll give my two cents about what ECU should do about their coach. I say give Mac another year or so. He won FIVE conference games – five more than they won the past two years combined. He has a brand-new team and even though they had a losing record, I think Terry Holland should give him the benefit of the doubt. Go Pirates!

I’ll let ya know how the Tournament goes! Happy Easter to everyone! Have a great weekend!

It’s GAME TIME!!! Super Bowl XLI ½ is upon us. This Sunday, 4:15 in Indy on CBS. The two best teams in the National Football League throw down. And I will be front and center, in front of my tv that is. If you’re pulling for the Patriots, you will be sorely disappointed. However, if you’re pulling for Indy, break out the bubbly because the celebration will be sweet! And here’s why:

10 Reasons Why the Colts will Beat the Patriots

10) Bill BelliCHEAT vs. Tony Dungy. Cheaters NEVER prosper. And Tony Dungy’s book is way better than anything Bill would write.

9) Peyton Manning was way better on SNL than Tom Brady.

8) Most clutch player on either team: Adam Vinatieri. Let’s not forget how many Super Bowls he won for the Patriots. Now, it’s the Colts’ turn to take advantage of that. Vinatieri has missed only one field goal all season.

7) Two words: Bob Sanders. Anyone who watches football knows he needs no introduction or explanation. If you don’t know who he is, do some research.

6) Dallas Clark vs. Ben Watson. Battle of the tight ends. Clark has 388 yards for six touchdowns so far and he is invaluable to the offensive line because he blocks and sets up screens for others. Ben Watson, while from Georgia and I love him, has 233 yards for one less touchdown. And he’s injury-prone.

5) Let’s talk about who both teams have played. While the Patriots have played Dallas, who is 6-1, they also played the JETS and the DOLPHINS and they are horrendous. The Patriots’ competitor’s combined record is 24-34, TEN games UNDER .500. Meanwhile, the Colts have played MUCH tougher teams. Their competitor’s combined record is 27-24, THREE games ABOVE .500. I digress.

4) Indy’s Offensive Line is sick nasty. They’ve only allowed five sacks. New England’s allowed eight.  Bring it.

3) Indy’s RB’s are nuts. Joseph Addai and Kenton Keith have run for 936 yards and 10 TD’s. New England’s are sub-par. Sammy Morris and Laurence Maroney combined for 732 yards and just three touchdowns.

2) Indy’s division is a much tougher. New England plays the DOLPHINS, the JETS and the BILLS TWICE. Indy plays the Jags, Texans and Titans twice. We all know those three are much better than who NE plays.

1) Who are the reigning SUPER BOWL CHAMPIONS? Yea, that’s what I thought. GO INDY!!!!

The sabbatical is over. After more than a month of stressful work days, I am back on. I feel as though an update of my life is in order, however. My car is back in my possession, praise God. I have been to every ECU home game and they have been amazing. Honestly, I can’t believe they are this good. What a welcome surprise! My Fantasy Football team is 4-2 right now. That’s better than I expected. Adrian Peterson, Joseph Addai and Antonio Gates are the only players who’ve kept me in the running. My UGA ‘dawgs are still in the Top 25 and Wake Forest is on the way back up the polls. Life is good. Now, onto other things.
First, how ‘bout my COLTS!!!! 5-0 so far! Yay! But, sadly, their toughest game, I think, will be Monday night against Jacksonville. Last December, they gave up more than 350 RUSHING yards to the Jags. But, this year Bob Sanders is healthy (cross your fingers) and he should help put an end to that running problem. But, every Pirate fan in America will be rooting against my team and for David Garrard. Jack Del Rio looks like a genius now for giving Byron Leftwich the boot and keeping Garrard. He is mad awesome. I seriously cannot wait for this game!
Moving on, who will replace Joe Torre? Or better yet, where does Joe Torre go now? And since Torre is out, what’s Mariano Rivera going to do. I must say, I loved watching the Yankees completely implode against the Indians. It was beautiful. I hope the Yankees pick the worst manager ever and they completely fall apart. And I hope Joe Torre goes to work for the Braves and brings Mariano Rivera with him. And then the Braves finally win another World Series. That would work if two things happen: 1) the Braves get more money and 2) the world comes to an end. But, it’s still nice to think about.
And finally, NC State comes to ECU tomorrow. I actually feel bad for the Wolfpack. Wow, I can’t believe I just said that. All those injuries they have, it does make the game really unevenly matched. I wish all their players were better so we’d be able to watch a real game, and maybe they could salvage their season. But, none the less, I am looking forward to another Pirate Victory! AARRRGGGHHH!!!