The good and the bad of a week in sports

Posted

Now, obviously, one could point out the good and the bad in sports on a weekly basis if the desire was there, but that would make for a pretty mundane column.

From time to time, however, it’s a fun thing to do and I think very entertaining. So why not this week, and here it goes.

We will start with the bad first, sort of opposite of the norm, but I prefer to always end on a good note.

The Bad

Let’s start off with the Chatham Central/North Stanly game. Most probably think I will delve into the 74-0 final score and the Bears miseries. But that’s not the case at all. Chatham Central is seriously banged up and were just outmatched from a physical standpoint. It certainly wasn’t solely due to overall effort.

What was bad in this game was the class, or lack there of, by North Stanly, which has begun to earn the reputation of poor sportsmanship as a football staff in the Yadkin Valley Conference, and deservedly so. Leading 48-0 on Friday night in New London with less than two minutes remaining in the half, the Comets had the Bears backed up near the goal line. Now, anyone at the game knew by that point that it was a chore for the Bears to get back to the line of scrimmage. The Comets controlled the line of scrimmage from the outside and with Chatham Central missing top running back Riley Lagenor, it was almost futile attempting to run the ball. So what does North Stanly do? They blitz in an attempt to get a safety and were successful in doing so to make the score 50-0.

I need to point out that North Stanly blitzed the entire night, even in the second half, so I will just leave that there.

After the safety, of course, Chatham Central was forced to do a free kick, and North Stanly took over possession with minimal time left on the clock, less than two minutes, and went full bore into its offense trying to score more. Yes, that’s right, they didn’t just run out the clock, they tried to score. After every tackle and reset, you could hear the coaches on the Comets sidelines screaming for the offense to get up on the ball and snap it. And eventually it resulted in a touchdown just before the half ended to make it 57-0. I mean, you want to talk about classless, I guess those final nine points meant a lot for the North Stanly pride.

The Comets would intercept a pass and return it for a score, after more blitzing, in the final seconds of the period to make the score 64-0 at the break. Honestly, I could have bitten nails. You just don’t do teams like that, especially when they are that far down. They are high schoolers, not NFL players. So for the North Stanly staff, your day will come — it always does — and karma will ensure that it happens. And no one has forgotten that it was your school that always cried the most about Albemarle “running up the score,” and that was even before a running clock. So, good luck in the future to all North Stanly opponents. They certainly, as usual, will have a lot of fans pulling for them when they play the Comets.

The Good

It deals with a trio of quarterbacks on three different levels — Jack Thompson of Northwood, Hendon Hooker of Virginia Tech, and Teddy Bridgewater of the New Orleans Saints. Yes, a high schooler, a collegiate player, and an NFL player.

Let’s start with Thompson because he’s obviously the main figure in that group representing Chatham County. Thompson was thrust into the quarterback role for Northwood after last year’s starting quarterback for the Chargers, Michael Posse, moved to the western part of the state.

Unfortunately for Thompson and the Chargers, who also began a new tenure under first-year coach Cullen Homolka, started off with a strong schedule with 4A Apex Friendship, currently 5-2, and Lee County, presently 6-0 and the best Yellow Jacket team that I have seen.

Thompson took his lumps, but has now helped the Chargers rattle off three straight wins, including going 18-of-27 for 242 yards and four touchdowns through the air on Friday night, including a 35-yard game-winner in the waning minutes on a 4th-and-15 play. Thompson also ran for a score and it’s just great to see the success for this young man because the quarterback position is under the microscope more than any other in football.

Hooker, meanwhile, is the son of Alan Hooker, who led Eastern Randolph to the 3A state title in 1983. Anyone that knows Alan understands just how great and classy of a guy he is. The younger Hooker led Dudley to a 3A state title three years ago and is a red-shirt sophomore at Virginia Tech. But through two years and going into this season, Hendon really hasn’t been given a chance despite performing very well in the spring games.

Rumors swirled that he may enter the NCAA transfer portal, but how serious, if at all, those rumors were, I don’t know.

What I do know is that what myself, and others, believed — that Hendon could get the job done for the Hokies if just given the chance — played out down in Miami on Saturday when he led Virginia Tech to a 42-35 road victory over the Hurricanes.

Hooker was, well, Hooker. He can throw it and run it, and he did both, passing for 184 yards and three touchdowns on 10-of-20 pass attempts while also running for a score and 76 yards on 16 carries.

I’m just happy the young man finally got an opportunity and it will be interesting to see how things work out the rest of the season for him, as he certainly gave a struggling Hokies offense a jumpstart over the weekend.

Bridgewater, well, he had led the New Orleans Saints to three consecutive wins including a great performance against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Sunday. In the two previous weeks the Saints had beaten the Seattle Seahawks and the Dallas Cowboys.

I would be remiss if I thought Bridgewater could do that in the absence of future Hall-of-Famer Drew Brees. In fact, I would have bet the bank against it.

On Sunday, Bridgewater stepped up and went 26-of-34 for 314 yards and four touchdowns, joining Thompson and Hooker as definitely some of the good over the weekend.