Today's scheduled 2009 Greater Neuse River 4-A Conference Track and Field
Championships have been postponed until Thursday afternoon at West
Johnston. The meet will begin at 2 p.m.

Knightdale's Brian Denton fired a 69 at Devil's Ridge Golf Club, taking second as an individual in the final match of the year.

Denton was followed by teammates Matt Pridgen with a 77, J.G. Yoon with a 79, Lou Muccio with 80, Jay Murray with 83 and Eric Meilinger with 86.

The team finished the year 42-12 in the Greater Neuse, 43-15 overall, finishing third in the conference behind Holly Springs and Clayton.

East Wake fired a team 327 at Devil's Ridge, and finished the year in the same position (fourth place), trailing Knightdale by 12.5 points.

Greater Neuse teams will compete in the Eastern Regional Tournament Monday, May 4, at Gates Four Golf and Country Club in Fayetteville.

I've got two matchups between East Wake and Knightdale women worth keeping an eye on.

1) Women's varsity softball: Last year fans witnessed some hard hitting between the Lady Knights and Lady Warriors. And with no one to blame, there was heat from the bleachers too - from that angle a battle of daughters. The teams split the regular season on a pair of close games that resulted in close calls, and yeah, you guess it - upset parents. Umps and refs really have to be careful not to doze-off out there on the diamond. East Wake may have played late in the conference tourney and was the team that made it to Greenville for the state playoffs, but Knightdale only graduated one senior from the team last year, meaning they'll be ready to step it up to at least an extra year of experience across the board.

2) Women's varsity soccer: This is a cute one. You've got the power and the age working for the Warriors, plus the AD factor, and I don't mean athletic director. I'm talking about the big boot from Amanda Dean. But speaking of AD's, athletic director Jon Hasbrouck, also the coach for the team, is starting to settle-in in his second year on board with the school. A man who spent a college career running the field has got to have a pretty good idea of what needs to be done to get things to click. Knightdale on the other hand mirrors its softball team. The group only lost one senior last year and has no seniors this year, but does pack some young-talent punch. Take sophomore Kaitlyn Eckert for example - the girl who scored 20-plus goals as a freshman, making the board of leading scorers in the state over her first season as a Knight. Add Brooke Foil, Eckert's partner in crime, and someone's liable to get robbed of a win. Coach Jeff Deal said it's those breakaway goals that make his team such a threat, and frankly I believe him. I saw the young Knights take on eventual state champ Leesville in the opening round of the state tourney last year, and believe me, the 3-0 loss wasn't a blowout. At least that's the expressions on the Leesville coaches' faces indicated when they were only up two with a few minutes left to play.

The beauty of it all is these are high school sports and anything can happen. It makes it that much more enjoyable knowing heading into a game it should be a close one. These teams will meet in a few weeks and this is at least what I'm going to assume as I arrive to check out the games. 

Unlike football season where games take place once a week, and basketball season when weather can't affect a game being played, baseball season gets tricky for everyone.

In the middle of the seasons' change games are expected to be played in the mid-late afternoon, the perfect time for abrupt weather conditions. It doesn't only switch things up for the kids, coaches and families (and for me, of course). It creates a lag in the season's schedule that I had forgotten only until this week when I realized I had to check the weather to make sure I made it to one game, period.

Tennis, track, golf and soccer also take place in the spring. Add softball and baseball and it can be a problem. Those diamond sports take place three times a week in any given week. That, for me, means scheduling to attend the latest game possible, but staying one step ahead of the weather. Even then, there's still the one or two games to catch up with from earlier that same week.

Now in week two, my schedule is on the drawing board. It's hard to plan knowing you will likely have to reinvent the schedule at least a handful of times before the summer sets in. It may complicate my planning even further, but the most important thing I factor in at the end of the day is that I be sure I am evenly distributing coverage to the schools - even after soaking in all other factors.

In researching those to be inducted into the East Wake hall of fame I've really gotten a good look back in the past.

To come up with stats for a team or an individual wasn't the easiest thing in the world. Looking through binders of years of newspapers (through roughly 27 sports pages in each half-year binder), it became evident to me relatively early it was going to be hard to find one single item I was looking for.

So I had to bite the bullet and look at every story on the Warriors' baseball team in 1998 and basketball team from the 1990-91 season, the championship contending year.

I normally get to follow a team through its year in-person, with camera at hand. But I have yet to cover a team that has later been honored by a school for a hall of fame, although some of the athletes I've seen go through Knightdale and East Wake may see that day before it's all said and done.

It's cool to go back and see where a program has come from. Not even coaches and athletic directors can remember every stat on a team or individual, so getting to take a good look at these people in their prime is like opening a time capsule.

I expected to find out these individuals being inducted at East Wake (The b-ball team, Jamey Shearin, Chris Bunn and Jackie Lee Ammons) truly made something special happen in their tenure at their respective schools, and the evidence certainly was right there in the binders.

The Hall of Fame dinner is set for next Saturday night at the high school. Although seating is probably limited at this point (it was a full house last year), contact the school if interested in attending.

Show a slight promise of future domination, make a bus load of friends that are all grown up and care about the game of baseball and what do you get? A sweet facility for the spring.

East Wake High School's baseball field is right in the middle of such a transition to aesthetic perfection.

Through boosters and golf tourneys, etc., the Warriors will have one of the nicest facilities in the state come this spring.

The price tag? Well, they could've bought a Corvette. Coach Kerry Kincaid estimated the coast of the improvements at around $50,000-$55,000. Those improvements include new grass and infield, a new outfield fence, a new scoreboard and a new backstop.

With a new three-wheeler for dragging the field, the ticket could run up to near $60,000. Luckily for East Wake, the school system/county met them halfway on some of the funding since aspects of the current facility didn't meet code and was their responsibility.

There will be more on this facelift as it comes. Look for a story and picture in Eastern Wake News in the weeks to come -- I don't think anyone will be taking field pictures as long as it is covered with snow. 

I thought it was pretty cool when East Wake wrestling coach Mike Kendall told me Zebulon Baptist Church pastor Jack Glasgow visits his team before home matches, I think while they are warming up.

Kendall said he swings through to have a brief prayer time with the boys before they go to battle -- perhaps to pray for a safe match, etc.

Knowing Kendall fairly well, I found it only normal when I heard he was gathering his Warrior troops to return the favor.

 The group decided to gather together and make a trip to Z-town for one of Glasgow's church services, and family members attended as well.

I guess it's a "you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours" kind of thing, but I felt it was worth mentioning there are those out there that take time to look out for others on a regular basis, and it's nice to know they're out there. 

It's easy to feel like you're a part of a family when you see its members day-in, day-out.

Sports families are no different — in fact, at the high school level it is a bunch of actual families that make up the "sports family." That's how it's always seemed to me at East Wake.

I cut Turkey weekend short to hit the slowest, darkest highway possible (501 toward Virginia) en route to Roxboro to see the Warriors play in the Thanksgiving tourney. Of course, given the time and location this might not be the best example, but there were a handful of usual East Wake fans, some parents of student athletes, that were sincerely happy to see me make the trip.

It's no different when I walk into the gym on any given Thursday and the athletic director tells me I'm at the school almost more of the time than he is.

But looking from the outside in I get to see how it is so much more those parents and fans that make up the hospitable, we-care setting it has become, and I stress that the setting I am referring to follows the teams no matter the location. I see the same trainers, the same teachers, parents and flat-out fans that don't really have to be at the games, but show up to every one.

The final thought here is that it is more than just nice to see such a love for a school on every account. It is great. And I say to those individuals just what I told the athletic director — as much as I truly do enjoy the sports, the kids in action, the connection with the school and all who are involved, I'm still getting paid to attend the games. It's the regulars that make up the heart of a program that has meant so much to so many over the years, and they're the ones who deserve the pat on the back.

Sure, there's a bit of a slump in terms of the East Wake Warriors producing on the field in the last couple of seasons, but the team is improved already from last year — much like counterpart Knightdale.

Last year there were no playoff hopes for the two schools, not even a daydream. Both schools finished 2-9 on the season and dead at the bottom of the Greater Neuse, right there with Holly Springs.

But this year the Knights are 3-2 with two games remaining and the Warriors are 2-3. Aside from all what-if, preventative guidelines the state athletic association uses to award playoff berths, there is one simple rule that governs them all. The top three schools in each conference, or a four-win team, should qualify for the playoffs.

As it stands, West Johnston is on top with an 8-1, 4-1 record, followed by Southeast at 7-2, 4-1, Garner at 3-2, 5-4, and then Knightdale at 3-2, 4-5. Smithfield-Selma and East Wake are both 2-3 and Clayton and Holly Springs are both 1-4 as of Friday.

So it would appear the Wildcats and Bulldogs aren't going anywhere, but what if they lose out and East Wake were to win out? Of course, that would mean defeating Knightdale in Knightdale, a team that has shocked big-name teams over the season and played every loss close. But if it were to happen, the Warriors would be tied for the top of the conference with the 'Cats and 'Dogs, and even Knightdale, assuming a road win over Clayton this Friday.

With East Wake and Holly Springs left on the schedule, Garner could be the sneaky sleeper. If things went the Trojans' way, they could end up near the top of the conference with five wins — a direction West Johnston and Southeast would like to head, but a season closing matchup between the two teams could prevent one of them from making it that far. Southeast might have the easier route, facing Holly Springs this week, unlike the Wildcats who face Smithfield-Selma.

Regardless, the league is wide open. There's plenty to watch over the next two weeks, and Warrior and Knight hopefuls can enjoy egging on a season-ending sweep and possible playoff berth.  

Eighty-eight degrees in October? That's right.

Only memories of freezing bleachers dance in the heads of most sports fans, but so far, so good in 2008.

Although last winter's temperatures were supposedly the hottest ever in history, it's starting to look like spring out there. It feels like Easter-egg hunting weather, not Halloween season.

It may be a bit hot in the middle of the day, but for outdoor sports the sweat is a whole heck of a lot better than knocking the frost off a helmet. From a photographer's standpoint, the same applies.

If I sit still for too long in the winter, I will freeze in whatever position. What I'm rooting for is one of those fluke seasons we saw a few years back where it is awesome weather (highs in the mid-70s) until January, at which time it needs to snow. There aren't nearly as many outdoor sports in the winter sports season — something else for me, and fans that share my taste in weather, to look forward to.