Blogging with Bryan C. Hanks

Kinston 43, North Pitt 12

Eastern Wayne 27, North Lenoir 0

South Lenoir 19, Topsail 13

Farmville Central 21, Greene Central 20

Goldsboro 39, Ayden-Grifton 7

Scores from around the state, courtesy of The Associated Press

Albemarle 49, South Stanly 6

Make your own picks by going here…

Also — I am making the 90-minute drive to Hampstead to cover the South Lenoir-Topsail game (yes, Clay — I absolutely HATE South Lenoir, since I’m doing this on my personal time). My good friend Jonathan Massey will be updating my Twitter feed during the game at my BCHanks account; if you haven’t signed up at Twitter — it literally takes 90 seconds. Do it and keep up with the South Lenoir game at my feed, if you’re unable to make it to Topsail HS tonight.

You know, because I hate South Lenoir so much.

Anyhoo, my picks:

Prep

Kinston 34, North Pitt 8

Eastern Wayne 21, North Lenoir 20

South Lenoir 28, Topsail 14 (Wow, I hate South Lenoir so much)

Greene Central 14, Farmville Central 13

Goldsboro 42, Ayden-Grifton 14

College

N.C. State

North Carolina

Penn State

UCLA

Tulsa

NFL

Cincinnati

Chicago

N.Y. Giants

Philadelphia

Pittsburgh

NOTE: All “hate” mentions above are pure sarcasm. I really, really hope you didn’t need this note to recognize that. Unless you’re Clay.

Welcome to today’s cheerleader of the day feature.

Every day, we’ll celebrate our favorite sports seasons, teams and school spirit with tasteful views of those student cheerleaders or professional cheerleaders who represent their respective teams.

Again, thanks to the hard and tireless work of Blog All-Star Darren Becton, here are representatives of Boise State and Louisiana Tech, who face each other tonight on ESPN:

For a better view of the photos, click on the pictures themselves. To make a suggestion for a future COTD, leave it in the comments or send me an e-mail to bhanks@freedomenc.com. 

Everyone knows I have mad love for U2; over the past two years — thanks to my good friend Richard Clark — I’ve also become a big Jay-Z fan.

Last night, like the genius creation of the Reece’s Cup, U2 and Jay-Z played together in Berlin. Check it out:

My take: Yeppers, I’ve watched it about 20 times this morning. Bono and Jigga … AWESOME.

UPDATE: Approximately 20 seconds after I posted the link, Viacom took the link down. Yes, the NEW link is not nearly as good, but eh, whatever. You get the point…

IDIOT KILLS 13, INJURES 30 IN FORT HOOD SHOOTINGS

A U.S. Army major and psychiatrist who was about to be deployed to Afghanistan went on a shooting rampage yesterday afternoon, killing 13 (including 12 soldiers) and injuring 30 others at Fort Hood in Texas before being shot and captured by authorities. The SOB is still alive after being shot four times; the incident is considered the worst mass killing at an Army base.

My take: I’m not a big death penalty advocate — but this is a case where it should be used as soon as humanly possible. There’s no doubt, no gray area about what this idiot did. Get the gas chamber, needle — or more appropriately — the firing squad ready.

What this douche did yesterday is inexcusable — killing young soldiers on their way to defend OUR FREEDOM. If he didn’t want to go to Afghanistan, then fine: he could’ve put his pistol in his mouth and blown his useless brains out.

Let’s not take a long time allowing him to cost taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars to house and represent him in court. Put a freaking cigarette in his mouth, a blindfold on his eyes and let 20 M-16s end his life. I volunteer to be one of the shooters; hell, I was a marksman when I was in the Army.

MAZINGO ABRUPTLY RESIGNS FROM APA

Arendell Parrott Academy Steve Mazingo has resigned from the school. No other details are immediately available. Longtime APA administrator and coach Hugh Pollock has been named the interim headmaster.

My education reporter, Chris Lavender, is on it and we’ll know something soon.

My take: This literally broke about an hour or so ago as the instructors at the school were informed about his resignation at a 7:45 a.m. meeting. I’m not even going to venture a guess why this happened — but if you know, hit up my e-mail at bhanks@freedomenc.com or call me at 252-559-1074. Your contribution will be anonymous.

My guess for next headmaster? Probably Bert Bright, the football coach. In our preseason preview, he told me he’d like to be the APA headmaster one day … well, it looks like that opportunity has presented itself.

VPI DEFEATS ECU

Virginia Tech defeated East Carolina, 16-3, last night on national television.

My take: The best part of the game? The logo at midfield — it was awesome:

ECU’s defense played its guts out — it was the offense that stunk up the joint. Anyhoo — this doesn’t keep the Pirates from playing for the C-USA title.

The iPod shuffle

Shoot To Thrill — AC/DC

Jaded — Aerosmith

Role Model — Eminem

Lay Low — Snoop Dogg featuring Master P and Nate Dogg

Ramblin’ Man — The Allman Brothers Band

Welcome to today’s cheerleader of the day feature.

Every day, we’ll celebrate our favorite sports seasons, teams and school spirit with tasteful views of those student cheerleaders or professional cheerleaders who represent their respective teams.

In honor of tonight’s epic Virginia Tech-East Carolina game at Dowdy-Ficklen, here are representatives of those fine schools, courtesy of the man, the legend, Darren Becton:

For a better view of the photos, click on the pictures themselves. To make a suggestion for a future COTD, leave it in the comments or send me an e-mail to bhanks@freedomenc.com.

Perhaps I was partially wrong in my rant about South Johnston’s 84-6 massacre of North Lenoir last Friday.

I’ve talked to a pretty good source who was on the field at the game. Evidently, the officials came over to NL coach Calvin Sutton repeatedly, offering to run the clock in the second half, but Coach Sutton told them he didn’t want to do it. When the news got back to SJ coach Joe Salas, he became irritated and that’s when he decided to run up the score a bit.

KEEP IN MIND — I haven’t talked to Coach Sutton or Coach Salas about this, but this nugget comes from an excellent source who had access to both sidelines.

So what does this mean, if it’s true? Only that Coach Sutton could’ve kept the highest scoring game in Lenoir County from happening. It still doesn’t mean Salas should’ve had his team onside kicking or throwing on 4th and 25 … but it adds a bit more perspective to the whole deal.

DEMS LICKING THEIR WOUNDS AFTER TUESDAY’S ELECTIONS

Republicans had huge victories throughout the nation in Tuesday’s elections, causing some consternation among the Democratic Party.

My take: I’ve been so focused on Kinston’s mayoral race the past three weeks, I haven’t taken the time to see what was happening around the nation. But with state governorships swapping hands in New Jersey and Virginia — decidely Democratic in President Obama’s stunning victory last year — the Dems are becoming worried about what is going to happen in 2010.

And they have reason to worry. With Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi pushing for a vote on the 2,000-page Democratic version of the Health Care Bill by Saturday (when legislators have only had days to read it), that’s only going to anger voters more.

Yeppers, the Democrats could be in trouble in 2010.

MISSING BABY FOUND AFTER 5 DAYS

In one of the most disturbing stories — that has a happy ending — you’ll read today, a 7-month child was found in a box under her babysitter’s bed after a frantic five-day search.

My take: There are too many turns and twists in this story for me to put them here, but the mom has a history of abuse and neglect, including being convicted of assault and battery in 1987, being given a 10-year sentence … AND SERVING 80 DAYS.

Yet there are Americans in jail serving full 10 and 15-year sentences for smoking or selling weed. Ridiculous.

Anyhoo, sorry for slipping into a Libertarian rant; read the story and be as shocked as I was.

YANKEES BUY 27TH WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

Behind the effort of MVP Hideki Matsui, the New York Yankees defeated the Philadelphia Phillies, 7-3, to win the 2009 World Series in six games.

My take: I know there are a few Yankees apologists here, so … congratulations.

If you spend more than $200 million annually on your team, you should win a title every 10 years or so. And make no mistake — this title was bought.

But congratulations to Heelatious, Heelsfan, Flagan, Herman and the rest of Yankee Nation in Lenoir County. Good luck repeating next year with Matsui and Johnny Damon leaving the Bronx.

CORRECTION: After being castigated on my personal cell phone answering machine by Heelsfan (Jonathan Davis), I apologize for listing him as (JD said) “a Damned Yankee fan”. My apologies.

Oh yeah, you’ll just throw money at more players to get them to come. Awesome.

The iPod shuffle

Chain Hang Low — Jibbs

Hard Headed Woman — Elvis Presley

Callin’ Baton Rouge — Garth Brooks

Shut Up And Drive — Rihanna

You’re In My Heart (The Final Acclaim) — Rod Stewart

Welcome to today’s cheerleader of the day feature.

Every day, we’ll celebrate our favorite sports seasons, teams and school spirit with tasteful views of those student cheerleaders or professional cheerleaders who represent their respective teams.

Time for some NBA cheerleading action: Thanks to Friend of the Blog Darren Becton for providing us representatives from the Orlando Magic and Phoenix Suns for your perusal. I need to start paying Becton for this…

For a better view of the photos, click on the pictures themselves. To make a suggestion for a future COTD, leave it in the comments or send me an e-mail to bhanks@freedomenc.com.

Prep

Kinston at North Pitt

North Lenoir at Eastern Wayne

South Lenoir at Topsail

Farmville Central at Greene Central

Goldsboro at Ayden-Grifton

College

Maryland at N.C. State

Duke at North Carolina

Ohio State at Penn State

Washington at UCLA

Houston at Tulsa

NFL

Baltimore at Cincinnati

Arizona at Chicago

San Diego at N.Y. Giants

Dallas at Philadelphia

Pittsburgh at Denver