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NEWS, NOTES &
COMMENTARY
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The
Bradsher Beat
Wednesday, December 14, 2005
By Bethany Bradsher |
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Making a list, checking it
twice
©2005 Bonesville.net
As a child I was always quite curious — my
family called it nosy — and my future reporting skills were particularly
sharp this time of year, when I always managed to find exactly where my mom
had hidden the Christmas gifts.
(I wasn’t, however, as brazen as my friend
Michelle, who found the shoes her parents had bought her, wore them to
school in early December and then sneaked them back to their hiding place.)
Anyway, armed with my holiday snooping skills, I
have visited various corners of the East Carolina campus and taken a peek at
a number of “Dear Santa” lists. Below are a few of the heart’s desires of
some prominent Pirates:
• Athletic director
Terry Holland — For the occupants of the head coaches’ offices for football,
basketball and baseball to stay the same for the entirety of 2006.
• Former Pirates’ men’s
soccer players — A college where their teammates and boosters know the
difference between a corner kick and a penalty kick.
• Football coach Skip
Holtz — Plenty of reasons to have replays of his interaction with the Pirate
faithful following the UAB victory.
• Men’s basketball
players — A field-goal percentage that bears no resemblance to the
temperature on a cold winter morning.
• Quarterback James
Pinkney — Bobby Good and Aundrae Allison... always open downfield.
• Women’s basketball
coach Sharon Baldwin-Tener — A double jogging stroller that won’t make black
marks on the arena floor.
• Pirate Club members —
A donation for which the dollars do more to build the Pirate athletic
programs than to pay the bills of former head coaches.
• Defensive end Marcus
Hands — A shoulder that returns from surgery like new as his circuitous path
finally leads to an All-American season.
• Basketball junior
transfers Courtney Captain and Tyronne Beale — Enough points and rebounds to
become instant household names in Pirate Country.
• Baseball coach Billy
Godwin — Players who respect him so much that they will overachieve all the
way to Omaha.
• Jaguars quarterback
David Garrard — Enough downs in ’05 to ensure a starting job somewhere in
‘06.
And what do I hope to find under the tree this
Christmas morning? Nothing much, just football press conferences filled with
incredibly articulate athletes, coaches who return phone calls within the
hour and an occasional tearjerker human interest story.
Every Pirate fan has a Christmas wish list, too,
each a little different but all featuring more victories, more respect, more
passion from players and coaches and more afternoons and evenings in crowded
venues watching an ECU team hit on all cylinders.
The beauty of sports is this: The season ahead
is always laced with the hope that this could be the year when a wish list
becomes a scrapbook, when long-held hopes and beliefs converge into a fan’s
best reality.
 Send an e-mail message to
Bethany Bradsher.
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archives.
02/23/2007 01:11:56 AM |
