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BAILEY'S
TAKE ON PIRATE SPORTS
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From the
Anchor Desk
Tuesday,
October 25, 2011
By Brian
Bailey |
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| St.
Peter's Football Team Does Annapolis [Gallery] |
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A winning weekend in more ways than one
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Monday night's BRIAN BAILEY SHOW,
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By
Brian Bailey
©2011 Bonesville.net
All rights reserved.
My trip to Annapolis this
weekend allowed me to check another one off my “bucket list.”
The “bucket list” is the
term some use for a list of things one would like to do before dying.
The term was popularized in the 2007 movie by the same name starring
Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman.
I don’t have my list
written down. I guess that will come later. For me it’s more of an
internal wish list, and I checked one off visiting Annapolis this
weekend.
I was fortunate enough to
cover an East Carolina-Army game in the mid-90’s and came away from that
experience hoping to also one day get a chance to visit the U.S. Naval
Academy.
I couldn’t get to
Annapolis for the first ever meeting between the two schools back in
2006. This time, I was invited by the St. Peter’s football team in
Greenville to make the trip.
The connection with St.
Peter’s and Navy is through the Blick family in Greenville. Joe Blick is
a District Court Judge in Pitt County. He is also the head football
coach at St. Peter’s in his spare time. His son Brian was the star
quarterback for four state championship teams for J.H. Rose High School.
Brian is now a senior on
the Navy football team. Each year Coach Blick rewards his St. Peter’s
team with a football trip to Navy.
The trip is much more than
just football.
What an experience! The
Brigade of Midshipmen is a spectacle that everyone should someday get a
chance to watch. The flyover was also breathtaking.
You certainly can’t have a
great weekend without a great football game.
The Pirates rode a
record-setting performance by quarterback Dominique Davis and didn’t
turn the football over in winning 38-35.
Davis was 26-26 through
the air in the first half, breaking the single game record of 23 in a
row previously held by current Packers quarterback Aaron Rogers when he
was at Cal and by Tennessee quarterback Tee Martin.
Davis completed his final
10 passes against Memphis last week, so his stunning first half against
Navy gave him 36 completions in a row, breaking the NCAA mark of 26 set
in 2004 by Rodgers.
That’s not bad company, is
it!
“I had no idea,” said
Davis when asked about his record setting performance after the game
Saturday night. “It’s more about the offense, and what we can do when we
execute.”
Pirate coach Ruffin
McNeill thought the opportunity to be exposed to the aura of discipline,
duty and pageantry associated with the Academy and Navy-Marine Corps
Memorial Stadium was good for his team.
"This was a great
experience,” said McNeill. “I have so much respect for the military as a
whole and especially the service academies. Eight of my family members
have served in the military. What those young men at the service
academics have to do, with the time they put in plus the obligation
after they graduate, is enormous. I respect everything about them. I'm
glad our players were able to be a part of it.”
On Sunday, the St. Peter’s
team and several other ECU fans got a chance to tour the U.S.S.
Alexandria, a Los Angeles-class nuclear-powered attack submarine. We
piled into a transfer boat that held 35 or so of us and ventured some 30
minutes out into the Chesapeake Bay.
We were allowed to take
pictures only above the surface. [View
photo gallery in new window...] Our guide was very
thorough and we had a chance to spend over an hour taking the tour.
The adventure gave us even
more insight into just what those in the military endure to protect our
nation’s freedom.
I hope that tour had the
same impact on the young ones in the group as it did with me. It was
fascinating to think that the crew of the sub might be underwater for up
to six months at a time.
I don’t know how the
entire conference realignment will fall out but I do hope that East
Carolina and Navy land together. It was a great trip and I would love to
make it again in the future.
Thanks to the Blick family
for being such great hosts at the U.S. Naval Academy, and best of luck
to the Middies the rest of the way.
For now, I’ll check and
see what’s next on the “bucket list."
BB
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Brian Bailey Archives
10/25/2011 05:09 AM |
