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Bailey's
Take on Pirate Sports
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From the Anchor Desk
Tuesday, February 18, 2003
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By Brian Bailey
Sports Anchor of WNCT-TV 9 |
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'Perfection' mandatory in predawn football
workouts
©2003 Bonesville.net
East Carolina quarterback Paul Troth says he’s sold on John
Thompson as the Pirates' coach.
Troth says there is a new discipline in the Pirate program.
He says the players really like Thompson, and they can’t wait for spring
football to kick off.
“It’s just a different atmosphere,” said Troth. “Coach
Thompson is so ‘hands-on’. But these 6AM workouts are tough.”
Troth gave me an example of the “new” discipline.
“We run what they call perfect sprints,” Troth said. “You
have to set up and run a certain way. If you don’t run them correctly, then
you run again. The other day our eight perfect sprints turned into over
thirty! It wasn’t easy, but we did get them perfect.”
Troth says the entire program has been energized.
“The players are just really excited about everything,”
Troth said. “The spring schedule, the spring game, and especially the teams
we are playing next year.”
Just talking to Troth got me fired up for spring football,
especially the return of the spring game!
Promising debut for Pirate baseball
The Randy Mazey era is off to a great start.
East Carolina rallied to sweep Western Carolina on Friday in
a doubleheader, then rallied again in game three to pull out a 2-1 victory.
There were many positives in the sweep, led by Daryl Lawhorn
in the first two games.
“The Natural” picked up where he left off last year in the
opening day doubleheader, matching a pair of 2-4 games.
It was a tough weekend to hit because of the weather. Still,
this squad was able to muster enough offense to win all three games.
“We really had that mindset all weekend long,” said Mazey
after the sweep. “We always know that we can win the game, and that’s how
the guys felt in these first three games. I thought we showed a lot of
heart.”
The Pirate faithful had to battle mother nature all weekend
just to get a chance to see some baseball. All things considered, the
weather could have been much worse. Just look at Sunday’s weather.
Here’s hoping for blue skies and sunshine on Wednesday for
the game with North Carolina State.
Roundball road woes persist
East Carolina’s basketball team dropped another Conference
USA road game on Saturday.
The Pirates still have a great chance to make the post
season tournament, but they’ll have to take care of business at home in
order to nail down the opportunity.
ECU has five games to go. Two of those games are on the
road, at Cincinnati Louisville.
The three home games — versus DePaul, Charlotte and Saint
Louis — are all “winnable”, but are by no means gimmes. ECU has already been
trounced by all three of the opponents this season on the road.
I really feel for Coach Bill Herrion. He DOES have this
program going in the right direction.
I’ve heard him say it many times, that this team has to be
that much better in order to win on the road. Right now, this team isn’t
there.
Odds are that they will once again run the table in reverse
on the road, losing every game.
ECU's effort on Saturday at Saint Louis was hampered with
the loss of Derrick Wiley. Wiley was with his family after the death of his
uncle.
It’s not that the Pirates don’t have the talent to win on
the road. It’s a matter of confidence, a matter of maturity. On the road,
the Pirates are lacking in both!
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Brian Bailey.
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02/23/2007 01:25:36 AM
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