Championship rings to be awarded Friday, Oct. 10

- The Brothers Johnson: Britt and Will flank Grant holding the state championship trophy (click on picture to enlarge)

To the winners go the spoils.

Rocky Mount's 2008 NCHSAA 3-A state championship baseball team will receive its championship rings in a ceremony to be held at halftime of the Rocky Mount-Northern Nash football game on Friday, Oct. 10. The contest is also the Gryphons' NEW 6 Conference opener.
Expected to attend are the five seniors on that squad who are now all college freshmen: William Barringer, N.C. State; Chris Berry, UNC-Chapel Hill; Grant Johnson, East Carolina; Jim Leggett, Belmont Abbey; and Nick Phillips, UNC-Pembroke.

They will join seniors Nick Hahula, Ben Fish, Brian Goodwin, Chris Pittman, Gabe Brown and Dillon Cockrell; juniors Carter Varnell, Collins Cuthrell, Gus Demilio and Cameron Ramsey; and sophomores Benton Moss and Thomas Berry on the field - along with head coach Pat Smith and his assistants Kent Cox, Jason Battle and Hank Jones.

Hahula, Cuthrell, Varnell, Pittman and Goodwin, of course, are all on the varsity football team and will miss part of coach B.W. Holt's halftime speech. But if RMHS has a big lead at the half, will it matter?

I was tempted to show pictures of the rings on the blog, but the players should be the first ones to see them, and so they shall. I will display some shots of the rings the weekend after they are awarded.

ANOTHER HUDGINS: Tanika Hudgins, oldest sister of former RMHS quarterback Terrell Hudgins, is now in the coaching ranks.

Tanika, an All-Big East volleyball and basketball player for RMHS in the early 2000s, is now a P.E. teacher and head girls basketball coach at Southampton High School in Courtland, Va.

Tanika played both volleyball and basketball at Mt. Olive, and then transferred to Elizabeth City State where she played both sports. She was an All-CIAA performer in volleyball and she helped lead the women's basketball team to the NCAA Div. II playoffs.

But there is another Hudgins about to emerge - youngest sister Tia. She's a freshman at RMHS and is playing on the varsity volleyball team. She is expected to contribute to Pam Gainey's basketball squad this winter. She will help on Gainey's front line as returning senior forward Arkenisha Melton will be ineligible until the second semester.