Football

Another great “away” crowd at Forestview on Friday night saw South Point stay unbeaten and at the top of the Big South Conference.

(Aaron Crumbley makes a run – David Luoto photo for the Gazette)

The football was good, even entertaining when Forestview went up early in the game. This led many to believe that maybe the Ashbrook game took something out of the team.

Then South Point took over — and the Gazette tells a better story than we could anyway.

Next Friday is South Point’s homecoming weekend. South Point will be hosting Charlotte Latin, a state power and ranked in News14’s – “14 to Watch” list. Good competition makes makes for good competitors.   

We don’t believe the players or coaching staffs of North Gaston, Crest, or South Point are looking past their next games, but the media and local communities sure are — Phillip Gardner writes a story about the upcoming three weeks of football competition. We agree with him on this one – Can’t Hardly Wait.

The line score:

SP 14 14 7 0 – 35
F 9 0 0 7 – 16

First quarter
F: Jarkeevus Alexander 88 kickoff return (Kick failed), 11:47
SP: Desmond Lowery 9 run (James Justice kick), 9:12
F: Preston Lyon 27 FG
SP: Aaron Crumbley 15 run (James Justice kick), 3:21

Second quarter
SP: Crumbley 2 run (James Justice kick), 5:13
SP: Brandon Spencer 19 pass from Lowery (James Justice kick), 0:45

Third quarter
SP: Crumbley 4 run (James Justice kick), 0:16

Fourth quarter
F: Kevin Jeter 6 run (Brant Aldous kick), 0:10

Phillip Gardner, a sportswriter for the Gaston Gazette had a couple of nice things to say about the Red Raider game versus Ashbrook the other night.

A little love offering perhaps for the gushiness expressed for Gastonia schools over the last several years perhaps?

Who knows?

Don’t like paying $5 to park in the neighborhood? COME EARLY and tailgate ! If you wrote more stuff about Belmont area sports in a more loving tone, like what is usually reserved for Forestview and Ashbrook, maybe someone would let young Mr. Gardner park for free. 

NOT !

Really, to be fair, we think Mr. Gardner does a wonderful job of covering sports in Gaston County. He makes an effort to attend the games, and get a feel for the players and coaches in his articles.

A little love goes a long way in selling papers…

Good article in the neighbors section of the Charlotte Observer today about the plight of Marching Bands in the Gaston County Schools.

Have you ever seen a ruff, tuff football player making the rounds, hat in hand, to sell fruit during the holidays? At the local churches for the “pre-game” meal served to South Point football players, do most of them thank the preparers/servers with a handshake or a word of praise? It must be a God-given right for football players to have a trainer, doctor, and multiple coaches along the sideline to “guide these young men and leaders” through the intracacies of  high school life. The message is, “someone else will take care of you”. What are they teaching their charges about life?

Not so, for the so-called “non-revenue sports and extracurricular activities”. Scraping by every year to teach fine arts at the high school level, teachers employed by the school system, resort to what amounts to begging for leftovers through piddly-fundraisers. Nickels and dimes are raised to offset the thousands of dollars necessary to operate a band or theater program.

At South Point for example, the band instructor, Tim Hamilton, has as many as 80-100 students in the marching/concert band class in fourth period. John Devine, PE teacher, has as many as 6-10 coaches, some of those are volunteer-daddies, for 60 players.  Players from South Point are also fed, visiting teams as well, after each home game — granted, a couple of hotdogs/hamburgers — but still fed, while the band has to run out to the local McDonald’s to get hamburgers at a reduced rate. According to SPHS Booster Club (re: FOOTBALL), this is because, “If we fed the band, we wouldn’t have enough to sell”.

Football, and all sports for that matter, are extracurricular activities, just like Band, cheerleading, French Club, and Moot Court. We would expect as taxpayers, that the various school sports booster clubs respect the students and families that PAY to see the football darlins’ — in the case of the Red Raiders — HOME and AWAY.

The 70 or so banner sponsors(at $300 a pop), Ray McKenney, and the Football Boosters should also support the Marching Band, which is an important part of the Friday Night High School Tradition.

We are calling on our Belmont friends and neighbors to help support the bands and fine arts programs at South Point. Participate in their fundraising activities and consider “adding” some dollars to your contribution for their effort.

You can call the school, 704-825-3351 to get band contacts, and contacts for the other programs as well.