"Upon Further Review" by Jim Sacco

Monday, May 07, 2007

Daily Pooch Punt: 5/7/2007 The Monday Mailbag

OK, so the whole Monday Mailbag thing just started. That’s why I’ll forgive all you for the whopping FOUR e-mails I got.

Come on people, let’s get this ball rolling. All I need is your first name and the town you live in. That’s it. How easy is that?

Oh well, let’s dive right in the deep end. (All four of them.)

Jim,
Great blog. Glad to see it’s local most of the time.
Did you ever see any indication that [Waynesboro football coach] Danny Dorton was going to leave before the season was over?
Thanks and keep it up.

Bill H.
Waynesboro

With the exeption of the season record, I never saw or heard any indication that last season would be Dorton’s final one. Though I did have a gut feeling that he would step down. However, never heard anything that would have tipped us off before he made it official.
Thanks for the kind words.

Sacco,
Dude, how could you not put any of the Madden games on your top four Playstation game list you did last week. [April 29 Blue Ridge Buzz.]
Gary M.
Fishersville

Madden is a mainstay. Do I really need to put a Madden on the list of must-have games? No, because Madden isn’t a game, baby. It’s a way of life.

Jim,
It’s about time you got a blog (editor’s note: Actually, I’ve had it since February, but who’s counting.) Quick question: Why don’t you cover Waynesboro soccer?
Gerald H.
Waynesboro

I must have missed something. We cover Waynesboro soccer, but yet I get more phone calls about how we don’t cover Waynesboro soccer. I have no clue where these questions are coming from.

Jim,
Did you honestly think Fort Defiance would be the team in the Valley that stopped Turner Ashby? Be honest with me and don’t feed me your homer answer of “I was expecting Waynesboro.” I await your reply.
Sam B.
Greenville

Honestly, I thought Stuarts Draft would be the team that knocked Turner Ashby off. And I think they still got a chance. If Mike Moles is on the mound and the Cougars bats are alive and kicking (and, of course, they cut down on errors in the field) look for the Cougars to give Turner Ashby its second loss of the season in the Valley. (And for the Cougars to get a nice box of chocolates from Waynesboro’s team.)

And another thing: Look who’s in the news again. It’s Afton’s very own Katy Boyd proving that, yes, girls have game too.

Oh, yeah: It’s about freakin time!

Wal-Mart of wealth of information: While waiting in line at everybody’s favorite “We-got-everything-you-need-to-live-all-right-here” store, a reader recognized me and asked me why Waynesboro doesn’t honor coaches like some other school do. I asked what she meant. “Well, Lee named their gym after [boys basketball coach Paul Hatcher].”

I tried to explain that nobody at Waynesboro (or the rest of that state for that matter) could be compared to Hatcher. However, if Waynesboro wants to get on the facility-naming bandwagon the first two choices are easy.

The Ed Driskill Track, Field and Soccer Facility. And the Pat Austin Tennis Courts.

Nuff said.

Saturday, May 05, 2007

Eastside Pick’em Redux

OK, had some technical difficulties posting this. So we’ll try again with week two of our Eastside Pick’em contest.

First off, here’s the standings after week two:

1) Court Wills 50 points
2) Robert Sisk 31 points
3) Jim Sacco a very handsome 14 points.

OK, now onto this week’s picks in order of who uses the most hair gel in the office:

Robert Sisk: David Caywood - Caywood has had two solid runs, but bad luck seems to find him on the track. In the first week he blew an engine while running up front and last week he was contending for a top three spot when his tire blew after contact on the racetrack. I don’t think lightning will strike Caywood for a third time, and this week is his week to finally break his curse.

Court Wills: I’m gonna go with Peter Coffey. Even after coming up short against David Sibold, Coffey was in contention on the last lap. With just a little more gas, Coffey might have a good chance to catch up with Sibold down the stretch. Look for Coffey to keep a steady eye on the likes of Kristian Looney and Sibold to get his first win of season.

Jim Sacco: Two words—BUCK ROADCAP. Why, you ask? Simple. What do you drive a car on? That’s right, a ROAD. Now, I don’t know about you, but when I’m working on my own car (like all real men do) and getting all sweaty during the summer, what do I wear to keep the grease and oil out of my hair and running down into my eyes? Yep, a CAP. And why do these guys race? To make a BUCK. Come on BUCK ROADCAP, Jimmy needs some points.

Friday, May 04, 2007

Daily Pooch Punt: 5/4/2007

This isn’t about betrayal. This isn’t about revenge.

It’s not about going to another school to prove to a lackluster fan base that, hey, look what I can do with some support.
Heck, Danny Dorton isn’t even going to Robert E. Lee to be the head football coach. David Tibbs is already there and well entrenched on the sidelines.

The only reason Dorton is leaving Waynesboro and heading to Staunton is a simple one --- he loves the game of football.
He couldn’t imagine doing anything else in his life and who are we to blame him for the move. And who are any of us fault a man for doing what he loves to do for a living?

Let’s be honest here, the Lee assistant job opened up well after he decided to step down from the top football spot at Waynesboro. And while Dorton will never be known for his record at Waynesboro (6-24 over his three-year stint) he will be known for his compassion.
Having spent three years trolling the sidelines with a notebook in one hand and a pen in the other covering games, we noticed the little things about Dorton.

His compassion for the kids was just one of them.

“What coaches do and what Danny is good at is he really cares about the kids,” Tibbs told The News Virginian on Thursday. “ ... that’s why I wanted him. That’s the kind of people we have at Lee and the kind of people we want at Lee.”

Sadly, with the exception of that one game a year during the fall, this closes the book on Dorton at Waynesboro.

He’s young and with his football knowledge will be go on to get a head-coaching job again.

There will be plenty of people in Waynesboro watching from afar and you’re reading one of their blogs right now.

And another thing: After losing a football coach (Dorton) and a volleyball coach (Candace Kimmett) now Waynesboro Athletic Director has to replace a girls basketball coach. Man, and I though my job was a tough one.

All I can say is WOW.

Hey, well all wanna play a Division I sport, but sometimes it just doesn’t work out. Now it’s up to Waynesboro’s Cynthia Atkins to prove all those DI programs that passed her up wrong.

Yawwwwnnnn.

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

So, where you been?

Sorry about the lack of posts but it’s been a hectic few days.

First off, my parents met the fiance’s parents for the first time this weekend. And that turned into a very nervous dinner at the Mill Street in Staunton. (But that’s a whole other post.)

Now I’m busy turning out stories because my writing muscles haven’t been flexed in quite some time and I need to knock some of that lactic acid off them.

So give me a few days, I think you’ll like the stories we’ll have coming out in our print edition the next few days and I’ll start hitting up the blog soon thereafter.

Thanks,

Sacco