Stanly loses at Lexington

The Stanly County American Legion senior squad lost 14-10 Saturday night at Lexington. The loss drops Stanly to 5-12 in the division, a half-game behind Concord for the eighth and final playoff spot in the Southern Division of the American Legion Area III playoffs. For more information on the game, please see Tuesday's sports section.

Stanly loses morning game at South Rowan

Stanly County dropped to 5-11 in the division with an 8-7 loss Saturday morning to South Rowan. Post 76 travels to Lexington tonight for what is now a must-win game to stay in the playoff hunt for the locals. I will post later on this blog about that game.

Stanly Legion needs to win to stay alive

I wrote a column for Thursday's paper about the Stanly senior legion team and this season by the numbers, and I was interested myself to see what I discovered in those numbers. More on that, plus junior legion, coach-pitch coverage and the updated Legion standings, along with Concord Speedway news, in Thursday's paper!

Tuesday's Paper

Junior legion coverage and pics, along with local golf, camp updates and a story on Brooke Whitley in Tuesday's paper!

Legion Finally Gets a Break

I don't think I've seen baseball players in high school quite as tired as the looks in the eyes of the senior American Legion team after last night's game, their sixth in as many nights. Most of them look like sleep is about the last thing they have been able to find for nearly a week.

Scheduling and weather dictated the rescheduling of games to this past week, and I know that baseball players at other levels play nearly every day. It makes you respect just how much energy it takes to work in the baseball industry every day, whether as a player, coach, announcer or just as a fan getting there every night.

Stanly County is 6-5 and in fourth place in the division, getting five days off from ball games at just the right moment.

More Like What It Should Be

With all apologies to Carolina fans that enjoyed last year's Stanly County Hall of Fame induction ceremony, Monday night's event was much more on point as to what the ceremony is supposed to be, in my opinion.

In fairness, it's not quite the same inducting a person into any Hall of Fame posthumously. Not that Orge Patterson Cooper was not deserving of the honor (he was), but the event was more of a Tarheel booster rally than the normal ceremony that I have become accustomed to seeing over the years. As I have said before, I pull for the Miami Hurricanes, so I don't have a dog in the Carolina-Duke fight.

I didn't find Duke football coach David Cutcliffe any less entertaining than I did Coach Roy Williams last year. Most coaches have a little preacher in them, as anyone that has heard a speech to a team can attest. Coach Cutcliffe had some great stories (still not sure about that graveyard story in Al-BAN-ee, Georgia) and talked about how sports can teach us life lessons. The Duke football coach was very much interested in the Sports Hall of Fame memorabilia cases (they have a new location, more on that in Thursday's paper). He and I actually talked about Frank Marbry, the head coach of the 1940 World Champion Legion team.

Bravo to the Chamber of Commerce and the Hall of Fame committees members for a dignified and enjoyable event.

Local MMA fighter wins gold

J.J. Brantley, a nursing student (of all things) at Stanly Community College, won a 145-pound mixed martial arts title this past weekend. That, plus a Legion update and the Yadkin Valley Conference All-Conference selections for the spring 2010 sports, a SCC baseball season wrap-up and more in Thursday's sports section!

Legion game cancelled for tonight. Stanly plays at home Wednesday vs. S. Rowan.