We're Getting Ready for 'Halfway Friday'

He looks down at me and says, “I guess there’re some changes tonight, huh?” And I said, “Purve, come on – it’s Football Friday. You know it’s never what we plan.”

As I’ve said in this space so many times, what we plan on Monday is never what happens on Friday. And a huge reason is that we try to cover so many games – and in order to do that, we have to “borrow” photographers from the news department.

Now, I will tell you that most of these photographers have much more fun shooting football than they do some of their news stories, but they are on loan to us. So, when “news happens” as the promotion writers like to say, our high school games come in second. That is the nature of what we do. And while it can be annoying, I do understand. I don’t like it, but I understand.

I must say that I am very grateful that our show does have the support of our news director, Rick Gall. He could easily say, “Can’t we cut down on overtime and do this show without covering so many games?” He could – but he never has. He likes the show and he likes the fact that we get into so many different parts of our viewing area. Some are areas that news crews never hit unless there is bad news. Rick believes the show is important. His support is the reason that we are able to do what we do, and I am very thankful.

By the way, last week some “breaking news”(I mean, is there any other kind?) caused a rearrangement of our schedule, plus two of the games we wanted to cover were rained out. We did scramble and found alternatives to those.

Now, onward to a new week, where our plans are to cover 28 games involving schools from 23 counties. After this Friday we will be halfway through “our” season.

I thought that I would list our games for you this week, the way that I do my show line-up every Monday. I’m putting them in the order in which I hope each game will appear and showing you how we plan who is responsible for the report and how we’ll do it – with someone in the studio “voicing over” the video or a reporter in the field telling you about the game.

Here’s how it is posted on the bulletin board in our office right now:

Sports tapes for Football Friday October 12

Athens Driver at Lee County—Suiter voice

Western Harnett at South Johnston—Suiter voice

Wakefield at Wake-Forest-Rolesville & Sanderson at Leesville Road—Jason Jennings Report

Green Hope at Cary—Suiter voice

Broughton at Enloe—Suiter voice

Union Pines at Harnett Central & Middle Creek at Fuquay-Varina—Rick Armstrong report

Chapel Hill at Southern Durham—Suiter voice

Overhills at Triton—Suiter voice

Commercial Break

Hillside at East Chapel Hill—Suiter voice

Wilson Fike at Northern Nash—Suiter voice

Southern Nash at Rocky Mount & Southwest Edgecombe at Nash Central—Mike Charbonneau Report

Burlington Cummings at Northwood—Suiter voice

Seventy-First at Scotland County—Suiter voice

Person at Northern Durham & Jordan at Riverside—Suiter voice

Roanoke Rapids at Southern Vance—Suiter voice

Commercial Break

Wilson Hunt at Eastern Wayne—Suiter voice

Louisburg at North Edgecombe—Suiter voice

James Kenan at Midway & Union at Hobbton—Josh Hailey Report

Pinecrest at Hoke County—Suiter voice

Beddingfield at Southern Wayne—Suiter voice

Pine Forest at South View & Westover at Jack Britt—Bob Holliday report

South Granville at Northern Vance—Suiter voice

Commercial Break

Scoreboard

Close

This is our show outline for this Friday. We and you will see what happens. By the way, our Game of the Week is the Mid-State 2a Conference match-up between Cummings and Northwood.

I can’t thank enough those who call in their scores every Friday. Only on a rare occasion have we had trouble getting a score before 11 pm. Our toll free number is 1-888-472-9725. Please keep it up.

And as much as we need the rain (my yard looks like a battlefield), I am glad the weather looks good for this Friday.

Hope to see you at 11:35 p.m. for Football Friday.