More Tales of How It Happens – and Playoff Week 2

So last Friday, I was sitting at my desk and had just finished dinner when the phone rang. I looked at my watch and it said 7:33. I was thinking, “You know, I don’t think this is going to be good news.” And it wasn’t.

It was Michael Joyner on the phone – and I know from a lot of experience that any photographer calling me at game time isn’t calling to ask how I’m doing.

Michael has worked out of our Fayetteville bureau for years. And Michael has shot Football Friday games for a long time. What’s neat is that back in the early ‘90s, while he was in school at UNC-Pembroke, he actually came up to Raleigh and worked on the show.

We had Mike and a young man named Albert Scruggs from Fayetteville who’s now a big time sports anchor at a station in Dallas. They got the feel of the business and both decided to stay with it, and both have done well.

Anyway, Michael is a veteran who knows what he’s doing. Last week, he was at Pine Forest High School to cover the Trojans against Terry Sanford in the first round of the state playoffs. Mike was ready. Unfortunately, his camera wasn’t. Michael said something about his camera eating his tapes. I knew this might not be a fixable problem.

He said he had done about all that he knew to do to try to fix it. I told him to stay right there, and I would find an engineer who could maybe talk him through some other things he could try. I was pretty sure the camera was down, but I was hoping.

I found the always cooperative Mike Mory, who immediately called Michael. After about 10 minutes, Michael Joyner called back to say it was indeed a dead camera and that he was packing it in.

I thanked Mike for trying, knowing that these things happen, but not happy about it. I kind of shouted, “GAAAAAAAAAAH” and turned to my longtime Football Friday associated producer, Steve Purvis, and dejectedly said, “Purve, we fumbled the opening kickoff.” Our 28-game schedule was down to 27.

Up until about 11 o’clock, though, everything else was going smoothly. The scores that we needed were coming in nicely. Our photographers had good highlights and information. I was thinking, “All right, shaky beginning, but we’re doing OK.”

Mark Olexik was on the scene, as always, to photograph a couple of games for us. Mark is a former Athens Drive football player who is now a senior at Carolina. His nickname is the Ox. I’ve gotten to know Mark quite well over the years. He’s worked with us on Football Friday throughout college, and he’s now one of our every-Friday shooters. Mark is very diligent and conscientious and always wants to do a good job. He has a good future in television if he wants to pursue that.

Mark, who had his dad, Chuck, with him to take notes, was shooting Dixon at Louisburg and then he had a fairly long drive to Wilson to cover Fike at Hunt. Because of the new by-pass, the trip from Wilson back to Raleigh is now pretty quick, so I had his Louisburg game scheduled for about eight minutes into the show. The Fike-Hunt game was scheduled in the second block, about 18 minutes into the program. I expected father and son back by 11 o’clock.

A little before 11, Chuck Olexik called with the distressing news that the company car they were in, good old Unit 34, had broken down. Now, nobody can understand why this car is still in service anyway. It’s got like a million miles on it, but nonetheless we use it. It had slowed to a crawl and then stopped completely around the Rock Quarry Road exit on 1-40.

Ken Medlin had covered college basketball on this night and was through with his work, so he instantly said he was on his way to pick up Mark and Chuck. This was huge because Ken knows the area so well and knew exactly where they were.

Meanwhile, I went about doing what I always try to do between 11 and 11:30, trying to watch as many of our game highlights as possible, making sure the scores are in, and details like that. Steve Purvis was going through scripts to catch any mistakes, and I kept watching the clock and looking at the door for Mark.

Well about 11:30, I was told that Ken was back with Mark and Chuck. And I tell you what, there was a lot of hustling going on at this point. I had to leave to get in front of the cameras, but kept getting updates on how things were progressing. Finally, I got the thumbs up from our floor director, Tim King, that the Dixon-Louisburg game was going to make its slot .The Fike-Hunt would also be edited and in on time. And there was no play left out.

My fear had been that with so much deadline pressure, a play we would mention would be left out of the final tape. That always seems to happen when I don’t see the highlights before you do, and it’s one of my worst nightmares. But on this Friday night, thanks to some really good teamwork, everything clicked.

It was another Football Friday adventure. When Mark comes and visits me in the old folks home in a few years, I’m sure one of the things we’ll touch on ( if I can remember anything) is the night his car broke down on the way back from Wilson.

Now, for the future! This Friday is week No. 2 of the playoffs. Games get tighter and travel in many cases gets longer.

As of right now, our schedule calls for us to cover 18 games involving schools from 23 different counties.

Here’s what it looks like.

Triton at Oxford Webb

Richlands at Southern Vance

Camden County at Louisburg

North Johnston at James Kenan

Union at North Duplin

Athens Drive at New Bern

Southern Guilford at St. Pauls

Robbinsville at Lakewood

Jack Britt at South View

Southern Lee at Southern Wayne

Chapel Hill at Smithfield-Selma

South Granville at Rocky Mount

Wilson Hunt at Nash Central

Millbrook at Garner

Fuquay-Varina at Southern Durham

Greenville Rose at Durham Hillside

Ledford at Northwood

Leesville Road at Wake Forest

As always, the number to call in your scores is 1-888-472-9725.