BAILEY'S TAKE ON PIRATE SPORTS
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From the Anchor Desk Tuesday, July 11, 2006 ----- By Brian Bailey

One slow month

©2006 Bonesville.net

There are two things I really like about the month of July: July is my birthday month, and those are adding up quickly; and July is the last month of the year without college football.

August marks the annual start of the college football season. Players arrive, work out a couple of days without pads, and then get down to the business of preparing for the season.

The season is a magical three months, a time when the weather gets cooler with each passing week. December and January are college football’s postseason with the many bowl games.

February is month of recruiting news, with the national signing day the highlight of the second month of the year.

Sports fans enjoy “March Madness”, and the Masters in April. There’s the Indy 500 and Coca-Cola 600 in May.

Then, things get a little slow. Sure, I’m leaving out some things, but it gives you an idea.

Football kicks off in August. There is always a buzz around town leading up to the first game.

It’s not that far away. Let’s just get through one more month, and we’re home free for football!

Media seminar

For the second straight year, Tom McClellan invited a couple of us in the media to speak to some of the incoming freshman athletes.

McClellan is the Director of Media Relations at East Carolina.

Brock Letchworth from the Daily Reflector and I spoke to the newest Pirates for about an hour.

We both stressed the importance of relaxing, and being natural in front of the microphones.

That is certainly easier said then done. Think about your own job. How would you like to work your shift, and then have to face the cameras, lights and microphones to talk about your performance?

We also talked about impressions. Television interviews are often times the only time a fan gets to see and hear what an athlete is all about.

The group we spoke to asked several questions, and you could tell that they were very interested in the topic. Most of them were former high school stars and already had experience with the media.

One of the athletes did say that a media member jumped the gun a bit on his choice for a college. He said that the reporter wanted to get the story first, and published that this player would be going to another school. Lucky for East Carolina, the player ended up in Greenville.

I am fortunate that some of the newcomers from Eastern North Carolina knew me from our coverage of high school football on Touchdown Friday.

Our 2006 season for Touchdown Friday debuts on August 18th.

That’s when we get our first look at some of the players that will hopefully make up some of the 2007 recruiting class at East Carolina.

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02/23/2007 01:33:52 AM