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BAILEY'S TAKE
ON PIRATE SPORTS
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From the Anchor Desk
Tuesday, August 1, 2006
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By Brian Bailey |
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Annual pigskin rituals about
to kick in
©2006 Bonesville.net
The calendar turns to the
eighth month of the year today. It’s August, and August is a football month.
Sure, we are still over a
month away from the first game, but August gives us football. The team
arrives, moves in, practices, then scrimmages.
August is a month of
preparation. It’s a time to gear up, to get ready.
At East Carolina, it all
starts this Thursday. That’s when the players report to campus.
Greenville is a college town,
and when the students are gone, the city just doesn’t have the same life.
The player’s arrival is the
start of the student body’s transgression back to G-Vegas.
That first day is usually a
day for players to get acclimated to campus before the start of practice.
It’s also a day usually reserved for physical fitness tests and plenty of
team meetings.
Friday is the first day of
practice, and the Pirates are scheduled to go for almost three hours. It
will be hot, but this current heat wave is not expected to go through the
weekend.
Media Day is set for Saturday.
I’ve never understood how a team can practice one day, and then meet the
media, but that’s how it has always been.
I guess it’s just a matter of
slipping on the new jersey, and answering questions based on hopes and
expectations more then anything.
I’ve always thought that media
day should be held about two weeks before the start of the regular season.
If you hold media day later, then many of the questions will have definitive
answers.
It’s a busy time, though, for
coaches and players, so most schools hold their own media days early in the
summer as well.
New Uni’s
Coach Skip Holtz showed off
the Pirates' new Nike uniforms at Holtz’s second annual women’s clinic this
weekend.
The media wasn’t allowed to
take pictures, but photos were on the Internet later that afternoon.
It’s funny, but EVERYBODY has
an opinion on uniforms.
I like the white uniforms, and
I think they will look good with the white pants with the purple stripe.
The purple ones are pretty
basic, but I’m old school enough to know that basic is much better than
other uniforms I have seen.
I also like the change on the
helmet, to the yellow letters. I’ve never understood why a team would wear
the outline of letters, as was the case in the former helmet decal.
The new yellow letters are
much easier to see, though I still like the “Bill Lewis” era helmets better.
Regardless, this year’s
uniform looks much better then the JT “highlighter” yellow uniforms that
East Carolina wore against North Carolina State a couple of years ago.
Uniforms are important, but I
get the feeling that all will be well if the Pirates wear purple polka dots
as long as they are getting the football into the end zone.
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02/23/2007 01:33:57 AM |
