12
Snorts
December 20,1996
Gryphon
A voice echoes...
By Ashley Avery
There is a voice that is familiar to all
spectators at Rocky Mount Senior High
games. Unfortunately, that voice has been
silenced forever. The man behind the
voice was Frank Hayden.
Hayden lived and breathed sports. He
spent well over 50 years of his life in
volved in high school sports, and he did a
wonderful job. He eventually got into
sports broadcasting in the early 80s and
projected his overpowering love for sports
onto the listening public.
Fans remembered how much he talked
and always had an opinion ready. That
characteristic earned him the nickname
“the Mouth.” All in all, it was a well de
served name. Many people saw a man
with a very large ego, but perhaps it was
more an enthusiasm that no one but Frank
Hayden could understand.
Frank Hayden was a retired air traffic
controller at Rocky Mount -Wilson Air
port. All of his children graduated from
Senior High. That may have been the ori
gin of his love for sports. Assistant prin
cipal George Kelly said, “I think that he
had a lot of hours off during the day, and
he ended up coaching his children’s sports
teams, and got hooked.”
Frank Hayden was 72 when he died of
cancer in October 1996. Coach Ray
Durham may have expressed it best when
he said, ““Frank Hayden has always been
the voice of the Gryphons. We will all
miss him”.
Photo by C.J. Cash
REMEMBER WHEN-Parents, athletes and coaches mingled, ate and
reminisced on the fall sports season at the Athletic Banquet on Dec. 12.
■ I ■ reminiscea on tne ran sports season at tne Atnietic uanquet on uec.
... a voice continues... Athletes receive awards
By Meredith Harris
Frank Hayden was the Voice of the
Gryphon foroverSOyears. Before Hayden
recently died of cancer, English 10 teacher
TimTaylortookhisplaceon 1390 WEED
radio. During football season, Taylor and
friends Steve Dickens and Charles Alston,
all RMSH graduates, announced the home
games line on the air.
Dickens, the color commentator, had no
previous radio experience but did an ad
mirable job, according to Taylor. Al
though Alston, the statistician, had exten
sive newspaper experience with the Tele
gram, the three had not worked together
on live radio before. "We had to learn
how to work with each other and how to
play off each other's words," Taylor said.
Each Friday night of a home game, the
three would start the pre-game announce
ments around 7:15. They would then
broadcast the game play-by-play for about
three hours.
The radio broadcast of home games has
flourished since the mid-60's, and the
three announcers did not want the tradi
tion to end with Hayden's death. "It was
our way of giving something back," Tay
lor said. Alston, Dickens, and Taylor
missed the broadcast of the first two home
games, the first because Hayden was too
ill, and the second because of Hurricane
Fran.
Taylor has been in the radio business
since his high school days. He started
announcing at age 16 and continued part-
time until college. During college, Taylor
could be heard on the radio and part-time
even after college. He has done radio
broadcasting and various commercials for
17 years.
By James Anderson
Outstanding athletes received recogni
tion a the Athletic Banquet held on De
cember 11 at 6 o’clock in the school
cafeteria Principal Jerry Carter welcomed
the athletes, coaches and guests. The
coaches presented the awards.
Soccer players receiving awards were
Brandon Stussie, Ronnie Allen And Nate
Ota. Stussie was named Most Valuable
Player and Allen, the Most Improved. Ota
received the Coach’s Award. Junior Var
sity award winners were Graham Nelson,
Most Valuable Player; and George Tsai
received the Coach’s Award..
Three volleyball players received
awards. Coach Debbie Webb gave Tara
Green the Best Spiker Award. Amy Tsai
was named Most Valuable Player and
Dana Long was selected as the Best All
Around player.
Players from the junior varsity foot
ball team and the varsity team received
recognition. Calvin Hudgins received the
ward for being the Best Offensive Player
on the junior varsity team and Tony Perry
was named the Best Defensive Player
Seven varsity football players received
awards: Outstanding Offense, Brandon
Toomer; Outstanding Defense, Carnell
Brown; the Billy Smith Award, Sasha
Taylor; the Coaches’ Award, Greg Moore;
and the Most Valuable Player award,
Brian Edge. Co-captains Roman Kelley
and Jeremiah Parvin received awards.
Cross country award winners were Most
Valuable Players, Nick Winkel and Lori
Wright. The Coaches’ awards went to
Kristi Carraro and Stewart Edwards.
Tennis coach Barry Nethercutt awarded
Wesley Barker the Coach’s Award. He
named Sarah Peterson and Angela Odom
as the Most Valuable Players.
Sprmt
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