Football Friday Has Plenty of Twists and Turns

Last week on this blog, I posted our Football Friday lineup of games in the order in which I planned for us to air them on Friday night. If you happened to be following that list while you were watching, you saw that it didn't go quite in the order you expected.

Those changes happened on the fly and weren’t intentional. The lead game in what we call the “second block” of the program, after the first commercials, was Durham Hillside at East Chapel Hill. That game was covered by Steve Elizondo, who also videotaped the Chapel Hill at Southern Durham game.

Now, Steve taped the first quarter and a half of Hillside at East Chapel Hill, got what he needed and drove over to Southern for his second game. That game went down to the wire, so Steve had to wait to the very end.

That meant he was late leaving Southern anyway, and then he got caught in the dreaded State Fair traffic on Interstate 40. He didn’t get back to the station until 11:25 and had to pick out what we would show from all the tape he had recorded of the two games.

He needed to edit Chapel Hill at Southern first because it was a “first-block” story, meaning it would appear in the first several minutes of the show. He was able to get that one done in time.

But while you were seeing the two-minute commercial break after the first block, our director, James Ford, told me that the Hillside-East Chapel Hill was not ready for air. From the set, I sent associated producer Jonathan Smith back to check on Steve, who was almost through but not quite.

So with about 30 seconds to go before we were back on live, James and I decided to “float” Hillside-East Chapel Hill and go to what was slated second in that block, which was Fike at Northern Nash.

Steve was about 30 seconds too late, but that was OK because everything else in that block was in. We decided that after Mike Charbonneau’s Southern Nash at Rocky Mount and Southwest Edgecombe at Nash Central package, which was third in that block, we’d insert the Hillside-East Chapel Hill highlights.

By the way, Steve Elizondo is one of the good guys at our station. He takes his young sons along each week when he goes to photograph games for us, and they have a ball.

Once last year, I was previewing one of Steve’s games and he had some great highlights. I said, “Zondo, really good stuff!” His son Jake looked up at me and said, “He missed the best play, the 88-yard pass play.” Steve managed to choke back the laugh, looked at Jake and said, “You weren’t supposed to tell him that.”

I found that to be very funny, even though he did miss that play. That’s part of what makes Football Friday, though, and I still joke with Steve about the time Jake “ratted him out.”

Now back to last week’s show. During the commercial break after the second block, James told me that neither Josh Hailey nor Bob Holliday’s reports were ready. I wasn’t so worried about Bob because he was slated for way down in the block, but Josh, who was reporting on the Sampson County games – James Kenan at Midway and Union at Hobbton – had the third story, and he had run into a real problem. He had been forced to start his editing process all over because of a bad tape.

Bob then sent in word in that he was ready, so we decided to “float” Josh’s report and stay in order until we got to Bob. During Bob’s package from Cumberland County, James told me that Josh was in, so we went with his report right after Bob. I knew Josh would eventually make it.

He’s not the type who gets nervous – except maybe on the 27th of this month, when he’s getting married.

Anyway, I don’t believe anyone at home realized any of this was taking place because it did go off smoothly. Communication was the key, and my thanks to all.

I do believe a lot of viewers would get a kick out of knowing what really transpires during those two-minute commercial breaks in a live show like ours. It’s often very entertaining.

Now for this week. We plan on covering 27 games involving teams from 22 counties.

In no particular order this time, here’s what we hope to be showing you Friday night:

Lee County at Middle Creek

Cary at Apex

Enloe at Wakefield

Fuquay-Varina at Green Hope

Aycock at Hunt

Southern Nash at Wilson Fike

James Kenan at Hobbton

Lakewood at Midway

Wake Forest-Rolesville at Sanderson

Leesville Road at Millbrook

Knightdale at West Johnston

Southeast Raleigh at Garner

Southern Durham at Person

Chapel Hill at Hillside

Northern Nash at Southwest Edgecombe

Nash Central at Rocky Mount

Jordan Matthews at North Moore

Triton at Union Pines

Richmond County at Scotland County

Northwood at Orange

Burlington Cummings at Cedar Ridge

South View at Cape Fear

Purnell Swett at Terry Sanford

Northwest Halifax at Southern Vance

Bunn at Franklinton

Athens Drive at Panther Creek

Smithfield-Selma at Holly Springs

Some really good games taking place this week – a lot of conference and playoff ramifications.

Rain is in the forecast. We sure do need it, and hopefully we’ll have the best of both worlds – some rain and some football. Hey, play in the mud. It’s fun!

Here’s the number to call in your score: 1-888-472-9725. It’s the best way to ensure that your score gets on Football Friday.