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News
2005
Fall Season Ending
Well, we started the 2005 fall season with a big shake-up
in the Greenville Griffins Coaching set-up. It was recognized
that the team needed a new focus and a new spark and energy
to help re-ignite the passion and success that Greenville had
achieved in the past but had found so elusive over the past
couple of years. Mike Cobb was installed as Head Coach along
with Parker Carlisle and Tommy Liddle as Assistant Coaches.
Quite a formidable coaching triumvirate. There was quite a buzz
going into the first practice with this new set-up. I can quite
honestly say after those first few practices I knew this was
the start of something good for the Greenville Griffins. You
could see the vision that Mike had for the team and how he wanted
us to play. I know everyone was looking forward to that first
game where we would get the chance to try out what we had been
working tirelessly on in practice.
The first game was against Augusta and really ended up being
a scrimmage between the two sides. Augusta traveled short and
we ended up giving them players to help out. It turned out to
be a high scoring affair with each side trading tries and Augusta
just happened to be the last one to score to take the win on
one of the hottest days ever recorded by humanity.
The next week we were to play Knoxville. And embarrassingly
for the club we posted a no show. Not exactly what we wanted
at the dawn of this great new era. After a rightly deserved
verbal shellacking from some of the senior players we dug into
a big week at practice in preparation for our trip north to
the mountains of Asheville. While we expected the cool mountain
air to play in we were presented with another scorcher of a
day. We fielded a Greenville Side that was filled with the new
faces of the season and came away with well deserved 18-5 win.
On the down side we lost new scrumhalf Angel Miranda for the
season with a broken arm after he tried to take on the biggest
Asheville player with a new move he called the Hong Kong Phooey
forearm chop. You'll learn grasshopper. You could see the elation
on everybody after this win. It felt good and they way we played
felt good.
We headed into the next week buoyed by a good win and looking
ahead to a strong Triad side coming down to play us the next
weekend. What was new for everybody and another indication of
the positive direction the team was heading is that Coach Cobb
asked everybody to critique their own game. This was an awesome
exercise. Coach Cobb also had a video of the game so there would
be no chance to embellish your exploits on the field. We can
only get better if we are truly honest with ourselves and realize
that there is always room for improvement. So we headed into
the Triad game having worked on some areas we needed to focus
on and looking to get a 2nd win in a row for the first time
in a while. In near perfect playing conditions we came away
with an emphatic 34-0 win over Triad. Wow this felt good.
So we headed into the bye week feeling good after 2 wins in
a row. We geared up next to take on Gastonia. Gastonia traveled
short and we helped fill out there side with a number of Greenville
players. This basically turned into a training run and Greenville
came away with an 86-0 romp.
Next up would be the big test. The Palmetto tourney would be
an opportunity for us to try a number of different combinations
out and see if we could play with the game plan we had been
working on consistently over two games. First up against Columbia
we ended up being our own worst enemy at the start. We played
sloppy and allowed them to stay in our half and back us up with
us making silly mistakes and stupid penalties. Columbia opened
up the scoring converting one of these penalties to make it
3-0. This seemed to be the smack to head we needed to wake up.
We started playing with composure and executing what we had
been working on in practice. We came away with a good win 35-8.
This set up the showdown with the best team we would play this
year. We were going to play Charleston for the Final of the
Palmetto tourney. They were missing a couple of players but
they were still the formidable Charleston side that has really
had our number over the past couple of years. We jumped out
to a 17-0 lead early but then we started to lose our way for
the middle portion of the game and Charleston started to get
back into the game scoring 2 tries to make the score 17-14.
In seasons past we probably would have capitulated at this stage
and ended up losing the game. But with what Coach Cobb has instilled
in us this season we managed to refocus and dig ourselves out
of the hole we were creating. We started to play to our pattern
again and managed to close out the game with another try and
penalty to win it 27-14. Definitely the highlight of the season.
We finished up winning 5 games on the trot. And a fun night
of celebration was had by all.
What has been awesome about this fall season is that everybody
realizes that this is the start of something excellent for this
team. We have an excellent foundation in place. And I am super
excited to see how Coach Cobb is going to develop this team
further for the spring season. What has made this season different
from any other is that we have been gathering momentum every
week we have been out there. We have been adding new players
at a rate I haven't experienced with this club. I have come
away from every practice having learned something new and a
better player. This team is definitely headed in the right direction.
Cobb has set a great foundation in place. This is only the beginning.
What's important now is that we keep up the intensity and the
pursuit of improvement.
We have 4 weeks of practice leading up to the toys for tots
tourney on December 3rd. This is a great opportunity to keep
up the training and keep working on the basics that Cobb has
been instilling in us so that they are 2nd nature. So that in
a game we don't have to think we just recognize and execute.
Let’s keep up the good work through November and keep
training over the break and keep the momentum into the spring
season. I'm looking forward to the next level that Cobb is going
to be adding to our foundation.
What I am delighted to see now is that we are starting to get
competition for spots on the starting side again. Competition
kills complacency. You need to be at the practices so you don't
miss anything; you need to hit the roads on your own so you
can play to the best of your ability.
I'm looking forward to seeing everyone out there these next
few weeks and I'm really looking forward to seeing what Coach
Cobb has in store for us with the spring season coming up. Time
for everyone to set their goals for the upcoming season and
work hard as a team to make it a successful one.
Kia Kaha (Ever Be strong)
View
Fall 2005 Match Results
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