Kevin McHale

32.

I meant to, and wanted to write something two weeks ago on my thirty second birthday, but I went out with some friends and woke up pretty hungover, so I decided to put it off until now lol. This space has become sort of like a safe haven for me now. When I get so far gone in my thoughts and emotions, writing them down and letting it all out helps, because honestly. There’s no one else.

My Kevin McHale year. Of course I’m going to go with KM instead of Magic. Greeeen gaaaaaaang.

It’s crazy to think about how 2024 is about to be here and I’m 32 years old. Times are different, that goes without saying. I get it a lot of people around my age are still living at home, but every single day I am not where I want to be at in life, I just go back to the shoulder shrug fuck it . Where I tell myself there’s nothing else I can do except for living life day to day. I don’t think about the future and what’s ahead, AT ALL. Instead while I live day to day, all I can think about is the past. It’s like a sad toddler, running back to their parents. Life has been so so hard since Doug died I am so scared of the future that I run back to the past, sad longing and hoping for it knowing it will never come. I want him back, I want Seany Mac back, I want my grandmothers back. Tony Frim, DAVE BING. It’s not just solely their deaths being the reason I am how I am now, or the feelings and emotions I have. The burden of this debt I am in has me stuck .. which as or right now to me, is going to be forever and I don’t want to live like this forever.

Ultimately what I am trying to say is that, with all this debt I can’t do things. I can’t get my own place, I can’t travel the world, I can’t even go out with friends from time to time. I can’t fix my car. I can’t be .. happy. Not being able to do any of those things makes me obviously very sad and depressed which is the opposite of happy. Now happiness defeats depression and sadness, i.e deaths to friends and family, being financially stuck, repeat repeat yada yada. Ya get it ? I can’t do these things to distract me and make me happy so instead I just sit at home and drink and spend money online because I am still living at home trying to crunch numbers to be able to pay for all my bills for the month. “Dude everyone is hurting financially in this day in age, everyone has bills.” I get it, I’m just complaining about what is the norm. My job doesn’t pay me enough, it’s tough to find one that does, plus 6 figures of debt and not even doing a small percentage of what people my age are doing in their lives, is reeealllly starting to take a toll. What makes me happy in the present right now is being alone. Staying in my room. No interactions with anyone and do what I can to not see anyone. Then I start to drink and then the cycle repeats and here I am once again.

I get to go down to see my mom and my grandfather for xmas this year. So I am looking forward to that, but still got 2 1/2 weeks until then. Day to day.

So cheers to Kevin McHale, let’s hope I make it to my Larry Bird year.

-BZ

Dec 2, 2023.

One More Time

Blink-182 just released a track called One More Time .. and announced they’re going to be releasing a new album .. and probably their last one, hence One More Time. I’m not really here to write about the track itself but what the lyrics mean to me and how fucking awesome it is that this band has already reunited and went on a tour and now going to do an album in this time of the world when everything is absolute chaos and shit.

The entire track pretty much tells the story of the band and that they were brothers back when they were younger and the prime Blink 182 .. and became strangers after the split up only for them to come together after 2 of the 3 bandmates (Hoppus and Barker) battled for their lives with Hoppus tackling cancer and Barker surviving a plane crash to become brothers once again. Then the third bandmate who originally left way back when sings out loud “Do I have to die to hear you miss me?” and “Do I have to wait to do this .. one more time.”

Blink 182 was at the height of their prime at the end of the 90s and early 00’s and right in the peak of my childhood pretty much from age 10 and on. So seeing them together again unlocks nostalgia and brings back so many good memories, but yet brings back sad memories as well.

What I would to do be able to see my guy Dave Bing .. one more time. Or Seany Mac .. one more time. Tony Frimpong .. Tim Young .. my grandmothers. My cousin ….

I think new music sucks now a days so all I listen to is what I listened to growing up for the most part anyway and it obviously just makes me thinks of the old times. I can remember almost everything so I can literally go almost year by year since 2004 and what I was doing and who I was hanging out with etc. Now not down to every little detail, we fucking partied in HS so I can’t tell you every single thing that happened or story, but the gist of my life I can recollect HS and college .. after college, living in NC and since moving back home like they were all yesterday. The reason I am telling you (no one/whoever) this is because I am still a teenage/young adult brain .. living in an adult body. No one taught me how to be a man. I’ve just kinda figured shit out on my own and BS’d my way through coming up to 32 years of life. So far 32 years of life has gotten me almost 200K in debt (I just recently checked today and forgot what I said last post) and $1500 to my name with 8K in credit.

I guess it could be worse? I could be living in .. Sri Lanka ? Although that doesn’t sound too bad right about now the way this country and its citizens are going. .. but anyway Blink 182. I love you. Thank you for everything, thank you for memories good and sad. Thank you for reuniting even though it took a sickness and a plane falling out the sky for Tom to realize Blink is forever.

I just hope I keep living forever .. for now.

What Can I Say ?

“I vow not to let another year go by between posts. I am a man of honor and integrity and I will stand by that vow.”

That is the last sentence I wrote on here .. Good one Bill.

It’s only been FIVE YEARS and EIGHT MONTHS since my last post .. lol. — What an asshole I am. —

There’s a lot that has gone on in the last 5 1/2 years. I moved back home to Boston from NC. The Sox won the 2018 world series. The Bruins choked a Stanley Cup. TB12 won another ring .. with TAMPA BAY and the boys in Green. Well .. let’s just say they’re right there.

I no longer work in the sports world. I am a logistics and inventory manager for a new england regionl craft beer distribution company in MA. It’s going alright. I’ve gotten promoted with a raise so that’s cool, but it’s just …. whatever.

I live at my dads and have been since I moved back in May 2018. Everything is just so expensive up here .. especially cost of living. With my BS college degree and Boston sports being so f’n hard to break into .. I’m stuck. I was let go as a liquor buyer at a local liquor store and collected unemployment during Covid. I have 150K in student loans .. with no money. No place (that’s my own) no girlfriend or significant other. two of my grandmothers have passed and same with some of my best friends. One that I grew up with and one that I went to college with that turned out to be one of my closest friends coming out of that school.

I feel alone. All my friends up here have girlfriends or wives and they live their best life, while I’m sitting on my ass at home, playing video games, getting stoned and just living day to day not giving a fuck whats gonna happen in 48 hours.

It’s a big problem. I’ve come back here to get things off my chest. This I guess is my “therapy”. Although I think I probably need the real thing. I don’t have suicidal thoughts, when I’m happy in this world, it’s a great f’n time. Those times where I’m not happy … and I think about the 150K and the 5K in CC debt. Making ends meat .. I don’t know how I will survive. I don’t know if I’ll ever get my own place. Maybe i’ll get lucky and meet a wealthy woman and marry her like my dad did. Lucky fuck. Dude is retired at 55 and does nothing with his life, except order me around to “pay my rent”. I need to get out of here, but I can’t

I’m stuck.

-BZ

P.S It wont be another five years again .. I won’t promise or vow this time, but this writing thing has always helped.

It’s Been Awhile ..

So it’s been over a year since my last post.

Yeah .. a year.

¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Since then the Patriots completed the greatest comeback in Super Bowl history, UNC climbed college basketball’s highest mountain, the Penguins won back to back Stanley Cups, the Chicago Cubs and the Houston Astros won the World Series and Wake Forest High School football here in North Carolina won back to back state championships winning 31 games in a row and are 43-1 in their last 44 games. Unreal.

My last post was when I was writing for HighSchoolOT.com , a high school sports coverage website affiliated with my employer, Capitol Broadcasting Company (CBC) here in Raleigh, NC. Larry Rountree III was the focal point of that post and since then, Rountree has enrolled at Missouri and completed his freshman year with the Tigers averaging 5.6 yards per rush and finished with 6 TDs for Missou who finished 7-6 this college football season.

Like I said, it’s been a year.

Since then I’ve completed two seasons as the main play-by-play voice for local high school football in Raleigh and the voice of the Avenging Angles for Meredith College athletics. Aside from that I’ve been producing/board operating and audio engineering for 99.9 the fan, an ESPN radio affiliate here in Raleigh that is owned by CBC.

I absolutely LOVE working here. I do a lot here, they have me engineering our sports talk shows whenever they are doing the show live from another location, they have me engineering and producing our Carolina Hurricanes pre and postgame shows and I produce our sports talk shows as well as Duke athletics.

I love it, there is something missing though.

Writing. My first love.

I wrote random pieces for an online sports blog that didn’t work out so well and I have been stagnant when it comes to writing. I miss it and starting now I am going to try and get back to it. Mostly opinionated of course, but I will write about sports as well as personal things, just to get some things off my chest sometimes. We’ll see how it goes.

I vow not to let another year go by between posts. I am a man of honor and integrity and I will stand by that vow.

-BZ

Rountree, Millbrook edge Heritage, 17-15

 

The Wildcats of Millbrook led by their defense and star running back Larry Rountree III, were able to hold off conference foe Heritage after a slow start edging the Huskies Friday night, 17-15.

After a slow start by both teams in the first quarter, things got going for both of these CAP-8 teams in a game that was crucial for playoff seeding implications. Both defenses really came to play Friday night and it showed as the score was 8-7 going into halftime.

Heritage quarterback Gunnar Holmberg escaped a potential sack to scramble 44 yards and finish the run off with a touchdown in the second quarter to put his team on the board first. After a two-point conversion was successful, the Huskies coming off their first loss of the season last week to Wake Forest seemed to be in control up 8-0.

Millbrook (7-2, 4-1 CAP-8) had their fair share of miscues which really cost the the Wildcats from being up big in the first half. A holding penalty on a fourth down conversion which led to a punt leading to the Holmberg touchdown and then the ensuing kickoff return also called back were big blows to the Wildcats.

But Millbrook running back Larry Rountree III remained patient and found the end zone from 21 yards out capping off a drive full of runs to cut the lead to 8-7 at the half. Rountree would find the end zone again from one yard out in the third quarter to put the Wildcats up 14-8, but it wasn’t just the running game that was a factor for Millbrook. It was their defense that put the offense back onto the field.

The Millbrook defense had four interceptions on the night, two by Nic Vinson and two by Cameron Celetti set the tone for the Wildcats in the second half not letting the Heritage quarterback Holmberg find his receivers.

“Our offense struggled some, but we play and win as a team,” said Millbrook defensive back Nic Vinson. “We saw that we could pressure the quarterback to roll out and make quick decisions turning into bad decisions and we were able to make plays.”

Heritage (7-2, 3-2 CAP-8) tried to make a late comeback after four yard touchdown pass to Thayer Thomas to cut the deficit to two, but after three attempts at an onside kick the Wildcats were able to recover the ball and melt the clock to hold on for the win.

“These group of kids have been resilient all year, they keep going to work everyday and it tonight shows just how special they are,” said Millbrook head coach Clarence Inscore.

“Every team in this conference is pretty stout, you have to put this game behind us and we have to go out and be ready to play.”

Millbrook will travel to Leesville Road next week and Heritage will host Wakefield.

Currie-Elliott returns kickoff 99 yards to lift Hillside past Gibbons

 

It was a game that had everything.

Offense, defense and then special teams.

The Hornets of Durham Hillside (6-1 3-0 PAC-6) came into Cardinal Gibbons (6-1 1-1 PAC-6) and escaped with a 41-35 victory Thursday night on a 99 yard kick return in the final seconds from Jamal Currie-Elliott.

Hillside started off with a 14-0 lead early in the second quarter after touchdowns from Caleb Harrington and Elliott, but Gibbons would come back and show why they are a legit football team this year closing out the first half with ten unanswered points of their own.

Elliott scored his second touchdown on the night needing only two plays to start off the second half with a bang. A 52 yard score made it 21-10, but back come the Crusaders this time scoring 12 unanswered on touchdowns from Alex Suzy and Jack Biestek to take their first lead of the game in the third quarter at 22-21.

For the third time of the night, Elliott found the end zone on a 47 yard screen pass and then Harrington would score for his second time to put the Hornets up 12 at 34-22 after Hillside’s two point conversion would fail.

Once again, here come the Crusaders.

A touchdown to Grayson Lemon cuts the lead to 34-29 with 1:22 remaining. Everyone knew an onside kick was coming and yet the Crusaders still were able to come up with the football. Gibbons quarterback Anton Stoneking led the Crusaders down the field, converting two fourth downs, one being at the three yard line and Jack Biestek would finish off the drive from two yards out to take the lead yet again by one at 35-34 with 14.5 seconds left.

Then again, Jamal Elliott for his fourth touchdown of the night, 99 yards to the house leaving 0.4 seconds on the clock and Hillside escaped Cardinal Gibbons with a 41-35 victory.

“He’s typically not on special teams, but our main return guy got hurt on the last play, we just put Jamal out there and he came through for us,” said Hillside head coach Ray Harrison.

“I just knew that once I got the ball, they kicked it to the wrong person,” said Elliott.

“I saw a great block from one of my teammates, saw a hole and took it to the house, I’m just glad to be back home with this team and get this win.”

Elliott finished the night with two rushing touchdowns, one receiving touchdown and the kickoff return to win the game for the Hornets.

When it comes to kicking the ball off to Elliott and letting him get a return, Cardinal Gibbons head coach Steven Wright puts the loss on himself.

“That last play is on me, we felt like with the wind behind us and the way our kicker has kicked we felt like we could get it in the endzone, unfortunately we have to live with the outcome but I couldn’t be more proud of this team and the way they fought tonight.”

Hillside will host Riverside next week and Cardinal Gibbons will visit Jordan.

Lawrence, Wake Forest Blank Millbrook 37-0

The Cougars of Wake Forest came into Millbrook Friday night, ranked number two in the HSOT Top 20 poll. Well they came, they saw and they conquered the 11th ranked Wildcats shutting out their Cap-8 foe, 37-0.

The Cougars (6-0, 2-0) three headed monster running game worked to a tee Friday night, a “winged-T” at that.

The trio of Devon Lawrence, Marquis Dunn and Demarcus Jones combined for over 350 yards on the ground led by Lawrence’s and Dunn’s combined five touchdowns. Although they weren’t breaking out for big runs throughout the game, these three wore down the defense of Millbrook by staying consistent and running for four, five, six yards at a time.

Wake Forest ran the ball 50 times for 401 yards and five touchdowns.

After a 10-0 score at half, Lawrence broke open a huge run and after a big block downfield by Cougar quarterback Chris James, Lawrence walked into the end zone finishing off a sixty-seven yard run to put the Cougars up 17-0.

We know Wake Forest can put up the points and their offense is methodical, but it’s the Cougars stout defense is what was ultimately the deciding factor shutting out a Millbrook team that can put up points averaging 39 points a game coming into this week.

“We came together as a family tonight,”, said senior linebacker Darius Hodge of his defense. “We played with each other, had each other’s back and just played football.”

Hodge was flying all around the field Friday night, had multiple tackles, a couple of sacks and a huge interception inside Millbrook’s 20 yard line to set up a Cougar touchdown to ultimately put the game away.

Hodge is committed to play for NC State next fall.

The Wildcats (4-2, 1-1) only ran one play on the Wake Forest’s side of the 50 and that came in the third quarter and had only 81 total yards of offense, 62 of those yards came from Larry Rountree on 21 carries.

“They have to be proud, but it only gets tougher next week and the week after that, we have to play hard in this conference”, said Wake Forest head coach Reggie Lucas on his team.

“When this game ends, we have to move on to the next game. We’ll look at the film but the next game is already on our mind.”

Wake Forest looks to stay unbeaten as they host Wakefield (5-1, 2-0) next week. Millbrook will host Broughton (2-4, 0-2)

Biestek, Cardinal Gibbons Run By Cedar Ridge, 50-26

In a game that was clouded by the Red Wolves’ postseason ineligibility after their ejections in their loss to Riverside last week, the Crusaders were more focused on what they had to do to remain undefeated as they took care of Cedar Ridge Friday night, 50-26.

Led by running back Jack Biestek’s four rushing touchdowns, Cardinal Gibbons improved to 5-0 on the season as they finish non-conference play on a high note. The Crusaders came out aggressive out of the gate as the opening kickoff was an onside kick that was recovered by the Crusaders and four plays later, senior quarterback Anton Stoneking connected with Ebuka Ngwadom for a thirteen yard score and a two point conversion made it 8-0.

Cedar Ridge answered right back starting their ensuing drive on their own 41 yards line and five plays later, senior receiver Lucas “Smith” Baldwin scored on an eleven yard rush to make it 8-7 after the extra point.

From there it was all Gibbons.

On the Red Wolves’ second possession, a snap on fourth down went over the punter, Trenton Gill’s head and into the end zone, Gill tried to pick up the ball and kick it away but the Crusaders special teams unit was all over him as they made a hit on Gill and recovered the ball for a touchdown to make it 14-7.

After that it was the Jack Biestek show.

Cedar Ridge punted on their next possession and Gibbons took over on Cedar Ridge’s 45 yard line. Biestek then rushed three times in a row for 15 yards, 20 yards and then into the end zone for a 10 yard score. The Red Wolves fumbled on their next possession and and Biestek’s next run was a 3 yard touchdown to make it 29-7.

Cedar Ridge scored to make it 29-13 but Biestek’s very next run was an 85 yard touchdown. 3 rushes in a row for 3 touchdowns. He later ran for a 57 yard touchdown for his fourth score of the night in the third quarter to make it 42-20.

“He’s a dynamic player, we move him all over the field, he can play wide receiver, we have him in the back field at running back and we also have a wildcat package for him”, says Cardinal Gibbons head coach Steven Wright.

“He’s just an extremely talented athlete and a huge playmaker for us and we’re blessed to have him put his god given talent on display”

Cardinal Gibbons improves to 5-0 on the season and will be off on a bye next week before traveling to now 2-3 Durham Riverside who is also as of now postseason ineligible for their involvement in last weeks game against Cedar Ridge on Sept 30.

The Red Wolves fall to 3-2 after two straight losses and will host 2-3 Chapel Hill.

 

Introducing HighSchoolOT Live

High school football in the state of North Carolina is a pretty big deal and now the way it will be covered and followed will be even bigger.

My employer, Capital Broadcasting Company and their high school sports coverage website HighSchoolOT.com , announced along with WRAL-TV that a new high school football show will be airing this fall called HighSchoolOT Live. HighSchoolOT Live will be a live in studio red-zone type show providing live updates from multiple games in and around the Raleigh area as well as across the state.

Senior Editor of HighSchoolOT, Nick Stevens, will host the show in studio along with former North Carolina high school football coach Wayne Bragg.

I am also excited to be a part of this new show as well as my colleague Dennis Cox and I will make up the broadcast team of HSOT Live’s “Featured Game Of The Week”. I will be providing play-by-play commentary and Dennis will cover the color commentary duties.

I am so excited and anxious to be a part of this new show and am looking forward to working with everyone  involved on making HSOT Live as great as it can be for the fans, parents, players and others who love high school football.

You can find out more info about HSOT Live at http://www.HighSchoolOT.com and be sure to check us out on August 20th for week one of the high school football season as we will be broadcasting from East Wake high school as they host Millbrook.

 

99.9 The Fan Recognized By The National Association Of Broadcasters

 

WCMC-FM’s own sports radio station, 99.9 The Fan, has been recognized by The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) as a top five finalist for the 2016 Marconi Radio Sports Station Of The Year award.

WCMC’s 99.9 The Fan, based out of Raleigh, North Carolina, is the only small market out of the five finalists up for the award. The other four finalists are stations out of San Francisco, Dallas, Chicago and Detroit.

The winners of all the major broadcasting awards will be announced during the Marconi Radio Awards Dinner in Nashville in September.

You can find all of the finalists of the major radio broadcasting awards at:

http://www.allaccess.com/net-news/archive/story/155933/2016-nab-marconi-radio-award-finalists-announced

 

My Take:

As a current employee of Capitol Broadcasting Company and 99.9 The Fan, I can say that since coming aboard the ship in August of 2015 that no one deserves this nomination and recognition more than the people who make The Fan run day in and day out. 

As a current board operator and producer, I learn and train from the best of the best and those people are the reason I am more confident in what I can bring to the table to sports radio here in Raleigh and wherever this passion of mine lands me in my future.

(Yeah maybe me coming on made a MAJOR difference to this station hence the recognition.) 

But seriously shoutout to all of my colleagues at WCMC and The Fan as well as CBC who has embraced the grind 24/7 to make this station what it is today and ultimately a top five sports station in the country.