Greg Bailey | Crazy night in the playoffs

It gets crazy on Friday football nights, but this is our wildest night yet behind the scenes. Producer Herman Towe pulled in highlights from around the state and around the Carolinas tonight. We wanted to show video of some of the opponents that our teams would be facing and it got wild with four different satellite feeds rolling in at once about 10 minutes before we went on the air. If you ever wander into the WCNC sports office at 10:55 on a Friday night, we all shout out names and highlights and final scores at each other, and then we run out onto the set to make TV. High school football makes our night fun and the crazier it gets, the better – as long as I make it to my seat by the time the show starts!

Congratulations to Shelby as the Lions march to another state title game. It’s remarkable the consistency that Coach Norman and company have carried on with a state title tradition that dates back to the 60’s. We did get an e-mail that corrected our script from the HS Gametime show: Turner Almond kicked the Shelby field goal. Job well done, Turner, and thanks for the correction. As we mentioned earlier, sometimes it gets a little crazy as games end so close to deadline.

I would have liked to have seen what West Charlotte would have done with Darius Thomas at quarterback for the full game, but to say the Lions “would have won with Darius” cheats Independence. It’s not a coincidence that Tom Knotts’ team is headed back to another state title game. Hats off to Tom Knotts and his staff for getting the defense to play great football down the stretch.

Let’s go ahead and put Catholic in the same section as the great programs in this part of the country. I can see the Cougars getting better every week on tape. It’s really amazing how well they’re playing right now.

The excitement of the night goes to North Gaston. Their players, fans and coaches really seemed to relish their spot in the state title game. I loved hearing coach say, “We’re going to enjoy it tonight!” They should, and I hope they did – safely, of course.