It’s football season! I know the calendar says May and High Schools just wrapped up their season and the NFL is still a few months away but the National Arena League kicks off the 2021 season tomorrow night beginning with the defending NAL champions, the Carolina Cobras, taking on the Jersey Flight. Head Coach Joshua Resignalo spoke with Trey Snide and Ron Noel Thursday on WIZS Radio’s SportsTalk about the prospects for his team this season.

While the 2020 season was cancelled due to Covid, Coach Res, as he is called, said Covid “put a hinder on all businesses.” He also said that even with the cancellation of the 2020 season it didn’t shake up what the Cobras wanted to do. Players are signed to seasonal contracts and he has been able to bring back players originally signed for last season. It’s been 18 months since the 2019 championship game in Jacksonville, Florida and Coach Res has spent the down time putting together the best roster that he could for the team.  Along with the players he brought back from the cancelled 2020 season, he has also added seven players with ties to the Triad and Triangle. “Bringing in local players was a big emphasis. It helps with marketing in the community,” said the coach.  Many players on the team use their playing time with the Cobras as a way to either get back to the NFL or as a stepping stone from smaller colleges to the NFL or CFL.

Coach Res expects the Cobras to be physically ready for tomorrow night’s game however, “mentally ready is going to be the key,” Coach Resingalo says of the first game of the season. He says the Jersey Flight offers a good challenge as they were able to pick up players from the now defunct Arena Football League which closed up shop in 2019. “Pretty experienced,” Coach Res said of the Flight.

The Cobras have made it to the NAL championship game for the last two seasons, and he expects the team to be there again this season.

The Cobras play their home games at Greensboro Coliseum and will have a four game home stand beginning on June 19^th after two road games to kick off the season. For those interested in watching the Carolina Cobras play, tune in to the NAL Youtube channel. There you will find all of the game broadcasts for the entire league.

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Before he was known as “Showtime,” Paul Gaffney was a kid from a rural coal mining town in Kentucky. He was born to an unmarried teenage mom who placed him for adoption. At the age of two, his adoptive mother died and Gaffney was raised alone by his adoptive father. Gaffney would be considered as an “at-risk child” but Gaffney overcame these issues through his love of athletics and basketball. He is the Tennessee Wesleyan University Hall of Fame, where he received a B.S. in Business Management and, through his fifteen years with the Harlem Globetrotters, he is in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. Now he is the founder of Gaffney Atletic Preparatory Academy (GAPA) in Tennessee which Gaffeny calls, “An innovative school dealing with sports careers including sports medicine, marketing, communications and nutrition serving grades six through twelve.” There is also a post grad program available to students who need it to help with GPA’s as well. GAPA enhances opportunities for students to move up to prestige college, according to Gaffney.

Gaffney says, “There were always people around me who inspired me to be a better athlete,” and this is what he hopes that GAPA will do for his students. Gaffney says GAPA teaches kids to find out what they love. While they may love athletics they might not be the world’s greatest athlete but might be great at cooking which could lead to a career as a sports nutritionist allowing them to be involved in athletics while not being on the field or court.

Students are from all over the world. He recruits students locally as well as Italy, Portugal and other locations.

However, GAPA isn’t his only interest. Gaffney is manager of the Tennessee Conductors of the WABA Basketball League. This women’s league is an opportunity to showcase talent so players may be able to move on to the WNBA. The team is scheduled to begin its season in July.

Gaffney credits his fifteen years with the Harlem Globetrotters in helping him open doors on these ventures. “The Globetrotters helped me develop the needed character for these endeavors,” Gaffney said.

Speaking of his Globetrotter experience Gaffney said, “We played eight days in a seven day week.” The constant travel all over the world helped the team develope a brotherhood that remains to this day. “The court was my office for 15 years and I enjoyed every minute of it,” Gaffney said. He calls the Globetrotter a tight knit family.

Gaffney also said playing with the Globetrotters was probably harder than playing basketball in the NBA due to the number of games involved and the travel which saw them go all around the world but the millions of smiles and memories those games brought to fans are special not only to those fans but for him as well. One of Gaffney’s fondest memories and one that changed his life was in 1996 when he met then South African President Nelson Mandela.

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It’s Friday in the middle of football season so most schools will be taking the field this evening but not Vance County. The Viper’s scheduled game against the Northern Durham Knights was cancelled at the beginning of the week due to Covid 19 protocols meaning the Vipers won’t return to the field until April 5th when they will finally get to tangle with Northern Durham.  According to Vance County High School athletic director Joe Sharrow juggling the schedule was the only way to get the Northern Durham game back.  “We really didn’t want to lose the game with Northern Durham,” Sharrow said.  Even though Northern Durham and Vance County will be in different conferences next year, the Knights will be part of the Viper’s schedule for the next two years.

The Knights will remain under quarantine until April 1st when they resume practice and will play the Vipers on Monday, April 5th, 6:30pm at Vance Co. High School.  In order to accomodate the Northern Durham game the Vipers would originally have had to play three games in eight days as Northwood would have taken on the Vipers on April 2nd but “three games in eight days was too much,” according to Sharrow. “We’re pretty beat up right now,” Sharrow added. Sharrow said that one of the games on the schedule would have to go if they wanted to play Northern Durham.  Sharrow and Coach Hunter Jenks were not in favor of cancelling the Cedar Ridge game scheduled for April 9th. Cedar Ridge is coached by former Northern Vance coach Corey Lee and Vance County has a good relationship with the school so that meant the Northwood game would have to go.  However, Sharrow helped Northwood find another school to play, Panther Creek High School in Cary. Even though Vance County gets to keep the game with Northern Durham it does mean that the team will play one less game than intended.

At 0-3 with two games left on the schedule, Sharrow said that getting into the state playoff would require some help and that it is a long shot. The school would have to receive an at-large bid and that means the improving Vipers would certainly have to win out the rest of the season and then get the help Sharrow discussed. Sharrow says, “The primary focus is finishing up with Northern Durham and Cedar Ridge, to stay healthy and let our seniors play out the year.”

As far as athletics in general at Vance County High School, “I am ecstatic about the Vance County High School Athletics programs,” Sharrow said.  Sharrow pointed to the really good numbers with the girl’s softball team and recent wins with that program along with strong numbers for the girl’s soccer team. Where many teams have had trouble finding players to field teams it hasn’t been much of an issue for Vance County. This is likely due to the fact that Vance County High School is the only school in the state conducting Covid 19 tests every week.

Once again, Vance County High School’s next game will be on Monday, April 5th against the Northern Durham Knights, 6:30pm, at Vance County High School.  Tune into WIZS for full play by play coverage of that contest.

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