Best of the best

 I am continually humbled when people or tweet and remind me its time to blog again. Its not that I don't want to write more often ,but I have to wait til a thought hits my brain.
Those thoughts came running about 3:30 a.m just when most of my thoughts come. I mean I like getting the creative juices flowing, but why is it always in the middle of the night.
In a decent year I probably interview maybe 70 to 100 people for various reasons and most of them are related to high school in some way. I know its not the end of the year but it's the end of the school year, so here are all my high school awards. Some are for real and some are tongue in cheek and it's up to you to use common sense and know which is which.
Interview of the year: Landry Rustin from Windsor ; Several things make a great interview with one of the key things being able to get a hold of who you want to interview. Landry Rustin made it easy because he answers his twitter messages. I talked to him at least three times this year, once for basketball and twice for baseball. He knows what  he is talking about and is not scared to tell me what's going on. He told me that basketball would be a failure if Windsor didn't win state and he told me the same thing about baseball. Not only did he have an unbelievable sports career, his ability to entertain and give good quotes led him to be a media favorite.


Most intelligent interview: Now I talked to a lot of kids that come off as being very bright, but my god, when I talked to Tobe Umerah from Stratford, it was like I was talking to a 25 year old defensive end that was in his third year in the NFL. I don't know him that well besides the interviews, but he was beyond impressive when I talked to him. No wonder he is going to Stanford. Oh yeah, he is a pretty decent football player too.
Runner up-Alex Gibbs- Veterans: Once again I felt like I was talking to a much older persons when I talked to the Veterans ace after he shut down Jones County.


Best Coach Interview: There is no way I can give this to only one, because 99 percent of the coaches in this area are absolutely great to talk to. I could not even make it one for every sport. So as I am writing I am trying to figure out how I am going to do this and I still don't know. I will say that Josh Grube  from Westside is great and his "Why do you want to talk to me we lost" line after Central beat him was a classic. But Andre Taylor from Central, Mark Fariba from Stratford, Todd Whetsel from Tattnall are all favorites too.
However after much consideration, I feel the most deserving coach this year is Sheila Toombs from Central. I got to cover her on more than one occasion in her teams amazing run at a state championship, and her awe shucks what are we doing here attitude was a breath of fresh air. She was always very easy to talk to and seemed to just be enjoying the ride that the girls basketball team went on last year. She smiled at the wins and frowned at the losses, but always gave me what I needed.


The wait one minute coaches award: Most coaches realize that I am always on a deadline to get stuff done quickly and try to get it in the paper, so when I am coming at them after a game, they are almost always ready to talk  or make a minute for me. (This is one of those tongue in cheek ones guys) Joey Hiller however, can see me coming from a mile away after a three hour game, knowing that I am late, and the one constant thing he is going to give me, is that finger wave with a polite, let me talk to my guys for just a minute, and oh yeah, then I have to go run with them, and then after the post-game meal, I can talk to you for a second. Ok it isn't that bad, but I mean, sometimes it feels that way. Don't get me wrong, I think Joey Hiller is one of the best overall coaches in Macon, and we get along great, but I always know that finger wave is coming.


Humble Pie Interview: Ahmad Barron: I wanna give the credit to my mom and my offensive line and god and my coaches for letting me have a chance to succeed. No Ahmad it's because you are a stud dude. All those other things are good for the interview, but we know the truth.


Biggest star interview: Jake Fromm duh, that was an easy one and I was aware of that the minute the TV cameras filmed me interviewing him.
runner up- Lynn J Dixon- a running back from Taylor County that everyone wants. I caught him at a basketball all-star game dunking like crazy.


K this is only my first part and I will stretch the rest into next week with such interesting topics as best player, best game, biggest smile, my overall favorite, coach of the year, upside award, and sunshine award. If you have nominees or more categories let me know.