Sports Awards Breakdown

I apologize for the recent printing of several articles that I wrote. I wanted to publish something, and it was all I had time for at the moment. Now back to a little more relaxed style.

As many of you know, the Southern Sports Awards filmed their second annual awards show at Davidson College on Wednesday night. As a reporter, I was able to take a few pictures with some of the celebrities and interview a few people. You can find those pictures through that link.

Overall, I think that the awards were great exposure for the college with Bob McKillop presenting the Best Coach award, preceded by a clip on Davidson basketball coaches of the past. You can't help but think that anyone who watches the show (see their website for showtimes) will come away impressed with that small college in North Carolina that they'd only vaguely heard of.

Otherwise, I will admit that the show was a little underwhelming. First off, do we really need an awards show for sports in the south? Using that initial bit of doubt, we run to the awards show itself where nearly every award winner was based off of who could make it to the taping. Of course, all of the NASCAR contingency lived only a few miles down the road from Davidson, and so they won some pretty outrageous victories, over the likes of George Mason, Reggie Bush, and the Carolina Hurricanes.

I can't wait to see the actual show to see if they dubbed in applause for the NASCAR victories. Nobody in the Hall was clapping. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not prejudiced here (although I am not a NASCAR fan), but I did find the overwhelming NASCAR presence very sketchy.

The highlights of the show have to be split up into two categories: that which will be on TV, and the behind-the-scenes.

ON TV: Julius Peppers. He was definitely the elephant in the Duke Performance Hall (even over Evander Holyfield). Throughout the show, people were constantly walking up to his seat to get an autograph. When he won the Fan Favorite award, the entire place erupted, only to have Julius give the worst speech I had ever heard. It's ok though.

I also have to give it up to Bob McKillop. He was so composed on camera even with the entire student section chanting his name as he walked to the podium. I really don't know how he is still at this school.

OFF-CAMERA: The three hosts: James Carville, Finesse Mitchell and Jon Reep were very funny, especially when they messed up. They made the show so much better when students started getting worn down.

I know that I heard about it, but I now have proof that Billy Packer is the biggest deuche-bag alive. He took every chance he had to make a crack on Davidson and even flicked off the crowd at one point. I swear that James Carville was about to beat him up on stage. If it weren't for the "Davidson Gentleman" attitude, our group of students would have booed him out of the county.

Overall, I think that the awards show was a nice event, but it probably won't be going on to 20th and 30th anniversaries. The Edge Marketing company has talked about returning it to Davidson next year, but if the obvious lack of market and "settling" for NASCAR stars is all that they can do, this show will be finished in the near future.