The Boss Gets the Toss and The Kickers Take the Loss(Carolina Dynamo Win 1-0)

There was a lot going on at Macpherson Stadium on Wednesday night. The Carolina Dynamo were in a match for the right to continune on in the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup and the Dynamo’s Public Address Announcer was wondering what the future will hold for him and his family.

The Dynamo took care of business(now 11-0-1) by dropping the Richmond Kickers 1-0 on the beautiful pitch at the MAC. The Dynamo totally out-played the Kickers and you would have thought that Richmond would have been the higher level team but that was not the case. The Dynamo are a team made up of College players and the Kickers are supposed to be a lower level Professional squad.

The Dynamo took it to the Kickers and the score should have been 3-0 at the end as the Dynamo had several other scoring opportunites but they could not convert. The Dynamo College Kids play in the United Soccer Leagues Premier Development Division(South Atlantic League) and with the win over the higher level Pros from Richmond, the Carolina Dynamo will move on to play the A-League Seattle Sounders at Macpherson Stadium on Friday July 14.

The Carolina Dynamo are a very strong unit and are lead by Randi Patterson, Daryl Roberts, and Ben Hunter up front. Hunter got the Dynamo’s lone goal on Wednesday night but for pure movement Patterson and Roberts are hard to beat. Patterson comes to us by way of Michael Parker’s program at UNCG, Roberts is from Liberty Univeristy up in Lynchburg, Virginia, and Hunter is out of UNC-Chapel Hill.

My favorite player to watch was the mid-fielder #3 Wells Thompson. Thompson could weave in and out of traffic and position the ball to players who were in the right spots for potential scoring opportunities. Thompson can move the ball, he can also run all day long, and he showed how the midfielders should be playing the game.

The Dynamo defense was lead by Osi Telesford and Hugh Cronin with suport coming from Sam Cronin. Telesford is a college teammate of Daryl Roberts and Osi knows how to play the ball and get it out from the backline area. Telesford also did a solid job of placing his long sideline kicks that were able to send the Dynamo on breakaways on a couple of occasions. Cronin was able to get the ball out from in front of the goal and he made for a good life-support system for goalkeeper Taylor Saxe. Saxe had quite a few solo saves, especially in the second half but fortunately for the Dynamo many of the shots from the Kickers were hard, but they were coming directly at Saxe on a line and he was able to make the straight save.

The turnout for the game was very good(over 1,000 fans) and the crowd seemed to be into the contest, but they were anticipating more Dynamo goals and they should have seen more balls in the Richmond net. The Dynamo have an experienced coach in Joe Brown, who has been around the USL in some shape, form or fashion for almost 15 years. JB has been the Coach, General Manager, Marketing Director, Developmental Coordinator, you name it, JB has done it with several teams but he has spent the longest part of his Professional career with the Carolina Dynamo.

Scott Zapko is the Dynamo General Manager and Scott has this team on solid financial ground with many sponsors and Corporate Partners backing the Carolina Dynamo at Macpherson Stadium. It was a happy time at the MAC on Wednesday night with the CD moving on to the next round of Cup Competition, but there was and still is some concern about the future of Dynamo Public Address Announcer Gary Ross.

Gary “The Boss” Ross got caught up in the whirlwind of change that happened Wednesday morning at Odies 93.1 WMQX. “The Boss” had been on the staff at Oldies 93 for 11 years and Gary had told me back in the fall of 2005 that this was one of the best runs in his radio career. GR had been on air, did a ton of production work, and even Voice Tracked the 7pm-12 Midnight shift and then later Voice Tracked the Midnight-5:30AM Shift.(Voice Tracking involves taping a 5-6 hour shift in about an hour and a half and putting it into the computer system so it can be run on the computer by itself with no employees at the station , big- time money savings). Gary Ross has been kicked to the curb but don’t count out the Man with the Golden Cords. We here at GBS have a feeling “The Boss” will be back. GR has been around in the Triad for many years and we wish him nothing but the best in the Future. Why spend so much time talking about “Good Ole’ GR”? Well, the reason is clear. “Good Ole GR”, Gary ‘The Boss” Ross was and still is great guy. When you would see Gary out in public he would always come up and talk to you. If Gary knows you he is going to go out of his way to speak to you and GR never carried any kind of Radio aire about him. Gary didn’t try to act like a Celebrity even though he was “The Boss”. Gary would always be talking Radio and he loved what he had been doing the past 11 years. Gary is not dead, so let’s hope we see him soon at the local events and then hear him sometime soon on an area Radio Station.

If you get a chance get out and watch the Carolina Dynamo. You can find out more about the team and follow their Schedule by going to the Links section at the top of the GBS Homepage.

Doug Cockman, GBS Senior Director of Development joined me at Bryan Park, in Browns Summit, at Macpherson Stadium on this assignment.

One thought on “The Boss Gets the Toss and The Kickers Take the Loss(Carolina Dynamo Win 1-0)

  1. GS.com great report on the Dynomo, hate to hear Gary Ross is gone he will be back, Jack Armstrong, Gary Ross, Ed Snow lets get them back together, to much talent there not to hear.

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