Got the chance and to sit down and talk some sports today, while on the road, at the RNR Tire Express store on West Gate City Blvd….
Stopped into the RNR Tire Express back on Monday, and was talking with big Mike, and Mike said come back on Thursday, and that the store manager Derrick Matthews would be in, and Derrick was in the house at the RNR Tire Express store today….
The top tires and rims in town, that might just be the best way to describe the RNR Tire Express store…Tires and Rims, ready to move, and ready to move fast…Custom tires and rims at the right price, and if you are ready to ride, you need to ride right on down/over to the RNR Tire Express store on West Gate City Blvd…3738 B West Gate City Blvd. is their exact location, and if you need to call them, make that call to 336-299-4898….336-299-4698, and Derrick Matthews and big Mike will get you straight…
RNR Tire Express, and you can express yourself at their tire store, and that is what I did today, along with Derrick Matthews, the RNR Tire Express store manager….
Derrick and I talked tires and rims, but as is usually the case, our talked turned toward local high school and college sports, and in particular we got on the subject of the Guilford County High School sports…
Derrick’s son Justin Matthews was a very solid clutch receiver for the Eastern Guilford Wildcats, and he once caught three TD’s in a game, and for that excellent work, he was named the GreensboroSports.com Player of the Game/Week…Justin Matthews, now at Barton College and still playing football…Justin was also on the basketball team that faced Wendell Moore Jr. and his Cox Mill Chargers in the NCHSAA 3-A State Title game at the University of North Carolina, in Chapel Hill…
Jaylen Alston, Montez Venable, Justin Matthews, Christian McMullen, Nic McMullen and others, coached by Joe Spinks, on that Eastern Guilford Wildcat club that made it to the state finals…
Justin Matthews was also on the Eastern Guilford football teams that made a run for the 3-A Football Title, led by Coach Doug Robertson…EG knocking off Corinth Holders and Holton Ahlers, and then going to Clayton, N.C., where Eastern turned away the Clayton Comets, with Devan Carter and Savion Jackson, both of who are now at N.C. State, and Ahlers has been residing at ECU, the past several years…Then Eastern hit Wilmington New Hanover, but they saw Wiz Vaughn along the way, and even though we still feel like Dominique Graves hit the end zone paydirt, New Hanover and Vaughn, moved on to the State Title game…EG had Dominique and Kendyl Graves, Justin Matthews, Adam Aikens, Nic Cheeley, Bryant Barr, the BIG lineman(Tyler Clapp) that went to Wake Forest and many more incredible young high school athletes during that run to glory…
So we got in some good Eastern Guilford High School athletics talk today with Derrick Matthews, but he also told me his days back at Eastern Randolph High School, where he came after Alan and Ed Hooker, but Derrick Matthews knew them well, and he knew Burton Cates, the legendary football coach from ER, pretty well too…
Derrick Matthews said the Hooker Brothers, Alan and Ed, used to run a neighborhood barber shop off of the Hooker’s front porch, and the real deal, were those $1.00 Monday Special haircuts…
Alan and Ed Hooker’s dad was a baseball man to the bone, and if came from the Hooker household, or if you were ever going to be around the Hooker household, you better know your baseball, or Mr. Hooker, the bossman Mr. Hooker, he was going to let you have it….
Down around Ramseur and Liberty, N.C. back in those days, the only way out was athletics, and you better know your stuff, and when it came to professional football, if you came to the Hooker’s house, you better be wearing or have some Washington Redskins’ clothing on, because the bossman Mr. Hooker, he was a diehard Washington Redskins fan, and when the Dallas Cowboys’ scouts came looking for Alan Hooker, they had to weed their way through the Redskins’ Road, right there in the Hookers’ yard….The Bossman Mr. Hooker was going to go at you with his full Redskins’ Regalia….
Derrick Matthews said some of his best sports times/days in recent years have been spent in the early morning pickup basketball games at Page High School…A who’s who of local basketball names, show up and play in these games…Included you might find Donald Moore Jr.(played at UNCG), Kevin Beard(former Greensboro College player), Brad Apple(played at Greensboro College), Ralph Kitley(played at Wake Forest), Tom King(played somewhere up in New York), plus Ralph’s daughter Elizabeth, and Tom’s daughter Cayla, both play for Virginia Tech, and lately Liz Kitley has been playing in these pickup games, when she is home for the offseason….Many others play in these games, and Derrick said the games are very competitive…Stan Kowalewski played in these games at Page, until he got called away, on other duties/responsibilities…..
Mr. Derrick Matthews knows his stuff, and we got to talk about that great sports stuff today….
We give out a BIG SHOUT OUT today to Derrick Matthews and Big Mike, over at the RNR Tire Express on West Gate City Blvd….Exact location is 3738 B West Gate City Blvd., or call RNR Tire Express at 336-299-4898…..