In the moments after Purnell Swett sealed last week’s overtime win at Red Springs, several members of the Rams directed some commentary in my direction, such as “you see that, Chris Stiles?!?” and “Thanks for the motivation!” and “24-21!”
That’s because in this very column last week, I said Red Springs won beat Purnell Swett. The “24-21” reference was to the predicted score.
While providing motivation is not the intent of this exercise per se, I realize that is often what results from an unfavorable pick for one of Robeson’s teams (and it’s even happened when I’ve picked against a non-county school and they’ve seen it). And I absolutely welcome those postgame instances of excited student-athletes pointing out my incorrectness after they’ve earned a victory that I said they wouldn’t obtain…