Greg Bolen was only with us in spirit due to the ball game of a grandchild, but we shared his pre-gathering message and loved his photo 📸 ( that’s him standing off with the train 🚆).

Photo credits belong to Kevin Burress, Donna Nester and myself ➕️ the Bolen selfie 🤳.

Three crystals 🔮 and three gold watches have now all been distributed to some Awesome people. Tonight was the Gold Watch portion of the end of the year ceremonies.

If I had to limit the story to just one word, it would be ” Fellowship.” 

105 minutes start to finish and just like our site, 💯% positive !

Even when Head Coach Rick Nester and Allen Worrell traded thoughts on the day that Coach ended his dream of playing professional baseball ⚾️. Those two have been interacting for a LONG TIME ⌛️.

David Broyles spent a minute doing a pretty solid Gracho Marx, Kevin Blessed the food, and then the story swapping began.

Allen, David, and I spent three years together down on the north end of Main Street, putting together The Carroll News. Just like the Goldielocks and the 3 Bears 🐻🐻‍❄ 🐻, we were the Papa Bear (Allen), Mama Bear (David), and the Little Cub . Yeah,  that was me.

Everyone nibbled on the Domino’s Pizza 🍕 and the dessert 🍨 up in the press box. Turns were taken on who has the next story and getting to hear Allen’s recap of the State Championship game was a favorite.

Allen and David shared an office 🏬 for right at a decade. I felt blessed to get a seat 💺 at their table towards the end.

The time together was everything I would like an event to be. We weren’t trying to do anything but say Thank You to a pair of Old Friends!

For three straight seasons, our Lady Cavaliers Softball team received wall 🧱 to wall 🧱 coverage on both our site and in The Carroll News.

#Teamwork

Pictured here : Macie Adkins and Emma Leath.

Dream senerio for game night at Cavalier Park would include a smiling face holding a clipboard 📋, writing down names of every former Carroll County softball player in the crowd.

The duo pictured above are both someone whom I got to know better than most over the years. But they aren’t the only former players coming across the Boulevard to watch us play. Kevin Burress and Tammy Tobler both try to assist me in acknowledging everyone we see 👀 but wouldn’t it be easier if this was hands-on?

Our crowd got older this year, which is another way to state that we lost out on the younger crowd. Every program at every level should desire to embrace their alumni ! Wasn’t it cool to see Kansas City Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes attending the Texas Tech softball games in Oklahoma City ?

The same way that our Lady Cavaliers are currently criss-crossing the region playing travel ball, the efforts to create an atmosphere that matches the beauty of our facility is ongoing !

Yes, that title was borrowing from Aaron Sorkin and the classic movie 🎬 ” A few good men.” Listen closely, and you can hear Jack Nicholson saying, ” You want me on that wall 🧱, you need me on that wall 🧱”.

Softball is The Greatest Game on Dirt !

Abingdon and Staunton River are representing our region. Broadway is trying to repeat, and I have a grandson attending Skyline, so that covers half of the Elite Eight.

Trying to promote the sport of choice is always fun, and it gets better when there is a connection !

Once a team has their season come to an end, the question is, who still cares about the rest of the tournament ? There is no right or wrong answer. it’s just a fun question.

Tonight, the plan is to keep an eye 👁 on the Falcons and track down the other final scores.

Every home Softball game for the past four seasons, Ron Cochran has joined me in our Foul Ball contest and the pics above show six of the winners from this season !

A sincere show of gratitude 🙏 to Ron for his making this possible the past four years !

This year, we even had a new participant in the program as the energetic young Lady that shares his shop with him joined in on the fun !

Ron Cochran, you Sir, are a wonderful man 👨!!!