Hillsville – Carroll County High School has a number of home fields and courts that stay in use all spring long and on any given night there are contests being played on four of them at a time with the last one sometimes near 9:00pm.
The various facilities have one common denominator in that Mr. Nathan Jones is the Athletic trainer for all of them. Jones and his speedy golf cart can be seen at a number of Carroll County events from the start of the first one until the ending of the last one. Last night for example the first contest began at 5:00pm as Coach Kevin DeHaven and his baseball team hosted James River.
The final out of the Softball game was recorded at 8:24pm and it was at that point Jones could take a deep breath. While zipping back and forth between the events depending upon where he is needed next is hard enough for the evening hours it just a part of the day long job.
” Nathan begins his day by showing up early in order to check on our Student Athletes that he might have worked on the night before,” said CCHS Darren Mathews. ” Even before the games at our place he was working with the Soccer players before they left for Buchanan. He heated them, treated them and taped them up.”
Jones spreads himself across eleven teams in the Spring Time as they Cavaliers have eight Varsity programs in addition to three Junior Varsity teams. One might think that Jones would be counting down the days until the end of the season but that is anything but true as his third season treating the Cavs winds down.
“It’s my job to be taking care of our Student Athletes and the folks here at Carroll County make it easy for me to do my best,” Jones said as he finished up for the night. ” Sports are so important for our Community that I am hoping we are hosting events well into the end of May.”
Mathews is hoping that Jones will remain a part of the Cavaliers sports program for years to come.
” Our kids love him and I can’t say enough good things about him,” Mathews added. ” If I were to describe Nathan in one word it would be fantastic.”
It’s a pretty safe bet that there’s a long list of Cavalier coaches that would join Mathews in singing the praises of the Cavs Medicine Man.
Tomorrow is the rare day off for the fans and the competition against other schools but it will be business as usual for Jones in his efforts to keep all of the Carroll County Athletes up and running.
A.S.P.N on The Hill 