CCHS Soccer ⚽️

It’s Good Friday and you find yourself waking ⏰ up in Beckley, West Virginia with a College Baseball game to announce. Naturally, the first thing one does in that situation is start thinking about what took place in a High School 🏫 Soccer ⚽️ double header the night before.

Carroll County High School made the trek up a place I refer to as the Highlands. Others call it Low Moor, Alleghany or Covington, but everyone knows it as is LONG LOOP. You will be gone for 8+ hours minimum when its your turn to head up and over.

Yesterday our Soccer ⚽️ teams were slated to leave CCHS around 1:00pm and with both team playing the GOAL (soccer term) would have been to have everyone home safely before Thursday became Friday.

The next thing I will add is the recap text message :

Recap from tonight: both teams pick up wins!Jv wins 8-0!

Goals scored by:Judah Collins with 3 , Hez Mejia with 1Luis Silva with 2Alex silva with 1Christian Cruz with 1Assists by: Judah collins 1Bradsel Martinez 1Andrew Taylor 1Alex Silva 1

Varsity wins 5-2 in a very physical game.Goals by: Yahir Ruiz with 4 goals Landon Puckett with 1 goal Assists:William Burnett with 3.

Yesterday was a long day for me as it included stops ✋ at 8 places across three states. But I waited up for the update and did the copy and paste bit before falling asleep 😴.

Even the fast paced UNC – Alabama game couldn’t keep me up any longer. So the first thing I do this morning 🌄 was actually read the text, from start to finish. Alleghany County is so removed from everything else and like us, void of a daily newspaper 📰. Their team had lost both games by a wide margin (13-2 combined) so the interest on their end would be minimal.

Let’s take a look at the JV side of things first. Judah Collins completed a Hat Trick 👒 for the Cavaliers. If Messi scores a Hat Trick its the lead story on Sports Center (and he didn’t arrive by school bus), now I’m not trying to compare Collins to Messi but a Hat Trick is a Hat Trick !

So I waited until I thought his Coach might be awake ⏰ so that I could ask for a quote from him about the achievement of Collins.

” Judah played hard from the striker position and pressured the ball, which created us multiple chances and led to his hat trick. His ability to finish this year has improved significantly.”

Thank You Coach Jeremy Puckett 🙏

Let’s move forward to the Varsity side of the tilt.

Yahir Ruiz and William Burnett combined for an incredible achievement in the 5-2 victory. Ruiz but the biscuit in the basket four times and assisted on the fifth goal!

Here’s Forrest Johnson on the game:

” Yahir is always in the right place at the right time. He is probably the best player I’ve ever seen at coming away with the ball in tight spaces and finishing.

Also, shout out to William Burnett, who got a hat trick of assists to help Yahir get the goals!”

Marion Harris shares his thoughts on the Assist Hat Trick –

” A hat trick on the assist side I think is a great achievement it shows trust in your teammates and it shows how unselfish of a player one can be. Setting that goal up is just as important if not more important than the goal itself!!!”

Forrest adds to the conversation again –

” Yessir, our varsity team has really bought in on playing together as a team/family. No one cares who scores.

We are just focused on winning, and that to me is the biggest difference between this team compared to the ones from the past.”

See, Forrest and I have a great deal in common. He is driven in a similar manor and is incredibly proud of his program. The one thing that is missing is a Fan Base for the games at Tommy Thompson Field on The Hill. We are working on that and in the meantime they will just continue to score goals and win matches.

Assistant Coach Zeb Hicks added a note on the topic of Assists-

“Yes. And he (Burnett) already has 7 assist on the year in just 4 games.”

Coach Johnson has a program and Coaching Staff that loves the game of Soccer ⚽️. I applaud their efforts 👏 and enjoy writing ✍ about them along with Marion Harris. They deserve to be recognized for their efforts and if writing this causes a few more people to want to take a look see 👀, then that’s a BONUS!

Time to head over to the Baseball ⚾️ Stadium 🏟.

It’s a little after 2pm on Thursday, meaning that if our Bus 🚌 departed The Hill on-time its about halfway to reaching its destination of Alleghany High School 🏫 for a pair of matches against the Cougars.

Everyone else in the Land of Cavaliers has already begun their Easter Break so we will spend the rest of the day showering 💘 in their direction.

Allen Worrell is currently hard at work on a game story from their recent home 🏡 match versus Pulaski County. We hope to add 🙏 some of that before the day is complete and possibly Marion Harris will send in a thought or two???

Above is the roster for our Junior Varsity team and below is the roster for the Varsity squad.

We can tell you that Coach Johnson and his staff are working 💪 pretty much year around, trying hard to build a pipeline for future players to join the High School 🏫 teams ready to play competitive games once they reach the highest level.

Jeremy Puckett (JV Head Coach) and Zeb Hicks both have bought into the vision of Coach Johnson and work toward the common goal of getting players interested in the game at a younger age.

Coach Puckett understands that his role as the JV Coach is very much about the development of the players as they prepare to have their shot to wear the colors at the Varsity level.

Mr. Corey Williams and Coach Reitzel also are vital cogs in the process as they work with the players at the Middle School 🏫 level.

Photo 📷 of Wrestling Coach West Long and Corey Williams at a recent Special Olympics function.

The Varsity team this season has a solid mix across all three classes, with 8 Seniors, 7 Juniors and 6 Sophomores.

______________________

The progress that has been made was easily measured by the number of players that were attending the off season workouts. Come rain 🌧 or shine, the teams came out in full force.

Another area where Coach Johnson continues to build on his foundation is through youth camps. Johnson held a number of these in the past year at a minimum cost to the families in hopes of encouraging people to come out and try the game.

_____________________

Marion Harris has checked in with a trip down memory lane in regards to the number of current Varsity players that played for him over the years. The list is lengthy and includes the current Varsity Head Coach, Forrest Johnson.

I will be able to share all of that once I finish transcribing the notes 📝.

______________________________

Recap from tonight: both teams pick up wins!

Jv wins 8-0!
Goals scored by:
Judah Collins with 3
Hez Mejia with 1
Luis Silva with 2
Alex silva with 1
Christian Cruz with 1

Assists by:
Judah collins 1
Bradsel Martinez 1
Andrew Taylor 1
Alex Silva 1

Varsity wins 5-2 in a very physical game.

Goals by:
Yahir Ruiz with 4 goals
Landon Puckett with 1 goal

Assists:
William Burnett with 3