Part four of a seven part series:

We have to call this one a Banquet ➕ as it began with a West Virginia Tech University baseball ⚾️ game, followed by a Senior Day post-game ceremony before concluding with a meal inside Carter Hall back on campus at WVU-T.

Linda K Epling Stadium 🏟 in Beckley was the site for Saturdays game.

The weather was chilly for sure but it was a tolerable 41° at first pitch (2:03pm). The Golden Bears 🐻 scored early and often during the game, which was shortened by Mercy rule after 7 innings. The 24 ➕ minutes was the length of the on-field ceremony for the 12 Seniors

The day long festivities began with a local Little Leaguer throwing out the Ceremonial First Pitch and everything just flowed for the next six hours!

Ryan Miller’s banner was the one not shown as he had received his last season before returning for his final year of eligibility at Tech.

Close to 50 Family 👪 members joined their ballplayers in the Ceremony. Senior Players came to Tech from West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia as well as Canada 🇨🇦 and Ecuador 🇪🇨.

Parents from five of the players were able to participate in the announcing of their Sons during the contest which is one of my favorite parts of our gathering !

After the Ceremony it was off to a local restaurant, Pasquale’s to pick up the food for the meal.

Back on Campus we were joined by our School President, Mr T Ramon Stuart

The President went from giving an elegant speech to serving food at the end of the Buffet line next to Skipper Lawrence Nesselrodt and Assistant Coach, the Legendary Joe Goddard.

This was the sixteenth time that Coach Ness and I combined our skill sets to create a special day for his Senior Class. We continue to tweak it each year so that each class feels like it has its own version. Outside of the fact that the temperature 🌡never broke 50°, it felt like we crushed it !

Later today we will make the one hour commute up the Turnpike to complete the weekend series up at Go-Mart Park in downtown Charleston with a double header against the Red Storm.

The next stop on the Six Banquets & 1 meeting stretch is just a few days away and then its just 48 hours until we do it again, down in Durham before wrapping up in Charlottesville with the VHSL.

Each affair has been a privilege to be a part of so far, with each one having a different level of participation. From hosting to Co-host to speaking to just absorbing it all in. Here’s hoping that the next three are as remarkable 🙏

1. Anthony Barnes and his CCHS Basketball 🏀 Banquet
2. OneofUs.Care Annual Banquet
3. Carroll News – Best of Banquet
4. WVU-T Baseball Sr Day Banquet
5. Meeting with CCHS -🏫Board
6. Duke University Banquet
7. VHSL Banquet….

Our Most Valuable Player Award goes to our Athletic Director Kenny Howell !

It was Kenny that saved the Day by correcting the issue we were having with the Stadium 🏟 sound system and did so just moments before the Ceremony was set to get underway !