Month: April 2024

Monday April 22nd is set to be FREE Soccer ⚽️ Night at Tommy Thompson Field on The Hill !

Varsity Soccer ⚽️ Coach Forrest Johnson and Athletic Director Darrin Mathews…

Any fan looking to catch Carroll County High School 🏫 and Alleghany High School 🏫 square off on the Soccer ⚽️ pitch on April 22nd can do so for FREE with just one small catch.

All fans entering the gates prior to halftime of the Boys 👦 Junior Varsity game will save the $7.00 admission cost for a ticket 🎟.

” Coach Johnson and his staff have built up their program through a great deal of effort over the past few years,” said the folks at OneofUs.Care. ” We truly believe that if folks can make the time to take in a game they will be able to appreciate just how talented the current team is.”

The goal (Soccer term) is to get some exposure for the Junior Varsity team at the same time. By requiring the fans to enter before halftime it gives Jeremy Puckett and his team an opportunity to play in front of a crowd as well.

The thought process is simple, take the gate total from last years game versus Alleghany and write ✍ a check ✔ for that amount so it doesn’t cost the School any money. Step 🚶‍♂️2 is get the word out there so people can take advantage of the offer.

Whether or not the idea takes off or not is yet to be seen and the same can be said for the chances of the idea catching on or being dismissed as just another kooky marketing idea.

It was an easy decision to try this out with the Boys 👦 Soccer ⚽️ program as we are fans of all the hard work being put into the program by the Coaches and the players. We couldn’t think of a better way to try and help Coach Johnson.

Thank You to Mr. Mathews for being so accommodating in regards to getting this put into place.

Let’s call it PACK THE HILL NIGHT 🌙 @ Tommy Thompson Field !

Monday is for Middle School 🏫 Softball in Galax! Dodging rain 🌧 drops…(DH)

Carroll Middle School 🏫 softball made the trek over to Mountain View Park in Galax Monday afternoon.

The eclipse wasn’t an issue but the hit and miss rain was a little bit of a deterrent. The game got underway just before 5pm.

Cavaliers…. 1 0 0 – 1

Galax ……. 3 4 4 – 11

Taking pictures 📷 at this park is a challenge without the rain 🌧 but I will do the best I can to capture the efforts of these young Ladies.

Galax plates four more in the second inning after two outs had been recorded, now 7-1 in the top of the 3rd inning

The Cavaliers go down in order in the top of the 3rd, still 7-1

Back out to the field…

In the Circle 🔵

Left Field…

5:51pm – Game 1 is called due to the 10 run after 3rd when playing a double header.

Not sure when Game 2 will be getting underway 🤔

Fresh start for the Lady 👩 Cavaliers at 6:00 pm

Cavs explode for 3 runs 🏃‍♂️ in the top of the 1st in the night 🌙 cap

Cavs… 3 1 0 4 0 – 8

Galax… 2 4 1 4 X – 11

The Cavs are well supported tonight!

Rain 🌧 has stopped for a bit…

6:24 – Top of 2nd inning – Cavs extend lead to 4-2

6:39 – end 2nd, Galax leading 6-4

Cavs are retired in the top of the 3rd, no runs, in part to a nice play by the Galax left fielder.

6:48 – rain has returned

6:52 – Top of 4th – Cavs trying to rally, 1 in and bases loaded with just one out.

Fielder’s choice cuts it to 7-6… Two run single makes it 8-7 Cavs (7:04)

Galax has loaded the bases with no outs here in the bottom of the 4th… now 8-8 .. now 1 out… now 2 outs after force at the plate…

Galax plates three additional runs on one wild pitch and one passed ball, lead now 11-8. The Cavaliers have played with a great deal of heart here in game two, do they have one more comeback in them ?

7:17 – Top of the 5th inning and the Cavs need three to tie.

FO-8 on a well hit ball to the center fielder

PO – 5, one more chance

4-3, Ground out (7:21) Final score is Galax 11, Cavs 8

Enjoyable 2+ hours watching our Future Cavaliers play ball !

Banquet #4 of 6 ➕ was a terrific Day from start to finish !

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 !