The lobby is rather quiet at the moment but late last night 🌙 and early this morning 🌄 it was full of two things, Student Athletes and Dreams !
I am sure that there are a number of Hotels scattered throughout the city of Lynchburg that have / had similar scenes ahead of the Class 3 and Class 4 event about to get underway shortly.
It’s 11am now and back on The Hill people are gathering to send off our qualifiers and I hope 🙏 that its a great turnout. Hoping this for both the Coaches and the Athletes.
Shawn Montgomery and Jon Delp are a hard working duo far removed from the spotlight on most days. Today is their day and I flash back to our conversation last year when we sent two Cavaliers to the State Meet (Corrie Delp and Elijah Smith). Coach said to me that two this year could lead to four next year.
It turned out that it did indeed become four but sadly two of the four will not be able to make the Trek.
Photo 📷 credit to Donna Nester
Davis Reitzel took up the 300 Hurdles recently and did it in such a manner that he punched his ticket 🎟 to Lynchburg at the Regional meet last week. Reitzel is quite possibly the most well rounded Athlete on The Hill and its a shame that folks up here won’t be able to see him on the Grand Stage but he is currently on Vacation with his Family over in Europe.
Alyssa Ervin, like Reitzel is another multi talented Athlete and also picked up a track hobby this Spring. Her event that qualified for State was the High Jump. It was disappointing to hear that a recent injury will keep her away from Lynchburg today. When I heard about this my first thought was I hope it didn’t happen while she was competing in Track and I was relieved to hear it was in the Gym.
That covers the duo that are not currently on the 2+ hour commute to LU. Now we can turn on focus to the pair that are heading this way.
Brayden Smoot is another 3-Sport Athlete that wears our colors all year long. Football, Basketball and Track 👣 and the young man excells in all of them.
Last season Smoot missed making the trek by the equivalent of an eye lash so it was exciting for me to hear about the day he punched his ticket 🎟 earlier this spring.
Coach Montgomery just notified me that his attempt to make the Finals has been moved from 3:40 back to 4:10 today. The preliminary races 🏁 will set the field for the Class 3 Finals to be held tomorrow.
That leaves our Super Soph, Corrie Delp. Corrie is heading here for the second consecutive year and will be competing in the Long Jump once again.
Delp is the one of this foursome that might be a Track athlete that plays other sports in her down time. Volleyball 🏐 and Basketball 🏀, both at the Varsity level this season and she would also star 🌟 on our Gymnastics team if we had one. Back Flips are another one of her many talents.
It was a treat to play a small role with the Track 👣 and Field teams this season by lending my voice to the home events. It will be an honor to greet these folks up here in a bit !
Pretty sure that Shawn Montgomery is the hardest working man in all of showbiz !
Best of Luck this weekend !
A.S.P.N on The Hill 