Mid – July reset to help new readers understand more about what they’re looking at….

Photo 📷 taken at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina.

Getting to sit down recently with new Cavalier Head Coach Casey Burcham was both a treat and it brought a few new readers to the site. The hope is that some of them will stick around for a while !

Its always fun to use a Top Ten List, per David Letterman back in the day, to help explain a thought process so let’s share 10 things that a new reader might not know.

#10 – Everything that goes on our site has to be 100% positive. There are so many places out there used for evil 😈 and demeaning of people and stories that our way to battle back is to just share Positivity.

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#9 – Love where you Live – this line was actually on the back of a young man’s T-shirt 👕 the other night at the Soccer ⚽️ Banquet. There are so, so many things that happen in our County that we can be proud of so the goal is share as many as possible.

My personal tag line on the matter is Duke, UVA and wherever I Stay. Everyone should be proud of where they call 🏡!

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#8 – What’s up with all of the emojis?

They are my way of keeping my thought process grounded. A fun reminder that our goal is to keep it light as we all struggle with the day to day.

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#7 – Where did the name of the website originate ?

The site has been ours for almost two decades and is near and dear to us. Around the Valley in 60 Days was a promotion that we created and ran for the Valley Baseball League ⚾️ in the Shenandoah Valley.

We change the subtitle, in this case, the Carroll County Sports Report, based on where we live. This is Year Four of being residents of Laurel Fork, Virginia.

I could see the next name being the Laurel Fork Coconut 🥥 Telegraph as a show of Love 💘 for the late, great Jimmy Buffett.

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#6 – Why would there be a new name in the works for the site ?

The goal originally was to build a Network for the Community that would have people across our Commonwealth trying to figure out what in the World 🌎 was going on down in Carroll County.

Sadly, for a large number of reasons we never came close to achieving our goal in relationship to that. This presents two options – stop ✋ all together, calling it a day or rebranding and work with what we have under a different title.

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#5 – What is the deal regarding the use of Social Media ?

Since the creation of Social Media I have believed it to be the Devil. Not everyone involved is the Devil but the goal here was to create a safe space where a resident or former resident could go to in the morning with their Coffee or Orange Juice, click on one site, completely void of drama and check out what is taking place in their little corner of the World.

No ads, no negative, nobody telling you how to live your life. Just uplifting information about our Community.

The stories that I create are personal and more often than not they are designed for one person or one group. I encourage the people that the story is about to share it in any manner they see fit.

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#4 – What is something that enters into the daily thought process ?

We live in a busy, busy time. The idea 💡is to keep each story readable in under two minutes. We are not trying to make it feel like a homework assignment. If I know in advance that a story is longer than normal I will note 📝 that at the Top.

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#3 – What is the biggest obstacles involved in trying to build something like this from scratch ?

One of the things you have to do and quickly is meet as many people as you can and then Guage their interest in participating in what you are trying to get out there. It varies by a WIDE margin.

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#2 – How do you decide where to point your focus towards from Day to Day ?

The ultimate goal is to create two things – inclusion and equality. In High School more often than not the majority of the attention goes to the Football program and one other team. In our case that’s Girls Basketball 🏀. So the natural thing to do is try and promote EVERYTHING else so it can be viewed as equal.

In a perfect World 🌎 everyone should feel just as relevant as the Varsity QB or the Homecoming Queen 👸.

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#1 – Please give one example of something that you / I feel would be the next out there to accomplish…

Yes, when you interview yourself you risk talking 👄 in the 3rd person.

Our Volleyball 🏐 Coach is closing in on a piece of History. Cindy Edwards is quite possibly going to Coach player or players this season that will be on the court when she records her 500th victory.

You create a photo 📷 shoot using say Dakota Walls race 🏁 car with Cindy holding a helmet ⛑️ ( full racing gear would be amazing) and each member of the program surrounding the car.

The caption would read – Join us for the Drive to 500 ! Print some posters and have the girls sign them one night and give them away to the fans in the Gymnasium.

It both honors Coach Edwards and gives the group of young Ladies that compete with Football a moment of their own.

Hopefully that gives any new readers that have stumbled across what I call the Best Kept Secret in Carroll County!

Have a Blessed Day !