I will start by apologizing for my longwindedness. I’m grateful for the opportunity to share some of my experiences and stories that lead to my name being on the record board at Carroll County. My struggle is where to start, because my entire life was wrapped in Carroll County baseball until I accepted my current position. Since I don’t know where to start, I will start at the beginning and run with it and share the stories that I enjoy the most.
Billy Graham said it best, when he said “A coach will impact more people in one year than most people in a lifetime.” I was blessed with the opportunity to do what only Craig, Rip and Camden got to do. We got to call our baseball coach in Carroll County, Dad. As I look back, everyone in Carroll County that had an impact on me I called coach in one way or another.
I grew up, and as I look back now, likely tormenting ‘Big Bill’ as I called him. I rolled around the couch in his office, messed with his posters on the wall, begged him for a hat and always made a mess. After Coach Worrell retired my father and I met with Coach Worrell in a corner booth at Aunt Bea’s and they talked about baseball, life and the world in general. I learned so much from them. Mostly, how important it was to sit and listen to people that knew more than you. I was in second grade when we started eating on Wednesday mornings. We ate with Coach Worrell every Wednesday in that corner booth at Aunt Bea’s until the summer after my 6th grade year when the world lost the amazing man, coach, father, husband that was Coach Worrell. In the time with Coach Worrell he gave me the most valuable gift he could on countless occasions. He was always willing to give me his time. Big Bill would come over in our backyard and give me pitching and hitting lessons. I can still hear him teaching me counting techniques pitching and his explanation of the importance of hip rotation. He could even put it in the way a space cadet 9-10 year old could understand (me). Coach Big Bill Worrell touched countless lives. To be transparent, I know that I am not doing him justice or his impact on me justice in this, but I know that I have made every adult decision I have made in a career to follow in the footsteps of him and my father.
Coach Greg Nelson bridged a couple year gap between my father and Coach Worrell at the helm of Carroll County’s program. I’ve gotten old, but the most I can remember about those days is running around in the cold nasty days at Woodlawn School on a rock-filled field without a fence. I know I was a handful for all the JV players until our rec season could start and Coach Erroll Rhea Jett began practice out behind the old Hillsville Elementary as part of the bank of Carroll Cardinals. When I entered fourth grade, my father became the head baseball coach in Carroll County and I was all in. I remember a very young teacher and coach who was my father’s first assistant. He’s almost retirement age and had a fairly successful coaching career in girls basketball, Marc Motley. His early teams were a lot of fun to be a little turd in the dugout running around for. The best player in that early group was Derek Wall, a realtor now in Floyd. Derek was the real deal as a catcher. I remember as a child it broke my heart when he went and played football at E.T.S.U. (I think), because, how could anyone ever not want to play baseball in college, even if it was for a D1 football offer. Casey Burcham was a starting freshman in one of those groups shortly after. I looked up to Casey greatly as a young kid. He could fling it on the mound and gave Carroll an opportunity to be successful every time he stepped on the mound. As he got older he could hit it a mile too. I enjoyed watching him all the way through and I believe he will do a great job as the new skipper of the program. Casey graduated in 2001 and the next group of players that would be one of the best teams, if not the best, my father coached came through after (I may be biased), the bulk of which graduated in 2004. I was blessed with the opportunity to play a role in that group. At one point, a lot of players on that team held records on that board. Brandon Horton was there for ERA until Reece Edwards knocked him off. Matt Hall dethroned Casey Burcham with career hits as a Cavalier (both 4 year starters). Hix Miller and Elijah Bond At-Bats in the 80s will likely never be broken; notice their stat is At-Bats, not plate appearance, which discards all walks and hit by pitches. I was lucky enough to be a part of that team that won the district in 2004, I was the class of 2005. The leadership from Matt Hall, competitiveness of Brandon Horton on the bump, all out energy of Hix Miller, Elijah Bond and Sam Beasley in the OF, and toughness of WB Barker in that group have taught me lessons that stick with me today. That group was special and there was always someone on base in front of me, which led to a lot of bunts. I mean a lot of bunts. I don’t remember how many sacrifices were officially on there, but my fat butt even beat a few of them out.
My father loved the art of bunting. Coach Brad Bowman did too. I remember laying down more bunts for Coach Bowman than I ever did for my father. No matter what or how it was, they believed that every player should be able to bunt. So, I had to be good at it and he drilled it into me early. I remember vividly my father making bets and winning, putting me up against Casey Burcham and Pudge Bowers in bunting competitions. My memory isn’t what it once was, but Brandon Edwards and the Fitzpatrick twins may have been a part of it as well. I’m sure there was running involved as well.
My senior year in 2005 I ended up being the only senior on that team. We lost such an amazing group of guys the year before we knew it was going to be an interesting year. Thank God for Coach John Jay Cole the Fourth. I expressed early that summer that I had to get bigger faster and stronger. Coach Cole would go work all day, do football practice and meet with me 3 or more days per week at the Carroll Wellness Center and run me through some brutal workouts. Looking back, they may not have been that bad, but I was really out of shape. My senior year was a lot of fun. We didn’t win as many games as we did the year before. But, like so many Cavalier seniors before, I formed bonds that I still have today with teammates on that team. I had groomsmen in my wedding on that team. I’m not sure if Brad Austin had the most errors at short that year in a season. But, as an amazing outfielder, he gave one heck of an effort at shortstop. Willie Yates always made me comfortable on the mound when he played centerfield behind me because I knew he would run through a wall to make an out. I believe he tried a few times, the wall typically won. Willie also hit the farthest ball I ever saw hit at Coach Bill Worrell field. It landed on the other side of 58 in right field. That’s right, over the fence, over the bank, over the ditch, over 58 and landed in the field. I know Jeremy Ogle hit a whole lot more, but I don’t know if he hit any that far. You’ll have to ask someone that played in the 90s for that one.
I did dumb luck into a few accolades as a senior, but it was all because of the great effort of those around me. In early March I threw a no-hitter against Floyd County. But, that would have never happened if Dusty Cochran hadn’t made a full superman catch in right field. Later in the season we made the miserable journey to Grundy. For all of you people that complain about long trips, you have no idea how miserable the journey to Grundy was. But, we always got to stop in Tazewell for pizza rolls at the Happy Mart on the way up.
The spring of 2005 was a nasty wet one, a lot like the spring of 2024. We played grundy on a Monday, at Grundy 2-5 inning games. We played Tazewell on Thursday that week, our biggest rival. Pregame, my father came out and gave me some great motivation. “You get 50 pitches, get it done in a hurry. You have to throw Thursday, too.” Every player that played a meaningful game for my father has a similar motivation. J.R. Barr worked his butt off that day. A great friend, and a tough, strong hearted catcher that caught every inning for me that year earned it for us that day. I threw 54 pitches that day, struck out 15/15 batters and got a perfect game out of it. We won 4-0, I think. I believe I ended that year with a 7-7 record and 2 saves on the mound, pitching in 16/21 ball games. I’m not sure it’d fly in the VHSL rules of today. I had a few successes and I also gave up 4 consecutive home runs to Grayson County. Yes, you read that correctly, one of which was the only lifetime home run to Josh Nelson, my father’s predecessor’s son, who played for Grayson County. Because, with good, there is also bad. We’re called to take joy in the trials. That season was a blessing in lessons, friendship and opportunities. We weren’t great by any means, but we had a lot of fun and fought hard in all of them.
We didn’t have time to celebrate that because we had a game on Wednesday against Marion and Tazewell after that. Tazewell was by far the most memorable game of that year for that group of guys. We didn’t come to blows (as some Carroll teams did later), but we came close. In that game we can fast forward to the 6th and a fond memory I have with my father. I was leading off the bottom of the 6th and we’re down 2-1. My father calls time before the first pitch of the inning and starts walking towards me. For those of you that know him you know how uncharacteristic it is, because he isn’t a big walker. But, he made the trek down to where I stood at the edge of the grass, threw his arm around me as he does everyone and said. “Hit is over the (four letter word)ing house” and he turned around and walked away. So, I did what any kid would do, I tried to do what was asked and connected. It didn’t clear the house, but it did clear the fence. We played up until the 9th in that ball game, both us pitchers in the 140s in pitch count, I’m pretty sure. The bases were loaded with 2 outs and bases loaded and Brad Austin was up. Baustin, as we called him, hit a bloop to center and the Tazwell center fielder came sliding in for the diving play. But, as he came up the ball fell out. Plate called it out, but there goes my father out to ask them to talk about it to make sure they get it right. Doggone if they didn’t overturn it and he walked off on the bloop. We had that season ended just like the season before. By flame throwing righties that got drafted. In 2004 we got beat by Jacob Thompson, a runner up for pitcher of the year at UVA for the NCAA in 2007. In 2005 we were beaten by Justin Grimm out of Virginia High who won a World Series ring with the Cubs, after he won a college world series ring with Georgia.
One of my favorite memories from that season came from a bet with Coach Ricky Nester after a very poor defensive effort from the team. We had earned quite a bit of running that day. So, Willie Yates asked Coach Nester and dad if we could at least bet on it. Coach Nester, knowing Willie swung lefty agreed and said the bet is, ‘closest to the foul pole tossing it up and hitting it from this exact home plate’. If you know, you know how much specifics matter betting on the baseball field. Since right field used to be 100 farther away than left, I got volunteered as the bet participant. Coach Nester went first and laces a ball down the left field line and one hops the fence. Well crap. I got up and unload on a ball and got a lot more of it than I thought. It sails over the fence and dings off the top of the pole and we all got to celebrate the win. Coach Nester might have mentioned how much ‘bull’ it was. But, we didn’t have to run that day.
I was blessed to get to be a part of the program for a long time after I graduated in 2005. I can tell you that T.J. Martin is the best defensive center fielder, and one of the quickest on the basepaths I’ve seen in high school baseball (Runs and Hits leader). Craig Rosen had an art of one hopping the right center field fence at Carroll County High School (Triples Leader-tied). It seemed that if Tyler Reavis wanted to, he could have played anything he wanted in college; baseball, basketball or football. On a baseball field Tyler made it look easy (Doubles Leader). Lastly, Reese Edwards was/is the real deal. The dominance he possessed on the mound, the command and finesse was special to watch (ERA Leader).
I’m not sure how to end this, other than to say thanks to Carroll County Baseball. I have made every adult decision outside of following Christ and marrying my beautifully amazing wife to be a head baseball coach. When I came back to Carroll to Coach, I looked around and I knew the program was in good hands. So, eight years ago I applied for a job in Floyd County. What a blessing it has been for us all.
I love Floyd County, the community, the school, the students, and the opportunity to teach the game I love. It is where I’m meant to be. I also get to coach against my friends, against a program that helped mold me, that helped me become the man I am today. I am thankful for all that Carroll County baseball has done for me.
I hope ya’ll go 18-2 next year.
Thank You Sir !
A.S.P.N on The Hill 