Hopefully you have read the Prelude to this by now, regarding Taylor Swift and Peyton Manning.

Steve Combs begins with the 1st of 3 Era’s – Growing up a Cavs Fan !

I entered Woodlawn Intermediate to try for school ball and I made it to the final cuts only to find my name with a line through it. I thought my life was over, how am I going to be a Cavalier when I can’t even be a Raider?

Then Coach Bolen reached out to me and said for me to keep my head up and increase my work on my game and would get to my goal! So a summer of hard work and a lot planning on how I could get on the school team a long year and here we go again with the try outs and I had made the team and my dream to be a Cavalier still had a chance?

Another year had passed and Coach Bolen invited me to tryout for JV and my life couldn’t be any better but Coach Bolen set me down and told me he was sending me back to Woodlawn for my 9th grade season and for me to keep working hard and he would see me next year.

So I was still trying to be a Cavalier (was ever going to happen).Well another year passed and I had one last chance to tryout to be a Cavalier . In my mind I had a week to to earn my spot on the JV team,I had a plan to assure me that I would get to be a Cavalier.

I would out hustle everyone on that field 27 young men showed up and I had to assure myself that none of them wanted it more than I did and it payed off I had finally made it and was a Cavalier and finally received my blue and gray interlocking C’s baseball cap.

Little did I know that I was going to have to out hustle every one every day for the next 3 years to continue to be a Cavalier ! My JV was a great learning year it started in our very first game I didn’t make the starting lineup and was wondering where my part of the team was? Remember where the Curveball was mentioned well I was put in the game in the in the bottom of 6th up by one and the pitch that was called was the hook after 12 pitches and I had loaded the bases I earned a mound visit and Coach Bolen in about 20 seconds he kindly taught me that being a Cavalier was find what takes to succeed and I had about 5 seconds to get with the program.

So I finally got the ball across the dish and this kid hit a line shot to our 3rd baseman and he turned an unassisted triple play and we went on to win by 3 and I learned that to truly be a Cavalier failure was not in the equation !

We had several more lessons on that topic and we were sent on to tryout for Varisty!(Thanks Coach Bolen!)The tryouts finally rolled around and it looked like it was going to be a tough one.

Over 30 showed up and I knew I had to revert back to my original plan and out work every single one on the field and it worked I was still a Cavalier

I had made the top 18. Then the Lessons began first a was assigned to Coach Robin Whittington the Catching Coach he assured me that what I had learned in JV was just a stepping stone and my Baseball IQ was going to get greater after blocking drills and catching assignments I was handed over to Coach Bill Worrell and just being around him gave the assurance that you could do whatever it took and he would do his part to you let succeed in Carroll County Baseball.

I couldn’t start to list the lessons in baseball or the life lessons that these two great Coaches taught me.

Folks, now you have both the prelude and the first Era !

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Era #2

Skip ahead about 10 years of Coaching rec ball,tee ball coaches pitch I ran into Coach Nester (at this time he was Varsity Assistant Coach)his Son Coach Adam Nester and my son were starting minors on and Same team Which began the Combs/ Nester duo and it was amazing how we both had the same plan on how to coach our beginning squad(the same way we had been coached Carroll County Baseball).

We had a 7 year run and Coach Joe Tompkins contacted me to see if I was interested in Coaching for the Middle School team and it didn’t take long to figure out that one not only did

I owe Coach Tompkins for all that he had done for me it was like throw this rabbit in that briar patch and that’s the beginning of the Casey and Combs right out of the gate we were doing great.

The second year not so much but we figured it out and Coach Casey got the call up to JV and I continued coaching the middle school for a total of 12 years and enjoy every minute of it!

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ERA #3 :

By this time Mr. Coach Dehaven was Head Varsity Coach and he asked if I could come by the field house this evening to talk to him. All I could think of is what had I done that was in pleasing to Mr. Coach Dehaven. I wasn’t even close he asked if I would consider moving up to Coach the JV team for him.
When Coach Bolen got wind that Coach Dehaven had named me Head JV Baseball Coach he gave me a call wanted me to know that I was Coaching his team and was to keep the high standards that I had been taught and he would be by to check on me.
When he showed up at one of our Home Games I asked if he would come and talk to my players and I had a proud Cavalier moment and 6 years later as I am trying to type this I just hope that I did him proud!

Then in my present year Coach Burcham asked if I would assist him to Coach the Varsity team with and I said yes just like I had just be proposed to (but I didn’t kiss on the mouth) and just like that Casey and Combs are together again and may God be with us to keep the tradition going!
So to get to the question at hand what Carroll County Baseball ball means to me is that you have on your left and talent on your right a traditional baseball community behind you and a talented Coach in-front of you want the BALL
I WANT THE BALL!!!!

I huge Thank You for every Coach mentioned no way I could be doing what I am doing without you in my life!
Coach Combs

Thank You Coach Combs 🙏 for sharing your thoughts with us from start to now !!

Taylor Swift is continuing her concert tour that will go down in the History Books 📚. It’s the Era’s tour and regardless of which side of the fence you stand on regarding Ms. Swift, there’s no questioning the size of the Tour.

The craze over the Tour led a marketing genius involved with Peyton Manning came up with a shirt that showed the Era’s of Peyton’s career, from the University of Tennessee to Indianapolis and finally Denver.

Probably the coolest T-shirt that I never bought!

That brings us to Junior Varsity Baseball Coach Steve Combs. I am a big fan of the Combs part of Casey and Combs ( anyone that has been reading our site this week already knows how I feel about the front end of the duo) so I was thrilled to see that Coach Combs would be breaking his story down to Era’s!

We were really hoping to catch more Florida League action tonight but the league takes Monday night off. This leaves Tropicana Field as the consolation prize.

Back to Coach Combs and the lead in to his Era’s Tour…

” I Never thought I would be writing anything like this! If you know me at all you don’t mention Carroll County Baseball to me unless you are ready for a long conversation. For me it started at the young age of 9. I had just finished baseball practice at Oakland and the men’s softball league was playing after my practice. My Dad’s team was playing the first game and one of his players had picked up his son from baseball practice and it was picture day for Varsity baseball and he was still in his uniform, so I had to talk to him and find out where he was playing.

He told me all about Carroll County baseball,Coach Worrell, Coach Whittington and how proud he was to be a Cavalier baseball player. At that point I bound and determined to experience what this young man was had let me in on. From this point on Cavalier Baseball was right up there beside the Yankees.( in a nine year olds mine)

Then I realized that one of the players that my dad was playing against had the very same ball cap as the player that I had just encountered,so after the game I had to talk to this guy, this is when I got to know Coach Mike Bolen and he filled me in on the JV program.

From this point on he kept me working my game ( keep that shoulder up,swing it like you mean it, stay in front of the ball and most importantly don’t throw curve balls I will teach you that when you get to me). We will skip 4 years of hard work and determination (only 44 more years to go).”

Folks, this is just the prelude to the story and we love Coach for opening up his Heart !

We will return later with more of the Steve Combs story !

Top 5th, Houston 5, Tampa Bay 1

Adam Nester and Steve Combs.

Steve Combs is currently working on his From the Heart ❤ essay !

Hix Miller has confirmed that he is ready to get started on his as well !

After a stormed out First Day last week, our area Schools 🏫 are ready to swing open the doors 🚪 today.

We want to show support 🙏 for our Administration, support staff and Faculty at each of the Schools 🏫 in our area. Thank You to all that have chosen shaping our Youth as your profession.

Macie Adkins is set to begin her second year of College down at Southwest Community College and we here its time for a Birthday 🎂 celebration ! While it would be impossible to acknowledge everyone on or near their Birthday, we try to keep an eye 👁 👀 (or two) out for those that try to help us along.

Mr & Mrs Adkins did a wonderful job raising Macie and in turn she has set a great example for her little Sister.

Update – Veteran Coach Rick Nester has signed on to take the 8th spot in the Baseball ⚾️ Story !

Have yourself a Blessed Day !