Hey this is the Cavalier youth soccer team. They are coached by Landon Puckett, he is a Carroll County High School student and soccer player.they had a game today at 2 in Cana.
It was very warm down there today but both teams played there best and it ended in a tie. They played against the Blood Hounds and they are coached by Breona.
Forrest Johnson is our Head Coach, he’s going places and wants to take our Youth with him !
Thank You Charlie Q !
Not knowing if there is going to be enough time to catch up with KK Newman on one of her Game Days left this season, the next best thing would be to capture a look see 👀 at where she’s been the past few years.
The Mascot on the right is the Ram 🐏 of Bluefield College. The Rams are one of four schools 🏫 that call this Pitch home 🏡.
The actual Campus is eight miles to the West, right on the Virginia / West Virginia border.
This is the Press Box 📦 where the announcer calls 📞 her name.
This one is of the Home Bench so on Match night 🌙 its stuffed full of Rams 🐏.
These are the nets on each end of the Pitch, so if KK puts the Biscuit in the Basket 🧺, these are the Baskets.
On the left side are the Bleachers where her 👪 and friends sit. On the right side is the scoreboard to show the Rams 🐏 goals.
This is KK Newman in her Bluefield Soccer ⚽️ jersey.
This is her Little Sister that followed in her footsteps 👣.
Now you know the Athlete part of this Amazing Student – Athlete since she left The Hill ! Maybe the time will present itself for us to here all about the Student part….
Congratulations 👏👏👏 KK, you have done All of us Proud ! May God bless you 🙏 the rest of your journey !
Last one includes Proud Parents !
Last year was fun in the Spring to follow along while Adrienne Harris finished her College playing career and there was also Sydney Nester wrapping up her time at Marshall University. Both of these talented young ladies graduated 🎓 from The Hill, went on to play at the next level and then Graduate 🎓 all over again!
While it gets lost more often than not, the driving force behind our efforts is Education. Any thing that can be done to encourage our Youth to apply themselves while in High School and then for the fortunate enough to attend, College. I still remember the day up at Marshall when I first met Sydney, my interest in her story was she turned learning how to throw a Softball into 6 years of a College education.
Hillsville is not to be confused with the mean streets of East St. Louis or Compton. Those places have a different perspective on “Getting Out”, so I don’t want to confuse the two thoughts. But heading off to College is a HUGE deal and it should be used as a tool to encourage our youth.
Ashlyn Newman, Madison Stockner, KK Newman and Kalee Bunn are all currently in season for their College teams. None of their four teams are in danger of winning a National Championship anytime soon but that’s not the point, not the reason for trying hard to follow them and share the results. Going to College and competing in Sports while trying hard to chase your career dreams – this is a Trifecta that requires a serious level of dedication 👏.
Mr. Newman took the time to share just how much Life his two girls 👧 are experiencing while balancing School 🏫 and Soccer ⚽️. All positive things that will lead to them achieving their Life Goals.
Back to why detour on ones way back from Tennessee after a hectic two days to stop ✋ at Southwest Virginia Community College ?
Macie Adkins is in her second and final year at the School while Jabin Talley is just starting his first. Talley, pictured at the Virginia Tech home football game played yesterday in Blacksburg, won’t return to Campus until this evening but Adkins will be playing some Fall Ball Softball today.
Fall Ball was new to me prior to starting up with West Virginia Tech 15 years ago. Teams that play their season in the Spring can play organized scrimmages if you will during a designated time window in the Fall.
Somewhere in the back of my head I hear Allen Iverson saying ” Practice, we’re talking about Practice?”.
No , you don’t make the trek or report the score because it is some kind of Breaking News. You do it for three reasons . (A) The Parents and The Players, (B) Their High School Coaches and former teammates and (C) the younger players that are in Middle School 🏫 and High School 🏫, so they can find possible role models to look up to.
Now I can see a T-shirt 👕 👀 like the one that reads Straight out of Compton, ours would say Straight off The Hill….
These young Men and Women are still trying to represent our Community and in my eyes 👀, inspire our Youth. We will continue to try and keep up with as many as possible because its the least we can do. These folks and their Families have done and are doing the heavy lifting here.
Alyssa Ervin, Katie Lam and Elijah Cox will play Hoops this Fall. Later we will have Macie and Emma Leath playing Softball and Talley playing tennis 🎾 and I believe some people playing baseball ⚾️…all Student Athletes trying hard to carve out their path in Life while representing the 276.
I will circle 🔵 back to this Post 📫 tonight to add some photos 📷 from the Day.
One more Thank You 🙏 to Shannon Dalton for bringing this fellow Alum to my attention…
Here is the Jabin Talley portion of the Campus…
Next up – Macie Adkins portion of the Campus…
Breadcrumbs…
Anna & Macie
Now we have one of Mom 👩 with the two Flying Eagles.
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The games today are organized scrimmages so please know this is not designed to be game coverage.
Today is more about showing support 🙌 for one of our own. Macie opened up playing Centerfield ( 3 innings) and will move to left, sit an inning and close out Game 1 in the Pitcher’s circle 🔵.
Worth Noting that 86° with no breeze is HOT.
We found some shade behind Centerfield !
The field here is brand new, having hosted its first game back in March. It sits beside the Baseball ⚾️ field. No Bleachers in place yet but the crowd comes prepared, lawn chairs in hand.
Worth admitting that Lin and I were fortunate that a Dollar 💵 General was near-by…
The campus is very scenic and has some size to it. Sitting right off US-19, its tucked between rolling hills in every direction.
Must be the fourth inning because Macie has moved over to Left Field.
Guessing because our shaded spot is just beyond the scoreboard.
Macie with a sharp single to right field in her second at bat. Kiddo quickly swiped 2nd base.
This was Macie right before the swing, picture 📷 taken from 350 feet away…
Getting to spend 5 minutes with Mom 👩 (Sara) before the game started was an absolute pleasure but that’s the case everytime our paths cross.
Fifth inning now, Macie has worked her way to the bullpen to get her arm loose as she will pitch the final two innings.
Off to the bottom of the 5th inning. Macie to pitch in the Top of the 6th..
178 yards and 2 TD passes for Danny Dimes !!!!! All before halftime…
17 for 19….. Doesn’t happen all that often for Jones…
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Offensive explosion here in the Bottom of the 5th and our Lady 👩 Cavalier sent a rocket 🚀 to left center field with the bases loaded !!!! It will be scored as a Triple ➕ an error but in my Heart ❤ it was an Inside the Park GRAND SLAM !!!!!!!!!!
The phone 📱 has been in use since 5am so it will die before Macie pitches but that is what happens when you use it for good for 9 & 1/2 hours.
Bottom of the 6th, 14-14
What a fun few hours ! The bonus being the team getting to have some fun !!
Gate City – One of the most overused lines in Sports in describing a contest is saying that it was a game of inches. Gate City held on for a thrilling 3-2 (25-23, 25-9, 20-25, 15-25, 15-10) victory over visiting Carroll County Saturday and it was indeed a Match of inches.
The first example of inches came in fact that Gate City appeared to have six inches per player across the front line over the Lady Cavaliers. The Blue Devils resembled a college team more so than a typical High School squad.
Gate City jumped out to a 13-3 lead in the opening set and still led comfortably at 18-10 before Carroll County started to play their brand of volleyball. Senior Aza Petty willed the team back into the set and the lead by stringing together five straight serves that GCHS could not manage to get back across the net, giving her team an improbable 20-18 lead.
Petty added a Kill and Callie Harris an Ace to give CCHS a 22-20 lead but the home team finished with a 5-1 run to take the opening set, 25-23.
The second set opened even worse as the Blue Devils raced out to a 16-3 lead. Carroll County managed to pull within 20-9 but once again a Gate City run (5-0) closed out the set at 25-9.
Down 2-0 and playing along way from home on a Saturday afternoon against as big of a team they will face this season, it would have be easy for the Lady 👩 Cavaliers to mail in the third set and start the drive back home.
But Coach Cindy Edwards took her turn at trying to will the team to victory. Edwards became as animated as she could get and her team responded with a 4-0 spurt to open the third set. The teams exchanged runs throughout the set until a Petty kill made it 20-17.
Ali Wright found a bit of a groove down the stretch of the set and two of her Kills allowed CCHS to close out to set 25-20. The team avoided the sweep and continued the streak of playing great in the third set of their matches.
The theme to set four was Edwards shouting “Swing Ali” each time setter Laiken Burnett pushed the ball in the direction of Wright. While Petty (12 Kills, 7 Aces)and Harris (6 Aces and 28 Digs) led the way most of the match the start of set four belonged to Wright.
Wright finished the day with 11 Kills and Gate City had to feel they all came in one push. Wright switched up and delivered an Ace to push her team out to a 14-4 lead. CCHS extended the lead to 21-7 and coasted to the match tying 25-15 victory that ended on another kill from Wright.
Flashback to the Glenvar match earlier in the year when Carroll County went down 2-0 before storming back to win 3-2. Saturday continued to follow suit as Gate City jumped out to a 5-1 lead in the race to 15.
Edwards was busy rotating her younger players in and out, putting them in key spots and Burnett laced consecutive Aces to make it 8-8 before the Blue Devils knew it.
On the next point, Petty crushed a hit that Gate City had no hope of getting a hand out. On a day where Petty played as strong of a match as possible, she had given CCHS a 9-8 lead but the ball was ruled out. It is worth noting that the match was played without line officials, just the two at the net.
Even then, Carroll County bounced back to tie the score at 10-10. Sadly, on a day of runs exchanged by both teams, the final 5-0 belonged to the Blue Devils.
The Lady Cavaliers now sit at 5-5 on the season and 3-1 in the Three Rivers District. While victory remained inches away, Edwards was pleased with her squad.
” The same thing as always, we dig a huge hole and they battle back,” Edwards said. ” Today we just came up short but I’m extremely proud of there fight.”
Carroll County continues the busiest stretch of their season with another 2 matches. Monday & Tuesday night matches with Pulaski County coming to The Hill on Monday night.
Junior Varsity Head Coach Jason Petty and his team also made the Saturday trip. After leading 12-11 in the opening set, the team fell 25-18.
But the younger Cavaliers didn’t go quietly either. Trailing 24-18 and facing match point, CCHS rattled off five straight match saving points.
Clara DeHaven scored two Aces in the run 🏃♂️ and Ellie Heflin added a Huge block to bring the team to within 24-23. Gate City righted the ship 🚢 by scoring the final point in the 25-23 victory.
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Note 📝 – The running 🏃♂️ Blog from yesterday included more details and some photos from the Day. It was neat to see so much of the VB family 👪 make the trip that requires going to Tennessee and then back to Virginia.
Let’s call 📞 this one, When you tell your GPS to go South on I-81until you find Blue Devils..Carroll County JV Volleyball 🏐 @ Gate City…
A lightning 🌩 delay in Murfreesboro delayed the escape from Tennessee but its still the plan to get to Southwest Virginia Community College later today to see Macie Adkins and the Flying Eagles Softball team.
A.S.P.N on The Hill 