Day #2/42 is in the Books 📚 and Day #3/42 is full of Promise

Durham – Opening jump ball of Seattle University at Duke University.

Saturday November 30th has arrived and the first piece of Business is to wish my Sister, Sharon Jordan, a very Happy 65th Birthday 🎂 out in St.Peters, Missouri. Sharon is one of my two remaining Siblings and a kinder Soul 💕would be hard to find !

Very pleasant experience inside Cameron Indoor last night 🌙 as we ran into a couple of pretty special people along the way. We also did or did not see Mr. Reitzel on the scoreboard during the action 🎬.

For those who want to ” Hate ” on 17 year old Freshman Cooper Flagg it would be easy to point out that the young man 👨 failed to even score in double figures against the Redhawks last night.

Fans of Cooper will point out that the stat line shows 9 points, 9 rebounds and 7 assists. That passes for flirting with a Triple Double while playing just over half the contest.

The Blue Devils held SU scoreless coming out of the break for just over eight minutes, turning a 37-25 lead into a 50-25 advantage

Fun night 🌙 and bumping into fun people made it quite memorable !

Next Up – Women’s ACC Soccer ⚽️

It was a clean sweep last night 🌙 in the three Quarterfinals for the Atlantic Coast Conference. When you add tonight’s match between Virginia Tech and Duke is all ACC, the league will occupy ALL four spots in the Final Four ! 6pm is the start time here on Campus. Congratulations 👏👏👏 to the ACC for the very rare sweep of the Final Four.

____________________________

Georgia – Georgia Tech really messed with my sleep 💤. After walking 🚶‍♂️ across the street after the end of the Basketball 🏀 game, I turned on the TV 📺 where the Bulldogs – Yellow Jackets were coming out of halftime. Should have made for a few relaxing minutes but as Lee Corso loves to say- Not so Fast.

Glued to the TV for the second half and each of the EIGHT overtime periods it quickly became a 3 hour process. Georgia beating Georgia Tech was the outcome Duke needed in its pursuit of the Best possible Bowl 🥣 game destination.

___________________________

Football 🏈 games that we will follow today in addition to attending the Duke @ Wake game (Noon).

Virginia at Virginia Tech 👀… winner becomes the 12th ACC team to earn a Bowl 🥣 bid.

NC State (5-6) at North Carolina (6-5) as the 🐺🦊🐺 try to become team #13 by spoiling Mack Brown’s final Home game.

Duke needs SMU to beat Cal, Clemson to beat South Carolina and Miami to take care of Syracuse. It wouldn’t be a bad thing if Kentucky beat Louisville and Boston College pushed the Pitt (7-4) losing streak to five straight.

Two more significant games for me have Appalachian State (5-6) at Georgia Southern ➕ Bronco Mendenhall and New Mexico (5-6) at Hawaii. Both teams are looking for a victory and a Bowl 🥣 Bid !

In my 61 years, Duke has only played in a Top Tier Bowl one time. It was the Peach 🍑 Bowl 🥣 versus Texas A&M. This year the desired Bowls for the ACC take place in Orlando, Jacksonville and San Diego. We really hope to be in one of those three cities just after Christmas 🎄.

The group of cities that sit just below that three are Charlotte, El Paso and New York City.

If you are headed to Blacksburg tonight, Bundle Up and then some.

________________________

Wrapping it up with a Fun Weather fact about the 7 Days ahead in Whistler, British Columbia.

When I talk about where we moved from, I get asked about how Cold 🥶 does it get in the Winter ? In a few hours we will be sitting inside the Stadium 🏟 at Wake And later the Soccer ⚽️ Stadium 🏟 at Duke. Both places will be much colder today than any moment at Whistler – go figure 🤔

Have yourself a Blessed Day and if the opportunity 🙏 presents itself, choose Kindness !

Our Annual Christmas 🎄 Trip is now officially underway and we truly enjoyed the Carroll News send-off !

Allen Worrell has got Hops !

The 42 Day journey has officially begun and we are looking forward to seeing so many people that we share interests with but see 👀 to seldom.

We will continue to work with any and all folks that are interested in sending things our way. Our friend Allen Worrell has the key 🔑 to our site to pull any stories he needs to fill space in both the digital and print versions of The Carroll News !

We have a few stops ✋ on our way out of town as the ✈️✈✈️ out to Vancouver, British Columbia isn’t until 6:15 am on Sunday. Stops will include but not be limited to our passion for Duke University.

We hope to share the Trifecta of sporting events with some special people. Game #2 is Duke @ Wake Forest Football 🏈🏈🏈 Saturday at Noon and then back to Durham for the Virginia Tech – Duke Women’s Elite Eight Soccer ⚽️ match at 6pm.

The unofficial Date 📅 for the streak to hit 500 Days straight is Christmas 🎄 Morning 🌄. The goal is to wake ⏰ up and try to make someone else smile each and everyday…..

3 Hours until Tip-off !!!!

A behind the scenes look at the Cavaliers Boys 👦 Basketball 🏀 program and the upcoming Profiles. It’s all about Equality!

The 2024-2025 Basketball 🏀 season is ready to get underway and Anthony Barnes has a 12 Player roster. Simple math tells you that only five of these young men can be in the starting lineup each night 🌙.

The next line of separation comes at the end of the playing rotation. Most teams usually land somewhere between seven and eight players that will receive substantial game time. The third and final group will work hard all season long in hopes of earning more playing time.

The third group is equally important to the team, at least in my World 🌎. The show up and practice in hopes of improving their game, give up a significant amount of time to represent both the School 🏫 and the Community. Let’s not forget the commitment from the Parents and Siblings from the start of the season until the final horn of the last game.

Head Coach Anthony Barnes is very similar to the last Head Coach I spent 3 months with, Volleyball 🏐 Coach Cindy Edwards. Both of these Coaches are rather intense when it comes to their program and can easily be mistaken for gruff. But know this about them both, they absolutely love 💘 what they do and they 💘 who they are doing it for.

Coaches all have different levels of demanding and the Student Athletes have to adapt to the level of expectation that their Coach that season has for him or her.

The goal is not to fill the Students with false bravado like dreams of playing in the National Basketball Association. It’s designed for them to feel supported, by their teammates, Coaches, Families, Student Body and the Community.

Barnes and Assistant Coach Kris Richardson are as easy to work with as it gets from my perspective. Yes, they are demanding of their team and the individual players but at the same time they want them to enjoy the process along the way.

The Player Profile this season is titled Ten Things You Should Know about [ ]. As I explained to the players during their interviews, the process is designed to make them think and help them grow. Five of the things are facts and Five of the things required them to think. Why, you might ask, that’s easy, because its my Goal to help prepare anyone out there for Life after graduation 🎓.

  1. Full Name
  2. Parents as they should be listed
  3. Year of School 🏫, Height and position on the court.
  4. Their Home Town
  5. If they could play College Basketball 🏀 at any school in the Country, where would it be?
  6. What is their favorite thing to do when they are not playing Hoops?
  7. Complete the Following sentence – This team will have a successful season as long as I………..
  8. Please compare Coach Anthony Barnes to a restaurant and then give a reason for the choice
  9. What is your favorite part of wearing the Carroll County High School Basketball jersey ?
  10. Please tell me one thing about yourself that you would want others to know.

Davis Reitzel happened to be at practice and the very personable Virginia Tech freshman was happy to act as our test balloon 🎈. His answers are real but first he had to choose an identity – Bonus points to any readers that know the Movie 🎥 the character is from ???

Peter Lemon 🍋 Jello

Orange Jello & Banana Jello

Freshman – 6’3 – Power Forward

Woodlawn, Virginia

Duke University

Playing Video Games 🎮

Stay Focused and Motivated

Raisin Cain – His Fire 🔥 and passion

Environment created with the Fans and the Community

I try my very best to do my very best at everything that I do.

_________________________________

We will create each one of these as stand alone events so that each player gets to have his day in the Sun 🌞 all to himself.

Thank You Davis Reitzel 🙏 and always, Thank You to Anthony Barnes!

Breaking News : We are getting the Band back together – just like in the Blues Brothers 💙

Linda and I are finishing up our packing ahead of our 6 week, 4 Country excursion set to begin on Friday. But now there’s a reason to bring my Laptop 💻 on the trip!

Anthony Barnes, Kris Richardson and I have a pretty unique Bond that has built up over the past four years. This season will be our final one as a trio and we will do it on with style and grace.

I understand that with 20+ teams comes 20+ Coaches. This means 20+ personalities and 20+ agendas 📋 and not everyone has a need or desire for what we specialize in. There is nothing He Man about anything we do, just trying hard to provide extremely positive coverage for our Student Athletes in addition to giving the Coaches a platform for their message.

Teaming with Barnes and Richardson is a dream team type of project. When all 3 people have the exact same Agenda it just flows !

You will notice that we were missing one player at practice today – #5 EJ Conner. The photo 📷 of the Basketball 🏀 reminds me that we need one more pic.

This young man 👨 is a Swedish Exchange Student with two years of eligibility remaining, but no not really.

Davis Reitzel is as pleasant as the Day is long. Getting to see him was a bonus and he happily provided answers for the Player Profiles. His will be the first Profile we release so people will know what’s going on.

We will release them one at a time so that each one will be a Stand Alone story, having its own Moment in the Sun 🌞.

Also, I would like to add that we will still happily share any news or tidbits received while we are out of the Country.

Here are some photos sent in by Adrienne Harris from the Varsity scrimmage this morning at George Wythe High School 🏫.

Thank You Ma’am !