Month: January 2025

Saturday was about Three Ladies and One Fella…

  Let’s start out with the two that are closest to Home. Yesterday afternoon, Freshman Katie Lam and her Roanoke College Maroons traveled up I-81 to Winchester for a tilt at Shenandoah University.

Roanoke was unable to run with the Hornets, one of the teams sitting atop the Old Dominion Athletic Conference but the upside was Katie Lam connected on her one field goal attempt on the day.

  Division III basketball 🏀 has a different roster structure than DI and even D2. The rosters usually have up to fifteen players on them but the degree of separation in the rotation is much smaller. Minutes and opportunities can be limited after the starting five so its important to be ready when the Coach calls your number.

The team is off until Wednesday night when they head up to Exit 240 to face the Bridgewater Eagles.

Batting Second : Mother 👩 Nature

West Long was set to host a Wrestling tournament yesterday on The Hill. The event was set to be the crown 👑 jewel of the Home slate for the 2024-2025 season and there’s no clear path to rescheduling the event.

  Coach continues to work hard on the schedule and the challenges it has created. We look forward to sharing any updates on this, if any are there to be shared.

Hitting in the #3 Hole 🕳, my All-Time favorite Female Athlete – Kelsey Plum

Getting to watch Kelsey across her four year career at the University of Washington created a connection with the 5’6 gym rat that I doubt will ever be broken.

  Plum was drafted #1 overall by the San Antonio Stars 🌟 who moved to Las Vegas and became the Aces. For those of you that don’t follow Women’s Basketball to the same degree, it was Plum’s scoring record that Caitlin Clark broke two years ago.

  The move by the Aces doesn’t guarantee that Plum will remain with the only franchise she has ever played for but its an absolute step in the right direction !

________________________________________

In the Cleanup Spot, we have Cooper Flagg

I do my best to not talk about Duke University Men’s Basketball on my sites or in person. Not that I don’t appreciate their efforts, its that they don’t fit my criteria for pulling for the Underdogs.

  Yesterday, Flagg dropped 42 points against Notre Dame and it turned out the team needed everyone of those points to fend off a determined Fighting Irish squad. Take a look back at the great players that have played in the Atlantic Coast Conference over the years and note that Flagg didn’t just break the Duke Freshman record, he broke the ACC mark as well. Kudos to Cooper…

_________________________________________

  There you have it – one former Lady 👩 Cavalier, one annoying 🥶🧊☃️ Mother (Nature), one Baller and a just turned 18 year old Kid from Maine…

CAVALIER Hoops – The College Years (Weekend Update)

While the weather has grounded the High School 🏫. Cavaliers this week the trio of former players currently playing in College continue their seasons.

Alyssa Ervin (Freshman – Elon) recorded 15 minutes of playing time Friday night as the Phoenix hosted Hampton. Six points on three of four shooting ➕ one assist, one rebound and one steal was the line score for the 5’11 Ervin.

  The 15 minutes of playing time in a contested game might be the most relevant number on the sheet as Ervin continues to work her way onto the court. Elon (8-6) will return to action 🎬 next Friday (1/17) when they host Stony Brook

Elijah Cox (Sophomore – Rsndolph) was in action last night as well.

The Wildcats rallied after falling behind 11-0 but fell short at the end, 89-82 at home. Cox appeared in the box score but did not score.

  The team returns to action next Wednesday on the road at Bridgewater College.

Katie Lam ( Freshman – Roanoke College) last played Wednesday night as the team evened its ODAC record at 2-2 with a victory over Virginia Wesleyan.

  The team is slated to play ▶️ later today in Winchester, Virginia at Shenandoah University.

Mother Nature appears to be the one thing that could slow 🐌 down Anthony Barnes and his undefeated Cavaliers…

Last Saturday afternoon Carroll County High School Boys 👦 Basketball 🏀 defeated a tough Cave Spring team to improve to a perfect 10-0 on the season.

Led by unselfish offense and harassing defense, Head Coach Anthony Barnes was leading a team that was playing with confidence. The question was about who would be the team that could possibly derail the Hype Train 🚂 (Thanks, Dr.Pepper).

  Sadly, Coach Barnes finally met his match as his Cavaliers went 0-4 this week. The team had no answer against a familiar foe – Mother Nature. The team had three games on the schedule on Monday, Tuesday and Friday (@ Glenvar) ➕ they took a second run at hosting Galax on Thursday.

   The sudden backlog of games to be made up between now and mid- February is the kind of things that will add grey hair to the head of CCHS Athletic Director, Kevin DeHaven. Especially when you realize that the Varsity Boys 👦 is just one of several teams that compete in the Winter season.

  There’s no different answer as to when the Senior Six will get to resume their version of their ” Last Dance ” but I’m sure they are hoping to not face Mother Nature again in the coming weeks. See, Mom has Game and doesn’t mess around.

  The games with Alleghany and Glenvar are district contests and will be a priority to reschedule. The Home and Home versus Galax is just good clean fun that we hope will still happen 🙏

Don’t forget that the JV team hasn’t played in forever and they would like to play too !

We see 👀 you Riley Leonard and couldn’t be Prouder of our former QB!

Thirteen months ago Riley Leonard decided to chase a life-long dream of playing Quarterback under the Golden Dome in South Bend. I wasn’t fully convinced that the highly likeable Kid from Alabama had that level of talent and just two weeks into his opportunity the Fighting Irish were upset at home by Northern Illinois.

  I have watched the Haters beat up Daniel Jones from start to finish as he went from a Zero Star 🌟 High School player in Charlotte to being drafted 6th overall by the New York Giants. Now it felt like fate would play a similar role for Leonard.

  The folks that get paid to tear people down were feasting on Leonard. He couldn’t even beat Northern Illinois at home.

  In the World 🌎 where I chose to live, you don’t bail on people when the going gets tough. While I would have rather covered Galax at Carroll County on The Hill, my back up plan was to wear my Duke Football gear and root, root, root for our Guy 👦.

Riley Leonard played Riley Leonard football which means it was a roller coaster ride for sure. It was his second interception that put the Irish behind the eight ball. All he did was lead a tying TD drive 🚗 and then set up the game winning Field Goal.

  Here now in roughly 10 days, Leonard and Head Coach Marcus Freeman will face either Texas or Ohio State for a National Championship.

  Freeman will now be the first African American ( and the first Asian) Head Coach to participate in a Natty Title game. Kudos to Freeman and his accomplishments and I’m pretty sure that its the FIRST TIME that a Duke QB will be playing in the ultimate game.

  Somewhere everyone that played the position, back to Sonny Jorgensen, who had to play Cornerback as well as QB, is smiling atleast a little.

  Mike Elko headed to Texas A & M, Waters played running back for NC State and of course Leonard headed to South Bend. Pulled for them all except the day where Duke faced Waters 💧 and his Wolf 🐺Pack.

  Freeman was always not good enough and Leonard was also easy to pick on but now the unlikely duo will take one more ride together. Not sure if they can become the first team to win four straight under the new playoff system.

  Indiana, Georgia and now Penn State all tried to stop ✋ the run 🏃‍♂️ of Freeman, Leonard and Company. The winner of Texas – Ohio State University will be favored down in Atlanta.

  But win or lose that one, it will be the first time that a QB with ties 👔 to Duke University will try and lead his team to a National Championship!!!