Mitch Reed ✔s in with the information on this years Golf ⛳ Outing !
Month: March 2025
Now, we can officially say “We See 👀 You, Bryce Smoot as our All-Time scoring leader lands on the VHSL 2nd Team All-State !!!
We can now say Congratulations 👏 to the Smoot Family 👪 as Bryce can add All-State to his All-Region and All – District awards this season!
It was a stacked roster between the First and Second teams in Class 3, making the recognition POP even more for both Smoot and the program.
Head Coach Anthony Barnes has secured yet another first during his five year tenure on The Hill. Elijah Cox became his first Cavalier to sign a letter of intent to play College Basketball 🏀 and now we have an All-State player who happens to now hold the All-Time scoring record.
Don’t forget hosting a play-in game during Year 3, earning a #1 seed in year 4 and qualifying for the State Tournament in year 5.
The journey has been full of peaks with a couple of Valleys along the way. Barnes, Kris Richardson and the six 🎓 Seniors will have a treasure chest of memories to look back on down the road.
The next trek will begin before we know it as Isaiah Easter will slide into the roll of centerpiece and take on the challenge of answering the question that Davis Reitzel faced when Cox graduated. Then Bryce Smoot faced after Reitzel left for Virginia Tech University.
There is very little down time in the World 🌎 of High School 🏫 sports so before we know it everyone will be back at it in the Cavaliers Gymnasium trying hard to make the 2025-2026 starting lineup.
Head Coach of the Junior Varsity, Jason Stockner had a hard working unit this year with a number of interchangeable players and we will have five other returning players not named Easter chasing a roster spot. Tryouts should be must see 👀 TV 📺, if you will.
Bryce Smoot elevated his game from season to season and that was absolutely the case once again in his Senior season. The level of Basketball 🏀 IQ on display was the highlight of the season, with Bryce and the rest of the rotation.
Prior to the season there was more than one opposing Coach who believed that the best way to upset the Cavaliers was to try to make Bryce Smoot uncomfortable. He met the challenge every time out and then some. But he had help out there as this group won as a team.
The JV players and the returning group will now face the question of who can be the next Ethan Richardson, the next Cody Reece or play defense like Brayden Smoot ?
Coach Barnes dubbed the ride this year as ” The Last Dance 💃” and its only fitting that it ends with a Cavalier landing page the All-State team !
All that’s left for Bryce to accomplish on The Hill is to become as fast as his Twin Brother.
Congratulations 👏👏👏 to the group and kudos to Spotswood High School for winning the State Tournament after getting past our Cavs. Sadly, today’s society is full of naysayers that will point out that Carroll County lost its last two games. That is a fact but know that it took the last 3 State Champs 🏆 with a combined four Division 1 players leading the way to end the run 🏃♂️.
There’s something about Chalk on the Riverwalk as we now have a second ever gathering of #1 seeds heading to the Lone Star 🌟 State… Could have the same down in Tampa for the Women…
There had only one previous time that all four #1 seeds advanced to the Men’s Final Four and back in 2008 the destination also happened to be down in San Antonio, Texas.
Yesterday, both Houston and Auburn joined Florida and Duke by punching their tickets 🎟 down to the city made famous by the Alamo and its Riverwalk.
The Gators needed a wild 18-4 closeout against Texas Tech to get there while the other three had slightly easier final steps 🚶♂️ to secure their trips.
The first two #1 seeds on the Ladies side have already booked travel down to their Final Four in Tampa and later today both Texas and Southern California will attempt to make it a perfect 8 for 8. Ju Ju being out of the lineup will make it a bit tougher for the Trojans to get past Geno and UCONN but one cannot rule it out.
Texas will be represented either way as Texas faces Texas Christian ✝️ in the other game. Birmingham and Spokane are the sites tonight.
Each year a story comes out about the 1972 Miami Dolphins 🐬 opening a bottle of Champagne 🍾 when the final unbeaten team finally loses its first game. Somewhere the folks from the Big East are celebrating the fact that they are still the only conference in the history of the NCAA to send three teams to the same Final Four.
Much has been written about the record 14 bids received by the Southeastern Conference (SEC) and the league had one team in each of the four Elite Eight games, leaving a chance at an All-SEC Final Four. Houston and Duke saved Basketball 🏀 for the rest of us by preventing that. Nobody is happier than the folks from the Big East!
If there’s a team to pull for tonight and then in Tampa, give some thought to Geno and Paige. Yes, Geno only trails John Wooden on the list of Natty’s collected, the Huskies legend hasn’t won one since Stewie strung together her four straight.
One final Congratulations 👏 to Kara Lawson and the Duke University Blue Devils. Their season ended yesterday afternoon when the 3-pointer for the win over South Carolina missed its mark.
The Gamecocks grabbed the misfire and then added two late free throws in the 54-50 outcome.
Two games that should prove to be entertaining tonight starting at 7pm with UT – TCU and then 9pm with USC – UCONN..
Monday starts the Final Five Days in the pursuit of reaching 600 straight!!
The good news is that there aren’t any scheduled events today, at least none that I’m aware of, so finishing up the second half of the Anthony Barnes season wrapup after Midnight pushes the streak up one more Day !!!
600 is the final obstacle in the chase if you will. The goal was to see 👀 how long one could wake up and try to find away to lift up another person’s Spirit ???
The first red letter # was 365. Jimmy Buffett and Martina McBride sung a duo called Another Trip Around the Sun 🌞 so hitting the 365 mark was a Big Deal for me. Then came 400 and eventually 500 and now 600 is in sight. I promised myself that I would never create a post 📫 just to keep the streak alive and that fact is incredibly important as well.
Got to get up in a bit and take Lin to her next Doctor’s appointment so I will save some of the next stories for later.
It is on a sad note 📝 that Day 600 won’t take place in Tampa, Florida as the Duke University Women’s Basketball team fell just short in their quest to get to the Final Four today against the defending Champion South Carolina
Kara Lawson will lead the Lady 👩 Blue Devils to the Final Four and I hope to join them there for it. Was kinda hoping 🙏 that it would be this week but not so much. Great season 👏 for the team and just like Coach Barnes & Company, just three wins shy. But the Elite Eight is a great finishing spot.
Have yourself a Blessed Monday 🙌
Head Coach Anthony Barnes presents : The Grand Finale of The Last Dance 💃
The photo above is of the cover to the four page program that told the story about the final year (for some) of a decade long journey. A journey that started many a Moon 🌙 ago and has been very well documented.
The celebration of the journey was well planned out and once again took place at the First United Methodist Church ⛪ on The Hill. Season five of the Anthony Barnes and Kris Richardson partnership ended in the same manner as the previous four years and we will now walk 🚶♂️everyone through the two hours.
Ten tables were filled with Family 👪 members and Coaches, with 11 of the 12 Varsity Basketball players sitting at the head table up front. The previous post included the Family pics taken afterwards.
Israel Easter had the honor of Blessing the Meal and did a tremendous job of giving praise for all involved. The folks at the Church one again did a terrific job preparing the meal in addition to the surroundings.
Our keynote Speaker this year was Mrs.Kristen Quesenberry and it would have been a tall task to invite someone who would have spoken more elegantly than our Assistant Principal did. The ability to connect all of the dots in regards to everything that the journey meant across the board was done with both grace and style. Adding in the fact that Mrs. Quesenberry has been around the team for the entire time enabled her to speak from her heart ❤.
The next 10 minutes centered around Coach Barnes listing off everyone who had been part of the journey, focusing on just how many people are needed for a program to flourish in the manner that the Boys Basketball group did this year.
The old saying that I believe belonged to Hillary Clinton, about it taking a village seems like a nice fit in describing the group of people who were acknowledged during this time. A group Hug if you will and it was a well thought out segment.
Kris Richardson had the honor 🎖 of presenting the first Award and it was for the Offensive Player of the Year.
Coach Richardson kept the 🎤, filling in for Coach Stockner who was away on a family matter, and presented the Award for Defensive Player of the Year honors:
Next up, Coach Barnes presented his go-to Award, the Hustle Award
Coach Phillips followed with the Award for Most Improved
Cody Reece
Coach Largen took the 🎤 to present the yearly Cavalier Award
From there the focus shifted to the Post Season Awards presented to the two time District Champs 🏆.
Three Cavaliers made the 1st team All-District team !
The entire starting five made the list as Cody Reece (Second team) and Brayden Smoot ( Honarable Mention) were both named as well.
Ethan Richardson and Bryce Smoot both landed on the 1st Team All-Region with Isaiah Easter making it on the 2nd Team.
Coach Barnes took home the District Coach of the Year Award as well.
The final individual acknowledging Moment is still not supposed to be officially released yet but I can give you some clues. A Cavalier player who has a twin brother on the team made it onto the Second Team All-State list that hasn’t been announced yet….
One thing that we can tell you is that while Carroll County High School doesn’t retire numbers, it can retire jerseys. The Blue version of the #3 will hang in the halls and the White version will hang at the Smoot household for years to come.
Coach Barnes believes that he has created a First of its Kind Award, given to the Player who recorded the highest number of DropKicked Basketballs in a season. I have to also believe that to be true and he presented it to……
The six Seniors had a moment where they stood side by side and were given an opportunity to share their future plans.
Bryce hopes to play College Basketball 🏀 and welding.
Brayden is still enjoying his Senior year
Cody is headed to New River CC to play Baseball ⚾️ and earn a degree in Education
Ethan lists Bluefield as an option with a focus on Religion and Music.
Landon looks to play College Soccer ⚽️
Jay is looking forward to enjoying his Summer.
Coach Barnes took home quite the keepsake as the event wrapped up.
Coach Barnes will look through this later on today as I looked up and noticed that its now Monday morning 🌄. He will let me know if I need to add anything else.
The Sunday Basketball 🏀 Trifecta has been completed and now its about framing the Day. Let’s start with the Families of Boys 👦 Basketball…
The link above should take you back to the previous post 📫 with the Family 👪 Photos.
Couple of side notes 📝 – such as bonus to see Dr Oliver McBride again as our new Friend was part of the serving team from the Church ⛪.
Big Bonus to share the table with both Paula Richardson and Kristen Quesenberry. Two very special young Ladies that brighten up any room that they are in. Kris & Lin were at the Table as well so we were in great company from start to finish.
In closing, kudos to Christy Shupe for being the latest person to step up and agree to keep one of our Tennis 🎾 teams moving forward ! Pretty sure that she is shopping 🛍 for a new 🏡🏠🏡 with her signing bonus and contract !
The Last Dance 💃 was quite the success and as the music 🎶 fades we can all reflect on what the journey meant to us all.
A.S.P.N on The Hill 