Spotswood High Trail Blazers defeated Hopewell High School yesterday afternoon in the Siegal Center in Richmond by a score of 57-50. The victory officially ends the season for Carroll County (23-3).

The question of the morning is how many people cared about the outcome of the game between two schools located many a mile from The Hill ?

Let’s begin this story two years ago when the Lady 👩 Cavaliers Softball team headed into the post season without the Big Bat and rock solid glove of Miss Lauren Alley. Playing without our power hitter, out recovering from surgery, we fell by a single run to Northside at Cavalier Park.

  I followed the Vikings run intently as they ran the table to their State Championship. It helped me to think that while we fell, it took the eventual Crown 👑 wearers to trip us up. I wasn’t sure what anyone else thought but it helped ease the disappointment of the season ending for our eight Seniors.

Fast Forward to this winter, replace Rick Nester with Anthony Barnes and swap out eight Senior Girls for six Senior Boys.

The team finished the regular season at 21-1-2 as the schedule was turned upside down by Mother Nature. Games at Galax and at Radford were never made up as time ran out.

Barnes led his team to victories in the opening two rounds of Regional play as the Cavaliers took care of business against Lord Botetourt and Cave Spring. The record stood at 23-1 and the next hurdle was the Back to Back State Champs 🏆, Northside High School.

  Don’t mistake this Viking team with the third version of our own search for a 3-peat in Girls Basketball. Northside simply had two D1 guards on their roster ➕ a Freshman Big Man in the middle. CCHS made it to State in year 3 but they simply ran into better teams and Liberty Christian Academy finally ended the run, leaving the Lady Cavaliers tied for fifth in the State.

Northside HS just kept reloading over the past few years and the Gym was full of people that day in Pulaski County, that believed that winning a third straight was their destiny.

We played Northside to a four point game until the Vikings executed a perfect back door Ally Oop for a Slam Dunk that propelled them to a double digit victory. A victory that allowed them to host Western Albemarle and sent our Cavaliers up to Penn Laird for a State Game at Spotswood.

After watching 👀 Northside play, I was certain that I had just watched the best 2 players in Class 3 play. That changed when we played at Spotswood the following Tuesday night. #4 for the Trailblazers has game ! Camryn Pache co is taking his game to Mount St Mary’s and Tyler Sprague has a gear ⚙ that most don’t possess.

The dynamic duo teamed up to score enough points to hold off another deep and talented team in Hopewell in front of a near capacity crowd in the 7,500 seat home of the Virginia Commonwealth University Rams. Spotswood won 🏆 its first Boys 👦 Basketball title in 30 years but that brings us to the question about the Carroll County High School Cavaliers???

Six Seniors who have been playing basketball together since they were old enough to understand the game itself. Their story is over now and Isaiah Easter and five others Juniors will lead the team next season, along with members of the Junior Varsity team, led by Jason Stockner and Ryan Largen will write ✍ the next chapter.

Assistant Coach Kris Richardson and our Six Pack of Cavalier players will move on now with a chest full of memories. Richardson has resigned his position and moved back down the Basketball pyramid for his third run at making CCHS Basketball 🏀 relevant here in the Old Dominion.

The next stop ✋ for the Basketball Whisperer is Head Coach of the Middle School Girls team. The spot was previously held by the late Jeff Tobler. This gives Carroll County Middle School coaches named (Marc) Motley and Richardson.

Bryce Smoot, Brayden Smoot, Cody Reece, Ethan Richardson, Landon Puckett and Jay Burnette will leave The Hill knowing that they were part of a magical ride that took them as far as any Boys team had gone in the history of the School.

Did the Spotswood High School victory over Hopewell add to the value of the season is the Million Dollar 💵 question ???. Five minutes after it ended yesterday afternoon, I heard from Coach Richardson with his answer.

” Spotswood won state, 57-50,”Richardson said.. ” That means that our last 2 losses this year came from the last 3 State Champions.”

It was a terrific story that was ten years in the making. There will be folks that will dismiss it as less than memorable but I can’t help those people, just wish them well. Carroll County went for a ride of a lifetime and while it did end two stops early for some, the rest of us will look back at the Last Dance 💃 with nothing but 💘 and appreciation.

Thank You, Anthony Barnes and Kris Richardson ➕ our Six Seniors ! Best of Luck in your future endeavors. As for the returning players, its time for people to learn how to play alongside Easter. Watching the development of the young man from Cana has been an absolute treat and while basketball 🏀 is a TEAM game, the other players will need to follow the lead of Isaiah.

Already missing the departing group and their Parents but thankfully most of them still have Spring sports to play in. Ethan Richardson on the tennis 🎾 courts, Brayden Smoot running track for Shawn Montgomery, Cody Reece playing baseball ⚾️ for Casey Burcham to name a few. They left their mark on The Hill and now they get their curtain calls. We are better for the journey !