Head Coach Anthony Barnes and Ron Cochran teamed up to create a T-shirt 👕 for the team !
Twelve players earned a spot on the Varsity team this season with the breakdown being 6 Seniors and 6 Juniors. As is the case with any gathering of size, someone will be unable to attend.
We missed seeing Jason Stockner on the coaching side and Isaiah Leagans on the players side. A great deal of ground was covered in the two hours at the First United Methodist Church ⛪ on The Hill.
Part 1 will be the Family 👪 Photos 📷 taken afterwards and a complete breakdown of the ceremony, from start to finish will follow.
Isaiah Leagans standing next to Coach Anthony Barnes.The Smoot and The Puckett FamiliesThe Bunn & Richardson Family 👪The Reavis Family 👪The Easter Family 👪The Reece Family 👪The Conner Family 👪The Phillips & Burnette Families 👪
This group has been together for a long, long time now and trying to write ✍ the final song 🎵 to the ” Last Dance 💃” will be quite the treat.
Coach Barnes touched all of the bases and the folks at the Church ⛪ crushed the meal. Please check ✔ back tomorrow to read the notes 📝.
What does Vickey Ritchie, Anthony Barnes and Kara Lawson all have in common ? They each coach Basketball 🏀 and today they all have an incredible task ahead of them so from 1pm until roughly 5pm, we will do our Best to assist the Trio in any manner possible.
1:00 – 3:00 – Kara Lawson is the Head Coach of the Duke University Women’s Basketball team, in year five of her stay inside Cameron Indoor Stadium. Lawson was one of All-Time greats at Tennessee during her playing days and then spent time on Television 📺 before excepting the job in Durham.
Unlike their Men counterparts, the Ladies won’t be favored to win today as they face the #1 Seed and defending Champion, South Carolina. As a #2 seed, Duke has defeated the #15, #10 & #3 to get here and now they stand one game shy of the Final Four in Tampa, Florida.
Lawson is the real deal with her speech to her team back in 2022 becoming a staple of life for many, around the World 🌎. We were fortunate enough to join her team sweep through the ACC Tournament in Greensboro and be in the building as well when they defeated Lehigh and Oregon in the opening rounds last week.
Of the three tasks today, the Duke angle is the easiest until 1:35 anyway. Just turn on the TV and cheer the Blue Devils on with as much energy 💙 as possible. Knowing that a victory is unlikely but if it were to happen, a Friday trip to Tampa is in the cards !
1:35 is the ✂️off time to leave and get to Hillsville Elementary School 🏫 by 2pm. Vickey Ritchie is holding practice from 2pm to 4pm today. The main focus for today is to get our Special Olympics Athletes ready for the trip up to Lexington (VMI) next Saturday.
The addition of the day long festivities in Lexington is HUGE for our group and the focus for the first hour will be getting prepared for a brand new experience for our Athletes !
The second event will also require a second early departure as the third and final event gets underway at 3:00 with the First United Methodist Church ⛪ hosting the final piece of business for the 2024 – 2025 Boys 👦 Basketball 🏀 season.
While Lawson would love to still be Coaching next weekend and Ritchie will be Coaching next weekend, Barnes will attempt to create the perfect send-off for the final time together as a team.
The story has been well documented and it was fun for me to perform a great deal of the documenting. Making it to the Elite Eight before falling to the eventual State Champs on their home floor but now its time to say Goodbye 👋 to the group as a whole.
Bryce and Brayden Smoot, Ethan Richardson, Cody (I hit a Home Run and pitched Friday night) Reece, Landon Puckett and Jay Burnette have played their last game together. Add in that Assistant Coach Kris Richardson has coached his final Varsity Boys game and one has the making of an emotional Goodbye.
Three different events taking place, each with its own level of importance, taking place on a Sunday afternoon at various places on The Hill. Three different roles to be played here as well.
Pull for Lawson in hopes she can Coach another game next weekend. Assist, with my voice, Vickey as she prepares for our Big Weekend and finally attend my fourth Annual Banquet hosted by Coach Barnes and do my best to paint a picture 📷 of the Love 💘 on display in the room.
Today promises to be a day of emotional moments and we will do our best to add anything we can to each of the proceedings because it is what we do.
North Carolina State is the only Top 2 seed that did not make it to the Elite Eight this year. The Wolf🐺Pack held a 3-point lead late before #3 LSU closed the game on a 10-0 run.
A.S.P.N on The Hill 