The bottom photo 📷 requires a closer look as I had just startled the large Bear 🐻 that was trying hard to get inside my car 🚗. The top photo 📷 requires zero squinting as Coach Nester has visitors as well.

  It’s a Great Day to be Alive ! Especially out here in Laurel Fork!

Last night we had a grand total of 16 foul balls leave the field of play and a nice Lady 👩 who made the drive down from James River had the winning ticket 🎟.

She left The Hill with a Carroll County Softball T-shirt 👕 and a OneofUs.Care Frisbee.

We implemented this part of our Softball GameDay experience three seasons ago and none of this would have been possible without the efforts of our friend, Ron Cochran.

Ron wasn’t at Cavalier Park last night but his daughter, Brandi Cochran Mitchell was and we were able to thank her Father through Brandi.

The  record shows that Carroll County Boys 👦 Soccer finished up with a final mark of 9-6-2 on the season but a closer look shows that Forrest Johnson guided his squad to a 5-1-1 mark down the home stretch.

Even the lone setback was a match in which the Cavaliers fell 4-2 against Radford yet had the Bobcats on their heels for the final twenty minutes.

Not playing at Tommy Thompson Field until April 17th, Carroll County protected The Hill to a tune of 6-2-0.

The team recently played at Bassett High School but it was against neighboring Martinsville. The different opponent Wednesday doesn’t take away from being familiar with the surroundings.

Christian Hernandez has raised his the level of his play in the net to the point where the Cavaliers can compete with whoever they share the pitch with.

The squad has Senior leadership across the board and a confident Keeper in the net. This combination gives the team a terrific opportunity to notch a post season tournament victory.

If the Cavaliers were to get by the Bengals they would be facing one of the best teams in the State next but I believe that Coach Johnson and his Cavaliers would welcome that opportunity.

How tough is the Regional tournament for Class 3 Girls Soccer ? After finishing up her first season as Head Coach at 10-5-2, Adrienne Harris and her squad won’t have the opportunity to play at Tommy Thompson Field again this season.

  If there is an upside to the seedings its is that Carroll County should have an opportunity to play in a match that the team could win and advance to the next round.

Lord Botetourt is one of the other teams in what could be called the Final Four, the group of teams that will compete in the 7 versus 10 and 8 versus 9 matches in hopes of advancing to the Elite Eight.

William Byrd is coming into to post season tournament fresh off holding Staunton River to a 0-0 tie.

How stacked is the top of the deck in the bracket ? Not only is Cave Spring 16-0-0 this season but the Knights only surrendered three goals on the season.

1,280 minutes of Soccer action 🎬 and only three goals allowed is bonkers. The Knights will host the winner 🏆 of the #8 versus #9 match.

Northside HS will be on the teams on the outside looking in after completing their tough schedule at 3-13-1.

Staunton River figures to hold down the #2 seed and will await the winner 🏆 of the #7 versus #10 match.

Bassett High School would appear to be set to host a play-in game after finishing up at 8-6-3.

For the non-Soccer ⚽️ fan, one would look at the records and notice that our Lady Cavaliers finished their season with a better record than their next opponent but will have to play on the road and wonder why ? The point system is based on strength of schedule and that works against Carroll County.

The Lady Cavaliers collected 10 wins on the season and won every game that they would have been favored to. Season sweeps over Martinsville, Patrick County, Galax, Pulaski County and Alleghany were impressive but the Roanoke schools have the benefit of playing each other.

The tie against George Wythe was another strong effort but came against a smaller school. The fact that the  four toughest matches on the schedule were against Class 2 powerhouses James River(10-5-1) and Glenvar (14-2) didn’t help the seeding process. Radford, also in Class 2, finished at 8-4-2.

Glenvar, James River and Radford will now go their own way in the Class 2 Regional tournament.

Carroll County, despite having to make a drive next Wednesday up I-81, is in a solid position to both gain some post season experience and possibly play a second game. That game might be versus Cave Spring but it would be worth it.

Soccer ⚽️ will take a back seat today for these seven young ladies as they graduate 🎓 High School 🏫 later today!

Later today, we will take a look at the Boys Soccer ⚽️ postseason path as they head over to Bassett on Wednesday.