Looking back at the past few years I asked myself who is left to Celebrate in a manner that would wrap around allowing for there to be one final Free Gate for Soccer ⚽️ this season.
This means that the final four home dates will be free of charge to all fans!
Friday Night – Girls Senior Night is sponsored by The Carroll News.
Monday Night – Boys 👦 doubleheader will be called Three Musketeers Night brought to you by OneofUs.Care
Tuesday Night – Girls 👧 doubleheader with Varsity playing first. It’s Ben Tickle and his Going Away Party 🥳. Sponsored by Jerry and Linda Carter
Wednesday Night – Varsity only doubleheader, sponsored by Ches Helmick and Edward Jones.
Four nights 🌙 of Free Soccer ⚽️ with 7 games on tap !
Back to Three Musketeers… I had to ask myself about the 3 Coolest people that I’ve never had the privilege to publicly share my Appreciation for. It didn’t take long to generate my list.
In no particular order : Jon Delp, Shawn Montgomery and Principal Chuck Thompson ♥.
Montgomery and Delp have spent the past few months on the outside looking in regards to being co-tenats at Tommy Thompson Field. Mr Thompson has been nothing short of Amazing every step 🚶♂️ of the way this year.
Free Soccer ⚽️ and Kindness on a Monday Night 🌙
Bonus – Kevin DeHaven now doesn’t have to find ticket takers for the final four match nights. Now he can focus on vacuuming the Pitch with a wet-vac!
As the end of the School year and fiscal year is right in front of us, its time to link The Great Filling Station Hold Up cost me two good years and just how special I think Ben Tickle is ➕ how wise I think Principal Chuck Thompson is.
Ben Tickle had an idea 💡and I love out of the Box ideas. There was going to be an opening for the Varsity Girls Soccer Coach and Adrienne Harris was still one year away from finishing her education at Emory and Henry.
Tickle possessed the foresight of seeing Harris as the long-term answer to the future of Carroll County Girls Soccer. The offer was made to Mr Thompson for Tickle to be the stop gap Coach until Harris could take over full-time.
Having a great idea is the first step 🚶♂️in any story. The second step is finding someone who is in a position to buy into said plan, enter Mr Thompson. The third part comes in someone who fancies himself creative that wants to turn the definition of unselfish into a made for TV 📺 movie 🎥.
The Battling Ben Tickles were born and somehow I found the time to announce each home match and show unconditional support for his efforts. That explains Year 1 of the 2 years invested in the project.
Year 2 has taken place this Spring as Adrienne ” The Future ” Harris hit the ground running 🏃♂️. At the same time, Ben Tickle made the decision to move to Pensacola, Florida ahead of the birth of his first grandchild being born.
Enter Brittany Kinney into the movie as this young Lady chose to be responsible for a group of Junior Varsity Soccer ⚽️ players that had never played the game together. Some of them had never played the game before at all, let alone as a team. Kinney will have to decide who she wants her to play her in the movie???
Tickle did not take his short term job lightly. No Substitute Teacher mentality last Spring as he coached Ashlyn Newman and Company. Newman left the School as the All-Time scoring record holder and fellow Senior, Sarah Alderman might have left The Hill as the most likable Female Athlete ever.
This season Tickle is still Coaching his Heart ❤ out, he’s just doing it from the Press Box next to me. That’s the reason why I wanted to give him an opportunity to add a personal note 📝 to the group of young Ladies celebrating Senior Day on Friday afternoon. The next group of Battling Ben Tickles are set to graduate 🎓.
Yesterday afternoon in the Library was just the latest time I was able to appreciate just how much Tickle means to this group and how much this group means to him
Friday night 🌙 Ben’s words will be included in the Ceremony and on Tuesday night I invite anyone who wants to share their thoughts about Dr Tickle to be read out during his going away Party to let me know.
Giving of yourself to the degree that Ben Tickle did last season was nothing short of tremendous 👏 but then again, he wasn’t Awarded the Kevin Burress Humanitarian Award for just being a swell guy.
I have often credited Jimmy Buffett with teaching me to tell a story. If you tell a story well, someone who is listening should be able to close their eyes 👀 and visually see what you’re words are describing.
Back in 1973, the far from recognizable Buffett was trying to fill an album out and I can still see that Japanese TV 📺 in the Sherrif’s hand ✋.
God Bless You 🙏, Ben Tickle and Thank You for sharing your grace with the Battling Ben Tickles, for two good years!
Ben Tickle being presented with the Kevin Burress Humanitarian Award in 2024.
Dr Ben Tickle is headed to Florida to live in a couple of weeks and my Wife and I were looking for a way to show our appreciation for his time at Carroll County High School 🏫.
We landed on throwing him a Going Away party 🥳 with the Girls 👧 Soccer program.
The schedule 📅 that day will be flipped in order for Varsity Head Coach Adrienne Harris to make it to the Kindergarten Graduation 🎓. The Junior Varsity team will close out the night 🌙 by hosting the second match.
We will take advantage of the breaks in between to shower Love and Appreciation on our soon to be departing Friend and Teacher !
The Carroll News is our host for Senior Day Friday match for the Girls and we are proud to announce that Ches Helmick will be our host for a Soccer Bash next Wednesday when our Varsity programs share the Pitch for the first time in a Hot Minute.
Both of these events are exciting and we are considering hosting a Giant Sponge event for Friday morning as all we need now is a somewhat dry Tommy Thompson Field !
Thank You to the Carroll News and to Ches Helmick & Edward Jones 🙏
Spread the word and give that sponge 🧽 thing some thought !!
Martin McKenzie and his Ladies will look to sneak in a match both today and tomorrow.
On top of everything else taking place in regards to trying hard to cram games into calendar spots, we have 8 teams trying to improve their Regional tournament seedings.
The decision has been made that there will not be any postseason for the four Junior Varsity teams. The Nester Nine JV Baseball team is on the cusp of capturing a SIXTH straight Three Rivers District crown 👑.
The two Track 👣 and Field teams have a straight forward path in regards to their postseason. They will compete on May 22nd at Floyd County in the District meet and then the following week its off to Christiansburg (May 31st) for the Regional meet and finally to Lynchburg for the State Meet on June 6th.
Tennis 🎾 has Regionals next week on May 22nd and 23rd. We will know shortly if any of out players qualify in Singles or Doubles.
That leaves four teams trying to move up the Food Chain over the coming days.
Baseball, Softball and both Soccer teams are looking to improve their spots in the 10 team fields. Normally, tracking this might be considered a task but for Kevin DeHaven this week, its a perk to have something other than weather radar to think about.
Baseball is in an ideal spot and Softball is currently sitting one spot out of an invitation. The good news for the Lady Cavaliers is that they are 2-2 versus their four remaining opponents, giving them an opportunity to move up.
Our two Soccer teams are looking to land either a seven or eight seed which would allow them to host a opening round game ( 7 vs 10 or 8 vs 9). Soccer in our area is a great deal like Tennis in regards to the level of talent that we are competing against.
The matches tonight for the Boys teams are important to both Forrest Johnson and Jeremy Puckett. Johnson is trying to improve his seed while Puckett is trying to get in any games they can get played.
In closing, 17 was a big number yesterday afternoon in Abingdon. Corrie Delp set a PR by jumping 17 feet and the Track 👣 and Field teams set 17 total PR’s!
Senior Day on Friday@ Patrick County High School tonight, fingers crossed 🤞
A.S.P.N on The Hill 