The fact that its the 10 year Anniversary of that glorious day of June 13, 2015 has a smidgen to do with the timing but today we will take a deeper look at why timing is so important.
We will take a look at the Page County side of the equation first. Alan Knight has been coaching Softball in Shenandoah now for going on 45 years. The actual number of years is a story in itself because Knight doesn’t want credit for the covid season that kept the Lady Panthers from playing.
The team this season was sitting at 3-3, which had the Haters (Thanks, Taylor) lining up to show the Old Man the door. One doesn’t win 1000+ games without bothering others along the way. The slow 🐌 start was followed by 17 straight wins and a spot hosting the Regional final against Central – Woodstock.
The Falcons picked up a hard to come by road victory that day, sending PCHS on the road to King William. The same opponent the Lady Panthers defeated in both 2014 and 2015 for the State Championship. KWHS scored three late runs to end the season for Page County and they would eventually fall to Central in the State finals.
Once again, Knight won the battle against Father Time. The fact that he has seven State Titles to his name and membership in both the Page County High School 🏫 Hall of Fame and the Virginia High School League Hall of Fame, yet he’s still out there coaching is a testimony about who he is.
The fun part of this story is Knight is not the only Page County High School graduate with seven rings earned while coaching in the Commonwealth.
Dodson flirted with ring 💍 #8 this season with his success required packing up and leaving town. The definition of an inside joke as Spotswood High School is just 19 miles from Page County High.
Dodson and Knight share a stage in Page County High School history with others, like Wayne Comer, who played Baseball in the Big Leagues back in the 1960’s and 1970’s.
My connection with Knight stems back roughly a quarter of a century now and Page County was our home for a decade and still is home to one of our five Children and four of our nine grandchildren. Our business was located there and I have nothing but fond memories of the Shenandoah Valley.
The fact that Knight is still going at this with everything he has is a story in itself. We joke about how life changed the day we were able to officially dedicate the field to him as to which one of us it meant more to ?
The end of the road is near, for no other reason than it has to, right ?
https://augustafreepress.com/news/alan-knight-the-high-school-coach-who-quietly-won-1000-games/
This was the story from back in 2022 that was part of the VHSL Hall of Fame packet. I am pretty proud of my work on that one.
Thank You to both Chris Graham at the Augusta Free Press and Randy Arrington at the Page Valley News for running the article.
Timing, the why now for myself is I’m getting older by the minute. For Alan, he cannot do this forever and I am proud to have been along for half the ride. In regards to Rick Nester and Carroll County Softball, that will be the next piece to the puzzle.
A.S.P.N on The Hill 