Across the  forty year relationship with Diamond 💎 sports, there have been many a journalist who I have crossed paths with and Allen ” Homer ” Worrell has a very unique skill set.

Allen started out as a Sportswriter before having to transition over to the more serious Real World side of the newspaper 📰 business. Going from being the Sports Editor to the being the Editor was not necessarily a career goal but for those of us who are newspaper ” Lifers ” understand that our industry is shrinking by the hour and one has to make adjustments in order to stay involved.

  Those who are new to the story should know that Allen and Craig Worrell are not related in a kinfolf kind of way but they both spent decades providing coverage for Carroll County High School. The biggest difference between the two was Craig was splitting his time between three High Schools in CCHS, Galax and Grayson County, while Allen gets to be the truest form of a Homer.

As I close in on 50 years in the Newspaper business, I bleed ink and will until the day it all ends. With that said, I can never recall a time where a community was so blessed to have not one but two dedicated people providing a High level of coverage at the same time.

Allen was at Liberty University as was his ready to deliver a baby 👶 any day now wife, Crystal. It’s was a hot 🔥 and muggy kind of a June day, so I’m sure that Crystal was trying to survive the day in addition to celebrating the moment.

As is the case with Craig, there will be space for everything that Allen has to offer in regards to the book 📖. The Softball signed by the team sits proudly on display in the office down on Main Street so there is little doubt that the State Championship means a great deal to Homer.

While a number of people that covered High School sports were using it at a stepping stone to College or Profesional sports, others took the time to enjoy being the voice of a Community.

Ladies and Gentlemen, Homer fits into that second category and means so much to him that he’s willing to swim 🏊‍♂️ in the other end of the pool. Coverage of politics and crime isn’t a fun thing to do but in this day and age, if you want to stay in the business, it involves multi tasking.

The photo above is from the ESPN 30 for 30 episode titled ” The Class that saved Coach K”.

The Class of 1986 at Duke University got back together in 2019, 33 years after they graduated. Last night I was searching for something to watch and landed on a feature that I have watched at least a dozen times. The fun part is that I still find it highly entertaining.

  That is one of the goals in trying hard to capture the Glory of June 13, 2015 for both of the Schools that I have worked with over the past four decades. What did the Championship victories mean to the players and coaches, the fans and families ?

Now that 10 years have past, how many people still look back at what took place that day at Liberty University and Radford University, with a great deal of fondness ?

Teams win State Championships all the time, Virginia alone has six classifications of schools, so what makes these two stand out ? For Page County it was the finishing touch on a Back 2 Back that was three decades in the making. For Carroll County the victory that was 40+ years in the making.

Let’s get back to the Round Table conversations. What would it sound like if Coach Alan Knight was in a room with Coach Rick Nester and a handful of players from both teams ?

Now, make no mistake, I am not trying to compare Nester and Knight with Coach K. Just wondering what the Ladies that put forth the effort back then would have to say about the experience of playing with their teammates and for their coaches???

Three of the Lady Cavaliers finished up playing Softball at Ferrum College so they would have extended period of time. How many of the players have stayed in contact with each other over the years ?

How have the relationships created back then advanced ? What are the fondest memories of the lifetime playing the game they loved ? How many players found a way to give back to the game they love ?

No question about the two Head Coaches as they are both set to lead their programs in the 2025 – 2026 season. But we can ask if either one of them will last until the 50th season ?