As Marion Harris and I head through the rain 🌧 storm on our way to Page County for tomorrows event in Luray, he took the time to drop some knowledge about the Softball journey in 2015.

Item #1 – Marion Harris is a serious Talent scout ! We had a great deal of fun telling people that before Kris Richardson coached her up and Marc Motley and Ed Robtison polished the talented Alyssa Ervin into the All-Time scoring leader at Carroll County High School, it was Mr Harris that encouraged a very young Miss Ervin to try basketball.

So its no surprise to find out that young Syd played on a U-10 Soccer team coached by Harris…. Not sure if she was nudged towards Softball or not but fun just the same.

#2 – The Legend of Cheyenne Strickland : Marion tells the story about a Volleyball 🏐 game at Ferrum College, where Strickland opened a set at the service line and proceeded to run off 25 straight points. Don’t know if she sold popcorn in the stands before we next set.

#3 – Going to Facebook Jail while providing live coverage of the game from the stands at Liberty University. Harris was updating at a pitch by pitch level which triggered an Alarm that led out Hero to the penalty box.

#4 – Marion describes the scene at the park as a moment that ranks high on the list of Proud Carroll County moments. The sea of humanity 💙…..

1. It didn’t take long to see that the 2015 Varsity Softball team was something special. We were all out there playing for a purpose-with a purpose and worked so well together as a team. We put in hard work on and off the field. Many of us were going to hitting or pitching coaches in addition to a normal days practice. I feel that Coach Nester had high expectations for our team and helped ensure that we reached those expectations because he could see our potential and the greatness that we could accomplish as a team. We didn’t quit practicing plays until we had it right. I feel those expectations played a crucial factor in our success. We wanted to get each play right, we wanted to win, and we had the grit and confidence to do it. After our first few wins I knew this team was going somewhere. The crowds at our home field just kept getting bigger and bigger with each game, we had so much support from our community. A normal seasons worth of softball games later, that somewhere was the state championship.
2. One thing I will never forget is the feeling when that final out was recorded and the game was over. I remember being so overwhelmed with happiness, it almost didn’t seem real that we had won. I remember us all running towards the middle of the field, dropping our gloves, gathering together, screaming, jumping up and down, and hugging just completely ecstatic about what we had just accomplished. Looking back on this memory to this day it still gets me. I’m thankful to have been a part of this team.
3. It meant more to me than I can put into words. At the time, being a freshman, the gravity of what we had accomplished took a little while to fully sink in, I knew we had accomplished something so great, breaking records on our path. I was so proud and happy that all the hard work this team put in was seen and rewarded by us being able to fight to win the state championship. Looking back now as an adult, married with a teaching job, I am still as proud as I was back then. Our team was something special. Not everyone gets to experience being a part of a team that shares the same goals and works hard for themselves and eachother to accomplish those goals. I am thankful to have been able to wear that #13 for 4 Varsity years and proud to have been a part of this state championship team.

Now, there will be plenty of more from Emily Cook as we progress but these answers might help others…

It helps if I add some of the questions…

It would be hard to tell the story about Rick Nester and his Softball program without Crooked Oak being part of the story! Rick at the Crooked Oak is similar to Norm walking into Sam’s Bar on the old sitcom, Cheers 🍻.

  Everyone would love to have a place that they feel they belong and that is Rick’s slice of Heaven. It’s fitting that it sits halfway between Laurel Fork and The Hill, the two places that are near and dear to him for his entire life.

Multi tasking in that Rick is one of the folks that contributed to our recent High Jump project and he did so at a level that earned him some golf ⛳ and a copy of our Basketball 🏀 book 📖.

Switching from Book #3 over to Book #4, we were able to spend just over ninety minutes recapping the four separate one hour conversations that took place the day before. The highlight for me was I had a couple of tidbits that I had picked up that Rick wasn’t aware of himself!

Ron Cochran, Darrin Mathews, Justin Quesenberry and Dave Quesenberry all proved to be enlightening. The challenge now will be to process the entire conversion and pick out what warrants making it into the Book 📖.

Darrin Mathews compared the intensity and desire of Cheyenne to that of Coach Nester. Let that sink in, especially for the folks that are close to Rick.

Dave Quesenberry shed some light on first being a pitching coach for Sydney Nester when she was eight years old and then resuming the role when she reached the High School level. One classic tale what something right out of Bull Durham as Dave walked through one of the rare times he needed to visit the Freshman on the mound.

” Syd, I am getting hungry and Tammy’s making dinner for me, so we just get this done?”

Another one was, “Hey, there’s an ice cold Dr Pepper in that cooler over there, its yours if you just finish this”.

Having fun with this and trying hard to not have it feel like a Homework assignment to anyone else, but the story is coming along quite nicely so far.