Sydney Nester was a Freshman on the State Championship team of 2015 and it was almost eight years later that had the pleasure of meeting her for the first time up at Marshall University..
Here’s the link to the story from that day and it appeared in The Carroll News as well. I have to smile about the fact I used the same title back in 2023 – Diamonds 💎 are a Girls Best Friend.
I remember the conversation with this highly motivated young Lady like it was yesterday and I shared with her that I hoped to write ✍ about how a young Lady took learning how to throw a Softball incredibly well and turned it into a six year College education.
For the time being, we worked together to create a catching up with Sydney Nester story and talked about getting back to the bigger story later. The Thundering Herd had a game later that day and I had to get back down I-64 to Charleston for a West Virginia Tech baseball game. It was a great visit and I looked forward to the next one.
Fast Forward to the 2023 Lady Cavaliers visit to Floyd County to face the Buffaloes. Sydney Nester was doing her best to get the Herd deep in the post season and they were playing at the same time. Not wanting to disturb anyone, I went out beyond the right field fence so I could watch Syd pitch while covering the current team.
It turned out that Israel Easter was also out there and this led to probably the most pleasant conversation the two of us had together. Then there was this young Lady playing right field and every time she finished warming up she would turn to us and share a thought.
Israel was eating a bag 🎒 of Combos during the game and by the third inning, Macie Adkins started working on Israel to share his food. He pulled back his arm and fired one in her direction, it was a nice throw by the way. The Combo landed in her glove but bounced out and fell to the ground.
Without hesitation, Miss Adkins reached down, picked up the Combo, ate it with her smile and said ” Five second rule “. Then in a heartbeat it was back to business as usual. That was the day that I first saw the potential in this young Lady
The title of the Carroll County High School portion of the Book 📖 is Cause and Effect. This story is a small version of how one thing leads to another.
If I don’t know Allen Worrell, I don’t reach out to Chuck McGill and drive to Marshall for an opportunity to meet Syd. If I don’t meet Syd, I am not watching her game on my cellphone in rightfield with Israel Easter and I don’t discover that Macie Adkins is someone that has a gift that can bring joy to others !
A.S.P.N on The Hill 