Now that we are safely 🙏 at the Charlotte Airport awaiting our flight ✈️ to Paris, France 🇫🇷, I can finally write ✍ about the Carroll County Middle School Basketball game Thursday night on The Hill.

  CCMS hosted the Blacksburg Bruins in their second home game to start the eight week season. The scorebook will tell us that our Lady Cavaliers fell short in the contest, 28-14 and while we will dig into the game,, we will also look at the Big Picture down the road.

Blacksburg Bruins      4  8  14  2 – 28

Carroll County Cavs   3  2   0   9 – 14

The two teams played an extra session and tied 5-5.

Kris Richardson falls into the category of DRIVEN and that’s our common bond. If you look at any given Coach and ask yourself, I wonder why he or she is coaching and you could have 1,000 different answers. My neighbor wants the Girls Basketball 🏀 team to return to the level of glory it experienced a few years back !

It’s such a belief in his skill set that was willing to take over the Middle School Girls Basketball program. If you want to be the Best, you gotta be willing to put in the work. The group that captured our Back 2 Back State Titles played Hoops together from the third grade on. That equals a decade of commitment and then some.

The Lady Cavaliers will play again on Monday up at Christiansburg, game three on the year but the first time it will involve a Bus 🚌 ride and playing in front of someone else’s Home fans. Just two more obstacles on the long and winding road to long term success.

It was a tremendous ” get ” to have Miss Lauren Alley on the coaching staff this season ! Yes, both Steve Martin and Richardson played the game and played it well but to a 12 year old Girl, that was back in the time of dinosaurs 🦕.

Alley played the game with a level of grit and determination that is mandatory in the game today. If I wanted to have a poster child for what is required to play today’s game of Girls Basketball, it would be the 2024 Graduate 🎓.

Looking at the box score, its easy to ask what happened in the second half ? The quarters went 0/14 and then 9/2 with the difference between the two six minute frames being the use of the off arm when on offense and being willing to play aggressive defense.

When a young Girl is growing up today she has choices. Volleyball, Basketball, Softball and Soccer with the biggest difference between the sports being the level of having someone in your grill for 94 feet. Each sport requires its own set of skills but Basketball is the one that has someone slapping at you the entire time.

Listening to the Dads sitting near me last night, I can tell you two things. They love their daughters and their understand the game because they grew up playing it. Big help in that category !

Steve Martin not only played the game well but then helped coach up his daughter years later. Martin is not bashful about communicating with the players and this is another good thing !

The team didn’t win Thursday night and they might win on Monday night but remember that this is a long-term agenda that is designed to end with Lady Cavaliers and scissors cutting down some nets.

No predictions here but I will add that I wouldn’t bet against my fellow Laurel Forkian…is that really a word ?

I have went out of my way to make Boys Coach Darian Brown feel welcome here on The Hill ! Sometimes its tough to adjust to new surroundings and its something that I have done my entire life so I want to be a personal Welcome Mat.

Two things that I can tell folks about Coach Brown – one, he has a serious Golf ⛳ Game so don’t let him take your Lunch money.

Two, Coach really liked my Duke University Coaches jacket last night and I think he would look smooth wearing one himself !!

Kira Lawson is Hero of mine and I’ve watched the current Duke University Women’s Basketball Coach grow up in my lifetime. First as a dominant player for Pat Summitt at Tennessee, then in the WNBA. Time spent as an analyst and then moved into her first Coaching position at Duke.

Lawson is also the current Coach of Team USA 🇺🇸 and right now she is in Paris. France 🇫🇷 for the Blue Devils opening game versus Baylor University. We couldn’t take advantage of the travel package offered through the School because we had Cross Country runners and Middle School Hoops to support before we could comfortably get out of town

In the month of November, Lawson will Coach eight times. Once in France, once at the Greenbriar Resort, twice at the home arena for the Las Vegas Aces, twice at Cameron Indoor Stadium, once at Liberty University and South Florida.

Let’s call 📞 it a November to Remember!

Thanks for reading about Kira, Kris and Darian !