Month: April 2026

Story #7 of 9 involves Alan Knight and his Lady Panthers Softball program facing the defending Class 2 Champs in a doubleheader at their place

Bottom one is of Dennis ” Preacherman ” Zimmerman and old friend, Craig Orndorff of Valley Sports.

Earlier this season, Page County High School Softball team was in need of a postponement of a home game against Central – Woodstock due to a number of players battling illnesses.

Sadly, the only agreement that could be reached was to move the game to Central High School and play it as part of a doubleheader.

Thursday afternoon, long-time friend and even longer time Coach, Alan spent some time with me and both my brother Wayne and son, Chris in New Market.

When the conversation turned to Softball for a few minutes, we addressed the pending matchup with the Falcons.

PCHS started out 0-3 for the first time since indoor plumbing, but it’s worth noting that two of the three losses were to the Class 3 defending State Champs, Broadway.

The team returned to healthy and managed to string together six straight victories heading into last night.

” I don’t have enough pitching left to play them twice, not after the game against Clarke County two days ago,” was the line from Coach.

When Dennis Z reached out with the two final scores, I had to laugh to myself. After almost half a century of coaching, it shouldn’t have surprised me one bit that Alan knows his roster inside and out.

The Lady Panthers went toe 2 toe in the opening game before falling 4-3 in a back and forth affair. Game 2 went to the homestanding Falcons by a score of 8-0.

Page County now sits at 6-5 with four if the setbacks coming at the hands ✋️of teams with Championship rings 💍 from last year. The team will get back at it next week.

Big Daddy & Coach

Story #6 out of 9 is brought to you with some assistance from the Smith Family ! Carroll County JV Softball held their own against an undefeated James River nine, eventually falling

Obviously, one can only see 👀 one thing live at a time, so to provide coverage for as many Cavalier activities as possible, we rely upon friends of our efforts.

Last night was a great example, Tammy Quesenberry was at Varsity Softball, Marion Harris at Varsity Girls Soccer, Forrest Johnson provided the information on his two games. Both baseball ⚾️ coaches submit recaps and hard-working 💪 Kevin DeHaven shares as much information about things as possible !

Last night, our JV Softball team faced its biggest challenge of the season, and for the first half of the contest, this group more than held its own!!

By the end of the game, the Knights pulled away with a big inning to give a slightly misleading 10-0 final score.

“They held their own for a long time, and I believe the other team wasn’t expecting it.”

Love ❤️ the help. I love ❤️ the quote, and thank you for your assistance in getting this out there !

Story 5A & 5B of Nine brings tremendous news about the two teams that stayed home and defended The Hill !

Last night 🌙 six of our eight Cavalier teams made the long trek up I-81 to James River, but Jeremy Puckett and Forrest Johnson remained in town to host the Knights at Tommy Thompson Field.

Coach Johnson took the time to share the night 🌙 with our readers !

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James River at home recap:

-Jv picks up a 2-0 win! Goal #1 came from a Diego Banegas corner that was fumbled into the goal by the keeper. Goal #2 was scored on a corner by Carlos Avila-Rosales and assisted by Diego Banegas!

-Varsity won 3-1 in an exciting match. 2 goals were scored by Hez Mejia and both were assisted by Aiden Puckett. 1 Goal was scored by Hector Castro flying up the middle to slide it past the keeper!

Great games from our boys tonight. We hope to continue it away at Patrick County on Monday! ⚽️

Congratulations to both teams, and being that the Lady Cavaliers play at home three times next week, our Boys 👦 will once again become road warriors.

Story # 4 of 9 is about Brittany Kinney, Karmen Smith, and young Lady Cavaliers rising to a challenge !

Brittany Kinney is a neat Lady and has a very challenging job at Carroll County High School. Our Junior Varsity Girls 👧 Soccer ⚽️ team didn’t exist two years ago and Middle School Girls Soccer existed in the form of co-ed only.

This leaves Coach Kinney in a unique position, trying hard to search The Hill far and wide for young students who might be willing to add Athlete to the student part. Folks who, more often than not, have no experience with the sport.

Last night, while I was announcing a college baseball game, Mr. DeHaven was up in Buchanan with six of our teams, and he was feeding me live updates.

JV baseball beat James River 6-0
JV softball lost 10-0
JV girls’ soccer is losing 5-0 at half
Don’t have a JV boys score for soccer

That message above made my heart sink just a bit. The kicking Kinney’s were down five, and it was only halftime.

Fast forward to later in the night, and I received the following message from Coach Kinney :

JV Score against James River 5-0.

We really struggled the first half. We are down to 12 due to injuries and absences.

However, at half time, Coach Karmen Smith helped our defense get readjusted. I told the girls to hold them at 5.

We came back out and had an excellent second half. We held James River to 0-0 during that 30 minutes.

I’m definitely proud of them for that.

So thankful for Karmen. She really helped a lot tonight.

Once again, my heart ❤️ is right !!!

Message #2 :

We’ve got three home games this week- not sure what your schedule is like but —-

4/27- JV and V play Patrick at home

4/28- JV only against Abingdon at home

4/29- JV and V play Galax at home

Brittany Kinney is the real deal and the perfect complement to high octane Adrienne Harris McGuire.

Story #3 of Nine touches on the end of the road for the 2025 – 2026 Golden Bears 🐻 Baseball season.

While the day was very much about our Senior Day celebration, we played two games against the Midway University Eagles.

The Eagles are headed to Ohio for the River States Conference postseason tournament, and we threw out the first pitch for the opening game at 12:19.

The start time was pushed back due to the 27-minute tribute to our five seniors.

We dropped game one 12-6 in 3 hours and 28 minutes. The length of the game is relevant only in the setup for the end of the second game.

Around 6 pm, nine hours after the team arrived at Linda K Epling Stadium 🏟, we headed to the bottom of the sixth inning in a seven inning affair, trailing 4-0.

Braedan Pakkala, one of our five seniors, was the starting pitcher for the last game of the season, and he was dealing. The three runs allowed in the first inning were unearned, and after the rough start, the Eagles only plated one run.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, JJ Polvinale led off and reached on an error. Jake Tompkins followed with an infield single and one out later pinch hitter. Maddex Sims delivered an RBI single.

Senior Carson Brown coaxed a walk 🚶‍♂️to load the bases, and Zach Hunt stepped to the plate. Hunt sent a rocket 🚀 to right centerfield, and because of the angle taken by the Eagles centerfielder, there was a question about him bringing down the shot. At one point, it appeared that we had three runners in between third and home for two reasons – one being that Brown had the best angle on the play at first base and the second being Brown is fast! Not sure if he’s Tyler Mackey fast, but certainly fast.

Just like that, a team with nothing to play for and entering their 10th hour at the park had tied the game at 4-4!!!

Hunt made it over to third base and was 90 feet from being the game winning run.

Hunt never made it home, and Pak went back to the mound and added another zero to the scoreboard, but the Eagles would eventually scratch out the game winning run in extra innings.

The outcome was both familiar to the season and a great example of the amount of fight that our Golden Bears 🐻 Baseball team had, even at the very end of an emotional day.

The season is now over, and for five of the young men, their time has in a Golden Bear 🐻 uniform has ended. This group wore the uniform well from start to finish, and they will be remembered for all of the right reasons.

In game one, Ben Palomo made his initial appearance on the mound this season as the Senior has been hampered by a serious back injury. Polomo remained a vital part of the team throughout the season, providing leadership to the younger players and getting to see 👀 him back on the mound was joyful. Ben followed, fellow Senior Andrew Lynch to the mound, and earlier, Senior  Luke Richards took his turn toeing the rubber.

We had ourselves a day ! Would it have been a greater day if we had pulled out the night cap ? Sure, but as we say, it’s always a Great Day to be a Golden Bear!