Month: July 2026

Diamonds 💎 are a Girls Best Friend : Inside the circle 🔵 with Carroll County High School Softball duo Fire 🔥 and Ice 🧊

While we wait for the latest book 📖 to come back from the publisher, it’s a great time to work on one of the segments for the Softball / Baseball book. Here is the start of this one.

Carroll County High School is located just east of I-77 in Virginia, and while the most recognizable sports figure is longtime Virginia Tech University Football coach Frank Beamer, there are more than a few other rather notable former Cavaliers that shined on The Hill.

Erin Gibson and Alyssa Ervin both excelled on the basketball court with the latter leading the Lady Cavaliers to consecutive State Championships.

Head Coaches, Marc Motley, Howard Mayo, and Cindy Edwards have combined to win well over 1,000 victories and  baseball Skipper, Casey Burcham is operating at a level that looks like a college program. But for the time being, the focus will be on another veteran leader, Softball coach Rick Nester.

Nester is in his fifth decade of shaping young student athletes at Carroll County and has been blessed to work with not one but two of the most impressive hurlers in the schools history. Sydney Nester and Emma Leath possess every feasible pitching record in the 50+ year history of the high school.

The two young ladies went about their business in completely different fashion as the baseball comparison would be Nolan Ryan and Greg Maddux. Two of the greatest of All-Time but on opposite ends of the spectrum.

Dave Quesenberry was the pitching coach for the Lady Cavaliers when Nester was taking care of business and offered this take on the mindset of the flame throwing Nester.

” There were times that Sydney could defeat a visiting team before the game even started,” said Quesenberry. ” The velocity of her warmup routine was enough for opponents to mentally give up on the idea of hitting her.”

Leath delivered every single varsity pitch across her four years of eligibility and did so with the touch of a surgeon. The Maddux comparison is spot on, and the pair treated the idea of issuing a base on balls to a batter as absolutely unacceptable.

Nester would go on to first pitch for the Wolfpack at North Carolina State before transferring to Marshall University of the Sun Belt Conference. During her final season with the Thundering Herd, the powerful righty found herself leading the country in D1 strikeouts.

Will stick a pin 📌 in this for now.

Mount Rushmore of Volleyball 🏐 coaches ? Rose, Alan Knight, Cindy Edwards, and Chris Carter ???

Our younger of two sons, Chris Carter, has accomplished something that I never have in that he is from somewhere. Luray, Virginia, is his 🏡🏠🏡 and has been for 20+ years now, and he has become quite popular as a youth coach for the Page County Parks and Recreation Department.

This year, Andrew Good , the gentleman who makes everything happen there, asked Chris if he would be willing to try another sport, and volleyball 🏐 became the latest challenge.

Tonight, he led his very first team to the tournament championship and the won 🏆in straight sets. The team is pictured above with the second pic 📸 being of him and one of our nine grandchildren, Ana.

Tomorrow night 🌙 Chris will look to double down as his other team will look to capture their age group tournament ! This time, I should be able to join in the fun at Luray Middle School 🏫 with the first serve set for 5:30.

Alan & Rose 🌹, on a night at Carroll County High School in support of Cindy and the Lady Cavaliers.
Speaking 🔊 of Cindy Edwards, it’s time for Lady Cavalier Volleyball 🏐

Thursday night was Family Night 🌙for Carroll County High School Softball !

Carroll Wellness Center was full of smiles and joy as the Nester Family hosted their season ending gathering under one of the Pavillions on Wednesday evening.

Rick, Donna, Adam, and Kayla Nester ➕️ the three little ones that have been given credit for softening Papa up, were gracious hosts across the 90 minutes of celebration.

Principal Chuck Thompson joined the group, and while it is difficult to ever bat 1,000% with the planning for a large group, the Lady Cavaliers flirted with perfect attendance. Assistant Coach Travis Leath and recent graduate 🎓, Laiken Burnett, were two of the notable absentees. Bree Campbell was also unavailable due to another commitment.

Terry Warf stepped up to assist Coach Nester with his presentations, and the duo teased the gathering with a Guardian of the Galaxy style Dance 💃 off but a game of rock 🪨   , paper 📃, scissors ✂️ settled the question about which of the six seniors went home with the team banner… [Madison Coleman 👑]

Velvet Leonard and Tammy Quesenberry each have some pics 📸 from the evening and have shared them on social media.

If you add the fact that Addie Greene was gathering the items for Miss Burnett in addition to her own awards, the family car 🚗 was loaded down a bit.

The opportunity to share a word or two with so many members of the Softball family was certainly a treat. Six members of the team were participating in their final official act as a part of the program and they will be missed !

Pics 📸 from Myranda Burress :

Thank you Ma’am !

Earlier this morning, I touched on parents watching their children grow up in what feels like an accelerated pace…

Today makes it 36 years since the last time a Doctor told me that I have another child to be responsible for. The fifth and final time that I had been blessed with the opportunity to love and protect a Kiddo.

So yes, I can absolutely relate to the parents who are getting emotional as their little ones are about to enter their senior year of high school 🏫.

Being the fifth of five myself, I went through life with a Mother who insisted on calling me her ” Baby 👶”. Nine grandchildren later, I feel ♥️ rather old and with the youngest child now being 36 years old, I guess that I’m no longer imagining it.

In that photo 📸, Rebecca is sitting on my shoulders, and 10 years ago, I had that in me. Today, yeah, not so much.

Happy Birthday 🎂 Rebecca and I hope that you have a wonderful experience out there on the Island 🏝.

Wednesday morning 🌄, July 29th is here, and let’s start out the day on a positive note 📝! The evening will end with a softball gathering that will include the passing of the torch 🔦…

Morning 🌄 Brew
Travis Osborne and his Bible Verse of the Day :

Romans 8:38 For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,
39 Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Kelsey was leading the WNBA in scoring for the first time in her career when her untimely injury took place. She has missed so many games that she doesn’t appear on the scoring list but would still be second right now behind Aja Wilson. It will be great to have her back out there!

That quote was from Marion Harris last night 🌙 as I was working on a fun story that started out as a tribute to Kevin DeHaven and turned into a list of people who made the loop from The Hill to Bluefield and back. Thanks, Marion, for the late night assist.

Hopefully, we will have Coach Mayo and his Motovational Nugget for the Day to share.

Myranda Burress, Allison Dalton, and Velvet Leonard will take over as the Moms in the Softball room that are starting their senior year journey. Myranda might can lean on her good friend Velvet as this will be the first of three while Laynie-Jo will conclude the process for the Leonard family.

While I’m sure that the Dads in the equation will be feeling more than a few things as well, I believe that it is the Moms 👩 who are wondering how this happened…..

For the six players and families that experienced the emotional roller coaster in 2025 – 2026, it will be one final opportunity to share the same space as a group.

Now you know what I know this morning so get out there and have a Blessed Day 🙌😇🙏.