Introduction
Three folks with serious ties to Page County High School in Shenandoah, Virginia. Chris Dodson, Alan Knight, have combined to put PCHS on the map. But they are just three of many as a van load of folks with the last name of Comer, and both of the Gordon sisters are a few more. It’s okay that some people will look at the picture above and question who that third guy is?
From 14 to 63, it has been a phenomenal journey and has included an equal amount of top-shelf people as it does various destinations.
There is absolutely no way to shine a light on every place or even every media outlet that has been part of the journey. But with the help of both John Galle and Nancy Sorrells, we will do our very best to pick the most entertaining ones available. There is one absolute requirement in that all stories MUST be of positive nature because if you can not tell a story without putting another person in a negative light, the story doesn’t make the cut.
This journey started when a 14 year old boy, fresh off a 42-point performance in a high scoring rec league game, was run over by a drunk driver on his way home.
A life full of promise ended before it really began, and this created a gigantic void. To fill the hole, I started tinkering with writing while at Norview High School, and the very first thing I had published was a poem about the basketball team, the Pilots.
My dream of playing for Hamp Anderson and then Bill Foster at Duke University was gone, but I lettered as manager and became the team poet.
While I never played a single minute at the Tidewater school, my tennis shoes did drop 22 points one night at Kempsville High.
Teddy Smallwood was an amazing talent, and the night we played at Kempsville, he was trying to break in a new pair of tennis shoes. It wasn’t going well, so during timeout, he asked me to give up my sneakers. My shoes had a very good night !
Dad retired from the Navy after nearly 30 years, and we went from Norfolk, Virginia to St. Peters, Missouri, during my junior year. The story begins in Weldon Springs at Francis Howell High School and will conclude almost fifty years later in the hamlet of Laurel Fork, Virginia.
The four categories that we will break the stories into are : West Virginia Tech University Baseball, Shenandoah Valley / Page County, Carroll County, and the wild card category.
The list of publications is north of 20 and is spread across the United States. In some instances, it was just a single story that was run while others were very long-term. Some subjects are famous while others are just feel good memories.
John Galle is a highly qualified editor who lives in Salem, Virginia, and made his mark as a sportswriter back in the day. Galle is now a father of three children, and I’m grateful that he is going to be tackling this project for our non-profit organization, OneofUs.Care.
Nancy Sorrells has been involved with our third and fourth books in addition to the fifth, which is in the final stages as this is being typed out.
The journey begins with a tragic accident that removed playing sports from the equation and ends with the task of trying hard to narrow down the Top 100 or so.
Mac Davis put together a book back in the late 1960’s with the title being ” Great Sports Humor ” and I read it while trying to learn how to walk again. It stuck with me and will be the inspiration for how this will read out.
Sit back and hopefully enjoy the ride !
