The form above is just one of MANY things that the driven women who shares Omega Office 🏬 with my Main Man 👨 Ron Cochran.
Her and her husband, Johnny ( hoping that I spelled his name correctly ), are doing so many positive things on The Hill that it is hard to keep up with. But know that every one of them is created and implemented for the better of others, with the main focus being on our youth.
Ron Cochran has been in my corner from the day I met him, and the main connection is that we are aging in life with a similar situation. Neither of us lives in a Castle 🏰 but we have done okay for ourselves. When that is the case, you look for ways to give back as often as possible.
The third member of our trio has one HUGE advantage over us. She is not at the end of the long and winding road of life like Ron and I are. She is locked and loaded with positive plans and the energy to execute them !!!!
A few years back, Ron and I switched from having the winner of our Foul Ball contest swing by his shop to handing out the 👕👕👕 at Cavalier Park. In reality, that was an error ( softball term ) because when you ask for sponsorships, it should be beneficial to both sides.
Ron carries a great deal of items that someone might not know about, and the Kiddo in the photo has even more.
Yes, I was pretty sure that Ron would not try to charge me for the vouchers he made on short notice for Vickey Ritchie but I still went over to look him in the eyes and say Thank You, Sir. Blame that on my upbringing, being Old School and all.
Please, Yes Ma’am, No Sir and Thank You were once a huge part of our society. But not so much anymore, and that saddens me a bit.
Circle back – Jerry and Ron are old, and while we share the same birthday 🎂, both took place a long, long, long time ago. His work wife / daughter is just getting started, and if you stop ✋️ by, you might feel the passion in her voice !!!
Addie Greene and Chloe Smith together for the National Anthem !
There were so many steps that went into the pairings between our Special Olympics Basketball program and both the current players and the alumni. Most of them were decided by the physical limitations that each member of our group has, but this one was different, to the point that it was the only one that I hand-picked.
Addie Greene is the granddaughter of Tammy Quesenberry. She is also the daughter of Allison Dalton, not trying to discount that at all, but the two of us don’t run in the same circles. Granny, on the other hand ✋️, played a MAJOR role in my hopes and dreams across the past six years here.
The funniest thing about my relationship with Tammy is that for the first two full years, I only knew her as Addie’s grandmother 👵. It wasn’t until year three that someone pointed out WHO granny actually was / is.
Addie Greene has burdens to carry. First, there’s being the granddaughter of a person who has influence, and second, she is the best player on a team that has a number of holes 🕳 to fill. In her spare time( insert laughter here ), she needs to squeeze in being a teenage girl and enjoy her senior year of high school 🏫.
Other than that…..
I’m sure that there were some folks there on Sunday afternoon, that were wondering about what it was that Rick Nester was trying hard to discover ? When you flip over 50% of your lineup card and only have four upper-class players returning, a great coach has to try his best to mix and match to see what is going to give Greene, Laynie-Jo Leonard and Natalie Burress the best opportunity to have a successful final season.
I try my best to make as many people smile as possible on any given day, and on Sunday, I had my moment where I brought a smile to Miss Greene’s face and now let’s flip the script to the pairing up with little Chloe Smith.
The amount of weight that goes with caring about others in the manner that folks like Vickey Ritchie, Tammy Quesenberry, and I do is ginormous. That is not to say that we are the only three people who care, just the three in this story.
You can not fake caring and to the degree that Vickey cares about everyone inside her circle, well, it tugs at the heart strings. It is amazing 👏 to watch how many people walk through the door 🚪 at Hillsville Elementary School 🏫 on Sunday afternoons, and Vickey knows each and every one ➕️ the back story to the situation. She is willing to share that information with me but only when there is something I need to know.
Chloe Smith is a fun young girl 👧 who brings joy and laughter to those around her. She has become somewhat famous in our circle 🔵 because she made fun of the way Vickey said the word again. It sounded like aaaaaaaagin, and we are still laughing about it months later.
Now, her father 👨 is the absolute definition of a OneofUs.Care person. Everyone should truly CARE about their own child but it takes a special person to show the same love ❤️ for others. Trust me, Patrick Smith has that in SPADES ♠️.
It’s Kevin Burress like, the way that he watches out for everyone, not just Khloe. When the doors 🚪 open up on Sunday, neither Vickey nor I have any idea 💡 exactly who will walk through the door, we just know that we will do our very best to treat them all equally.
But in the transparent world in which I live in, I will state that I’m a better version of myself when Patrick is there to share his energy and love for others.
We need Tammy to be Tammy for as long as she can, for Addie Greene to be Addie Greene and enjoying do so. We need the positivity of Patrick Smith and the silliness of Chloe.
I mentioned that when I was going to thank everyone, it would include a number of people who others don’t like. I include myself in that category but I’ve never asked anyone to ” Like Me “, just to respect 🙏 my efforts for others.
Each of the 10 nights 🌙 on The Hill with Cindy Edwards gets underway, and the initial conversation directs my level of energy. That is just a fact, so today has already been a long day, so I couldn’t leave it to chance.
I walked in a straight line in the direction of our SRO, Chris Mabry. Mission Accomplished !!!!
Let’s do this !!!!!
Pre – Match trivia….
How many Lady Cavaliers can you name from this classic pic 📸 from 2003 ???
5:02 – end of 1st set, CCMS holds on 25-23.
5:32 – Dalton Intermediate 25 – 20. On to the third set….
5:50 – Dalton prevails, 15 -9
20:00 on the clock ⏰️…..
6 :18 – end JV introductions !!!!
6:36 – Lady Cavaliers take opener, 25-9!
7:03 – Lady Cavaliers sweep, 25 -22 !!
20:00 on the clock ⏰️
Captains and coaches…..
It’s 10 pm now, and we are safely back amongst the cows 🐄 in Laurel Fork so we can play catch up for a bit.
Varsity swept Radford, but each of the three sets was a dog 🐕 fight.
Radford….23 24 22 (69)
CCHS………25 26 25 (76)
Just seven points separated the two well coached teams ! When you hear that a match was a sweep, you tend to think about it being one-sided. But tonight, it was anything but….
After Glenvar, Radford is my second favorite match to host. Strong 💪 fan support, solid coaches, and likable players.
A number of people absolutely had a great night 🌙 on The Hill !
Nikki Heflin not only coached her team to a convincing win, but her and her bestie, Kelly Holderfield, were able to soak in the atmosphere that their players created during the Varsity match !
Holderfield had another reason to smile because her Kiddo served us from 3-3 to 12-3 during the opening set. It was one of the longest runs of the year, matching the effort of Morgan Osborne last week.
Intermission fun was had with Connor Reece, Blake Reed, and Colton Gravley !
Photo 📸 Credit : Samantha Reed
The absolute best part was that Colton approached me this time around !
Three very likable young fellas that are part of a well-oiled football machine under the guidance of Mr Seth Greer and friends ! The head over to Patrick County on Friday night, looking to go to 5-0.
Ryan McCafferty was on The Hill tonight, which means that The Carroll News will have a full-blown gamer on the match fairly soon.
Austin Keith is a wonderful human being , don’t let anyone tell you differently.
Lin also caught the Intro for the Varsity match.
We have 3 more home matches left now, but you can head over to the Dawg Pound in Martinsville on Thursday night if you want to see them sooner.
Quick note 📝 before I start this one, Ron Cochran was to be #3, but his story has some items that go with it back at home.
I am creating this one while sitting in my car 🚗 waiting for my wife to emerge from yet another of her medical appointments. Nowadays, it feels like one of us is getting treated for something on a daily basis, but there is no room for sadness on a place designed to be the happiest site on earth.
While any calendar will show that Rick Nester is older than me, that’s not true when you look at it from the wear and tear / miles put on my body over the years.
See, Rick Nester is extended family to me, and everyone should know the rules about family – it’s okay for me to pick on them, but I’m not going to handle it well if someone else does.
Case in point 👉, if you looked up the phrase – Married Up ,
You would see a photo 📸 of Rick Nester!
Still don’t know what he did or say back in the day to land the Big Prize but…..
You that are going to follow the story until all 25 have been written might pick up on the fact that a large number of these people fall into one of two categories – disliked or considered irrelevant. I can’t help that because some things are non-negotiable…
I will spare people the 1,000 word sermon on why I believe in Rick and DONNA Nester by trimming it down to this.
No part of what took place on Sunday afternoon happens without Rick offering me his venue and his backing….
