From the Desk of Bill Meade
Since Pantherpalooza was 2011, I would have been 58. My best guess for home run derby count was 11 to 6 for the next competitor.
I’ll let you tell this story. “I was only as good as the one pitching to me.” (That was the HOF Coach Knight)
Ever since I can remember, I’ve been a sports junkie.
When I was five, I started collecting baseball cards.
Now, 68 years later, I’m fortunate to be able to coach high school golf in the fall at Ridgeview Christian School in Stuarts Draft and high school tennis at Staunton High School (my alma mater).
In between, I’ve been blessed to rub elbows with athletic greatness and just as importantly with unsung heroes who are legends in their own rights.
To Jerry: When I complete the full story, maybe you can help edit it. There are other parts before and after, but I’ll just touch on these three for you now and fill in some others later when more time allows.
My first job after graduating from William & Mary was as a teacher and coach at Immanuel Christian Academy in Newport News.
With no prior experience and no tangible idea what I was doing, I was tasked with teaching 5 different junior and high school subjects AND coaching all of their boys’ sports teams.
To say that I was in a way over my head is a monumental understatement. But at the time, I was oblivious to the challenge.
In the fall, it was coaching soccer on Mondays and Wednesdays and with mainly the same students, coaching flag football.
I was also the designated bus driver to the away games.
Winter brought JV and varsity basketball and more bus trips throughout Tidewater Virginia.
In the spring, yes, it was on to baseball. Did I know how to teach throwing a curve ball? Well, in a word, no.
Enter unsung hero Frank Doherty, a close church friend who voluntarily drove from Williamsburg to Newport News on his own dime to take on pitching coach duties.
One day, the principal came and mentioned that he needed me to take our athletes to compete in a regional track meet. At that point, all I knew was that a shot put and a discus were different shapes, and one would throw them out somewhere in the distance.
A few years later, when we were both then living in Charlottesville, Frank paid for me to take a computer class.
Another selfless act from someone who believed in me when I needed it.
The reason why this photo appears here is that Bill Meade created one of the five pieces of paper that went into the file we sent to the VHSL in hopes of Alan Knight making it into their Hall of Fame.
The letter that Pappy composed made me tear up just a bit as it came from the heart.
More from Pappy :
2015 brought several impactful changes for the Meades.
After a nine-and-half run as sports editor for the Page News and Courier and the Shenandoah Valley Herald in Luray and Woodstock, it was time for retirement (or so I thought).
As Lee Corso would say, “Not so fast my friend.”
I got over retirement quickly as free-lance sportswriting, refereeing soccer, and security gigs at college sports venues consumed many more hours.
In June, we moved from Page County to Stuarts Draft.
In September, a destination wedding in Ireland for our niece brought more memorable sporting opportunities.
A side trip to Sunderland on the Northeast English Coast took younger son Tim (on his birthday) and me to the Stadium of Light for a match between home standing Sunderland and the Harry Kane-led Tottenham Hotspurs in a Premier League contest.
Later, I had the fortunate chance to play a seacoast round of golf at the Courtown Golf Club, overlooking the Irish Sea. Truly breathtaking!
After golf, a friendly native Irishman from Bray explained Gaelic football and hurling to me.
Later, we were surrounded in the streets of Dublin by members of the winning Gaelic team in a raucous celebration.
In October, my older son Will married Lorena in Charlottesville.
As the year closed, my fantasy football team, the Stanley Stag Beetles, won the championship in the It’s a Wonderful Life fantasy league, now (2026), in its 20th season.
One more for the road, from the road !
The trip of a lifetime
The World Cup came back to the U.S.A. in 2026.
As a soccer-loving family, it was time to plan a father-son adventure.
Questions immediately came up. Do we want to see the U.S. national team? Where do we want to go? When can all of us go together? How much will tickets cost?
We settled on a trip to California to watch Paraguay and Australia play in Santa Clara in Levi Stadium, home of the San Francisco 49’ers.
The night before, Will and I made it over to Oracle Park to see the S.F. Giants play the Athletics in a Bay Area night game.
We had picturesque seats in the outfield pavilion, with the bay right behind us.
The Giants, our favorite team for decades, won in dramatic fashion, with back-to-back solo homers in the bottom of the ninth.
Later that night, Tim joined us at the hotel.
Riding a 1912 cable car and an autonomous Jaguar were highlights of a fun-filled day in San Francisco.
The World Cup game came down to a defensive struggle.
The atmosphere at Levi was electric, and the stadium sold out, as about 30,000 Aussies and probably another 5,000 Paraguayans witnessed a scoreless draw.
But for us, just being together there, 3,000 miles from home, was the real story.
To not close this out by giving credit to Pappy for his role in the Lady Panthers juggernaut would be an injustice. The level of coverage that Bill provided for the future Alan Knight players when they were in middle school made a difference in a manner that few would understand.
