Revelation 1:8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.
Three local events that are viable options for a fun way to enjoy the day :
Have yourself a Blessed Day 🙌😇🙏
For the third time since taking over the reins of Bill Worrell Field, Casey Burcham and his group of dedicated staff are now just hours away from entertaining the masses.
They just need a little bit of help from Mother 👩 Nature to pull it off.
The weather has been highly unpredictable as of late, so maybe it will not be the wet blanket on our Social as the day is a throwback to an old time Church picnic after the Sunday service.
Tommy Thompson Field stands to always host the largest number of Cavalier fans, and the Gym has seen some magical moments for sute, but the ball diamond 💎 is the place where everything just fits.
The strongest run in my nearly two decades of working our site came two years ago, right about the time that Casey was holding this event for the first time. We had 10 consecutive days of a former Cavalier baseball ⚾️ player take pen 🖊 to paper and share what playing ball on The Hill meant to them. The magic 🎩 is real, and we have the perfect person orchestrating the show.
Burcham is a rare holder of being both driven and blessed. Folks see a very believable leader, and at a time when feeling like you are a part of something is at a premium, he has no shortage of quality people by his side.
Things are certainly on an uptick right now as both football and volleyball just finished up with productive scrimmages, and the future is looking bright. This makes this the perfect time to gather on The Hill and pay respect to our past while continuing to pave our future.
Pillars of our community, the game we call America’s pastime, and a chance to rub elbows with your neighbors = a great day ! Just need Greg Bolen to provide security with the hopes of preventing Mother Nature from dampening the event !
Seth Greer and Casey Burcham have created quite the book ends with their efforts on opposing sides of our Hill. Getting to bask in the feeling should be a breath of fresh air !
11:00 am. today will be the inters squad scrimmage for the Lady Panthers volleyball team at Ferrum College. This will be the debut for 2026 graduate 🎓, Callie Harris.
August 29th will mark the official start of the season for Ferrum, but today will be the first time stepping out on the court wearing the school colors.
We will set the over / under for the number of times that the Harris family makes the trek over to Ferrum College at 75 in the next four years…
Vancouver, BC, is by far my favorite international city, and it stems from our two stays just below the Canadian border.
Back in 1995, the National Basketball Association decided to take the game to an international level by expanding into both sides of Canada 🇨🇦. The Toronto Raptors to the east and our Vancouver Grizzlies to the west.
2001 was the last time that professional basketball was played in Vancouver, so when the WNBA added the Toronto Tempo to the league, it was a marketing guess that the folks running the show would do some forward thinking about their country and play games in Montreal and Vancouver at some point.
The game in Montreal broke the 20,000 attendance mark, and the trip to Western Canada 🇨🇦 was an extended stay plan. First, the team would host Portland on a Friday night, and then the Las Vegas Aces provide the competition on Sunday evening.
Yes, the level of excitement that was there led to the planning of a trip back to the Pacific Northwest for a welcome home party 🥳 to the game of professional basketball 🏀.
Thankfully, the status level reached with American Airlines allows for redepositing the miles for the flight ✈️ but no such luck with the tickets to the game.
ION is 📺📺📺 set to televise the game starting at 10pm local time (7pm).
A bowl of popcorn 🍿 and a flat screen TV will have to fill the bill tonight.
Vancouver had the misfortune of bad timing, and things went from bad to worse when they used a lottery pick on Steve Francis, who proceeded to refuse to play North of the Border.
The NBA was just beginning to embrace the game as one of the world 🌎. There were international players back then, but nowhere near the level we have today.
The PNW took back to back hits when the second of its trio of teams headed out to Oklahoma City. The Seattle team went from the Supersonics to the Sonics, and eventually, the OKC Thunder in 2008.
Seattle is on the short list for expansion now, but the chance that Vancouver gets a second chance is bordering on non-existent. I am not sure that the folks in BC still follow the Grizzlies down in Memphis, but for at least one weekend, there will be a reason to head over to the Rogers Center for some Hoops !!!
Toronto carries a 66-59 lead into the fourth quarter as they look to snap a 12 game losing streak. They remain short-handed, so endurance will be a factor down the stretch.
Portland goes on an 11-0 run to pull within 75 – 73….. [3:56], now 14-0.
One possession game with 0:19 to play with Toronto leading by 2. The crowd seems to be enjoying it.
12:23 – Toronto Tempo 82, Portland Fire 🔥 79 is your final score….
Over the years, this approach has been one of my favorite approaches to a story about a former Cavalier that I’ve never met. While I have heard a number of stories about Erin Gibson over the years, I have never had the privilege of meeting her.
The recap above is what you will find on the Virginia Tech University website in regards to her stellar high school career on The Hill. It is equally important to mention the number of times that the term All-Academic is mentioned during her time as a Hokie.
Gibson graduated 🎓 Carroll County High School as a 6’2 “post player under the guidance of then and now head Coach Howard Mayo. There is someone who knows how to both play and coach ” Big ” basketball.
For a basketball player to sign to play D1 College Hoops, he or she has to have two skill sets. One, you clearly have to be able to perform on the court, but secondly, you have to be able to hold up in the classroom. Apparently, Erin handled both ends of the spectrum.
Virginia Tech University was still a member of the Big East when our former Lady Cavalier signed, but she did experience playing in the Atlantic Coast Conference during her senior season when the Hokies made their big move.
Gibson played in all 32 games as a freshman, another testament to the caliber of player that relocated to Blacksburg after teaming up with Brandi Cochran ( Mitchell ) and friends while wearing the Cavalier colors.
Her career highs at VT include 24 points versus Radford, 16 rebounds against Furman, and 4 steals in a tilt with Miami. But these are all numbers that can be found on Al Gore’s internet ( which I think might catch on ). If only there was an opportunity to see 👀 the journey through her eyes.
Gibson set the school scoring record that held up for 20+ years, and even then, it took a generational talent like Alyssa Ervin to bump her from the top spot.
Maybe, just maybe, someone in the know could create an opportunity for a conversation, but if not, just taking a step back in time to recognize another Carroll County success story was time well spent !
Multiple trips to the Big Dance 💃!!!
