Soccer ⚽️ had another night 🌙 of high visibility in our region, and it was highlighted by a McDonald’s World Cup 🥤participant…
Author: Around the Valley in 60 Days
Trying to find Positive in a World 🌎 that needs more of it!
Not tonight, maybe tomorrow ? Toronto Tempo hosts Minnesota tonight and now has just five more home games left this season.
There have been more loops finished in my lifetime than I can remember, and the stadiums 🏟 of the WNBA are one of them. A few years back, Lin joined me for a trip to Minneapolis for a Lynx home game to complete the box set.
Then the league went pop, pop, and pop by adding San Francisco, Portland, and Toronto to the mix in a very small amount of time. Getting to tack on a Portland Fire 🔥 home game a few days ago was a fun experience, but if created a ” hanging Chad ” in Toronto, Ontario, Canada 🇨🇦.
Toronto Tempo is also wrapping up its inaugural season, and tonight is the first of their final six home dates. But tonight is set to be about a Middle School 🏫 Volleyball 🏐 match in Luray, Virginia, so we turn the page to the final five dates.
Two of the five are against the Indiana Fever, which sadly means highly inflated ticket 🎟 prices. That leaves three to choose from 8/21, 8/23, and 9/20.
Women’s basketball 🏀 is a passion of mine and has been my entire life. I trace it back to the days when my late mother would come outside and play the game she played back in the 1950’s. Mom 👩 had game, and while her body gave out way to soon later in life, she loved to play basketball.
The tricky part about the final three home dates is that I should have Linda back home by then. Niagara Falls is just south of Toronto, and it’s been a hot minute since I took her there. Yeah, that’s the ticket 🎟.
Toronto is a beautiful place to visit, even if it is a bit busy nowadays.
The upside to the WNBA is that my favorite player is set to return to action here in a few days ! Kelsey Plum has been out for a month now but will be playing again on August 2nd…
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.
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.
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 :
