Happy Halloween 🎃!

Safely made it to Boone and the game below is mine to announce tomorrow afternoon and the one on the left is an option to support the Mountaineers later this evening.

At this point in life, one shouldn’t ever assume that they will be around this time the following year. Age 61, going on 85, but with no regrets, this could very well be my final trip to Boone.

With that said, let’s take a look at just where the Appalachian State University Field Hockey 🏑 program fits in with OneofUs.Care ?

The three pillars that the Organization is based on is Kindness, Volunteering and Bartering. #2, Volunteering – if you have a Skill Set that can benefit others, you should lend it out every chance you get.

Technically, hanging out down here is tricky because at the end of the season I receive a small check 💰 that doesn’t cover the gasoline costs for driving down from Laurel Fork. But a check is a check, so I have to find a creative way to give it back to ASU.

The announcing position is not designed for someone who lives 2+ hours away, its clearly designed for someone local. One of the reasons why it was available to me a few years back is that the Sport has a heavy European 🇪🇺 flavor to it in regards to the roster. Between the Appalachian State team and the visitors one will have 10 to 15 names per day that will be a challenge to pronounce correctly.

Then there’s those two words (It’s Only) that tend to drive me nuts. While there would be a line around the block to announce ASU Football or Basketball 🏀, the other programs, not so much.

Our Head Coach, Emily Dinsmore, is finishing up her second season in the Top Spot and I feel that her passion for our team is every bit as 🔥 as every other Coach here on The Rock.

Sunday afternoon the team will travel up to fellow Sun Belt transplant team, James Madison University for a contest that will decide the M.A.C. regular season Championship.

The Sun Belt Conference doesn’t have enough teams to play in its own league, leaving the Schools that do play it to find a home each year.

First things First, tomorrow we will host Queens (Charlotte, NC) in our final Non-Conference match. Here’s hoping that the crowd at Dr. Jan C Watson field it amped up for the close out session.

Win or lose on Sunday, the team will head up to Ohio for the 3 Day conference Championship. May 7, 8 &9 are the dates and the team that takes the trophy 🏆 gets the automatic Bid to the NCAA Tournament.

It’s ” only Field Hockey 🏑” to some people but its certainly more to our Coach, her Staff, her team and to her Announcer. The team is locked 🔒 into the six team event in Ohio and will land either in the #1, #2 or #3 seed.

James Madison 6-0 in MAC

App State 6-1 in MAC

Miami of Ohio 6-1 in MAC

Kent State 4-2 in MAC

Now let’s see about the Halloween 🎃 Soccer ⚽️ game….

#NeverQuit

The Sermon that reached the deepest part of my Soul came as a teenager 🙏 at Willott Road Baptist Church ⛪ in St.Peters, Missouri. The preacher that day was a guest speaker so I cannot remember his name half a Century later but I do still hold onto the Word Play he used to drive home his point. The point was that everyone can be an example to others, we just need to find it. He gave examples from six words down to just three words.

The one with three words became rather famous later – Just Do It. One of the most famous Advertising tag lines of all time (Nike).

The one that got me that day was the six word answer –

FIND A NEED AND FILL IT !

Powerful words to a misguided youngster back then and still at the forefront of a 61-year old Man. Pretty simple thought process….

When I was looking for a place to try and implement all of the Amazing things that I have seen implemented across the Country, one of the key ingredients was for the place to be small enough that it didn’t have the benefit of coverage from either a local TV station or a Daily newspaper 📰.

Carroll County, Virginia met both parts of that criteria. But not being on Social Media at the time we moved here, I simply didn’t know exactly how many people were filling the perceived voids.

Yesterday will be the example of a typical day. Leaving the House until back to the House was just over 8 hours. Writing ✍ the story was roughly 90 minutes ( Thank You 🙏 to Allen Worrell for running the story) so now we are closing in on 10 hours for one story that maybe 100 people will read.

Up top, I shared two posts on Facebook that pretty much summed up the evening and did so in great taste. Just not sure that spending 10 hours to try and create a story that will only appeal to the people who were all ready in the Gymnasium and a few more translates into Find a Need and Fill It.

The day was a wonderful experience from beginning to end, shortly before Midnight. Getting to see Kalee Bunn again and meeting Madison Stockner for the first time were both rather enjoyable.

Trying to capture what the Night 🌙 meant to Cindy Edwards was the task at hand ✋and I think that was accomplished. Speaking about effective Tag – lines, ours is Encouraging the World 🌎, One Person at a Time.

Living up to that is difficult when the said World 🌎 is spinning at such a fast rate. The night was long but it was Awesome and if you are one of the 100 readers of the story – God Bless You 🙏 for your time.

Getting ready to head down to Boone for the final time this season with one stop ✋ on the way. It’s time to drop off our $1,000.00 check ✔ for November at the High School for the Cavalier Kudos….

Find a Need and Fill It, the search for the next fork in the road begins on Monday morning 🌄!

The connection with West Virginia Tech University goes back to 2009 with the School, 2007 with the Coach. Skipper Lawrence Nesselrodt and I first met when we were both mainstays in the Valley Baseball ⚾️ League. Ness is the reason why I ended up owning a Baseball team for just over one year back in Waynesboro, Virginia.

When Ness left the Valley to take over the Baseball ⚾️ program the school was located in Montgomery, WV and we played our home games in a nearby village called East Bank.

The world 🌎 of N.A.I.A Baseball is a different animal and if you have never experienced it, explaining it would be really difficult. Our Athletic Director, Kevin DeHaven played at this level in College back in the day, if memory serves me right.

One thing that is easy to point to as different is just how fluid the schedule is and how hard folks work to get a game played. Second difference is the lack of funding by comparison to a NCAA Power 5 school.

A few years back, WVU-T was gobbled up by the folks in Morgantown, becoming part of the West Virginia University system. Another HUGE change came about when the School relocation took the Campus from Montgomery over to Beckley.

Beckley is New York City by comparison to Montgomery. Great location at the junction of Interstate 64 and 77 in the Mountains of West Virginia. The Golden Bears 🐻 currently play their Home games in a $3M dollar stadium 🏟 with a turfed Field that includes a jumbotron scoreboard (Linda K Epling Stadium) but its been an adventure every step of the way.

Every part of the program up here is an adventure and the people involved all have a lifetime connection to the game of Baseball ⚾️. My role here is whatever needs to be done on a given day, announcing if we are at Home to arranging meals on the road and everything in between.

Lawrence ” Big Picture ” Nesselrodt has a Top Shelf group of people around him, including the man I announce as the Legandery Joe Goddard. Everything about the goals within the Golden Bears 🐻 program is centered around ” Respect the Game” and “Leave it Better than you found it.”

Not sure what all we will attempt to tackle today because there is no off-season in Baseball.

Wednesday – Ferrum

. Thursday – Boone

Friday – Boone / Durham

Saturday – Miami, Florida

Sunday – Harrisonburg

Back home 🏡, Shawn Montgomery and his Cross Country teams will be competing over in the Martinsville area as they begin their end of the year meets. We look forward to sharing those results with you later.

Here’s wishing everyone a Blessed Day !

A different kind of Out of Town Scoreboard on Sunday. First up, App State Field Hockey 🏑 played its fourth non-conference Top 25 opponent this season and hung tough in Norfolk. The team would eventually fall 2-1 with all three goals taking place in the opening frame. My last trip to Boone will come next Friday night 🌙 when we wrap up the home portion of our schedule 📅.

Ashlyn Newman and her Union University Soccer ⚽️ team wrapped up their weekend with a victory !

The fourth and final Duke University sporting event of the weekend took place between 7 & 9 pm.

Earlier in the Day, Duke Volleyball 🏐 was less fortunate as Florida State University swept the Home 🏡 team 3-0.

In between there was enough time to hang out with Too Cool 😎 Kid !

Halfway Home 🏡, tomorrow it will be RDU and Alleghany High School 🏫 as Lin flies out and the Lady 👩 Cavaliers open their post season run 🏃‍♂️ against the Cougars…..

http://aroundthevalleyin60days.blogspot.com/2024/10/the-things-one-does-for-love-hanging.html

Raising $$$ for Duke’s Childrens Hospital 🏥!!