A few years back I started working on a segment designed to highlight the efforts of our Student Athletes that were fortunate enough to compete at the College level. Like anything else I do, I came up with a clever name and set out to see if it worked. Trips were taken to watch Alyssa Ervin,Katie Lam, Madison Stockner, Jabin Talley,Elijah Cox, Macie Adkins, Kalee Bunn and Adrienne Harris to name a few.

  There is a sign in the gym that reads, ” Once a Cavalier, Always a Cavalier” and its that sign that led me down the path of wanting to gather information about the Cavalier success stories.

There is a fine line between journalists and paparazzi, then again maybe the gap between them is as wide as the Grand Canyon. This year I want to work with any parent or Coach or former Cavalier themselves, any that want to share their story.

  Two parents that come to mind are Mama Smoot and Marion Harris. Both of the Smoot twins are going to School over at Southwest Virginia Community College and I will welcome any / all updates on their time there. Marion Harris has Natalie playing LaCrosse again this season at Emory and Henry and I’m already looking forward to hearing about her adventures on the field over there.

But the number of former Cavaliers competing at the next level is growing at a solid clip. Would love to share stories about Karmen Smith, Ashlyn Newman, Landon Puckett, Cody Reece, Brett Berrier as examples but the paparazzi stalk people, dig through peoples trash 🗑 to find things to write ✍ about or take a photo 📷 of. I am just someone who wants to share a positive story about a local Kiddo that is doing good !

  Kevin DeHaven, Casey Burcham, Kayla Nester, Adrienne Harris and Brandi Cochran Mitchell are just five quick examples of Carroll County High School graduates 🎓 that played at the next level and then returned home to be leaders of our Youth. All part of the thought process involved with this category.

When the number one objective is to treat everyone equally, it doesn’t matter if its D1, D2, D3, Junior College, NAIA or Community College. Equally is Equally.

In closing, I will touch on a thought about Success stories and how they can help the current program. Nothing but Love for the duo that share Tommy Thompson Field in the Spring and Adrienne Harris & Forrest Johnson are going to be a HUGE part of our future but right now they are faced with challenges that Burcham, Seth Greer and Anthony Barnes don’t face. Soccer ⚽️ is still not mainstream here in Carroll County so having Success stories are simply more valuable to them.

You take someone like young Mr Puckett or Miss Smith or Miss Newman and use them as examples of if you commit yourself to Soccer and Academics in the same manner, it can lead to great things and here are our most recent examples.

Happy to help anyone who wants the help but there just needs to be a meet in the middle kind of a sign from someone who is part of the story.

If you’re not sure, feel free to ask Mama Smoot or Marion Harris and they will tell you that it’s safe to enter the water.

In honor of our Girls Basketball Coach, we will add a while you were sleeping last night headliner :

While Dallas doesn’t have a bunch of wins in her rookie season, there have been plenty of highlights for Miss Bueckers. Last night out in Los Angeles the former UCONN star scored a career high 44 points.

All three Volleyball 🏐 teams are in action 🎬 today and one of the two Middle School football teams will be playing as well.

Allen Worrell shared yesterday that after 50 players tried out for Middle School football , the decision was made to divide ➗ the players up and create two teams for this fall. Brilliant move on the part of the program as it guarantees playing time for twice as many players.

In closing, later today I will catch up with Coach Anthony Barnes during his open Gym and should have a story later on the Boys Basketball team.

Have yourself a Blessed Day 🙌

Tark the Shark 🦈, legendary Coach of the Running Rebels from the University of Nevada – Las Vegas Basketball team was famous for two things.

One was Coaching one of the greatest teams of All-Time in 1991 ( before Christian, Bobby and Grant took them out in the National Semi-final game. The second reason Tark was known to many is that he was constantly biting into his folded white towel. So much so that he has the towel in his mouth 👄 in the statue above.

Barnes will have his own coping mechanism on Friday nights 🌙 for the next three months after learning that his projected leading scorer, Isaiah Easter will be the starting Quarterback on the Carroll County High School football team.

It’s not uncommon for High School Student Athletes to double or triple up in regards to sports in a given year. But in the age of specialized year around Sports now, it happens a little less often.

Last season it was Bryce Smoot taking snaps for Head Coach Seth Greer and we know that Smoot left The Hill as the All-Time scoring leader in Boys Basketball.

While we know that Smoot has the All-Time scoring mark, it might be time to dust off the record book in regards to the single season mark. All signs point to Easter having that type of Senior season, especially when the group of Junior Varsity players coming up share a style of Win first, worry about who scores later.

  The difference between last year and this time is Smoot was one of six in regards to players locked 🔒 into a roster spot. Easter is the centerpiece of the 2025-2026 season.

Things that Barnes can do over the next three months – Pray 🙏, get himself a Tark towel, a bottle of Tums and possibly bribe the Cafeteria staff to slide some extra meat 🍖 onto the plates 🍽 of the starting offensive lineman.

Allen Worrell is set to provide blanket coverage for the Gridiron 🏈 Cavaliers and tomorrow afternoon I get to catch up with Coach Barnes ! Maybe, we can recreate that Towel shot…

  Today at The Carroll News, we solidified the role that David Broyles will play in our September 13th gathering at Cavalier Park ! The obvious question is why should you care about this and the answer my Friends, comes straight from the desk of Vickey Ritchie.

Vickey Ritchie is the Gate Keeper for our Special Olympics Basketball 🏀 in Carroll County, Virginia. More often than not, Vickey sets up a Sunday afternoon practice at the Hillsville Elementary School and proceeds to do two things.

First, she does everything she can to get the word out about what we call the 5 topics – Who, What, When, Why and How. The goal is to make everyone feel that they are invited to attend and there is no cost.

Second and more importantly, Vickey finds a role for EVERYONE who comes through the Gym door 🚪. We call this part, Inclusion and it is quite possibly the Greatest Gift in the Toolbox 🧰 that Vickey carries around.

  Now that we have done our best to spread the word in regards to inviting people to Cavalier Park on September 13th at Noon, its time to move on to Phase 2. Finding a role for anyone who wants to be a part of the festivities is easy enough, especially when folks let you know they are interested in participating.

David Broyles is a big part of our Community and has made himself available a number of times over the years when we were putting something together. This time will be no different as we are thrilled to find him a staring role!

The operation budget for the Gala is $26.00 and we are thrilled to add Plucky to the cast. Bonus is we landed him for just .12cents, as he knows that both Tom Brady and Peyton Manning deferred Big Bucks in hopes of their teams landing more talent around them.

Welcome 🙏 to the Show, David and Thanks for leaving some money 💰 for us to land some Bigger Fish 🐟 down the road. Who are we kidding, David is us what Jaws was to Shark 🦈 movies 🎥.

  Everyone needs to have people in their lives that bring a smile 😃 to their face and one of those people who fits in that category for me is Velvet Creed Leonard!

Velvet stays as busy as the day is long and with the Wedding 💒 plans ongoing its has her going full throttle. But she still found a few minutes to brighten a Day.