Isaiah 25:1 O Lord, thou art my God; I will exalt thee, I will praise thy name; for thou hast done wonderful things; thy counsels of old are faithfulness and truth.
No telling what Day 3 on the drive home has in store for us today but I sure hope it includes a Buc-ees !!!
Have yourself a Blessed Day 🙌
Congratulations 👏 to Jacob, Thank You 🙏 to both of his Parents for teaching our Youth ➕ gratitude to Marion Harris for getting what I’m trying hard to do here !
To try and describe the past 12 months for the Twin Boys of Russell and Mama Smoot one would need to borrow a prop from Coney Island…
A few days ago the Southwest Virginia Community College Flying Eagles dropped their last game, finishing the season at 6-20. The loss not only ended the season but it ends the program as SWCC has elected to cease its entire Athletic department and shift its efforts solely on education.
Bryce and Brayden Smoot finished up their days on The Hill by helping Head Coach Anthony Barnes to a State Tournament run. The Cavaliers had their season end up in Penn Laird when the eventual State Champion Spotswood Trailblazers defeated the Cavaliers.
Prior to that big event, Brayden qualified for the State Track Meet and Bryce passed Tee Jackson as the All-Time BOYS scoring leader. Life was going great and then our Boys made a commitment to attend college in Cedar Bluff and play Basketball 🏀 for the Flying Eagles.
Once the writing ✍ was on the wall in regards to the long-term plan for the program, a coaching change was made. The plan was for Bryce to play as a Freshman with Brayden to be a red shirt for year one.
While plans changed on a regular basis, Russell Smoot was overjoyed the day that the family 👪 was informed that Brayden would be part of the team as well !!
Here is that story :
Breaking News from Cedar Bluff, Virginia and it felt like it was scripted in Hollywood !! Brayden Smoot is officially a member of the 2025-2026 Flying Eagles of Southwest Virginia Community College 💙
Breaking Bread 🍞 with a person and / or Family 👪 makes things personal, at least to me anyway. I watched these two young Men grow from deer 🦌 in the headlights 8th graders to the people that stand in front of us today. If it stings me to see 👀 the way things played out, I can only imagine how Mom and Dad feel.
But Russell has convinced me that all is well and the Boys understand that God has a Bigger Plan for them both.
Two more highlights from the past few months include returning to The Hill fora home game and having your jersey retired.
Even more recently, Bryce found his way into a lopsided contest. All he did was drop 16 points in a blink of an eye 👁. His reward for such an outstanding moment in the Sun 🌞???? Zero minutes in the next game????
Bryce Smoot is now the Poster Child for perseverance and we simply could not be prouder here at Saved by the Bell : The Cavalier College Years !!!
Peaks and Valles is how Tauren Wells sings about it ot Roller Coaster ride. Either way, we can’t wait to see what is next for the Brothers Smoot !
This fearless Foresome each hit the ground running 🏃♂️ last year and for our Girls Soccer ⚽️ Coach is still the Honeymoon stage x 2 !
” Great first week of tryouts!! We have 17 JV girls and 19 Varsity girls. We are very excited to get this season started. We scrimmage next weekend at the Bengal Bash in Martinsville on Saturday.”
Thank You Coach for checking in !!!
Alyssa Ervin and Furman University closed out their regular season on a high note 📝 Saturday afternoon and it turns out their victory over Wofford prevented their guests from winning the SoCon crown 👑 outright.
The victory was a vital one for a number of reasons for Coach Pierre Curtis and the team. While they appeared to be headed for the #4 seed in the tournament, they had dropped two straight home games heading into the contest with the Terriers. In both cases the outcome was decided by just a few minutes of action late in the game.
Nobody wanted to head to Ashville on a three game losing streak, especially when all three were played in the Timmons Arena
Another cause for celebration in this one was the dominant second half (35-16) against a team that had a great deal to play for. Curtis had to smile about the fact that four of his players finished up in double figures, led by Clare Coyle with yet another double – double.
Thursday, in the fourth and final game of the day, the will square off with Mercer (#5 seed). The two teams split during the regular season with each winning in the others building. Mercer was one of the two teams that just defeated the ‘Dins but that game was a bit deceiving.
February 21st shows an 80 – 63 victory for Mercer but it came when the Bears 🐻 closed the game on an 18-2 run after it was 62-61. Again, another reason that finishing up strong 💪 against Wofford was so important.
Fourth place in the league but only one win away from sharing the title with the other three teams. Not a bad year for a group that is still getting comfortable with their roles !
Ervin finished up with double figures in scoring in 21 of the 29 games during the season, including five games of 20+. The smile returned and playing with an edge did as well !
Thursday night at 5:45 pm…..
A.S.P.N on The Hill 