Five years ago an opportunity presented itself to our Family 👪 and it was going to create a stream of Income that was not earmarked for anything or anyone.

  The hope was to Answer what I believed to be God’s calling but it would require leaving our Island 🏝 home that sat between the United States 🇺🇸 and Canada 🇨🇦.

Looking to the area where both of my Parents were born and raised, the place was going to be located somewhere on US-58 between Cumberland Gap (Mom) and Buggs Island Lake (Dad).

I was going to have the financial side of anything I wanted to implement covered and having 30 years of experience in dealing with Schools, Administration and Sports, I liked my chances to succeed with just one uncontrollable – I needed to build a TEAM.

Carroll County was the choice and my lone connection was having eaten a few pizzas 🍕 at the Hillsville Pizza Inn over the years.

I had a list of 50 proven enhancements I was hoping to use to raise the bar on education in Carroll County.

For the purposes of this story, Chuck Thompson is the Game Warden in charge of a body of water. Error one was an absolute failure for me to grasp the size of said water. I thought I was trying to bring my ” Boat 🚢” to a nice fishing 🎣 hole when in actuality its the size of Lake Norman.

Why was that misstep such a massive one ? Because I was looking for a place that I could sit down with 10 influential people and we would hit the ground running!

I reached out to Hagen Giles out here at Olde Mill and I asked him how a person looking to make a difference should start laying a foundation? Hagen said that folks in Carroll County live and die with their High School sports.

The Book 📖 and Kris Richardson…

Finding a neighbor of mine, Kris Richardson was a great deal like myself, the two of us teamed up to create a book about what we both thought would accurately record the single greatest Sports achievement in the County.

Twelve months of work and right at $14,000.00 spent went into our efforts. The two of us could not have been any prouder but then something happened that left us both dumbfounded. It was never the intention to try and profit from the book or even get our money 💰 back, so it never about the number of copies out there, it was the complete lack of interest in it.

The upside to this part of the story is that through it all, Kris and I developed a friendship that I believe will last for a while.

The Book 📖 was designed to make sure folks knew that we were here and trying to find ways to build a team for the Boat. Because with a team, God can create a number of opportunities.

Getting back to Monday night and my appreciation for Chuck Thompson. Our efforts were set to end last year on November 3rd, when our resources expired. We felt good about our efforts, especially the partnership with Rick & Donna Nester. But if I couldn’t build a Boat Load of a team when I had a sizable bag of Money, it was a safe bet I couldn’t accomplish it after the fact.

After closing up shop, we headed out to St.George, Utah and was in the process of getting a new home 🏡. Then in a window of just a few days I received two pretty significant Phone Calls from Carroll County.

One call was from Chuck Thompson, informing me that I had been voted into the Carroll County High School Hall of Fame and the second call was telling me that Jeff Tobler had passed away.

Folks that aren’t fans of Softball wouldn’t be able to understand that Emma Leath is to Softball what Allyssa Ervin is to Basketball. Rick’s 2024-2025 team was going to take a step back with Emma and her fellow Senior Katherine Lindamood anyway but now they would have to try and move forward without as lovable of an individual as has been in Carroll County.

In regards to the Hall of Fame, I promise you that was never a goal or a wish list item for me, the way that it would be for someone like Brandi Cochran Mitchell or Adrienne Harris. People that lived their entire lives here and bleed the Schools colors.

Against my Doctors advice, we came back to show support for both Rick Nester and Tammy Tobler. The problem comes from the word CARE. There is no on and off switch to my life’s work and a great example took place just a few days ago.

I had hit the wall pretty hard around 1pm (29 daily pills 💊, mostly designed to force me to slow 🐌 down). I managed to get back to Laurel Fork and fell into bed.

I did one last look at my calendar and it showed that at 3:45 pm, Karmen Smith was doing her College signing in the Library. This doesn’t fall on my side of the partnership with Allen Worrell as he handles the Big Ticket items. I doubled check to make sure that Allen was good to go and found out he was on his way to his Mother’s Doctor appointment.

Some people could say that’s just not by concern today, but I don’t have that ability. It’s all about that four letter word, CARE ❤. Stayed awake, made it back to The Hill and sat in a room with a bunch of folks that absolutely love Karmen Smith! We create a story that read like a book because it included people that were more qualified than myself to speak on just how amazing this young Lady is.

I have no actual connection to the School or to The Carroll News or the Carroll County Special Olympics Basketball. This is an issue in regards to folks understanding where I fit in to the places.

My efforts in this part of Life’s journey will wrap up here shortly, after Coach Nester has his final game. There are no hard feelings about the five year effort and there are people who did eventually find their way onto the Boat.

The transparent view is this – I challenge someone to produce a single person here that asked me to help them and were turned away empty handed. The back side of that same fact is that in the same time frame, not one person approached me to see how they could assist me in moving forward.

As I mentioned a few months back when talking to Dr Samantha Reed, my goal was to create a team and through that, find ways to create unity. But in actuality what is happening is we are creating a divide instead. That was never my intention but it is the net result.

Afterwards, people who were in this with me will look for what went wrong and its IMPORTANT beyond understanding that I have nothing but Love 💘 and Respect for my Game Warden, Chuck Thompson!!!

It’s not his fault that his Pond is actually a Lake with 1,000 miles of shoreline !

Allen Worrell, Ron Cochran, Shannon Dalton were comfortable to get on the Boat 🚢 and for reasons past understanding, Kris Richardson stayed on the Boat and Cavalier Park was our favorite dock.

Final note 📝 ahead of tomorrow – Ethan Richardson and his four years of commitment to Carroll County High School 🏫, WOW 👏

P.S. – Vickey Ritchie and Tammy Quesenberry are legit !

4:15 – We honor our two Boys Tennis Seniors.

5:15 – We honor Principal Chuck Thompson, Shawn Montgomery and Jon Delp

5:30 – We have our International Introduction for the Boys JV Soccer Match, then play Soccer

Halftime of the Junior Varsity match, we use the short break to acknowledge the Student Athletes that competed this season for both Boys and Girls Track 👣 and Field.

After the conclusion of the Junior Varsity game, we will conduct the T & F Senior Day for the duo of Brayden Smoot and Nathanael Dalton.

Next up we will have the Ceremonial roll out for the Varsity Boys Soccer match.

At halftime of the match we will look to conduct interviews with some or all of our Trio.

We will put 40 minutes back on the Clock ⏰ and play the second half of the Varsity game.

Every minute that Soccer ⚽️ is not being played, our focus will be on Track and Field.

Its a BIG NET that we are casting out and it has something for a lot of Folks. There’s room on the Parade float for sure !

Having spent varying amounts of time in the camps of all 12 Spring teams has allowed me to see 👀 how much effort our 12 coaching staffs have put into their seasons. When your goal is to try and level the playing field for All – Things Carroll County, you lean towards the underdogs.

Casey Burcham and Adam Nester have been off the charts this Spring and Bill Worrell Field is a happening spot these days! The home game on Thursday night versus Patrick County might very well be the game of the year.

This brings us to the duo of Shawn Montgomery and Jon Delp. The definition of the short end of the stick in the Spring 2025. Their Student Athletes were never allowed to compete at their Home 🏡 track this year. I am a HUGE fan of these two Men and simply want to present them the opportunity to have a Night 🌙 on The Hill where they are the focus and not just for five good minutes.

Dalton and Smoot have competed for all four seasons at CCHS and Corrie Delp has already earned her third straight trip to Lynchburg for the State Meet. Yes, we will recognize this trio but why not pay attention to the other 17 Athletes who recorded PR’S at their last meet?

In a PERFECT world 🌎, we would hold a Black Tie 👔 affair in hopes of raising the $200,000.00 to upgrade the Track at Tommy Thompson Field.

Option #2 – find a way to fund the much needed replacement of our High Jump area, which would run 🏃‍♂️ in the neighborhood of $15,000.00.

Another fun concept 💡 for Monday night would be for any Track & Field Athletes who want to perform their events would do so, during the down time.

The minimum that will be accomplished is we will give Montgomery and Delp the opportunity to showcase their programs.

To recap – Ethan Richardson and Paul Marshall, Nathanael Dalton and Brayden Smoot, Jeremy Puckett and Forrest Johnson, Shawn Montgomery and Jon Delp and last but not least, OneofUs.Care and our Man of the Night, Principal Chuck Thompson.

The Soccer community, the Track 👣 and Field community, the Tennis 🎾 community and the We Love and Support Chuck Thompson community on their own might not frightened anyone individually, but together, we might could put a dent in filling these bleachers at Tommy Thompson Field !

Yes, its the end of the School 🏫 year and everyone is worn out a bit, including the person typing this out. But everyone and everything on this list matters to me and to the people on the list.

I will bring this full circle 🔵 by having a fun look at needing 15K for something that will only benefit a handful of Cavaliers each season.

Find 150 people that would be willing to write ✍ a check ✔ for $100.00. Each person that does this can either jump themselves or having a Family member attempt to use the new High Jump once its in place. Whoever clears the bar with the best result becomes the unofficial High Jump Champion of the World 🌎.

Ron Cochran and I can even make them a Banner, like the one we did for our 3 Musketeers that we will have for folks to sign Monday night.

Thank You for taking the time to read this and I encourage folks to share it with others ! This will start at 4:15 and end when the Soccer ⚽️ match concludes.

If anyone has an interest in participating in any manner, please let me know !

Saturday afternoon was a Five Star 🌟 Day for Carroll County Baseball. First, the Junior Varsity team defeated James River 8-4 to clinch the Three Rivers District crown 👑. Next up was a touching Senior Day Celebration for the six Cavaliers that are winding up their time at Bill Worrell Field.

The next segment was recognition for Britt Berrier as the four year Varsity player recently became the third Cavalier to collect 100 career base hits.

The next stop ✋ on the day long Cavalier Baseball ⚾️ Love fest was the Varsity team defeating the Knights by a final score of 12-1. After the game, Mrs Burcham and Steve Combs combined their efforts to create a reunion of former Cavaliers that had been coached by the long time partnership of Casey and Combs.

All of this happened one day after three of the six Seniors gathered in the School Auditorium to announce their College signings

Life is sailing along at a Premium level for the entire Baseball program. After a 30 hour whirlwind of accomplishments, Burcham still found time to actually critique the actual ball game.

” I thought we looked like a team who hadn’t been on the field for a week in the first couple of innings,” said Burcham.  “We did a phenomenal job making adjustments later in the game from an offensive standpoint.”

Carroll County fell short at Pulaski County High School back in the second game of the season and it had to have left a bad taste in their mouth because they haven’t dropped a game since.

Senior Cody Reece started on the mound for Carroll County and sparkled in his four innings of work. The right hander fanned 9 Knights over his four innings while allowing just one earned run. Peyton Spencer came in behind Reece to close out the shortened game due to the mercy rule.

James River actually led 1-0 heading into the bottom of the third inning. Burcham mentioned the slow 🐌 start but once the train left the station it turned into the Cavalier Express. Three straight frames were CCHS hung a Crooked number up on the Knights turned 1-0 into 12-1 in an absolute blink of an eye.

Reece and fellow Senior, Gage Nicholson deposited balls over the fence. It was quite a day for the Nicholson Family after little Brother(Bryce) did the same in the Junior Varsity victory. Big Brother finished up 3 of 4 with three runs scored and three runs driven in.

All season long the Cavaliers have combined timely hitting with tough as nails 💅 pitching and their line up is both deep and talented. Any future opponents are not be able to game plan around any one player in hopes of slowing down the attack.

Back to the Americana aspect of the old Chevrolet commercial. Baseball, Hot Dogs 🌭 and Apple Pie 🥧. Mama Burcham was even serving Apple Pie today in the family 👪 run Concession Stand.

Life is Grand right now on the Northside of the Boulevard !

” Our seniors paced us tonight,” added Burcham. “Proud of all the guys.”

Carroll County will travel to Radford on Tuesday night to close out the regular season and then advance to the Regional Tournament the following week as either a #1 or #2 seed.

The Junior Varsity will host Radford on Tuesday evening to wrap up their initial season under Adam Nester.