Part of the festivities from last night’s Baseball ⚾️ gala was our Junior Varsity Coach Steve Combs 💙 talking about how his group captured its FIFTH straight District Championship. Assistance Coach Adam Nester is also included in the shout out and in the picture.
Winning a District Championship is difficult enough nowadays so getting the job done five consecutive years is playing the game at a different level!
Congratulations 👏 to both Coaches on another RING 💍, making it one for the thumb !
After guiding Adrienne Harris through the first 16 holes with some assistance from Wayne Carter and Bill Gallimore, it was time to let Dad 👨 offer up the final two questions to his oldest daughter.
#17 & 18
When you were in the program numbers were around 50 (pre Covid), what are some of your ideas to build the numbers for the future of the program?
What are some ideas that you have to help develop your current players soccer IQ?
First of All, great questions
Here are the two responses :
Soccer IQ To help bring up the soccer IQ I feel like it is going to take getting the girls as much experience as I can. This may be just through certain games/drills that we will do during the open fields this fall and also when we get into the practices in the spring. I also plan to end every open field and practice with a short scrimmage whether it’s full field or small sided games. This will help to get players to use what we have been working on throughout the practice in a game like situation. During these scrimmages I will also break it down at times and talk about different situations on the field. I also hope to get our varsity players back into helping with the local recreational teams. Before Covid the Carroll varsity girls were very involved in the rec leagues through referring and coaching. This helps our varsity players to see the game from different perspectives not only just as a player. This helps to grow soccer IQ tremendously by seeing it from different perspectives. Bringing travel soccer back to the area would also help to improve the soccer IQ in all of our players. Having a travel soccer team would allow us to be able to have our girls playing against many different strong teams from all over Virginia and possibly even different surrounding states like North Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Maryland.
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Numbers I hope to get our Girls jv team back this year so I plan to work a lot this fall on trying to get our numbers back up. It’s going to take a lot of recruiting of athletes and just getting them to come out and try it. I believe some of the best athletes play multiple sports. Being a versatile athlete and playing multiple sports can help an athlete in so many positive ways. I plan to do a lot of open field practices this fall where I hope to get new players to come out and try it and play along with our current players. I also hope to get younger players back to being managers for the varsity team. For example, when Karmen Smith started playing soccer she also came out and was the manager for the varsity team until she was able to play on the middle school team. She would play with us during our practices at times and I really feel like that helped her to grow as a player and get a lot of experience at a high level at a young age. I hope to get more younger athletes interested in helping out with the varsity team. Eventually, I would love to get a travel team started back up in this area too along with trying to get more girls involved in the rec leagues.
Ladies and Gentlemen, we present to you, our newest Head Coach, Adrienne “Our Future ” Harris.
Once again Boys Basketball 🏀 Coach Anthony Barnes closed up shop on another highly successful four day Hoops camp.
The number of campers was in the forties and possibly even more impressive than the head count was the amount of energy on display from start to finish.
The camp was divided into a Varsity group ( 4 teams ) and Junior Varsity group ( 3 teams ) with the final three hours being wall 2 wall competition.
In his final year of eligibility, Will Motley put on show in the Championship game to lead the Ethan Richardson coached Flamingos to a 23-21 victory over the Elijah Cox coached and #1 Timberwolves.
The amazing part of the story was the Flamingo team lead 15 – 2 at the half before having to hold on for their lives at the end.
The Richardson – Cox coaching match up was one of five on the afternoon and each one was fully charged for both the Coaches and the campers. One of the true highlights of the afternoon was how much pride was on display with the staff which consisted of current JV players, current Varsity players as well as recent graduates 🎓 of the program.
The eight young Men pictured above were the ones that captured the camps trophies. Each one of the winners were voted as such by all staff and Coaches !
Individually :
The Head Coaches on the JV side :
Rizzlers – Landon Kinder
Fire Dragons 🐉 – Landon Phillips
Braves – Blake Reed
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Varsity Head Coaches :
Timberwolves – Elijah Cox
Cobras – Landon Puckett, Davis Reitzel
Flamingos – Ethan Richardson
Cavaliers – Cody Reece
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Another highly successful four day camp is in the 📚 books !
Marion Harris (Father), Adrienne Harris and boyfriend Brandon McGuire.
Now that the prelude and Front Nine are on-line, let’s start the back nine.
Q – Now that you have officially been named Head Coach is there some folks out there you would like to say Thank You to ?
A – I would start out with my Family because I definitely wouldn’t be where I am today without Dad, Mom, Natalie and Callie. Then I would like to say Thank You to Doctor (Ben) Tickle for stepping in this year to Coach. Thank you to the administration for their trust in me, being young didn’t keep them from having faith in me to take over the program after the awesome season Dr. Tickle just led the team through.
The tee sign at #11 is currently under repair so we will borrow the main sign.
Q – The greater part of the past decade of Girls Soccer at Carroll County has been filled with players named Harris and Newman. The younger Newman, Ashlyn, just recently broke your All-Time scoring record on The Hill. Did it mean more that it was a player you grew up around ?
A – Yes, I think it was pretty cool that it was someone I had gotten to see grow from when she was real little. She was the team manager when I was on Varsity and she was always out there with her Sister, my Sister and me when we were practicing.
It was special to have the record broke by someone who I watched grow into the player she is today.
#12 – Your Mother, Shelia Harris is also a force in the Community as both a teacher and in the Sports end of the School. Please describe the level of comfort you have knowing that Mom is in your corner ?
A – There’s a great deal of comfort in knowing that my Mother is someone that has touched so many lives both in the classroom and High School sports. It helps to know that if I need advice about Sports or life that I have two parents available to lean on.
Q – Ben Tickle stepped in to be the “connector ” if you will, between your graduation and when the job first became available. What does it mean to you that someone who has the stature of Ben Tickle believes in you to that degree ?
A – Words cannot describe how thankful I was for Dr. Tickle to step in for me in the manner he did. The plan from the get go was after Coach Manley stepped down after last season that Dr. Tickle would step in with the hopes that everything on my end would go as planned.
The level of faith that Tickle had in me fueled my desire to make sure everything went through on my end.
Q – The one Harris we haven’t discussed yet is middle Sister Natalie Harris. What role do you see for her in the future of your program ?
A – I think if Natalie decides to return to Carroll County she will certainly be a big part of everything we do. This past season when her semester ended she came home and helped as an assistant alongside me.
I believe that she will do the same this year. Natalie has a great deal of knowledge about both the game of Soccer and Carroll County.
Q – What are your thoughts on having a Community Blogger walking around calling you ” Our Future ” ?
A – I thought it was really cool, especially when I heard it for the first time because I have been wanting to come back to Carroll County and coach for a really long time.
Getting to hear that alot just fueled my already intense fire about getting back to lead our next generation.
Q – You are now just days away from beginning both your teaching career and your Coaching career. What, if anything is of concern to you ?
A – On the Coaching side of things it will be different for me to go from just lacing them up to directing others to see the field the way I do. That will be a pretty big adjustment for me early on.
We wanted to leave the final two questions for Adrienne Harris to come from Marion Harris. Please check back for the Father – Daughter portion of our story !
