Tonight’s challenge will be to try and describe the accomplishments of Ashlyn Newman in 60 seconds…

We held a pre-game Ceremony Tuesday night 🌙 at Cavalier Park with the hopes of honoring the group that I like to call The Fab Four. CCHS has four Seniors that will be leaving The Hill with their degree and at least one very persteogus career record.

We celebrated both Emma Leath (Pitching wins & Strikouts) and Jabin Talley (Tennis 🎾 victories) but lost out on Ashlyn Newman (Soccer ⚽️ Goals scored) and Alyssa Ervin (Basketball 🏀 Points scored).

Newman and Ervin were both down in Mount Airy, North Carolina that night accepting awards they had won 🏆 from the local newspaper 📰 group that includes our Carroll News.

That brings us to the Regional tournament game tonight were our Lady 👩 Cavaliers will be hosting Lord Botetourt in the #4 – #5 match-up. The odds that we will get to see Emma Leath or Katherine Lindamood play on our field again after tonight are like .000007%. Forty eight hours after Newman and Sarah Alderman played their final match at Tommy Thompson Field, we will watch another pair of Student Athletes compete in front of the Home fans for the final time.

It’s worth noting that Talley missed out on chasing down a legend to claim the top spot , he missed out on his farewell match as well. Ervin and Erin Gibson, Leath and Sydney Nester plus Newman and Adrienne Harris will be linked for quite sometime but Talley not only missed out part but his final match on The Hill was postponed multiple times and finally canceled.

Back to the task at hand, after Newman and Ervin could not attend on Tuesday night the offer was made for them to join us tonight. While Ervin will once again be out of town for a ceremony, we have a chance at seeing Miss Newman at the park tonight. That’s assuming she has been able to catch her breath after last night’s match that ended close to three hours after it began over in Martinsville. The ending of her High School 🏫 Soccer career was as much storybook as the rest of her time on The Hill.

The only way the ending could have been greater was if it had came in the State Championship game. While the Battling Ben Tickles fell just short in a Penalty Kick shootout to #1 seed Magna Vista, nobody that played in or witnessed the game will forget it anytime soon. That’s exactly how I would describe Ashlyn Newman as a person – no one will forget her anytime soon !

The list of accomplishments that Newman has to her credit at this point in her life looks to be photo shopped. Can one person really have achieved so much so soon in her life?

The second half of this question is how does someone wanting to describe said list possibly pick out the correct information to share ?

Challenge accepted 😎…

Also joining us tonight is each of the State Qualifying Student Athletes that compete for Head Coach Shawn Montgomery in Track 👣 and Field.

By my unofficial count we have four folks that make the list this year after Davis Reitzel added his name to the list yesterday down in Abingdon.

Reitzel will be busy tonight playing in the Boys 👦 Soccer regional match and Ervin will be out of town but we hope to see both Corrie Delp and Brayden Smoot this evening.

Delp is heading to State for the second time after her and Elijah Smith made the trip last year.

Our game won’t be the only one taking place tonight as the other two teams still playing will also be in action. Best of Luck to both Kevin DeHaven and his Baseball ⚾️ team and Forrest Johnson with his Boys 👦 Soccer ⚽️ team.

Regional Track 👣 and Field results with a number of PR’s and we can add Davis Reitzel to the Cavaliers headed to the State Meet !

300 Hurdles State Qualifier

Davis Reitzel. 3rd. 42.00

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Boys 4 x 100 relay (school record). 45.24

7th place (Elias Sample, Sean Staples, Brayden Smoot, Noah Manning

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Others participating

Girls 100 hurdles

Savannah Swecker 9th.  18.81

Alexis Montgomery. 14th. 20.23

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Boys 100 Meter

Noah Manning 21st 11.94

Sean Staples. 24th 12.02

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Girls 100 meter

Bristol Delp 15th 13.98

Corrie Delp 17th 14.13

Reagan Mankins. 22nd 14.6

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Boys 1600

Luke Watson 23rd 5:37.29

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Girls 1600

Amelia Forsyth 14th 6:59.76

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Girls 4 x 100 relay. 8th 53.87

(Savannah Swecker, Alexis Montgomery, Bristol Delp, Corrie Delp)

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Boys 400

Brayden Smoot. 5th. 51.92

Samuel Collins.  23rd. 1:02.23

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Girls 400

Alivia Hanshaw.   16th. 1:15.44 

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Girls 300 hurdles

Alexis Montgomery 8th 54.02

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Boys 800

Trenton Newman. 25th. 2:46.82

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Girls 200

Bristol Delp. 21st 29.61

Corrie Delp. 25th 30.32

Amelia Dalton. 27th 32.30

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Boys Discus

Davis Reitzel 8th.  122‘9“

Aston Coe.  21st 97’2”

Glenn Heiston. 27th 82’2”

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Girls Discus

Sarah Alderman 12th 26 feet 9.75 inches

Neila Stewart. 20th 24’8

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Boys highJump

Attempted by Brendan Farris and Sean Staples

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Girls High Jump

Attempted by Savannah Swecker and Amelia Forsyth

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Boys shot-put

Davis Reitzel 6th 42’9”

Branson France 23rd 35 feet 7 1/2 inches

Dalton Norman 27th 33’11”

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Girls Shot put

Sarah Alderman 72’4”

Neila Stewart 12th 69’10”

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Boys Long Jump

Nathanael Dalton 20 feet 2 1/2 inches

Davis Reitzel. Ninth 19 feet 8 1/4 quarter inches

Mohammed Monsour. 21st 16 feet 9 1/4 inches

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Girls long jump

Corrie Delp 6 th 15’6”

Savannah Swecker. 15th 14’

Amelia Dalton 18th 13th feet 5 1/4 inches

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Boys triple jump

Nathanael Dalton 8th 40 feet 7 1/2 inches

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Girls triple jump

Amelia Dalton 29’ 10.5  14th

In

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Boys, 4 x 4 relay relay 7th 3:27.21

(Elias Sample, Davis Reitzel, Sean Staples,, Brayden Smoot) 

The Legend of Ashlyn Newman continues to grow…CCHS pushed #1 MVHS to the Brink

Pardon the grainy photo 📷 off the computer 🖥 screen but it was needed to describe what just took place over at Smith River Soccer ⚽️ Park.

One night after playing Bassett on The Hill in the #8 – #9 game, Carroll County traveled across Lovers Leap to play #1 seed Magna Vista.

Add in that the Lady 👩 Cavaliers were playing back to back matches and doing so minus three starters versus the best team in our Region, properly setting the stage.

CCHS was down to their final seconds when Magna Vista was called for a Red Card inside the Box.

Ashlyn Newman proceeded to knot the game at 2-2 and it would stay that way throughout the entire overtime ritual. No Golden Goal for either squad eventually led to Penalty Kicks with Newman sliding into the net as the Keeper in hopes of extending her high school career. Newman has experience between the goal post, both early on and then in travel ball.

Even the PKs portion of the match ended in a 4-4 draw, sending it into Golden Goal format. The season would finally come to an end for the group I love to call The Battling Ben Tickles and tonight they did exactly that for just shy of three hours.

We have reached the point in the Spring season where everytime one of them laces up their cleats it could be for the final time and for the Seniors, truly the final time.

Baseball, Boys Soccer and Softball all take the diamond 💎 or Pitch tomorrow night. Let’s hope they can all represent 🙏 us as well as we were represented tonight !

Thank You once again, Ashlyn Newman, its been a tremendous four years !

Back in 1978 Hall & Oates recorded a hit song 🎵 titled ” Sara Smiles ” and almost 50 years later I’ve actually found Sarah & her Smile !

Last night 🌙, just before the end of the Girls Soccer ⚽️ 5-0 Regional tournament victory I was given the honor of talking Sarah Alderman off the Pitch for the final time.

Alderman has managed to compete at the Varsity level in four different Sports, which is quite the feat in itself, but the thing that has always jump off the page to me is her amazing disposition.

One the Volleyball court under Cindy Edwards, the Basketball court under Marc Motley, track and field with Shawn Montgomery or on the Soccer pitch with Ben Tickle there were three things that were an absolute Lock.

Alderman would be Coachable, she would play with grit and determination and she would be smiling. Please don’t be confused about how hard she played when she competed.

Four Senior Days later, the incredibly lovable young Lady was taking her final steps on a playing surface on The Hill and I had 60 seconds to try and show appreciation to Alderman that would do her justice ⚖.

Even for someone like myself, that considers himself to be a wordsmith could possibly capture what Alderman has meant to our Community. I gave it my best shot and fortunately I have the ability to do follow up after the fact.

One can flash back to the Volleyball court or the Basketball court where Alderman collected two State Championship Rings 💍💍 or more recently splitting time between Soccer and Track, there’s Sarah giving it her all and somehow doing it with her smile !

Four coaches will be searching for a replacement to Alderman next season and let’s hope that each of them find someone close but its a safe bet they won’t have her smile.

Editor Note 📝 – I am hoping to add a quote or two from her Coaches. If I find them, I will blend them in.

Volleyball 🏐 Coach Cindy Edwards :

My favorite things about having Sarah as a player was her happy and bubble personality, her hard work, and desire and dedication to always get better. So, over the last few years, I’ve seen her become more vocal and a leader where she wasn’t afraid to hold players accountable. This was Hugh for her. She is one of the special kids who played 3 sports, and again, the commitment to do that is amazing. It has my pleasure to coach Sarah what a great honor.

Thank You Coach Edwards !