Category: Carroll County

Simply a Magical weekend in the Land of Cavaliers, one that might stand the test of time !

Carroll County Ladies Basketball on Alumni Day – Photo 📷 Credit : Velvet Leonard

Back in the mid to late 1960’s , the leaders in Carroll County decided it was time to move forward with one High School for the area. In 1969 the doors 🚪 opened at Carroll County High School 🏫, meaning everything that took place would be brand new. Fast Forward almost 60 years later and allow yourself to get lost in the process as it could be argued that CCHS just had the Best weekend in its history !

Yes, there has been plenty of positivity over the years and local legends like Tommy Thompson, Bill Worrell and Frank Beamer, with the Hokie coach predating the new school. Erin Gibson, Rebecca Russell and Sydney Nester are just a few of the people who brought glory to The Hill but let’s see 👀 what all happened from Friday to Sunday.

Seth Greer and his entire Staff have been at it for two years now. Working to bring back a football program from the cusp of the abyss, the Cavaliers entered the weekend at 8-2, a mark good enough to earn the team a home playoff game against #5 seeded Northside. It had been 15 years since Tommy Thompson Field was the site of a post season contest and the most impressive thing about Greer is how the community is going through this ride with him.

Rossie Gravley summed up just what this ride means to all that are connected.

” In Virginia, High School football is a way of life,” said Gravley.

Gravley, the leader of the Cheerleaders and everyone else has to appreciate the bond between the football team and the Cheerleaders. It’s hard to tell where one ends and the other begins.

Carroll County High School didn’t stop at being excited about hosting a playoff game against a School from the Big City. They defeated the Vikings 27-21 and now head to Magna Vista for a semifinal showdown with the Top Seeded Warriors.

Allen Worrell is no longer the Editor of The Carroll News anymore but it would have been hard to know that with the way that he was keeping everyone not at the field in the know, from start to finish.

Let’s see it play out again, through the eyes of Worrell.

” We’re up 6-0. Scored on opening drove and then recovered onside. Mid 1st

  We came up short on that driveNS went 3 and out

    Sam McGrady scores on 8 yard run. Easter runs in the 2.

  We are up 14-0 with 3:42 left in half. NS has ran 3 plays

  Hall’s 43-yard TD pass to Tucker brings Northside within 14-7 of Carroll County with 2:33 left in 1st half.

14-7 Carroll half Carroll rushed for 215 yards first half.    NS ran 6 plays.

Despite that, it’s a 14-7 game at intermission…

Isaiah Logan’s 35-yard TD catch ties Northside up with Carroll County at 14 with 10:05 left in 3rd.

  Klay Dalton’s 6-yard TD run puts Carroll County back in front of Northside 21-14 with 5:40 left in 3rd quarter.

Youseff Elalfy’s 58-yard TD on a fullback counter trap puts Carroll in front of Northside 27-21 with 3:17 to play.

We win 27-21

One of the best HS games I have seenI have no voice today.

  I lost it yelling after the game-clinching interception.”

Now, as Shania Twain made the line famous back in the day, ” You won a football game, that doesn’t impress me much”…

The beauty of the weekend is two things going forward. One, we don’t need others to appreciate our efforts and Carroll County High School was just getting the show started.

Fast Forward to Saturday afternoon, when Howard Mayo and Anthony Barnes opened up the Gymnasium for Meet the Cavaliers / Alumni Games.

Before we dive into who all was in the Gymnasium, we need to show love 💘 to the five people that couldn’t make it because of their prior commitments. Not sure if there’s ever been a time in the Schools history that five former Cavaliers are playing College Hoops at the same time but that is what we have now.

In order of graduation 🎓, Elijah Cox (Randolph College), Katie Lam (Roanoke College ), Alyssa Ervin (Furman University), Bryce Smoot ( Southwest Virginia Community College) and Brayden Smoot, also at SWCC.

All five had games over the weekend and continue to represent us in a positive manner, on and off the court.

Elijah Cox

While we have local talent playing at the next level today, we weren’t lacking for Lady Cavaliers will mad skills in the Alumni Game. Ten former Lady Cavaliers took the floor and some of them still have plenty of game left in the tank! Lauren Alley ( Middle School Girls) was listed with 23 points and Kayla Goins Nester ( Varsity Girls) dropped 20 points and Brandi Cochran Mitchell ( Too many titles to list) added 13 points and JV Coach, Haille Cushman had five points.

Legendary High School Coach Howard Mayo is back for Round 2 with the Lady Cavaliers and he has plenty of former players in key 🔑 positions to assist him as he looks to rebuild the program. Not sure if the Back 2 Back State Championships will be reached again but Mayo has been a winner every place he has coached and I wouldn’t bet against him.

Anthony Barnes is fresh off leading his Cavaliers to a State Tournament spot last season and like Mayo, he is surrounded with former players who now are trying to play it forward. Jason Stockner is now the lead Assistant Coach and former players will be on the bench with the pair. Both Cody Reece and Jabin Talley have signed on and a pair of Ryans will lead the Junior Varsity ( Largen and Phillips). Don’t forget that Darian Brown is now coaching the Middle School team.

Barnes took the time to reflect on what Saturday meant to him and his program.

” Yesterday (Saturday) for me as in the past is a fun day for both programs to come together and introduce the players that have made the programs. We added the alumni games to spice it up and they are very competitive. This year the guys game was phenomenal with the older team being down 14 and coming back to steal the win.

    I also added an MVP trophy to the mix, had to be on the winning team and the vote among there team. Course made me grin since Brogan Phillips played for me.

   On the Varsity side we split them the best we could , used some Jv guys which is fun, but shows them the speed of the game. Ironic the a freshman in Will Motley steals the show just like in past Cavalier camps ,but also great game for Isiah Legans, Ezra Hatcher (Jv) and solid day for Hayden Jackson.

  I think both programs enjoy playing not under a true win or loose but still highly competitive as always to win it and
showcase your skills.”

Photo 📷 Credit : Greg Talley

The next piece to the Puzzle was on display in a Travel Basketball 🏀 tournament on Saturday. Under the guidance of Carroll Counties version of the Basketball Whisperer, Kris Richardson.

Team Photo
The Team Bling !

” This is the start of year 3 for this group of 5th graders, along with two 4th graders. The girls have really learned a lot over the last few years. On Saturday, which was our first tournament of the new season, they played as if they had been playing all summer.

  Our season had ended in March as most of the girls went into softball and soccer. We’ve been practicing for about a month and had tried to play in 3 different tournaments that were canceled last minute due to lack of teams. We hope to play in 8-10 tournaments over the next 4 months.”

#7 Payton Smith is on the squad but wasn’t available. All but two of the youngsters are 5th graders. Both Richardsons are fourth graders.

  Cox returning for a third season of College Basketball is a wonderful thing for a number of reasons. Not only does our former 6’5  Center continue to work on his game, he continues to chase the diploma as well !

Ervin is just days away from answering the question of how close can a former Cavalier get to playing a College game in regards to The Hill ? Furman University just finished up a two game home stand and on Wednesday evening, the Paladins play at Radford University against the Highlanders. Right at 40 miles from CCHS.

We can add in that Corrie Delp, Wyatt Ogle and Trace Reavis (twice) have each placed in the Top 10 in their respective State Championships. Reavis is fresh off finishing 3rd in his final event up at Harrisonburg.

Wyatt Ogle and Trace Reavis
Corrie and Jon Delp

For those who aren’t as interested in the Sports, its worth noting that Ethan Edwards is a Freshman at Harvard University and our valedictorian from TWO years ago, Ashlynn Newman, is set to graduate from Bluefield University soon.

Callie Harris is set to join the long list of Volleyball 🏐 players to go from being a Lady Cavalier under Cindy Edwards to playing at the collegiate level. Six players in the past five seasons and we will wait to see if fellow Senior, Brooke Webb adds her name to that list ?

Playing at Radford University on Wednesday evening.

While we all lean more towards one part of the School 🏫 than another, its easy to say that we had ourselves a tremendous weekend. Enough to make you say, ” HOW ‘ BOUT THEM CAVALIERS ” !!!!

Football 🏈 at Magna Vista is the next step 🚶‍♂️ for the Cavaliers and let’s all take the time to smell what all these Cavaliers are cooking 🍳!

Alyssa Ervin and her willingness to have the Ball in her hands ✋with the game on the line was on full display tonight as the Paladins escaped with an overtime victory !

  At the end of regulation in the Georgia State – Furman game, Alyssa Ervin had held her own against the Panthers. Six points scored and a handful of rebounds, assists and even a block. But Coach Pierre Curtis had her back out there for the final 5:00.

  Ervin worked herself open three times in the opening 80 seconds but none of the three efforts found the bottom of the net. It would have been oh so easy to shy away from a fourth attempt but that’s not the Lady Cavalier turned Paladin mindset. Not even a little.

2:53 – Scored a lay-up

2:11 – won a 50-50 Ball that gave Furman possession.

0:52.6 – fouled on a lay-up, swished both free throws to tie the game at 85-85.

0:42.2 – see above line !!!

0:11.0 – Fouled again, popped the net for a fifth straight time before missing one. Furman led 90-87 and held on for a thrilling 90-89 victory on ESPN+..

The totals for the night 🌙 were 13 points, 4 rebounds, 2 assist and a blocked  🚫 shot.

But the telling number is the number of times that the Sophomore had the ball in her hands ✋ at the end of the game and how comfortable she looked doing it !

The young Lady 👩, who was discovered by Marion Harris, coached up by Kris Richardson and then Ed Robtison before leading Marc Motley’s team to three straight State Tournament appearances.

Yes, that version of Miss Ervin was back on display Thursday night ! The other night at Vanderbilt University, Ervin scored 16 points by making 4 of 9 from deep. Tonight she scored 13 points by stepping up and leading a team.

It didn’t hurt that Clare Coyle was on her team as the tough as nails Sophomore from Jacksonville finished with 22 points and 17 rebounds.

Campbell is next up with the game beginning at 7pm on Sunday evening.

Once again, Carroll County versus Galax Middle School Basketball produces plenty of Atmosphere as the teams split two games Wednesday night.

Photo 📷 Credit : Beth Bouldin

One week after holding off a furious rally from visiting Galax Middle School, Head Coach Darian Brown returned to his old stomping grounds looking for the season sweep. The first year coach earned his sixth victory of the season as his Cavaliers defeated the Maroon Tide 33-25 Wednesday night.

Playing 10 games in 18 days can wear down a group but Brown is loving what he sees from his Cavaliers.

” I just want to start by saying I’m so proud of my guys!,” said Brown.  “Tonight’s atmosphere was great, I bet a lot of varsity teams don’t get crowds like that. Once again my guys showed up. I know they’re tired and banged up after 3 games on Saturday and playing on the road last night but they continue to show up. I made it clear after the game how important everyone on this team is. We have guys who aren’t playing a ton of minutes but show up at practice everyday ready to compete and make each other better. Some of those same guys show up every morning before school to get shots up! I can’t wait to see the final product when these guys are playing on the varsity team. I love the unselfishness and the way everyone supports each other on this team and I owe a lot of our success to that.”

  Gibson Barr dropped a game high 15 points to lead the way but had plenty of help in the scoring column. Six more Cavaliers netted points and its worth noting that Sam Johnson was money 💰 from the free throw line in the fourth quarter, going six for six.

Clinging to a 14-11 lead heading into the break, Brown watched his defense go lights out in the third quarter. Not sure if there was a Duke Floor Slap involved but the Cavaliers held Galax scoreless in a 9-0 breakaway six minutes.

Carroll County … 5  9   9  10 – 33

Galax MS..          – 6   5   0  14-  25

Carroll County (33) – Barr 15, Johnson 6, Stanovcak 4, Millaway 3, Reed 2, Hill 2, Poe 1.

Photo 📷 Credit : Beth Bouldin

On the Girls side of things, Coach Kris Richardson received offensive production from five Lady Cavaliers with Kierra Robinson leading the way with 10 points. The growing pains continue for the young ball club but this time around they avoided the early knock out punch 👊.

Carroll County trailed just 6-4 after the opening quarter and the margin each time was close (2,5,3,1) each time. The 24 points scored was one of the highest totals of the season but the Big 3 of Galax combined for 29 of the 35 points.

Natalie Dalton finished with six points and Maddie Carico netted four while both Briley McGhee and Raegan Combs added a basket 🧺. The offense was there but this time slowing down the Maroon Tide was the issue.

Carroll County will return to The Hill to host Floyd County Thursday night as the Lady Cavaliers complete their three games in three nights schedule for the week.

Coach Richardson knows that his team will get there and remains optimistic about the future.

” I am trying to comprehend what we can do better, as I set licking my wounds” said Richardson.” We play hard, but we just can’t get over the hump. Making shots, cutting down on turnovers are the two things we need to work on the most.”

Carroll County   4   4   9   7  – 24

Galax MS             6  9  12   8 –  35

Carroll County (24) – Robinson 10, Dalton 6, Carico 4, Combs 2, McGhee 2.