Welcome 🙏 to a November to Remember and we start out with a thought about David Broyles and Marion Harris to get things started ! Saturday’s Morning 🌄 Brew

The official School 🏫 calender is blank.

Travis Osborne with his Bible Verse of the Day :

1 Peter 5:7 Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.

As we flip the calendar 📅 to November, it’s time to tweak the mission a bit but Thanks to Marion Harris we closed things out in style !

The goal for the past year was to create a ” Happy Place ” that would allow a person in Carroll County to wake ⏰ up and spend a few minutes reading about all the Awesome stuff that took place the day before in Carroll County.

No advertising, no bullying, no negativity – just positive stories about Cavalier comings and goings. Not just the Athletics but the pageantry as well as the Academics.

The past five days have been a blast because things actually worked out like they had been designed, with thousands of people checking in and enjoying the content. That was Marion being Marion and I wanted to publicly say THANKS for his efforts !!!

Perfect storm in that while I was busy trying hard to save the sanity of Mr David Broyles, Marion was making things work on the other end.

Back on September 13th at Cavalier Park we hosted an event and one of the things we did was celebrate the impending retirement of David Broyles. Greg Bolen, Kevin Burress and Russell Smoot teamed up to make it a priceless moment as we danced in costumes to Girls Just Wanna Have Fun.

Sadly, as David was set to sail off into the Sunset 🌇 and enjoy the rest of his life with his Bride 👰, Allen Worrell stepped away from the Newspaper 📰. This left the folks in Mt. Airy no other choice but to convince David to stay on and be a Gap person until a replacement for Allen was in place.

While there are people on both sides of the fence on Allen Worrell, know that he was a skilled editor. Very good at his job and in an industry that I have been in the past 50 years, so I’m qualified to say is dwindling away to notta.

Now, our friend David is trying hard to keep the operation upright and while a wonderful person who can write ✍ and tell a story, he’s not an editor. I watched as the community paper filled space with a NFL recap instead of asking me for another story..

I’m not sure just how long David can take one for the team in the manner that he is but as long as he’s trying, I will try and do my best to assist him. This week I was able to create four stories and each one was a fun write ✍ about local people doing cool things so hopefully it will all work out for another edition !

The entire Thought Process that Lin and I have with OneofUs.Care is to give people Hope and make people smile when the World 🌎 is itching for a fight. There is still hope and this past week Marion was helping me while I was helping David and Shawn Montgomery received solid coverage for his Cross Country program. We celebrated Darian Brown earning his first victory and marveled at Kris Richardson as the Basketball Whisperer.

Kindness matters and there are so many levels of bullying that go undetected. It’s okay to give your neighbor the benefit of the doubt because we are all facing serious problems every day.

Haven’t made it to Paris yet and its a great story about why that is but it will be told soon enough.

The Duke – Baylor game isn’t until Monday night so there’s no need to worry yet.

After that game in Paris, Marion and I will team up to create a International event by covering the Carroll County at Abingdon Regional Volleyball match. That will be Fun…

The next piece of business will be to create a page for the month long adventure with Duke University Women’s Basketball 🏀. This is the closing chapter for my Hoops Book 📖 as it will include the eight games that the Blue Devils will play this month.

Paris, Durham(2), Greenbriar Resort, Liberty University, Tampa Florida and finally two games in Las Vegas.

For the readers that are interested in this story they can just click on that page.

While this is taking place, I will be covering some Middle School Basketball and supporting whoever wants some positive attention.

Have yourself a Blessed Day 🙌

Let’s call this one : Kris Richardson and Kira Lawson and my Love 💓 for Women’s Basketball 🏀!

Now that we are safely 🙏 at the Charlotte Airport awaiting our flight ✈️ to Paris, France 🇫🇷, I can finally write ✍ about the Carroll County Middle School Basketball game Thursday night on The Hill.

CCMS hosted the Blacksburg Bruins in their second home game to start the eight week season. The scorebook will tell us that our Lady Cavaliers fell short in the contest, 28-14 and while we will dig into the game,, we will also look at the Big Picture down the road.

Blacksburg Bruins 4 8 14 2 – 28

Carroll County Cavs 3 2 0 9 – 14

The two teams played an extra session and tied 5-5.

Kris Richardson falls into the category of DRIVEN and that’s our common bond. If you look at any given Coach and ask yourself, I wonder why he or she is coaching and you could have 1,000 different answers. My neighbor wants the Girls Basketball 🏀 team to return to the level of glory it experienced a few years back !

It’s such a belief in his skill set that was willing to take over the Middle School Girls Basketball program. If you want to be the Best, you gotta be willing to put in the work. The group that captured our Back 2 Back State Titles played Hoops together from the third grade on. That equals a decade of commitment and then some.

The Lady Cavaliers will play again on Monday up at Christiansburg, game three on the year but the first time it will involve a Bus 🚌 ride and playing in front of someone else’s Home fans. Just two more obstacles on the long and winding road to long term success.

It was a tremendous ” get ” to have Miss Lauren Alley on the coaching staff this season ! Yes, both Steve Martin and Richardson played the game and played it well but to a 12 year old Girl, that was back in the time of dinosaurs 🦕.

Alley played the game with a level of grit and determination that is mandatory in the game today. If I wanted to have a poster child for what is required to play today’s game of Girls Basketball, it would be the 2024 Graduate 🎓.

Looking at the box score, its easy to ask what happened in the second half ? The quarters went 0/14 and then 9/2 with the difference between the two six minute frames being the use of the off arm when on offense and being willing to play aggressive defense.

When a young Girl is growing up today she has choices. Volleyball, Basketball, Softball and Soccer with the biggest difference between the sports being the level of having someone in your grill for 94 feet. Each sport requires its own set of skills but Basketball is the one that has someone slapping at you the entire time.

Listening to the Dads sitting near me last night, I can tell you two things. They love their daughters and their understand the game because they grew up playing it. Big help in that category !

Quick note 📝 on the picture of the Cheerleaders. They are part of the Hoops experience and I won’t ever write a Basketball story without including at least one picture. If someone reads this and has access to the Cheer Coach and names PLEASE let me know.

Steve Martin not only played the game well but then helped coach up his daughter years later. Martin is not bashful about communicating with the players and this is another good thing !

The team didn’t win Thursday night and they might win on Monday night but remember that this is a long-term agenda that is designed to end with Lady Cavaliers and scissors cutting down some nets.

No predictions here but I will add that I wouldn’t bet against my fellow Laurel Forkian…is that really a word ?

I have went out of my way to make Boys Coach Darian Brown feel welcome here on The Hill ! Sometimes its tough to adjust to new surroundings and its something that I have done my entire life so I want to be a personal Welcome Mat.

Two things that I can tell folks about Coach Brown – one, he has a serious Golf ⛳ Game so don’t let him take your Lunch money.

Two, Coach really liked my Duke University Coaches jacket last night and I think he would look smooth wearing one himself !!

Kira Lawson is Hero of mine and I’ve watched the current Duke University Women’s Basketball Coach grow up in my lifetime. First as a dominant player for Pat Summitt at Tennessee, then in the WNBA. Time spent as an analyst and then moved into her first Coaching position at Duke.

Lawson is also the current Coach of Team USA 🇺🇸 and right now she is in Paris. France 🇫🇷 for the Blue Devils opening game versus Baylor University. We couldn’t take advantage of the travel package offered through the School because we had Cross Country runners and Middle School Hoops to support before we could comfortably get out of town

In the month of November, Lawson will Coach eight times. Once in France, once at the Greenbriar Resort, twice at the home arena for the Las Vegas Aces, twice at Cameron Indoor Stadium, once at Liberty University and South Florida.

Let’s call 📞 it a November to Remember!

Thanks for reading about Kira, Kris and Darian !

On Saturday November 15th we are set to meet the players that will represent the Cavalier Hoops teams, today we take an indepth look at the Coaches who will lead our six teams.

Both Howard Mayo and Anthony Barnes are set to lead their programs on the hardwood floor at Carroll County High School. November 15th is set aside for Alumni action and to meet the current players. Today we take a closer look at the Coaches who will assist our two leaders this winter.

Starting on the Girls side, Mayo is set for year 2, take 2. The veteran Coach has found success in a number of stops over the decades and has returned to the place where it all started.

Consistency is a key 🔑 to success and Mayo welcomes back his Top four Coaches from last season. Kayla Nester returns as the lead Assistant for the Varsity and the teaching Trio of Halie Cushman, Brittany Luneherry and Chenoa Payne will team up to lead the Junior Varsity Girls.

Cushman will hold the title of Head Coach on the JV team but the three ladies are in this together. Again, having the players hearing the same voice is HUGE, especially when a program is in a rebuilding stage.

Mayo landed some Big names in regards to the Middle School Girls program ! The trio of Kris Richardson, Steve Martin and Lauren Alley have already began their eight week season this week.

Richardson made the transition from the Co-Pilot seat to Barnes to the other side of the isle this year. The new Head Coach will have a ton of Cavalier based knowledge sitting next to him as both Martin and Alley know the game well and played it at a very high level.

The amount of Basketball 🏀 knowledge involved with a Middle School ball team goes a long way in showing just how serious Carroll County is about Basketball !

While the rosters for the Varsity teams are still a work in progress, the Middle School ones are set as both teams have played two games this week.

On the Boys side, Barnes returns after a season in which his Cavaliers punched a ticket 🎟 to the State Tournament. While it will be his initial ride without his long time friend and Assistant Coach, Barnes operates under a next man up mindset.

Here’s the lineup as described by Coach Barnes :

Coaches this year is Stockner lead assistant, along with Jabin Talley and Cody Reece , both are going to be big help with being able to still play and demonstrating what we need too do, very thankful to have them ask to Coach and step up for the program, huge. Coach Phillips and Largen taking care of the jv, Coach Phillips played for T Jackson and has a great IQ for the game and knows the style of play I wanna do. Coach Largen, diehard Cavalier Coach, AAU, school basketball, baseball, football, plus juggling his young kids as well, very impressive.

Coach Brown comes from George Wythe , spent alot of time with group that won group A State last year, he is driven for success in the program as a whole, he will join me on my staff after middle school season. Alot of things in place for the future of Cavalier basketball for years to come, but this year some unfinished business with Isiah Easter and new cast of guys around him willing to battle and further cement the direction of the Boys Basketball program! I’m excited! Go Cavs !

Now that we have the names of the 16 coaches that are set to guide our six ball clubs into battle, its time to revisit the idea 💡 of holding a Boys Coaches versus Girls Coaches Charity Basketball game !

The combination of talent that would be on display would be historical ! Sure. We would need Nathan Jones nearby and CVS would run out of Aspirin but think of the 16 players and the match-ups.

Meet the Cavaliers on November 15th and know that they will be lead by some serious Basketball folks of high standards.

Darian Brown leads Carroll County Middle School to its first victory on the young season !

Darian Brown looking over the shoulder of Grant Reed during first half action 🎬 on Thursday night – Photo Credit : Linda Carter

The Hill – Gibson Barr led the way with 15 points, including two free throws in overtime as Carroll County defeated visiting Blacksburg 40-38. The victory allows CCMS to end week one of the season with a mark of 1-1.

The most impressive part of the victory took place in the second half as the visiting Bruins closed the opening 12 minutes on a 14-0 run to take a 22-14 lead into the break.

The rookie Head Coach had challenged his squad and did it in a Lion King 🦁 type of way.

” I asked the kids during pregame, what animal is the king of the jungle? They replied “Lions”. This I asked is the lion the biggest, fastest, or strongest animal in the jungle and they answered no. I said exactly! Elephants are bigger, cheetahs are faster, and gorillas are stronger. BUT Lions have that killer mentality and they don’t back down from anyone. Every time we step on the court we will not be the biggest, strongest, or fastest but from now on we will be lions! I asked do I have any lions in here? They replied YES SIR!! I said let’s go show them and that’s exactly what my guys did. I’m proud of how they battled especially being put in a game like that this early in the season. I’m excited for what’s to come”

Blacksburg … 6 16. 9. 5. 2 – 38

Carroll County 4 10 14 8 4 – 40

The deficit grew to nine early in the third after Blacksburg connected twice from deep, sandwiched around a 3-pointer from Grant Reed. Carroll County closed the Gap on a 9-0 run to pull even at 28-28 but the Bruins closed the 3rd and opened the 4th with 3-pointers to create space.

The Bruins had 34 points with 5:28 remaining in the fourth quarter and finished overtime with 38. Quick math says that Brown’s defense surrendered just four points over the final 8+ minutes.

The defense intensified and it turned into instant offense on the other end of the floor. Trailing 36-28, Carroll County closed out regulation on an 8-0 run.

Jaxon Stanovick started the closeout with a put back basket and Barr scored the final six points. Sam Johnson found Barr with a nifty pass and the equalizer came after a Barr steal and drive to the basket 🧺.

Johnson was fouled early in OT and calmly sank both free throws and Barr closed out the scoring at 0:15.4 with the game winning free throws.

Middle School Boys 👦 Basketball 🏀 with Coach Brown and Company !

6:11 – Opening Tip

Beth Bouldin and Lin will have some game pics as we go.

6-6 end of 1st…

6:39 – Halftime, trailing 22-14

7:01 – end 3rd… Bears 31-28…

7:19 – end of regulation, tied 36-36…

3:00 on the clock ⏰ for Overtime !

Carroll County 40, Blacksburg 38 !!!

The teams will now play an 8:00 extra period.

What happens next is sometime in the next 24 hours, I will produce a Game Story from my notes 📝 and mix in some pics +

For now, Cavs Win, Cavs Win, 40-38

Bruins take the extra 8:00, 12-0…

More Later…7:40 pm