Photo 📷 taken at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina.

Getting to sit down recently with new Cavalier Head Coach Casey Burcham was both a treat and it brought a few new readers to the site. The hope is that some of them will stick around for a while !

Its always fun to use a Top Ten List, per David Letterman back in the day, to help explain a thought process so let’s share 10 things that a new reader might not know.

#10 – Everything that goes on our site has to be 100% positive. There are so many places out there used for evil 😈 and demeaning of people and stories that our way to battle back is to just share Positivity.

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#9 – Love where you Live – this line was actually on the back of a young man’s T-shirt 👕 the other night at the Soccer ⚽️ Banquet. There are so, so many things that happen in our County that we can be proud of so the goal is share as many as possible.

My personal tag line on the matter is Duke, UVA and wherever I Stay. Everyone should be proud of where they call 🏡!

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#8 – What’s up with all of the emojis?

They are my way of keeping my thought process grounded. A fun reminder that our goal is to keep it light as we all struggle with the day to day.

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#7 – Where did the name of the website originate ?

The site has been ours for almost two decades and is near and dear to us. Around the Valley in 60 Days was a promotion that we created and ran for the Valley Baseball League ⚾️ in the Shenandoah Valley.

We change the subtitle, in this case, the Carroll County Sports Report, based on where we live. This is Year Four of being residents of Laurel Fork, Virginia.

I could see the next name being the Laurel Fork Coconut 🥥 Telegraph as a show of Love 💘 for the late, great Jimmy Buffett.

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#6 – Why would there be a new name in the works for the site ?

The goal originally was to build a Network for the Community that would have people across our Commonwealth trying to figure out what in the World 🌎 was going on down in Carroll County.

Sadly, for a large number of reasons we never came close to achieving our goal in relationship to that. This presents two options – stop ✋ all together, calling it a day or rebranding and work with what we have under a different title.

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#5 – What is the deal regarding the use of Social Media ?

Since the creation of Social Media I have believed it to be the Devil. Not everyone involved is the Devil but the goal here was to create a safe space where a resident or former resident could go to in the morning with their Coffee or Orange Juice, click on one site, completely void of drama and check out what is taking place in their little corner of the World.

No ads, no negative, nobody telling you how to live your life. Just uplifting information about our Community.

The stories that I create are personal and more often than not they are designed for one person or one group. I encourage the people that the story is about to share it in any manner they see fit.

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#4 – What is something that enters into the daily thought process ?

We live in a busy, busy time. The idea 💡is to keep each story readable in under two minutes. We are not trying to make it feel like a homework assignment. If I know in advance that a story is longer than normal I will note 📝 that at the Top.

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#3 – What is the biggest obstacles involved in trying to build something like this from scratch ?

One of the things you have to do and quickly is meet as many people as you can and then Guage their interest in participating in what you are trying to get out there. It varies by a WIDE margin.

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#2 – How do you decide where to point your focus towards from Day to Day ?

The ultimate goal is to create two things – inclusion and equality. In High School more often than not the majority of the attention goes to the Football program and one other team. In our case that’s Girls Basketball 🏀. So the natural thing to do is try and promote EVERYTHING else so it can be viewed as equal.

In a perfect World 🌎 everyone should feel just as relevant as the Varsity QB or the Homecoming Queen 👸.

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#1 – Please give one example of something that you / I feel would be the next out there to accomplish…

Yes, when you interview yourself you risk talking 👄 in the 3rd person.

Our Volleyball 🏐 Coach is closing in on a piece of History. Cindy Edwards is quite possibly going to Coach player or players this season that will be on the court when she records her 500th victory.

You create a photo 📷 shoot using say Dakota Walls race 🏁 car with Cindy holding a helmet ⛑️ ( full racing gear would be amazing) and each member of the program surrounding the car.

The caption would read – Join us for the Drive to 500 ! Print some posters and have the girls sign them one night and give them away to the fans in the Gymnasium.

It both honors Coach Edwards and gives the group of young Ladies that compete with Football a moment of their own.

Hopefully that gives any new readers that have stumbled across what I call the Best Kept Secret in Carroll County!

Have a Blessed Day !

First there was the long drive 🚗 across US-58 over to South Hill, followed by not playing on Friday as scheduled and when our ever so little future Lady Cavaliers did finally get to take the field it was blazing hot.

But I’m sure that none of that took away from the Love 💘, Pride and Joy that the Parents and siblings have after returning home from Mecklenburg County late yesterday.

Game 2 (Sunday) saw Carroll County take an early 5-3 lead before eventually falling 11-5. Kevin Burress is a great job describing the playing condition in regards to the extreme heat.

We are so proud of everyone involved with this team, Coaches , players and Family 👪 support. Congratulations 👏 on reaching the State Tournament and representing our County.

If anyone has any photos or stories about the weekend or the season we will happily add them to this post 📫.

I have said more than a few times that the place in Carroll County that I feel most at Home in the Press Box at Cavalier Park.

On that same line of thinking, there’s no greater joy for me than being asked to assist our Resident Angel, Vickie Ritchie.

The five folks wearing Red are from Grayson County.

Sheriff Richard Vaughan brought along his Bride 👰, Son, Daughter and family 👪 friend Eddie. Mom did an amazing job performing the National Anthem to get everything underway!

The afternoon included four quarters of Basketball 🏀, a short range shooting contest and a 3-pointer contest and a tremendous amount of joy for everyone in the Gymnasium at Hillsville Elementary School 🏫.

Here, my Bride 👰 was displaying the 4th of July Head Gear Vickey provided everyone !

The entire Vaughan Family 👪 were so kind in both the giving of their time and energy from start to finish. They added so much joy to our group of ball players !

Our Non-profit is based on ones ability to volunteer 🙋‍♀️ your time whenever you can if it can benefit others. I do it everytime I type something up or announce a ball game or share a photo 📷 or two but assisting Vickey Ritchie is just a notch above everything else I do.

Watching 👀 someone give so much of themselves for the betterment of others is as Good as it Gets. The entire time Vickey is making it up as she goes and I just follow her around the Gymnasium and put a fun voice to it !

” Money ” Talley with his game face on early in the action 🎬. Brother and Sister with Vickey keeping a watchful eye 👁 on everything.

We never know when the next time that Vickey will reach out to us but if its at all possible we will be there for her and her Basketball 🏀 team !

Need to add a note 📝 of Thanks to Marion Harris for his willingness to delay our plans for the afternoon so we could make it to the Game !

Jabin Talley back in the early days.

Blacksburg – The jump between High School competition and College Sports in monumental, the equivalent of moving to the deep end of the Swimming 🏊‍♂️ pool. This past weekend Jabin Talley played in a Tournament up at Virginia Tech that included tennis players from D1 Schools across the region. Greg Talley took the time to pen 🖊 a heartfelt recap of what the experience meant to him.

” I’ve been asked before who is my favorite player in sports to watch .In basketball Pete Maravich was mesmerizing in his he could shoot and pass , in football , well that’s easy Jom Brown from my beloved Cleveland Browns was an easy answer, baseball was a little harder but Hammerin Hank Aaron came out on top , hockey was easy the great Gretzky by far , track and field Carl Lewis but then a new player became a clear choice.

Not only was he good at anything he tried , baseball :Starting at second base and leadoff hitter for the Dixie league champion crushers , starting guard for one the 5 best teams in school history and tennis all time # 1 seed player .

I could watch John McEnroe or Aggasi play all day . But whi came out on top of all these athletes . It’s a no brainer, watching my son Jabin Talley play any sport is the answer . So what was I thinking when I entered him in a high level tennis tournament this weekend .

I knew it would be hard to compete with players from UVA , JMU , players with 10 or better utr’s from all over the east coast and even China . As my favorite wrestler said to be the best you got to beat the best .

He didn’t win any of his matches (after winning his opener by a WD) but he didn’t back down either . He gave a good showing of just how good he can be . Yeah there is no doubt my favorite player to watch of all time is my son Jabin Talley .And the wonderful thing about him is he is ready to back play again . Awesome !!

Thank You Greg and keep getting after it Jabin !

There’s a report floating around that Scotland Yard went over budget in regards to security during the recent visit to the Country by Mr. & Mrs. Ben Tickle.

It turns out that when the Loch Ness monster heard about Ben Tickle being on her side of the Pond she reached out in hopes of having a Lunch Date with the couple.

The extra security was called in to help deal with potential photos 📷 being taken by the Tabloids. Nessy had a wonderful experience with the couple and even posed for some ever so rare photographs.

Nessy wasn’t the only Celebrity that read our feature on the Legend of Ben Tickle. Here are some of the others that might surprise you…..

Chuck Norris – I have Ben Tickle on speed dial. Any morning that I wake up and feel off center, I reach out to Ben and he gets me back on track!

Big Foot – The reason that so many people don’t believe in me is because I am constantly hiding from Mr. Tickle. Fear of Ben is what keeps me hiding deep in the woods.

While I’m not the A-List celebrity that the people listed above, I would like to add that even though Ben Tickle is six years younger than me, I want to be just like him when I grow up !

Nike exec Phil Knight is currently working on a new sneaker 👟 campaign along the lines of Be Like Mike, calling their new shoe ” Win Like Ben “

Nick Saban after retirement from Alabama said the following ” It’s all about Coaching for second place as long as Ben Tickle is still working the sidelines.

Going 12-4 for his Soccer ⚽️ Head Coaching career has Ben sitting at .750 for an All-Time mark.

Phil Jackson and Joe Gibbs are two of the All-Timers that remain on Ben’s call sheet as they look for Coaching Tips.

The Legend of Ben Tickle is growing and growing and I feel fortunate to get to watch it happen !