Greg Talley is someone who enjoys life and looks for ways to bring joy to the lives of others. Our paths first crossed at a Carroll County High School Basketball game when we were sitting one row behind a collection of people that were just having FUN !
Normally, in that situation, I amuse myself by mentally attaching the fans with the athlete they are rooting on. I had no clue because this group was making positive noise for all of our Cavaliers.
After the game, I had to reach out and ask their ” leader ” who they were actually Kin to ? It was from there forward that I referred to them as The Jabin Talley Fan Club !
Greg and his extended family are a huge part of the story, and I’m so very thankful for this! While I have never actually counted, I would be shocked if one person had contributed more to our sites over the years than Mr T !
Right now, Greg is using one of his many talents as we are trying hard to track down a few essential media stories from decades ago. Ones that help tell the Big Picture 📸 that we are trying hard to develop.
This link will take you to a story that is going to be in the book. The search is one for the actual story that appeared in the Everett Herald some 30 years ago.
Why is that story relevant to the Bigger picture ? Because a sports writer took the time to sit with me and Chris, create a cool story that made my boy’s classmates take notice for a month or so. It was a priceless experience for the Carter family and for the past 30 years, I have been trying hard to pay that forward as often as humanly possible !!!
Here is one that Greg has already tracked down for me.
Colleen Smith asked if she could take a run at telling my life story back in 2020 ? I laughed and responded that I was not sure that I could tell my own life story. She wrote this right before we left the Island to move to Carroll County.
Thanks to Greg, I can now share the actual story at some point. Mr T was put on the invite list to share his favorite story, and I sure hope he does !
The photo of my creation of the group that I labeled ” The Fab Four ” is a huge part of the story as well.
The link above takes you to some of the build up I was working on in regards to Miss Tiffanie Moore of Dugspur.
Last night, during my conversation with Ryan McCafferty of The Carroll News, we were discussing my work on this book and why I felt it was so relevant. Like Ryan, I wasn’t in Carroll County back in 2015, but when I moved here on New Years Day of 2021, the softball park really stuck out. I had a history with the sport, so I started digging around.
See, Frank Beamer was born here well over half a century ago, and he is still relevant at the highest level. There was a courthouse incident that is still discussed from many a moon ago that still has people talking, so how is the very first State Championship in the history of the school of less value after just one decade ?
Buy I, too, was in a sizable hole because I arrived five plus years after the fact, so I didn’t know the story or the hundreds of side stories behind them.
Head Coach Rick Nester reached out right before one of his former Lady Cavalier was set to be inducted into the school Hall of Fame. Coach was trying to enlighten me about someone named Tiffanie Moore. Being honest, the way he described her, I was picturing a cartoon type Super Hero, like maybe Wonder Woman.
Alan Knight was in town, having made the trip down from Page County, and we sat together in the gym for the basketball game and the ceremony. Moore was there and was surrounded by a few members of the US Secret Service. It was fascinating to hear the story, so when the night was over, I reached out to Allen Worrell to check on the possibility of me doing a feature on her.
One of the reasons why Allen and I made such a great team was that we made sure to never write the same story. He covered the bigger events and gave me access to everything else. Once he did his story on the entire Class going in, he gave me the green light.
I knew that there was an illness involved but didn’t know anything about the details. This led me to invite my wife to join us for the trip up to Dugspur in hopes that she could dumb down the medical portion for me. There are a number of areas where I lack knowledge past elementary school level and medical is atop that list.
The hours spent inside the Moore home will never be forgotten about, and I set out to make Tiff our poster child for everything we stand for.
During the visit, Tiff asked one thing from me, and that was if I were to tell her story, PLEASE don’t make it about her health issues. We agreed to that request, and when we finally said our goodbyes, I started preparing to write a feature story that would make the New York Times want to run it !
Fast forward to the second of our three Alumni Game Day celebrations, and there was a MOMENT that I felt ranked in the neighborhood of Jim Valvano at the ESPYs. After Tiff was done, I offered the microphone to her father, and he also made me tear up with his words.
On that same day, Greg Bolen and Russell Smoot joined Kevin Burress and I in a five minute attempt at a music comedy sketch. Bolen capped it off by dropping to the ground and doing the worm. Allen Worrell captured the moment with his camera, and it ended up on the front page of the newspaper. There were also a couple of videos floating around. It was priceless!
When I am creating a live event like that, it is an unscripted reality theater production, and sadly, it wasn’t captured by anyone. Quite possibly one of the historical moments in the history of CCHS softball, and I wasn’t prepared
Yes, this young lady went on to play college softball, shoot a riffle as well as anyone, and eventually advance to protecting the president. Most of my stories are about Parents and their children, and WOW is this one a keeper! Just wish that I could have captured the moment…
There will eventually be a beautiful piece that Dad wrote for his little girl that will appear here as well !
The average person has no idea what it is like to be driven, to the point of possessed. This book was designed to be finished 12 months ago, and a normal person would have just moved on from it a long time ago, but when you are coo-coo for Cocca Puffs, like me, life is not that simple.
The goal here is to close out the latest effort by walking the readers what will look like a bizarre process, but in actuality is the very definition of Driven.
We start the seven days at 8:46 am on Thursday (October 1st ) and will conclude it at 8:46 am on Thursday, October 8th. This is how I will close the book on the book.
Thursday, October 1st
We will circle 🔵 back to the significance of the message from Keith here in a bit..
I enter the gymnasium on The Hill at 3:30 pm because it is the ninth of our 10 volleyball nights. It is a triple header because our middle school is playing in the leadoff spot. What I do during VB season doesn’t fit under the umbrella of announcing because it is much more like being the emcee for a party that lasts just over four hours.
The second that the third set ends, Lin and I have to head home and pack up. I am packing for 1 week, but Lin is packing for an indefinite amount of time. She has three different next level medical appointments, and the third one will most likely keep her in Missouri for months.
I have two things that have to happen on Friday before we leave town. One involves Vickey Ritchie and the other one, Tammy Quesenberry. The goal is to jump into the car with Lin the second that she pulls up to Pizza Perfect on Main Street.
Lin has the first appointment and then has to load her bags in the car for her three months away. For this to work out correctly, I need a ride on Friday morning from Olde Mill to The Hill, but first, I have to load my stuff quite like because it will be 6am.
Friday, October 2nd :
Up at 4am – boooooooooo
Start writing ✍️
Car loaded by 6:20 and at 6:30, I jump into the car driven by Kris Richardson, and we play catchup for 25 minutes until we reach Hardee’s. I jump out, order a biscuit, and then a few minutes later, I ask Vickey Ritchie if she can swing by to pick me up on her way to Hillsville Elementary School? We need to be there by 8:00 am for her annual Little Feet Meet.
For the next 3 hours and 15 minutes, we crushed what we were doing and had fun while doing it. Karen and Evee were awesome ➕️ anytime with Vickey is an absolute blessing. I would owe her a story, but that was what I call a next day problem.
My meeting with Tammy isn’t scheduled until 1 p.m., but now I need a ride back to Main Street. I have no control over the lunch break window, and when Patrick Smith and his daughter were heading out for the break, I was able to climb up into his truck.
I jump out at Ron’s ( Omega ) shop at 11:30 and engage in a typical fashion with Mr Cochran and his work daughter!
At 1 p.m., Tammy concluded her walk over from her office, and we sat down to discuss a subject matter near and dear to me, Carroll County High School Soccer ⚽️.
We don’t get to sit down together very often because we both stay incredibly busy. But when we do, it’s a top shelf conversation. It only ended at 3pm because we both had to get to the next point or station.
Lin pulled up a few minutes early because the first of three appointments had to be canceled. Incredibly inconvenient, but you have to roll with the punches. It was a bonus that two very important ladies were also enjoying lunch at the same time.
3:15 – jump in car with Lin, and we head north. I text Vickey because I need a couple of things – Karen’s last name and the photo 📸 she took of me and the principal.
The destination is Bryce Resort, only because JMU has a home football game and its parents’ weekend. Finding a hotel for less than $200.00 a night wasn’t going to happen.
Vickey calls 📞 and we bask in the glory of the morning, and she shares the necessary information that I needed. The story was brewing in my head at this point.
The next thing to happen was stopping by the home of Bill & Barb Meade from 6:09 until 7:10. They live in Stuarts Draft, and I wanted to give Bill / Pappy a couple of suggestions on topics for his section of the story. We headed out when the Pitt – VA Tech came on as one of their Son’s went there and they are big fans.
We still had roughly 90 minutes left, and the next thing that I received was the first update from Vickey as she was at the Cavalier – Highlanders game. The final stop ✋️was at Buc-ees because it’s Buc-ees.
The Carroll County game ended as we turned the key 🔑 to the unit. The last thing we did was unload the entire car and then went to bed around 10-11 pm.
We happened to catch the big news about young Peyton Spencer as we were finally turning out the lights.
Saturday, October 3rd :
Up before 6am, did the Morning 🌄 Brew and then headed over towards the town of Shenandoah. The drive flirts with being one hour long and includes crossing Massanutten Mountain ⛰️.
We had hoped to meet up with four or five people on a day we blocked 🚫 off but that wasn’t going to happen. When that’s the case, you make sure that you don’t short change the people that give you their time!
We pull into the parking lot of Roy Cardin Field shortly after 10 am. You can’t help but notice the name of Archie Dodson in a few places as well. Big Daddy pulls in shortly after, and we hit the ground running, exchanging story after story. Just before 11 am, he places a call to Amy Gaskins of Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Until that moment, I only knew that we were calling one of Roy’s daughters. Once I saw her last name, I immediately connected some of the dots !
The conversation that followed was the equivalent of winning the lottery jackpot ! Shortly after the video call ended, we made the short drive over to the Italian restaurant in town. We gave Dennis Zimmerman a heads up in case he wanted to stop by and join us for lunch. The picture above shows that he did, even though he couldn’t stay long enough to break bread because he needed to finish preparing for his sermon tomorrow.
One of the employees above and Dennis Z below.
We called Alan Knight as we left Shenandoah and headed over to Harrisonburg. We still needed to accomplish four things – Lin to the Gym for her knee, catch up with Alan, see part of a movie at Regal – because of our membership, and write a story for Vickey.
When I ran a depot for the New York Times out in Seattle, I had a 90-minute window to discuss business with 45 carriers. It was during that time I learned how to think fast and improvise.
Alan was going to a local restaurant to watch the JMU – Marshall University game at 3:45 pm. At 2:45, Lin dropped me off and drove the one mile to the Planet Fitness to begin her workout. Our plan was to meet up at Regal at 4pm to watch the new Tom Cruise movie, Digger.
During the movie, I created the volleyball coverage for the JV tournament and thanked both Travis Osborne for providing it and then Nikki Heflin for taking our group up there on Saturday.
Then, the moment of truth happened – I wanted to go back to Bryce, but Lin wanted to finish her workout. Back to the gym we went…
Lin heads back into the gym, and at 6:30 pm, I send this message to Vickey Ritchie.
One hour and 42 minutes later, I finished up the story on the Little Feet Meet.
I kinda liked the finished product, and Vickey paid me the ultimate compliment by saying it read like I was standing next to her. That is the part that I learned from Jimmy Buffett. A good storyteller should be able to let you close your eyes 👀 and see what the song 🎵 is about.
The McDonald’s drive thru for dinner and back at Bryce Resort by a little after nine o’clock. Asleep 😴 at 10 pm and praying for a decent night’s rest 🙏.
Sunday, October 4th
The clock ⏰️ read 2:01 am. when my eyes opened. I could have really done without that being the case !!!!
2:00 to 4:24 is what it took to write the 8th and final chapter. Everything between chapter eight and this afterword will just be a string of stories tied together. It felt like a great read.
I fell asleep while holding the phone and stayed that way for 60 minutes. When I woke myself back up , I spent the next sixty minutes piecing the Craig Worrell piece together, and I know that one wS a great read because I heard from both Rick and Donna Nester shortly afterwards.
I jump in the shower, and we head out in search of Lin some Starbucks on our way to Shenandoah for back to back Church services
Dennis Zimmerman is the backup pastor at both his Church and its Sister Church. The sermon would be similar at both 930 and 1100, but is there such a thing as too much Church ?
Big Daddy and Chris Dodson
The next conversation took place immediately after the second service, and it was Top Shelf stuff. Dodson is tied to this story in a large number of ways and a quick comparison of notes was incredibly helpful. The small window 🪟 of time also allowed me to meet his Bride and Puppy 🐶 for the first time.
The next McDonald’s drive thru happened during the 50-minute drive down to Waynesboro, where I was set to meet with Chris and Crystal Graham. Lin needed to get back to a gym for her next workout, so she dropped me off. How tired am I at this point ??? One mistep, and I’m in the middle of a face plant that broke skin on both my elbow ( knew immediately and Crystal patched up) and my left knee which I didn’t notice until the end of the night.
From 1:40 until 4 : 50, I received the exact message I needed to hear from the only person who could have delivered it to me. Picture Tom Hanks asking one of his players, ” Are you crying? There’s no crying in baseball.”
The harsh truth had set in about the sixth book. It simply wasn’t going to mean the same to anyone else, and any normal person would have surrendered long ago. The message was simple, if it that important, figure out a way to bring it home.
The next couple of hours were nothing short of brutal and required switching drivers once to make it back up to Bryce. Once back, there it was a crash and burn sleep that began at 8 pm.
We checked a great deal of boxes 📦 was we were far from finished.
Monday, October 5th
Six hours later, it was 2am, and my hesitation to look at my phone was overwhelming. I knew immediately that I was full-blown awake ⏰️ whether I wanted to be or not…
Writing, falling asleep, writing, and hearing from Bill Gallimore made me stop ✋️ and smile. His note, in the middle of his issues, was a shot of adrenaline. By the time we fully packed the car and returned the keys 🔑 it was 9:13 am. The quick stop at the Bryce Community Store for a diet soda and it was 9:26 am
The problem is we had no mapped out plan to get to the end of the week and the drive down to Salem to come up with one.
It was shortly after 10am (10:25 ) on Friday when I sent a quick message to my older brother in Sellersburg, Indiana.
We have a few hard-core time commitments still awaiting us in the next few days.
1:30 pm – Tuesday at Duke Medical Center neurosurgeon.
5:00am – Drop Linda at ROA Airport for her flight ✈️ to Missouri.
11:30 am – pick up a package 📦 in Fancy Gap
1 : 00 pm – Wednesday in Elkin, North Carolina
3 : 30 pm – Thursday, exit the week long circus 🎪
A number of other things need to make the list, but those MUST take place.
Just before 11 a.m., I finished a 20-minute call with our son, Chris, and we managed to create a plan that made sense as we tried to solve a number of issues.
At 12 : 32, we pulled into the Hampton Inn in Salem, Virginia, and 25 minutes later, we finished unloading the car. Yes, we had that much stuff…
3:23 was when Wayne arrived to fill the slot vacated by Alan.
At 2 :09, the Brad & Sydney Nester portion of the book was up ! Brad = The Bomb 💣 and it led to the next to the last invite to write to Mr Chuck McGill.
Off to Buffalo 🐃 Wild Wings for the one actual meal of the day. Created the Darrin Mathews portion while chewing food. Darrin thought it was both funny and sincere !
12 : 04 / 3:49 were the times that I reached out to the Cat 🐈 Lady, and when she responded with her portion.
44 minutes, 11 seconds
At 5 : 30, I started this part of the book, and I will build on it right up until I sign off Thursday afternoon at 3:30
Now it’s 9:32 and sleep 😴 is possible. We have to pull out at 6:30 am because we have one place to go before Duke.
Thank you, Chris Graham, and thank you, Wayne Carter. If this proves to be my final undoing, let Wayne Preach the funeral service, and Chris write the eulogy.
Oneofus.Care is more than a tagline. It’s a way of life.
More 2 follow….
I was this close to falling asleep, but I made the mistake of thinking about Tiff and the Wiff…..now
Tuesday, October 6th
Three hours after laying the phone down and closing my eyes 👀, I went to the one story that I had to stick a pin 📌 in because of a promise I made to a young lady from Dugspur.
The cover of this book will be the logo that my oldest daughter, Sabrena Michelle Deal, created 20 years ago, but the photo above will be inside the jacket.
Now it’s 12:30 am on Tuesday and we have to leave here in six hours…..
All I had to do was not go there……
1:52 – story at a stopping point !
2:18 – Tiff responded to the story !!!
3 solid hours of sleep before Lin’s alarm ⏰️ went off at 5:30. Wayne had the option of jumping in the car for 10 hours or not, and at 6:17, the elevator door opened, and Wayne popped out.
6:31 was the time of departure from the Hampton Inn with a destination of Durham, North Carolina…
7:46 – Martinsville Starbucks, Lin needs her morning 🌄 Brew !!! Good Morning to the Cat 🐈 Lady who lives on The Hill.
9:43 – Car in Park at 1st appointment. Godspeed…..
This is the much lighter of the two Durham appointments by a wide margin!
11:29 – I posted the Greg Talley story and received word that Ryan McCafferty will be at Glenvar High tonight !!!!!
12:30 – Now sitting in the 1L waiting room ahead of our 1:00 pm appointment with the neurologist…. yet, I’m smiling about the fact that our Lady Cavalier Volleyball team will receive live coverage tonight ?????? It’s okay to question that one….
2:36 pm – pulled into the Subway restaurant on NC 86 for lunch… Travis Osborne is headed to Glenvar and Bill Meade is in route to Roanoke from Stuarts Draft as the Christian School that he teaches at has a volleyball 🏐 match in Roanoke tonight as well !
4:40 – Back at the Salem Hotel 🏨, 10 hours and 9 minutes all told. Wayne escapes from the circus 🎪 for a bit.
4:50 – On the Road Again….next stop ✋️ is Glenvar High School 🏫 and volleyball night !!!!!!
5:10 – Then this happened…
WE WIN 🏆🙌😎💪
Hotel 🏨 at 9:35 pm ……
15 hours after departure time….
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7th
I’m making time marks so I can correctly fill in the blanks later.
Up at 4:30 am
Leave Hotel 🏨 5:25 – 20 minute drive over to ROA.
Roanoke Airport 5 : 45- 5: 47 is the drop-off window as we didn’t want a long goodbye.
Marion’s House 🏠 7:12 – This was a quick swing to in hopes of making the 11:30 meet-up easier.
7:40 am – 🏡🏠🏡
Write the Morning 🌄 Brew
9:19 – Chris and Wayne at Exit 118 Park and Ride, Lin lands in Philly, logo sent to Kristy Jones!
10:38 – They arrive, and we shove everything into the back of Chris’s truck and head over to Fancy Gap Elementary School to pick up our fourth golfer, Marion Harris at 11:30.
The story swapping begins immediately and continues non-stop until we say our goodbyes to Marion around 8:00 pm in the parking lot of the Pizza Hut on The Hill.
We drag ourselves back out to Laurel Fork, eating cookies on the way to stay awake and eventually call it a day, shortly after 10 pm.
Thursday, October 8th ( End of the Week )
7:38 am – Post the Morning 🌄 Brew
Wayne and Chris will depart here shortly, riding together from Laurel Fork to Christiansburg. From there, it will be Wayne back to Indiana and Chris back up to Page County.
Linda finally arrived in Missouri late last night after a comedy of issues.. The issue at the St. Louis Airport involved a car bomb, forcing the police to actually shut down parts of the Lambert Field property. Just what she needed at the end of a 16-hour travel day, but she eventually made it out to O’Fallon.
Today was designed to be a bounce back type, and now that there is no volleyball….
10:08 am – Wayne and Chris pull out of the driveway. Wayne has 7:24 home and Chris 3:48
10: 55 am – just finished up the Ryan McCafferty portion of the book !
We have now reached the end of one week in the life of someone who is driven beyond what people would consider being sane. Most people only see what happens in front of their own eyes, so the goal in using this format to conclude the book was a no-brainer.
Why make the trip down to Elkin, North Carolina, once again will be answered and the reason the second photo is so valuable will see the light of day too.
For now, though, a nap is in order…
11:27 am – Chris and Wayne have now said their goodbyes and are heading in the direction of their holmes
4:00 pm – After one rest area, nap on I-81, Chris pulls into his driveway with 10 hours of life awaiting him. He has volleyball to watch, church band practice, and then the night shift to work.
6: 49 pm – Wayne arrives back in Sellersburg, Indiana. His last-minute, 4 days, and 3-night excursion is now in the books! He is back home with a few more miles on both his car and 71-year-old body, but he has a story to tell. He also understands how much easier it is to tell a story verbally versus typing it out.
The cast of the show is all back where they belong with the exception of Linda. She has an early medical appointment in Missouri tomorrow morning that will dictate our immediate future. Fingers crossed 🤞 and prayers said on that one!
Carroll County High School Volleyball played twice, and Vickey Ritchie hosted her Little Feet Meet and is currently hard at work on Boo Ridge. Keith hosted an awesome event down in North Carolina for the 20th time ( our third ).
Duke University Medical Center was included in the mix for a day, and we received the only good news that was available in that Lin’s condition has not gotten worse over the past six months. There is no cure coming, but we love hearing that there is nothing more wrong right now.
When Lin has to fly out, we actually have five different airports to choose from, and we picked Roanoke so we could have the option of supporting Cundy Edwards and Company in one of her biggest nights of the season.
We met with the Meades, Alan Knight, Chris Dodson, Chris, and Crystal Graham. Don’t forget about Brian Hendrick and Amy Gaskins as we push to the finish line on Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend which also goes by the name Book Six.
Greg Talley tracked down a story for me and Ryan McCafferty crushed the piece he wrote for the book.
Vickey Ritchie gets the next three days with Boo Ridge prep on Friday, Boo Ridge on Saturday, and basketball practice on Sunday afternoon. There will still be time for the new Aaron Sorkin Movie 🎬 and Duke at Georgia Tech (3:30 – Saturday)
When the previous books were created, it was so fifty years after the events took place that the characters could crack them open and show their grandchildren about their glory days.
Book Six is in hopes that my great grandchildren might understand a little bit of who I was and the people that God put into my path. The week chronicled here was just one week in a life of trying to stand for what I believe to be true.
God, family, friends, military, education, kindness, and equality. This book just happened to be about events that took place on or around the ball fields along the way.
When the dusts settles on the adventure of life, let the tombstone read : He Cared!
Here is the perfect example of what I call a companion piece. Written by my surviving older brother, I offered him the opportunity to explain why he would have just jumped in the car and commit to the back half of a bizarre stretch of time….
Dear Jerry, I’ve been thinking about my trip to see you and Linda this past week, and I wanted to put into words something that has been on my heart. The 15-hour roundtrip was a small price to pay for the opportunity to spend time with you both. I wanted to be there while Linda was undergoing her cognitive testing at Duke University, to let you both know that you were not alone, and, of course, to enjoy some time on the golf course with you. But as I reflect on why I made the trip, I realize it goes much deeper than a visit. It comes down to love, gratitude, and a feeling in my heart that the Holy Spirit was leading me to be there. Jerry, I want you to know how deeply grateful I am for you. When I look back over my life, I see so many ways you have stood beside me, protected me, and helped me through circumstances that might otherwise have been more than I could bear. You have stepped in when others may not have had my best interests at heart. You have taken flights, both within this country and overseas, to be there for me when I needed you. You have made financial sacrifices, given me emotional support, and offered encouragement when I was struggling to keep my balance and maintain my sanity. Those things are not small to me. They never have been. Each one represents a choice you made to care about me, to stand up for me, and to help carry burdens that were sometimes difficult for me to carry alone. I know that those sacrifices cost you time, energy, money, and probably more emotional strength than I will ever fully understand. I don’t want you to think for one moment that I have forgotten them or that I take them for granted. More than anything, I am thankful that God gave me a brother like you. I believe the Holy Spirit sometimes moves us in ways that we may not fully understand at the time. We simply feel that we need to be somewhere, that we need to reach out, or that we need to show up for someone we love. That is how I felt about coming to see you and Linda. I didn’t need a grand reason or a carefully calculated plan. My heart told me that being there was the right thing to do, and I believe the Holy Spirit was part of that prompting. I wanted to be present for you, just as you have been present for me so many times throughout my life. I wanted you to know that the love and support you have given me have not gone unnoticed. And I wanted to share some ordinary, precious time together — to talk, to laugh, and to play a round of golf. Sometimes those simple moments with someone we love mean more than we can express. Jerry, I love you, and I love Linda. I know that waiting for answers about her health can bring uncertainty and concern, and I wanted you both to feel my love and support during this time. We cannot always control what life brings our way, but we can choose to stand beside one another through it. You have done that for me again and again, and I want you to know that I am here for you, too. If my visit gave you even a small measure of the comfort, reassurance, or companionship that you have given me over the years, then every mile was worth it. Thank you, brother, for protecting me, for sacrificing for me, for encouraging me, and for loving me through difficult seasons of my life. Thank you for being someone I can count on. And thank you for being the kind of brother whose actions have shown me what love looks like when it is put into practice. I pray that God continues to bless you and Linda, give you both strength and peace, and guide us through whatever lies ahead. I am grateful for the bond we share, and I thank Him for the privilege of calling you my brother. I made this trip because I love you. I made it because I am grateful for you. And I made it because, in my heart, I believe the Holy Spirit was telling me it was time to be there. I hope you never doubt how much you mean to me. With all my love and gratitude, Your brother, Wayne
We have to start this story with a bit of self-deprecating humor ! When I moved to Carroll County, I came here with a bag of money and a long list of ideas about how we could raise the bar on education plus have some fun while doing it.
I googled the email address of the athletic director for Carroll County High School so I could introduce myself and roll out my plans. We went back and forth for what felt like a month before he offered up that one question ?????
” You know that we are in Kentucky, right ?”…..
Well, that happened. I dusted myself off, laughed hard, and started the process over once again. Darrin enjoyed the story, too, once we finally found each other.
The two pictures above are from the day Rick Nester opened the Press Box for me so I could interview a trio of people about the State Championship and how it changed Cavalier Park forever. The 60 minutes with our former athletic director was as joyful as the grin on his face.
The book I was working on was designed to be the equivalent of a time capsule that would have meaning if it was opened 50 years later. The thought process was very similar to the book we did for the Back 2 Back State Championships won by Marc Motley.
The game had been covered so well that there was zero need to rehash the victory. The goal was to get a personal take from anyone who wanted to offer one up. We talked for a while about the amount of dedication required to be a high school AD and how fulfilling it was to have a ring 💍 from the first State Championship in the 46-year history of the school.
The link above takes you to an Aaron Sorkin look at the path that led Darrin and Principal Thompson to offer the position of Head Coach – Softball to the man tough enough to make the Chuck Norris look human.
When I leaned in for the pull quote, answer about something nobody else would know, Darrin offered up the following.
” We only reserved the hotel rooms for one night in case we lost to Deep Creek in the semi-final game. After we won, there were no rooms to be found anywhere near the field.” The next few hours were spent chasing down every coach who had just lost their semi-final game in hopes of getting one of them to let him follow them back to their hotel and claim their rooms.
The rooms were secured, and there is no reason to reveal which school gave them up or which coach might have said, ” Are you serious about this ?”
Darrin Mathews is good people, and I consider him a friend. So much that I gave him a really cool gold watch when he retired ! You should ask him about that !!
This portion of the book will be a combination of my writing skills and those of my Laurel Fork neighbor, Brad Nester. It would be awesome if his daughter wants to share a thought or two, but if not, I think we will have it covered.
I met Sydney back in her final season at Marshall University. My long-time friend, Chuck McGill, helped me set up the interview, and my partner in crime at the time was Allen Worrell of The Carroll News agreed to run any story that I put together from my trip to Huntington.
West Virginia Tech University also had a day game, so I couldn’t stay and watch her pitch that day, but I followed the remaining games very closely.
The link above was one of the pieces that led Brad Nester to pen 🖊 some of his favorite memories.
Sydney had an interesting freshman year, to say the least. In one year, she had gone from her being a pretty good local player to being one of the best pitchers in the country. In 2015, most of the top 100 players had made their college decision and verbally committed before they started 10th grade. The college coaches didn’t like it and it probably wasn’t good for the kids but that was the way it was. By the time 2015’s high school season came about, Syd was going to colleges to visit on weekends and talking on the phone with Power 5 coaches during many weekday evenings. Also, during this time, she was pitching with LB Bailey about once a week around our game schedule. We would typically leave after regular practice and go to Salem for her to pitch from 8-10pm and then drive back home. Homework and phone calls on the way down and typically classic rock blasting on the way back home (to keep us both awake.) She did a wonderful job at compartmentalizing all the different goings on, focused, and really never got overly stressed, although she was known to say, “I just want to pitch.” Syd has always been proud of the team’s accomplishments in 2015 and she savored it as much as she could. After the championship game, she took a couple days off practice but then went immediately back to pitching, what she always did, and didn’t stop until she graduated from college in 2023.
Kamphuis field at Liberty University had just opened in 2015 and was about the nicest softball stadium this side of the SEC and certainly the nicest in the Commonwealth. It certainly was a wonderful opportunity to be able to play the state championship there. One of the pluses to a lot of Syd’s travel and college experiences during 2014-15 was that she had practiced on several college fields, had played scrimmages on several college fields, and camped on even more. I also think most of the other players had played enough and were experienced enough that there was really no “Hoosiers” moment to where the players were awe struck at the field.
Coach Cindy Edwards was instrumental in the development of the 2015 team. She ran a demanding, tight practice, and she could be blunt. I remember watching her practices, and she, with a bat in her hand, hitting balls, coaching the entire defense, coaching the base runners, and constantly drilling the kids. She got many kids, who maybe hadn’t played a lot of softball, ready to be productive varsity players. One of my favorite softball memories happened when Sydney played for Coach Edwards’ JV team in 8th grade. The day before we played Floyd County, Coach Edwards was not happy with the offensive production of the team as a whole and Sydney specifically. She knew they had more in them. So she told the team that she knew they could all do better and she was going to change the lineup a little to try to make things happen and, if anyone else would have stepped up, they could have had Syd’s 3-hole spot. It made Syd mad, and she was bound and determined to prove Coach Edwards wrong. The next day, she hit the cover off the ball every at bat and roped two line drives into the fence. After the game, Coach Edwards came up to us and said, “Syd had a great ball game” to which I responded that she’d played “decent.” Coach Edwards let me have it just a little bit and let me know that what I’d just seen wasn’t just decent from Syd. The relationship between the two of them has only grown since that JV season and has only gotten closer over the years. Much love and respect for Coach Edwards and the large amount she contributed to that 2015 season and the softball program.
Coach David Quesenberry has been, from the time he was a teenager, one of the most likable, agreeable, and positive folks. During the 2015 season, he was having leg issues, so he was in a boot, trying to maneuver around the ball field, in the dirt, etc. He was always a steady, positive influence on Syd and someone to whom she could turn. His daughter, Allison, was an accomplished fastpitch pitcher in her youth, and he knew the pressures involved. Now, his granddaughter, Addison, plays at CCHS, and he helps coach her during summer travel ball. We’ve been to see her play, and Syd, Rhonda, and I have been blessed to have their long-term friendship.
Coach Jeff Tobler was someone who truly enjoyed working with and supporting the players. His encouragement, positivity, and presence at first base was always on display. During crucial hits, he was at least as excited as the player was…and he had a lot to be excited about in 2015. Syd always thought the world of “Tobs” and that feeling also extended to his mother, Frieda Edwards. Ms. Edwards was always there and cheering, and Syd has always sought her out to talk to her whenever she sees her. Ms. Edwards just makes your day better. It is very unfortunate and tragic that Jeff isn’t here, now, 10 years later, to celebrate this. He put a lot of work in for the girls.
Principal Chuck Thompson has always been a major influence on Sydney and Jackson during their time at CCHS. He is really a wonderful role model and the toughest dude I know. He wouldn’t tell you or act like he’s the toughest dude in the room, but that’s how it is, the ones who try to tell you aren’t. I remember, early in Syd’s freshman year, before the 2015 season had even started, she came home one day and told us that Mr. Thompson had said to her, “Hey Softball Girl, how’s things going?”….and that had really pleased her and made an impression. Fast forward to after Mr. Thompson had his lung transplant and dealt with the various complications, Sydney was running intervals at the high school track, training during the summer, and I was timing her. We knew there were two folks standing under the covered area by the field house, and when Syd realized after a while that it was Mr. Thompson, she ran to him and hugged him and cried. If my memory is correct, I don’t think she could say a word. As Syd had wanted, He was able to present her the night she entered the Carroll County Athletic Hall of Fame. During my time with the boosters club and as a parent of two athletes, he was always the “go to” if you had a question or issue pertaining to athletics. He’s been so supportive of athletics in general and our kids, specifically. Certainly, that was true for the 2015 softball season. Syd has always valued his continued support and friendship.
Kyndall Hiatt was a heckuva ballplayer at almost any position and was the catcher in 2015. She and Syd were both competitive and hard-headed, just what you’d want in a battery….and they were inseparable. I always thought that I could flip a coin on who might be the first to end up in a fist fight during a ball game. Regardless of who it was, I don’t think it would have ended well for the other person. Kyndall had an eye injury that prevented her from playing the last few games, but she was a hugely important part of that 2015 team with her bat, glove, hard-nosed attitude, and athletic ability.
Caitlin Horton was and still is an exceptionally nice young woman, always friendly and with a ready smile. She was called on to take over the catcher’s position late in the season and performed wonderfully. Her ability to move to catcher kept us on course during the post-season in 2015. I’ve always been proud of her and appreciative to her for all her hard work.
Elizabeth Combs was a freshman during the 2015 season who spent most of the season on the Junior Varsity. Having moved up to varsity for the final games, Elizabeth was always a pleasant and humble young lady, much as her father was while he was in school. To me, Dan has been as nice and agreeable from the first day I met him and throughout his life. This family was so impressive to me. Elizabeth had two sisters who had special needs. I was always appreciative of the entire family’s effort to support Elizabeth in playing ball and the care for their other daughters, as well. As I remember the Combs family, I think, maybe, softball games aren’t the main thing, even the ones that are so memorable to a lot of folks. Kudos to Elizabeth and to her entire family, who were inspirational to all of us.
Gracie Davidson was a very good pitcher in her own right and had been the ace before Sydney was old enough to play varsity. She and her family were always gracious and displayed a team first attitude to put the team in a position to win the state championship. I know that teams don’t always fulfill their promise due to grudges or someone not wanting to fulfill their role that is needed. Gracie always pitched, fielded, and hit well along with being a cerebral ball player player. Also, if she had eaten another biscuit on championship morning, she’d have had a home run in the top of the first.
My dad, Bennie Nester aka “Papa”, has always been a huge baseball fan. First, it was the Yankees because they were on the radio and then on the TV game of the week the most often. When Ted Turner and cable television came about, he switched his allegiance just as rabidly to the Atlanta Braves, because he could see a lot of their games. That holds true to this day. Dad kept Sydney’s stats every game of her high school career in a little notebook. I, a lot of times, didn’t know the number of strikeouts, walks etc at the end of a game because I was focused on getting the next out until there were no more. He would always call to make sure he had gotten it correct and to talk about the game with me and Syd.
He would then confirm his record keeping again with the Galax Gazette, the Carroll News, and the Roanoke Times. He kept track of all 724 strikeouts, her on-going ERA, and her W-L record. Syd kept telling him that both of them were going to get an identical tattoo in his handwriting to which Dad, no big believer in tattoos, would just chuckle. True to her word, Syd has a tattoo on her wrist, of his signature “W” that he would mark each game with. Very simple and very meaningful. Papa still watches the Atlanta Braves every day that he can.
“I’m not super-stitious, just a little -stitious.” One of the funniest things (that didn’t always seem funny at the time) was the times we had a no-hitter or a perfect game going and someone would come up to me and say something like, “Syd’s got a no-hitter going, doesn’t she?” Inevitably, within two batters, there’d be a bloop single or a bunt. I now blame this squarely on Chris Cook because he isn’t tall enough to totally hide me when I stand behind him. I’m sure I’ve magnified the number of times that it happened in my memory banks but it seemed like every other game. Chris and I would just look at each other.
Coach Bill Worrell, who was always a wonderful man to me, told me back in the eighties about a game he’d played with my Uncle, HC “Bussie” Nester, whom many folks have told me how good of apitcher my uncle had been. Bussie had pitched a perfect game for Hillsville High School, and it was the first and maybe only one. Syd was able to do the same for Carroll Softball, but I’m not sure that was the 2015 season. A little bit of a tip of the cap to another Nester pitcher from an earlier era of local sports.
A Few 2015 Stories of Interest (at least to me):
Emily Cook’s Dad, Chris, and I have seen a lot of ballgames together. We and our families have remained good friends down thru the years, with and without softball. On the day we won the semifinal against Deep Creek, Chris and I stayed after to watch Woodgrove play the other semi-final. I think most softball knowledgeable folks in the state thought Woodgrove would win the state championship in 2015, as it had and would in the other years around that time.
We just so happened to sit beside a fellow who was a Woodgrove grandparent. He proceeded to tell us, “this girl is going to Louisville, this girl has all Power 5 schools looking at her, this girl is going to Longwood, this girl is going to play at Georgetown, etc.”. He told us how they really hadn’t played very well against us the week before and how they had drilled all their opponents in the playoffs. Every time he’d turn away, Chris and I would raise our eyebrows or give each other “the look” and we just kept letting him talk.
We’d been In a lot of interactions like that in travel ball where the saying was, “Every cow thinks her calf looks best.” Chris was always relatively quiet in these type interactions, but it was always a little more of a struggle for me. That day, we both stayed mum, but the next day, the Woodgrove gentleman wasn’t as talkative when we saw him, and the conversation was minimal.
One of the earlier playoff games, a friend of mine from central Virginia, and I knew the coach and team we were going to play pretty well. A couple of days before the game, he and I had a phone conversation where he told me that they felt really good about their odds facing Sydney. They felt like they could knock her out of the game. He told the coach not to underestimate our team and that Syd was a fighter. I let Syd know before the game.
As the season progressed, with the weather warming up and the crowd size increasing, there started to be a little “retirement rush” to occupy one of the 3-4 paved parking spots beyond the right field foul pole that a person could see the game well from the car. My parents, Bennie and Sue Nester, and Emily Cook’s grandparents, Joe and Marie Cook, were regulars in those spots. There were also others, and,essentially, you had to be there in the afternoon ASAP when school let out for a 6 or 7 o’clock game. There were times that I’d arrange for someone to take my parents to our house in Hillsville to spend time before before shuttling them back to the car for the game. I remember Dad always going up to pay the entrance fee, although they didn’t technically enter the ball park.
After the semi-final win against Deep Creek, Rhonda and I were talking with Syd, and, out of the blue, she said, “In 24 hours, we’re going to be state champions” It was flat, matter of fact, and private, not boastful or exaggerated…..just an expression of what was in her mind that very minute and the thought slipped out of her mouth.
An interesting note on the 2015 team is that the youngest members had all played a lot of competitive ball. While they were underclasswomen, they had experienced a lot of softball and were really students of the game. They really were not underclassmen when it came to knowing the game. There really weren’t any rookies in the lineup from day one.
Fortunately, we were still in the River Ridge district in 2015 so we were able to see some good teams and some decent pitching in the regular season. Even a team like Salem, which was near the bottom of the River Ridge, had a pitcher who would pitch at George Mason University. Out of district, Patrick County had a young lady who would pitch for D2 Lees-McRae in North Carolina. It helped to have played the regular season and see the decent pitching that we did.
There was quite a bit written after the championship game about the importance of scouting for us and the lack of attention to scouting for Woodgrove, not being ready for the pickle play. Craig Worrell, I believe, wrote an entire article on it, or at least a bulk of an article. Tracy Moore, Tiffany’s dad, was continuously calculating and predicting how the playoffs were going to go from before the season started. With all his studying, he probably knew more about the softball brackets, format, and classifications than the VHSL did. He played a role in what I thought were the two scariest games in the playoffs, which appropriately were the final two games. Tracy was one of the people to drive to Eastern Virginia to watch Deep Creek play. I remember him telling me that they had a lead-off batter who was blazing fast but never hit the ball out of the infield, mostly bunting or drag-bunting. That lead off batter made the semi-final a dangerous game for us. I believe she went 3 for 4 and was the bulk of their offense that day. We liked to play our corners deep and struggled defending it. That’s how we fell behind in the semi-final game. I am thankful that Woodgrove either didn’t scout well enough to notice that as being an opportunity or they just weren’t going to change their offense.
In the championship game, we had a lot of baserunners during the course of the game. As the championship game proceeded, It really felt like a very dangerous game to me; because, if you hadn’t looked a the score, it felt like we were winning and had a lot of momentum. However, the score was 0-0. The Wood Grove defense made the plays, and the opposing pitcher, who would choose Boston College, really buckled down with runners in scoring positions. Certainly, since that day, I’ve seen many games where a team fails to capitalize on having a lot of baserunners and it comes back to haunt them; many times, in one swing of the bat. I, and probably a lot of other Carroll fans, didn’t breathe a sigh of relief until the last out.
