Welcome 🙏 to Saturday and we kick things off with a tip of the Cap to Bill Gallimore with the capture of the jump ball between visiting Chattanooga and home standing East Tennessee State University. Tip took place at 2pm.
Our Allen Worrell has returned to The Hill and is putting the finishing touches on the story about the Special Olympics trip to Virginia Tech.
Next up – Rick Nester sent in a uplifting 🙏 Photo 📷 from the House that Casey & Combs built !
Let there be Light !!!
Our travel Volleyball 🏐 teams are competing today down in Rocky Mount, North Carolina. Best of Luck to all four teams down there.
West Virginia Tech Golden Bears were scheduled to host games on Friday, Saturday and Sunday in Beckley this weekend. Instead we are ” hosting” three games in two days in Kingsport, Tennessee. Go ahead and try and connect the dots on that one.
End of 1st quarter – Chattanooga 13, ETSU 10.
Captain Buc
We start playing Baseball ⚾️ soon enough but until then its SoCon Women’s Basketball 🏀
As with any trip that takes me across the Tennessee border, I always stop ✋ at the Welcome Center to say Hello, Dolly
Have yourself a Blessed Day !
16 courts of Volleyball 🏐 down in North Carolina.
Chattanooga 24 – 20 at the Half…
We have a good one taking place here at ETSU ! End of 3rd Bucs 38, Moccasins 34..
Folks would be concerned about my mental health if they understood how much energy I put into the planning of our Annual Banquet.
Here’s why that is, 364 days a year I am playing the role of a unpaid Volunteer Assistant on so many fronts. Whether its our hard working Athletic Director Kevin DeHaven and Principal Chuck Thompson, Golden Bears 🐻 Baseball Coach Lawrence Nesselrodt, Angel 😇 on Earth 🌎 Vickey Ritchie,my main Man Rick Nester, Anthony Barnes and his program ( this list cam go on for a while so I will stop because I think that I have made my point).
The Banquet is the only thing that belongs to me, the only time that I have control of the narrative, my narrative.
Everyone that has a relationship with the Holy Bible possess their own key 🔑 points. God has been Great to us and I will start with the fact that I’m still alive and then add that I’m in a position where I can give so much of my time to others.
Love thy neighbor and everyone is EQUAL are two of my focus points. Then you add in the young man that I’m trying to mimic, Tim Tebow. Timmy believe above all else, the two groups we should be there for are Orphans and Widows. I translate that into helping others who need a voice.
One time a year I attempt to gather as many people that have chosen to interact with Lin and I, give them a warm feeling that they are Special. Feed them a nice meal and have them at a table with six people that they have something in common with.
Here is the text Message that Allen Worrell send me a bit ago –
Greg Bolen stopped by a while ago. There is excitement about the cool kids table…
Allen chose to use the correct spelling of Cool 😎, but I’m spelling it Kool.
Tammy Quesenberry, Paul Nester, Vickey Ritchie, Casey Burcham and Dr Mark Burnette each have their own table to surround themselves with the people that mean the most to them. Those tables are named in their honor 🎖.
Now, that leaves 80 chairs 💺 at 10 tables and we have three Ladies that will be greeting each person as they come in and we hope to escort them to the correct table.
The next challenge is how to divide ➗ the folks up so that their experience can be as rememerable as possible.
The Kool Kids table was a No- Brainer and I know that they will enjoy each others company.
The next table will be the ” It’s a Family 👪 Thing ” table. Ron Cochran and his Bride 👰, Brandi Cochran Mitchell and the definition of And 1 in Lauren Alley ➕ Chuck Thompson and Monica will be joined by Mr and Mrs Darren Mathews. There’s a few Family Ties 👔 in that group!
The Greg Maddux Table will include Travis and Emma Leath, Velvet and Chris Leonard alongside one of my three Co-Hosts, Kevin Burress and his Family.
Burress, Marion Harris and Kris Richardson each get two extra tickets 🎟 because they are going to be giving of themselves more so than others.
The Softball Rocks 🎸 Table will include Rick and Donna Nester, Adam and Kayla Nester ➕ Macie Adkins and Company. This is exciting because we will be making our line roll out for the future within this group!
Hoops R Us – will include two seats 💺 for Anthony Barnes, two for Mr & Mrs Jason Stockner and two for Mama Smoot and her Husband Russell. Russ knows he received an invite on his Wife’s coattails. Eddie and Dakota Walls will be at this table as well because of the History between Anthony and Eddie.
The Scholastic Table will include Mr and Mrs Oliver McBride, The Daltons, Ethan Edwards ➕ , Trenton Miller and Maleah Neely.
Beth Bouldin and Bill + Linda Gallimore will share a table with Bill and Barbara Meade and we are going to call 📞 this one Rookies of the Year.
By now it should be noticeable that both Kris Richardson and myself don’t have a place to sit yet nor does Marion Harris and our wives. Mr and Mrs Stephen Puckett, Lawrence Nesselrodt, Dr Samantha Reed
and a few others will make up the Table we will call the Knights of the Round Table.
Howard Mayo, Steve Combs, Kevin DeHaven (pending his availability) and some members of the Reavis Family will compose a table as well.
By my count we are waiting to hear back from Chris Mabry, Ryan Largen, Ethan Richardson and Ashton Richardson. These responses will alter a table or two.
The meeting with the Chef takes place at 2pm tomorrow and that’s when the food order gets officially placed so hopefully we will have the number at that time.
I would like to add a list of people that we invited but cannot join us at the event. Cindy Edwards, Travis Osborne, Patti Goins, Seth Greer, Jay Holderfield, Greg Talley and Kristen Quesenberry along with the Ervin family.
What do the folks here have in common or in short, what warrants an invitation?
Someone who we are honoring – that’s five times 8 = 40
Someone who we have asked to be a Guest speaker 🔊 gets a ➕ 1.
The next group consists to people that have given of themselves to our efforts over the past 12 months.
This certainly is not intended to be an A-List type of Ceremony. It’s actually the complete opposite of it. This is where the Equality part comes into play.
During the four hours or so, EVERYONE is of EQUAL importance. Velvet Creed Leonard to Donald Dalton to Vickey Ritchie to Dr. Oliver McBride to Dakota Walls. This is the Goal of our Lone Day, to have kindness ❤ rule and to give the Glory to God.
11 more Days, 1 more day until we meet with the Chef !
It’s 1 pm on Monday and here’s what the next 24 hours look like.
The clip above shows that the JV Girls 👧 and Varsity Girls 👧 will be playing tonight for if not the final time then close to the final time. They are attempting to make up the Non-District games at Christiansburg tonight beginning at 5:30.
Linda has a 7:00 am ✈️✈✈️ out of Roanoke in the morning, meaning getting there at 5:30.
We are supposed to host a College baseball⚾️ game tomorrow at Noon in Beckley, WV and that has two words attached to it – weather permitting.
There are still three stories to write ✍ from the weekend and each will require more time than normal.
I have a treatment down in Mount Airy here in 90 minutes that will take a while and can’t be pushed.
From there Lin has a 5pm Appointment in Galax that has been moved once already and needs to happen before her flight ✈️.
Duke at Virginia is at 8pm so there’s that for Lin.
We know that today will be the final time our Junior Varsity Girls will play so whether its in person or on the Network, there needs to be time for that!
Tomorrow night the JV Boys 👦 Basketball team will play their final home 🏡 game so that’s pretty important. The Varsity plays as well but they are guaranteed to return home at least once.
Serious Family 👪 matter taking place in Tennessee on Wednesday and then let’s not forget the pending Storm that is heading our way for Wednesday and Thursday.
Puzzle is this, when is the correct time to take Lin to Roanoke ahead of her business trip that will have her gone until right before the Banquet.
Oh yeah, don’t forget to plug in time to continue to work on the Banquet….
Throwing something overboard is never an option so the cost of Caring about others is wear and tear.
Stories on Wrestling, Special Olympics Basketball 🏀 and Swimming 🏊♂️ are the three in the Hopper.
_______________________________________
Update – Story #4 (Wrestling) of 6 was written during my treatment !
Squeezed in stops ✋ at Ron Cochran (Omega) and the Tax office 🏢 and still made it to Lin’s 5pm Appointment !
Coach Edwards with Madison Stockner and Kalee Bunn.
Thank you to Patti Goins and Marion Harris for helping me understand even more about the weekend competition that will be taking place at Virginia Tech opposite our Banquet.
Last year the travel teams were playing down in Gatlinburg, Tennessee so there was zero chance of any crossover attendance. The reality is that now that I understand much more about the day and the four teams that will be competing under the Carroll County umbrella 🌂, there shouldn’t be any this year either.
Having just experienced four different ” Day Long ” events this past weekend, the last thing I want to do is add to the plate 🍽 of someone who gives of herself for so many as Coach Edwards does.
We will still honor 🎖 our Friend who fights the good fight everyday 👏 and we will tell her about it after the fact.
Patti Goins, Kevin DeHaven, Travis Osborne and Coach Edwards have a busy, busy weekend up at VT. I hope that everything goes smoothly and our four teams 🙏 compete and represent in the manner Coach Edwards desires !
A.S.P.N on The Hill 