Floyd County Junior Varsity Volleyball team dropped the opening set before storming back to edge Carroll County 2-1 (20-25, 26-24, 15-9) Tuesday night at Floyd High School.

  Nikki Heflin now has three matches remaining in her rookie season as Junior Varsity Head Coach. Heflin moved up from the top spot of the Middle School 🏫 program during the off-season after Jason Petty retired.

The extra responsibility of coaching your own child adds to your thought process. Last night, after the match ended, I asked Hayden if she knew that she had a “pretty cool Mother ? She smiled and said Yes ! This in turn, made me smile.

Shelia Harris has been with Coach Heflin every step of the way this season which has been a Blessing for our new Coach.

About the Match :

Carroll County raced out to a 12-3 lead behind two Aces from Aubrey Hanshaw and kills from Paige Ogle. The Buffaloes continued to claw their way back into the set, eventually pulling within two at 22-20. Coach used her final timeout to settle her team down and the Lady Cavaliers finished the set with the final three points as Aaliyah Hampton scored a kill and Ogle closed out the 25-20 victory with a service winner.

  The second set was much more back and forth. Carroll County trailed 14-11 until their longest run 🏃‍♂️ of the night netted seven straight points. Hampton led the charge from the service line with three efforts that were not returned, Heflin added a Kill plus Morgan Osborne teamed up with Annabelle Short for another one.

Carroll County still lead 22-19 when Floyd County used its final timeout. Two highlights down the stretch was a kill from Hampton with her back to the net and Ogle tied it up at 24 with a strong finish. Unfortunately, Floyd County finished the set with the final two points, tying the match with a 26-24 victory.

In the winner take all race 🏁 to 15 points Floyd County scored the first six and things looked hopeless for the Lady Cavaliers. Willow Barham landed a kill to end a 5-0 run to cut ✂️ the deficit to 6-5 but that was as close as Carroll County would get in the 15-9 final set.

I will add a couple of quick notes 📝 before writing ✍ the Varsity story.

First – it was neat to see 👀 Isaiah Easter and his Mother at the away match last night ! Our Varsity Quarterback will be back at Floyd County High School with Head Coach Seth Greer and the 🏈🏈🏈 team on Friday night. Mom played Volleyball 🏐 for Carroll County back in the day and yes, Vickie Easter was coached by Cindy Edwards.

Second – Thank You to Marion Harris for adding a stop ✋ to his drive over to Floyd as he took care of a loose end for us. Greatly appreciate 🙏 the assistance !

Third – why go into such detail for a Junior Varsity Volleyball match ? Easy answer, the Coaches, the Players and the Parents. It matters to me because it matters to them !

Fourth – the next story will cover the Varsity match and it will be what I call a grown-up write ✍ so that our friend David Broyles can continue to hold down the Fort until the folks in charge of The Carroll News can fill the giant shoes 👞 of Allen Worrell.

Fifth – Thank You Mama Smoot for the Pics from the match !

Six and Final – Thank You for caring ❤ enough to read the story ! This group is our future…..

Trace Reavis on the tee box at Heritage Oaks Golf Course in Harrisonburg. Photo Credit – ASPN

Harrisonburg – Carroll County High School Senior Trace Reavis toured the 18 hole layout at the Par 70 Heritage Oaks Golf Course in 73 shots and then patiently waited to see where his efforts would land him. Three was the magic number as three hours after tapping in his final putt, Reavis and his traveling party were assured that his three over par was good enough to land the lanky right hander in third place.

  Reavis finished in 10th place on the same course at the end of his Junior year and in his last hurrah he teamed up with new Coach, Jeremy Ogle and continued to grind every opportunity that presented itself.

” Trace had his game in place when the season started,” said Coach Ogle. ” My focus with him was on the mental aspect of the game, between the ears.”

Standing on the fourth tee at +1, Reavis displayed the strength of his game by launching a missle that came to rest just 18 yards shy of the green on the 358 yard hole.

  A bogey on the Par 4 fifth hole put Reavis back at 1 over par and he remained there through the Par 34 front nine. His 35 at the turn included a missed opportunity on the Par 5 seventh hole where Reavis was just short after two shots. The par was probably the one birdie that got away but karma balanced out when his drive on #9 was veering well left until it struck a tree and landed in the center of the fairway.

  Playing in the second of 15 foresomes and surrounded by six supporters, Reavis leaned on one of his fans in particular during an up and down back nine

Reavis made the turn and unloaded another bomb 💣 on the 347 yard 10th hole. Once again, the tee shot flirted with reaching the green. The transition from muscle to touch led to a second birdie and once again the Cavalier stood at even par.

  The tee shot on the eleventh hole did not miss left but by a few yards but unfortunately it landed in a marshy area, forcing a drop and the penalty shot led to a double bogey. This was the first time that Reavis leaned on the smile of his buddy, Wyatt Ogle.

” It really does help to look over and see a friendly face,” Reavis said. ” Being able to stay on an even keel is a big part of the game.”

That thought process was pushed to the brink just three holes later. On the 14th tee, Reavis hit his only truly errant shot and once again it resulted in a lost ball. Hitting three, the approach shot ran through the green and led to a second lost ball on the hole.

  Standing over an eight foot putt to salvage a second double bogey in four holes, Reavis tapped into the mental  aspect that his coached mentioned and calmly sank the putt. That effort was quite possibly the most relevant stroke of the round. Bouncing back from a triple bogey would have been extremely difficult to overcome.

Not only did Reavis right the ship with his round saving putt, he turned it into a wave of momentum. The closing four holes will show only one more birdie but Reavis was all over the flag stick all the way to the clubhouse.

Birdie putts on 15 and 17 just missed and his eagle chip on 16 came to a stop just inches away. Reavis stood over a 51 foot birdie putt on 18 and for good measure, rolled it to two inches.

After signing his scorecard just before 1:30, Reavis sat in second place but this was after just 8 of the 60 golfers had completed their round.

Jackson Devereux of Wilson  Memorial High School carded a 71 to be the leader in the clubhouse and Reavis sat in second place but it would be a long, long wait.

Mom and Dad made the trip to the nearby Chick-fil-A to get food for everyone and then the wind picked up and spotty rain 🌧 began to fall. The tough conditions continued to become more of a challenge for the remaining golfers.

Kennedy MacCleery of Western Albemarle carded a four under par 66 to capture the individual title in addition to leading WAHS to the team crown 👑 by an astonishing 25 strokes over runner up Liberty Christian Academy. The impressive young Lady might have a future in the game.

The future for Reavis is yet to be determined but know that he represented his Family, his team and The Hill incredibly well across his four years. Last year, after the end of the golf season, Reavis traded his golf spikes for tennis shoes and played Basketball for Head Coach Anthony Barnes.

In regards to Coach Ogle and his two assistants, know that they accomplished what every coaching staff should chase – Leave it better than you found it !