Happy 40th Anniversary to Rick and Donna Nester today, roughly five months after Lin and I celebrated the same.

  Relationships are a Big Part of the Softball story !

  One of the chapters in the book 📖 will be about the otherside of the diamond 💎, as Baseball has been part of the experience as well.

An eighteen year run 🏃‍♂️ alongside of Lawrence ” Big Picture ” Nesselrodt, a twelve year run with the Valley Baseball League, making the loop of the Major League Baseball stadiums 🏟 and the incredible ” Rookie ” season just completed by Casey Burcham at Carroll County High School  are a few of the topics in this part.

Being a minority owner of one of the top Summer League teams, owning a team outright for one season and creating another team in the same league will be highlighted.  Being a witness and minority contributor to the Super Man type efforts of Burcham and his Bunch will fill more than a few pages.

 

  

Baseball and Softball are similar in a number of ways but worlds apart in others. Baseball is quite possibly still America’s game, not by the wide margin that it once was but still atop the food  chain. Softball has made tremendous strides as of late but it remains a blip on the radar for most folks. Knowing this, makes it so easy to want to promote the sport in every way possible.

  Baseball is played in the same manner at every level and in five decades of being around the sport, I’ve never seen anyone hit the ground running like Burcham did in his first year. While the season ended one game short of the State Tournament, that shouldn’t take anything away from the rocket like start.

Greg Maddux and Tim Tebow, two people that I admire greatly both wore the uniform and I was blessed enough to join them in various Stadiums during their careers.

Will something happen today in the Border town of El Paso that will warrant being part of the story ? Maybe, Maybe not but but that’s the beauty of the game of baseball – anything can happen on any given day…

My back to back Seattle Mariners No Hitters are prove of that. Separated by a few years, Randy Johnson and Chris Bosio tossed No-No’s with both games taking place in the old Kingdome. The crowd both nights 🌙 was under 20,000 and the gems 💎 were the first two in team history.

 

The answer is Yes, El Paso presented something new to me ! Your food is served to you in an actual Dog 🐕 Bowl!!

After the conclusion of the 2011 Softball season I had a lengthy conversation with Lady Panthers Head Coach Alan Knight about what goals remained after 30 years of coaching at the school.

At that time the Softball field at PCHS did not have a permanent fence. The home games were still be played with a temporary fence, similar to one you might see at a Tee-Ball game. One has to remember that all the school had back in 1981 was a backstop and a home plate.

Over the years the program was able to add dugouts and a press box but the snag with the fence was the area behind was the Junior Varsity Football practice field.

In a lifetime of marketing and promotional tasks, our youngest daughter and I took on the largest challenge to date. Rebecca Carter has since added McDowell to her last name but in a 15 year stretch of accomplishments together, the Panther Palooza sits at the top of any list. The followup ceremony where we were officially added Alan F Knight Field at the Lady Panthers Softball Complex to the park was simply magical.

  I believe that it was legendary golfer Lee Trevino that was asked about how much pressure he felt when he stood over a putt that was worth $100,000 difference in prize money ?

  Trevino explained that the real pressure comes from standing over a putt that decides a $50 bet and you only have $25 in your pocket.

  The Got Fence campaign was not the biggest project that we have spearheaded over the years, but as Trevino explained so well, it came at a time where there was less than no cash to spear.

  The trade off would be a guarantee for a new fence around the field if we could put Coaches name on the front and dedicate the outfield fence to my parents. Once the agreement was approved, I contacted a contractor to find out was it would cost to simply have someone come out and do it. The answer was $28,000.00 back then.

We were highly motivated to create a plan that would cover the costs being that we had nowhere near that amount of money at the time. The Panther Palooza is a HUGE part of this story on so many levels and recapping it will bring joy to my heart ❤.

   The fifteen years spent with Rebecca, working on one project after another, was the most enjoyable time of my life, by a wide margin. We both knew that at some point the run would end as our now mid thirties Kiddo would marry and raise a family 👪 of her own.

  The breakdown to the Panther Palooza is relevant to everything that happened afterwards in both Page County and Carroll County as well out on Orcas Island 🏝. Looking forward to laying out the blue print !

Here’s a link to the recap from the 2016 USA South Conference Softball tournament where Carroll County High School graduate 🎓 was named the MVP

https://ferrumpanthers.com/news/2016/4/18/4_18_2016_2640

During my time in High School 🏫, back when dinosaurs 🦕 roamed the land, I was blessed to cross paths with some Amazing Student Athletes at nearby schools. Over at Oscar Smith High School was a senior named Kenny Easley. Easley was a beast on the football field, playing offense and defense ➕ I can remember him as a kicker.

Easley played Basketball 🏀 in his spare time and on Saturday mornings he would come over to Norview High School to play pickup Hoops with our Coach, Hamp.

Easley earned a scholarship from the University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA). Easley earned multiple All-American recognition while playing for the Bruins. In the off season he played two seasons of Junior Varsity Basketball as well.

After his Sophomore year Easley was offered a spot on the Varsity roster at UCLA but turned it down. His reasoning was that the wear and tear of playing two Varsity sports at the same time in addition to his classes would be too much for someone to accomplish.

Don’t feel sad for Easley as he would get drafted by the Seattle Seahawks and become one of the greatest defensive backs in National Football League history and made the Hall of Fame.

Strickland managed to play both Volleyball and Softball for the Ferrum College Panthers while earning her degree. Astonishing to think about and now Cheyenne Strickland Marinus will walk us through just what it took to do that across four years.

I’m pretty sure that both Easley and myself are anxious to hear more about that.

  Cave Spring High School Softball captured the State Championship in 2013, the same season that Carroll County High School announced that veteran Coach Rick Nester would be taking over the Lady 👩 Cavaliers program.

Nester and Jeff Tobler made the transition from coaching football together to the Diamond 💎 and by the beginning of season number three the long time friends were starting to get the hang of things.

” We started the season with the hope of landing the top seed in Conference 24,” said Nester. ” We knew we had four Seniors to lead us plus some up and coming younger players in key spots.”

  The team stood at an impressive 10-0 with a hard fought victory over a talented Knights team up in the Star 🌟 City. Game 11 was set for Cavalier Park and when the night 🌙 was over, Nester was looking down the road for the first time.

  ” We were tied up 3-3 headed into the top of the seventh and they pushed across three runs in their half,” Nester added. ” Our Ladies didn’t flinch and we scored four runs to win it in walkoff fashion. That was the first time that I started to think about what we might be able to accomplish.”

  The team only surrendered 38 runs across the 19 regular season games, quick math shows 2.0 runs allowed. But the Lady Cavaliers showed that they had the ability to outscore a team when they needed to do so.

We will have an in depth look at this contest plus many more. One of the questions that need to be answered is, when was the first time that everyone involved flirted with the idea 💡 that Carroll County High School Softball could win the whole thing ???