Alumni Day Softball : Divide and conquer is our theme, and here’s what is at stake for the seven inning Winner 🏆 Take All showdown !

Veteran Head Coach Rick Nester has some work to do in regards to our 2026 – 2027 roster after six Lady Cavaliers graduated 🎓 , meaning there are numerous roster spots up for grabs.

After the Ceremonial portion of the Day is over, Coach Nester wants to create a ” Real Game Feel ” for the seven inning contest. Coach is looking to see 👀 how some of his younger players can handle the moment of playing on a Big Stage ???

The first base dugout will be the place for the ” older ” side of the showdown, and for this side, I will use the term ” We”.

The alumni are older than the current players, so when we divide ➗️ things up…

I’m older than my counterpart, Kevin Burress, and Trenton Newman is older than Dakota Walls ( our race 🏁 car drivers / CCHS students ). Those two were easy enough, meaning that both myself and the Team Newman family will side up with the Alumni team.

The Burress and Walls Family will be focused on the 3rd base side or the home dugout. The next step is how to divide our two Varsity coaches. This one is not as easy as old versus young because Rick Nester and Travis Leath are both old, really old.

Rock 🪨, paper 📃 scissors ✂️ was best 3 out of 5, which led to Nester to the ” Young ” team and Leath to the ” Old” Team.

Nester wants his team to feel they are in a live game, and we will do our very best to accommodate him, we’ll for no other reason, he’s the Boss !

Travis Leath, myself, and Kristi Jones ( Trenton’s Mom ) and our star 🌟 studed roster of 14 are ready to rumble !

Here is our lineup card and batting order !

Now, Coach Nester will be responsible for his lineup card and batting order. Our 14 are ready to go, so Nester has his work cut out for him.

We know that he has a trio of seniors in Addie Greene, Laynie-Jo Leonard, and Natalie Burress. Raylee Goins is in her junior year, and after that……

While we are ALL Cavaliers at the end of the day, that doesn’t change, but Nester wants to create a game day feel so for the ninety minutes or so of the actual game, we want people to ” Bring It ” and that includes the fans.

How does one find a way to make this feel real to the families of the two race car drivers ? Easy – The car 🚗 connected to the winning team will walk away with the funds for a small logo for our softball program to appear on their car for the 2027 calendar 📅 year !

If you notice that Coach Nester has his game face on for this one, you aren’t imagining it…..

Too much serious work is being done in my brain 🧠 so let’s switch gears ⚙️ and call 📞 this one : The one about Greg Maddux, Rafael Anglada and Peyton Spencer !

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/19jFgSXeC5/

Two of those three names are very recognizable to baseball ⚾️ fans on The Hill, while Rafael Anglada will come to light in the sixth of our seven books.

Every Greg Maddux story is about one thing – a baseball player that was told he wasn’t big enough, strong enough, and certainly never threw hard enough.

All the ” little ” fella did was rack up 355 wins, the eighth highest total in Major League Baseball ⚾️ history !

Young, Mr Spencer, is facing a similar challenge and while we have no way of knowing how his story will play out, that story is just another reason to look forward to Year Three of the Casey Burcham experience at Bill Worrell Field in the spring of next year !!!

How many days until First Pitch ???

The link leads to an interesting story if you are a baseball ⚾️ fan !

We have a different sort of Morning 🌄 Brew today as we start with a long, lead – in to how this part comes about…and why it is so important !

Right now, it is 5:42 a.m., and sadly, I’m already in my third hour of being awake ⏰️. The first step to the Morning 🌄 Brew is the logo shot, which includes our coffee ☕️ mug on display on our back porch here in the suburbs of downtown Laurel Fork.

This morning, I have already had a very pleasant exchange with Mrs Kayla Nester about last night 🌙 and that made me smile !

***** 5:37 update – Travis Osborne just checked ✔️ in with his Bible Verse of the Day ! What happens next is I choose one of the four Travis Osborne photos 📸 in my collection and do a copy and paste.

Matthew 5:13 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.

Travis Osborne and I made a connection a few years back, and it’s a relationship that I treasure. 365 days a year, Brother Osborne checks in for the Day with an attempt to give people hope as they start their day, which is the sole purpose for this daily effort.

Two more things need to happen to complete the rollout. I need to hear from Howard Mayo and Joel Osteen.

The daily email 📧 from Lakewood Church shows up every morning at exactly 6:00 a.m., but the time that Coach Mayo checks in various a little bit.

Here is my file Photo 📸 of Coach Mayo and his Motovational Nugget for the Day will appear here shortly.

That is the way it appears this part works Monday through Friday. I am grateful 🙏 for Mayo taking the time during the week and if memory serves me, there was only once during our connection that a day was missed.

We have just a few minutes remaining before we hear from the folks at Lakewood, so I will add the pic 📸 that Cindy Edwards took for me last night before the first of three Middle School matches.

Why does this mountain ⛰️ of a Man 👨 have his name on the site for the entire month of September ? Because of the amount of RESPECT that I have for him!

Here’s a pic 📸 of the man, I do my very best to memmic every day of my life

God, Tim Tebow and Greg Bolen is the batting order… Travis Osborne as the clean-up hitter ?????

The phone dinged at 6am and here is today’s second Bible Verse !

While this morning 🌄 effort is designed to bring a smile to people around the world 🌎, it always has a lean towards where I wake ⏰️ up. But all of the stats involved in my ministry efforts, my favorite is that we have reached people in over 50 countries around God’s planet over the years !!!!

Bill Gallimore is my target audience each day, and he makes me smile every time that I make him smile 😃. That is why his name took the Top Spot for the month of August !

As the Late, Great Paul Harvey always signed off with – Now you know the rest of the story !

Each morning, I sign off with this final line :

Have a Blessed Day 🙌😇🙏

[6:13] –

72 hours of planning needs to be typed out in order for everyone to understand what all they have been invited to on Sunday afternoon !

The photo 📸 above the brain 🧠 child of my dear friend, Ron Cochran ! It’s called the Vickey Voucher, and in the business I’m in, we call this part a 2-fer !

See 👀, Vickey Ritchie and her / our Special Olympics Basketball program are set to be our honored 🎖 guests on Sunday. The first half of the 2-fer is that Vickey normally has food available for the team during the halftime break. Treating each of them to lunch not only keeps their routine going but it enables Lin and I to cover the bill with the dedicated people who have offered up their Sunday afternoon to work the Concession stand !! Win, Win 🏆

From 12:00 until 2:15 pm, I will do my absolute best to provide as much good, clean fun as possible and at the same time shine a light on as many people as we can.

Now, we have the Concession Stand and the Special Olympics covered, so what’s next ?

We have signed up such a next level duo to perform our National Anthem that we had to hire them a Personal Security detail !

Greg Bolen, yes, the same Greg Bolen that his name plastered across our very site this story appears on has agreed to protect the dynamic duo of Samantha Reed and Joi Ogle !!

I’m pretty sure that it’s ever so rare, once in a lifetime performance, that we feared that the cost of admission would skyrocket to see 👀 this, but I remembered that everything is FREE!

The amount of respect 🙏 I have for these two women is matched only by the respect I have for our National Anthem itself !

Let’s circle 🔵 back to Vickey Ritchie and Company for a minute. The athletes will be participating in our introductions in the same way it is handled with an International soccer ⚽️ match ! Half on the Alumni side and half on the Lady Cavaliers side.

Three more groups that I do everything I can to show appreciation and support for will have center stage in the parking lot from Noon to 2pm.

Kristy Jones and her family, Eddie and Dakota Walls ➕️ Ryan McCafferty of The Carroll News.

Kristi Jones has two very special children and a pretty cool Father to boot. The car above belongs to their family and Maci is about to slide 🛝 into the seat that her Big Brother, Trenton has occupied for a number of years.

Dakota Walls, pictured here with the Alumni group last year, is the son of Carroll County graduate 🎓 Eddie Walls. Dakota is currently a student on The Hill and a treat to work with !

The third factor in this triangle 🔺️is young Ryan McCafferty. Ryan officially started the job at The Carroll News, which I unofficially handled across a few years. It has been an absolute pleasure to assist Ryan and his efforts at every turn possible. Sports in general, but his passion is Motorsports.

I will be turning over the 🎤🎙🎤 to Ryan for this part, and I have complete faith in his ability to handle the situation with both 👪 families. A mixture of Q & A, ➕️ photo 📸 ops with both cars will be included !

At roughly 2:15ish, we will flip the script and have the rest of the day be about the softball game scheduled between the current high school players and the alumni players.

At this point 👉, I will simply try to hang out with my Hero, Greg Bolen, because he’s frickin Greg Bolen !!!

Maybe, if I slip him $20.00, he can get me an autograph of our singers !!!

One point to clarify is that the singing is not designed to be humorous, not even a little.

See, I care about a number of people in the community, and this will be my final attempt to create a performance like this, I wanted to love and appreciation for Special Olympics Basketball, Carroll County Softball, Carroll County High School, The Carroll News, Dakota Walls and Kristy Jones +

A great deal of heavy lifting 🫴 for sure and I simply could not accomplish this without some key players.

The field and the program belong to Coach Rick Nester, the school 🏫 is run by Mr Chuck Thompson, the Athletic Department by Kevin DeHaven.

Samantha Reed, Joi Ogle, and Greg Bolen are people that I feel blessed to interact with from time to time ! Ron Cochran is one kind soul…

No cost, food available for purchase, our own version of a Car Show, a singing performance that probably be an One and Done and then some softball at one of the nicest facilities in the Commonwealth.

Know, you know what I know as Thursday night has become Friday morning 🌄.