The first thing you have to appreciate is that the event takes place inside of a Church ⛪️. The folks 🙏 at the First United Methodist Church are as gracious as possible, and they handle every aspect of the afternoon !
2025 – 2026 Boys Basketball 🏀
The brochure is as sharp as ever with a thank you going to the folks 🙏 over at Omega Office 🏬 and supply.
Isreal Easter was welcoming in his opening prayer, and the room is full of folks that spent the last four months together and
Dr Oliver McBride hard at work, as he can only be !The Stockners were kind enough to share their table, and both are kind as can be.
3:34 – The meal has been finished up, and Israel Easter is now filling in for planned speaker Jay Holderfield. Mr Easter is a natural speaker with plenty of time spent in the pulpit.
It was a heart-felt conversation that covered a number of topics regarding the team and the season. Emotional at the end of the 11 minutes.
The scorebook page from the night that Isaiah Easter joined the 1,000 points club !Offensive Player of the Year !Defensive Player of the Year, Blake Reed!Hustle Award goes to Colton Gravley !Trace Reavis wins Most Improved Player !
Cavalier Award goes to new Assistant Coach, Jabin Talley !
Three Rivers District 1st team for Isiah, 2nd team to Blake !!
1st team All – Region
Honorable Mention All – State
Individual awards !
All six years the Banquet has taken place at the Church !
Our Hostess !!!
Coach Barnes is going through his thank you list because it takes a village to run a program !!
4:14 – Anthony Barnes announces his retirement from the head coach of the Cavaliers.
Touching moment, to say the least !
Thank you, Coach, for everything you have done for our school 🏫!!
Apologies that two families had left before we finished up the photos 📸.
Mrs Tammy Tobler is the glue that keeps Kevin Burress and I in the correct mindset whenever the Varsity Softball team is playing. The picture here was taken last Friday, and could it be that it was only the day before yesterday ???
Here’s hoping that Tammy has a day as remarkable as she is ! If she pulls that off, she will have quite a story to tell ….
The School 🏫 Calender is Blank todayTravis Osborne and his Bible Verse of the Day :
John 12:13 Took branches of palm trees, and went forth to meet him, and cried, Hosanna: Blessed is the King of Israel that cometh in the name of the Lord.
The Golden Bears 🐻 will look to have a bounce back day up in Portsmouth, Ohio, as we play a conference doubleheader at Shawnee State.
Three things at 3 pm create a unique situation, to say the least.
The decision to not use the plane tickets last night ( miles that were able to be redeposited ) to fly out to Sacramento for the Duke University Women’s Elite Eight game took it from being inside Golden 1 arena to missing the game all together.
This year, chasing the story about Kira Lawson and the team has been nothing short of a blast for us. The combination of believing in the sport, the coach, and the school in the manner that we do made it a fun few months. The fact that you can be a season ticket holder for the Ladies for less money 💰 than it cost to attend 1 Men’s Basketball game at Cameron Indoor still boggles my mind, but it is what it is.
Vickey Ritchie is a kind, kind 😇 Soul and that is a non- disputable fact. Even after we were both at it from before Sun up and until the stroke of midnight, Coach is still going to open up the Gym at Hillsville Elementary School for practice today from 2-4 pm.
Not everyone in our group could travel and hold up to a 12 hour day like the one the group had yesterday going to and from Lexington. So, in order to not exclude anyone who wants to participate, practice will take place per the norm.
There’s no actual obligation to be at every practice or event that Vickey Ritchie is responsible for. it’s simply therapeutic for the heart. Our missions in life are so similar : to create an environment where people all feel that they matter equally. It’s not easy, but it is a mission statement that we are both chasing with everything that we have.
Yesterday was a BIG day for her, and being that we experienced that same day together last year, there are stories to tell, and I can’t wait to hear them.
That brings us to the third place to be at 3 pm.
Anthony Barnes is holding his annual end of the season gathering today on The Hill, and it happens to be in the exact same time slot as Duke – UCLA.
Even though I wasn’t in the gymnasium with them this season, I did everything that I could to support the program. This included watching every game but 2 and creating a game story for each contest along the way.
The room at the Church ⛪️ will look different from years past as Kris Richardson, the Smoots, and many others have moved on since last year. That is how graduation works. I’m not really sure how the room will feel with a number of different faces, but I do know how much his program means to Coach Barnes.
One of two things will happen today out in California. We were in the Arena out in Vegas in late November when UCLA was coming off their lone loss to Texas the night before, and they beat us by 30 points. They could very well do it again, but I don’t think they can because we are way better than we were four months ago.
But I don’t think that we can make enough plays to move on to the Final Four in Phoenix next weekend. Know that if Duke wins 🏆 that PHX is going to happen.
So it will be hanging out with Vickey Ritchie until it’s time to do the same with Anthony Barnes. Then driving 🚗 back to Laurel Fork to watch the post game coverage and sleep 😴💤 as naps are truly my friend !
This now has become one of my favorite Photos 📸 and in part because of the two frames on the wall 🧱 in the background. Neat, Neat Lady, who is incredibly smart yet just a proud, proud Mother 👩 at the end of the day !
A.S.P.N on The Hill 