It would be hard to tell the story about Rick Nester and his Softball program without Crooked Oak being part of the story! Rick at the Crooked Oak is similar to Norm walking into Sam’s Bar on the old sitcom, Cheers 🍻.

  Everyone would love to have a place that they feel they belong and that is Rick’s slice of Heaven. It’s fitting that it sits halfway between Laurel Fork and The Hill, the two places that are near and dear to him for his entire life.

Multi tasking in that Rick is one of the folks that contributed to our recent High Jump project and he did so at a level that earned him some golf ⛳ and a copy of our Basketball 🏀 book 📖.

Switching from Book #3 over to Book #4, we were able to spend just over ninety minutes recapping the four separate one hour conversations that took place the day before. The highlight for me was I had a couple of tidbits that I had picked up that Rick wasn’t aware of himself!

Ron Cochran, Darrin Mathews, Justin Quesenberry and Dave Quesenberry all proved to be enlightening. The challenge now will be to process the entire conversion and pick out what warrants making it into the Book 📖.

Darrin Mathews compared the intensity and desire of Cheyenne to that of Coach Nester. Let that sink in, especially for the folks that are close to Rick.

Dave Quesenberry shed some light on first being a pitching coach for Sydney Nester when she was eight years old and then resuming the role when she reached the High School level. One classic tale what something right out of Bull Durham as Dave walked through one of the rare times he needed to visit the Freshman on the mound.

” Syd, I am getting hungry and Tammy’s making dinner for me, so we just get this done?”

Another one was, “Hey, there’s an ice cold Dr Pepper in that cooler over there, its yours if you just finish this”.

Having fun with this and trying hard to not have it feel like a Homework assignment to anyone else, but the story is coming along quite nicely so far.

Mr Darrin Mathews took the time to sit down for just over one hour this morning and it was a fun walk down memory lane for both of us. Darrin was the first of five one hour conversations that took place on The Hill today !

Bonus visits with Howard Mayo, Allen Worrell, West Long , Kris Richardson and family 👪, Paul Nester ➕ both Adam and Kayla Nester.

Double Bonus came in the form of a phone conversation with Velvet Leonard and the end of it all.

Very busy day but highly productive. Now the next task will be to translate multiple hours of conversation into what makes it into the Book.

Nobody in Carroll County will question whether or not Head Coach Rick Nester has mellowed a bit over the past decade.

The issue is what triggered the change that took our hard nosed leader into a rather personable Southern gentleman???

One very popular option is Adam and Kayla Nester presented Rick and Donna with a trio of Grandchildren. Nothing can soften a person up more than the sound of little ones in the house.

Another option is Rick Nester simply had no choice to change his stripes when he and Assistant Coach Jeff Tobler switched over from being a leader of young Men to  leading the Girls Softball program.

Third option is that having an alter ego in Little Ricky fulfilled a lifetime dream.

A better option is that his Bride 👰 of 40 years final wore him down with her next level kindness. That one has some merit…

Maybe its that his Laurel Fork neighbor and relative, Kris Richardson, finally wore him out. If that’s the case, credit Ashton a bit as well.

Going full circle 🔵 to 2015, maybe his Senior Class that year was so tough on their own that Rick didn’t have to fire them up. They were just that driven on their own. We might have a winner 🏆with that one!

We all face challenges in life, some more than others. The test is how much grace can one display when the deck is stacked against you.

  As I sort through thousands of photos in search of the ” keepers ” that will end up in the book, there is simply no way to not have the one at the top of this post make the final cut.

My lifelong love 💘 for Duke University comes from the fact that the Medical 🚑 Center fought hard to save the lives of many people who are/ were Kin to me. Now, next week, Lin and I will spend a week there in hopes that once again they will find an answer for my Bride.

The team as a whole is in the Carroll County Hall of Fame and four individuals from 2015 have been voted in. On the Page County side, Coach Knight and Kate Gordon have been honored as well.

If there was a Hall of Fame that recognized people for things like courage, strength and will to keep fighting 💪 the Good Fight, Principal Thompson and Tiff Moore would be first ballots 🗳.

https://youtu.be/vlAa0IGCXCw?si=wRhZs0cEuhEC500t

When is a win more than just a Win ?

Chuck Thompson started a chain ⛓ reaction when the Principal of Carroll County High School convinced fellow Cavalier, Rick Nester to take over the Softball program back in 2013.

Is it possible that Mr Thompson could have envisioned all of the steps 🚶‍♂️ that would follow ? Less than three years later, Carroll County High School would claim a victory that had been 36 years in the making.

That victory would translate into the modern edition of our Cavalier Park that we know today ! A number of people have been involved along the way and the hope is to include everyone who was part of the process.

Thursday morning 🌄 we begin the process of giving credit where credit is due. But in the beginning, it was Mr Thompson and his Master Plan, then it was just cause and effect from there !