Pre-Game nerves ? Not on our Bench…

   Everyone who writes ✍ a book 📖 takes a moment to dream about the possibility of someone turning it into a movie 🎥. For me, it would be Aaron Sorkin taking a few liberties with the story.

The challenge here is that this particular project has three different starting points. One for Alan Knight, one for Rick Nester and one for myself. Starting point for the Carroll County High School Softball program has to take place at a little diner that sits out on US-58 in between The Hill and Laurel Fork.

In real life, the Crooked Oak plays a sizable role in the day to day life of Rick Nester. The restaurant is where Coach Nester starts many a morning 🌄 with breakfast and its not uncommon for his older brother Paul to be at the same table.

  The end of the year meal following the 2023 season took place at the restaurant, so its a natural place to host the opening scene.

  A vehicle pulls up into a parking spot and out steps 🚶‍♂️ Carroll County High School Principal Chuck Thompson. Robert Duvall is playing the part of Mr. Thompson. Casting nailed this one!

Mr. Thompson is in a bit of a spot as he needed someone to agree to Coach his softball team. The school had found some successful Student Athletes up until this point but the quest for the elusive State Championship was still ongoing.

  Mr. Thompson greets the waitress and chooses a booth ahead of Coach Nester, being played by Ed Harris. Once again, wow 👏 to the casting director !

  

  Rick Nester is a Man’s Man 👨 and Coaches in that same manner. Folks all over Carroll County have a story about Coach Nester and its either full of praise or whatever the complete opposite of praise.

  Mr. Thompson knows that he will have to dig deep into his bag 🎒 of tricks in order to find a way to convince Nester to switch sides, to go from molding young men to doing the same with Ladies.

Nester slides into the booth, greets his longtime friend and Boss. The exchange pleasantries, order breakfast and start THE CONVERSATION that will alter the course of Lady 👩 Cavaliers Softball !

Carroll County High 🏫 officially opened its doors 🚪 during the 1969-1970  school year and as they say, the rest is history.

Fast Forward roughly 40 years and you will find a hard nosed, no nonsense Coach by the name of Rick Nester. Nester graduated from CCHS and returned to coach and teach shortly after.

Nester was known for his aggressive approach and it played well enough when it came to leading the Boys 👦 but one day Principal Chuck Thompson found himself in need of a Softball Coach..

There were more than a few skeptical people on The Hill back then with jokes about CVS running short on mascara from all of the crying 😢 that would take place. Nevertheless, Nester and his partner in Coaching, Jeff Tobler crossed the Boulevard that is US-58 Business, setting up shop at Cavalier Park.

  For this to work, Nester was going to need to run across some tough as Nails 💅 ball players. Low and behold, that is precisely what happened and before you knew it, Carroll County High School joined the ranks of places where folks could call themselves State Champs!

The Seniors on the team in 2015 included  Sydney Childress, Tiffanie Moore, Hannah Dalton and Cheyenne Strickland. This quartet were the ones that met the challenge and led the charge. We will do our best to capture the thought process from each member of this group, including their initial thoughts on playing for Nester and Tobler.

There were 15 Lady 👩 Cavaliers playing Softball in 2015, with five of them being Freshman.

The unanswerable question is what did the initial State Championship for the High School mean to the team, to the school and to the community ?

Four ➕ decades of chasing the Crown 👑 finally ended in 2015. It’s worth noting that a few years later, Marc Motley and Brandi Cochran – Mitchell coached up a group of young Ladies to consecutive Class 3 State Titles. Not only will the Softball title always be first, but unless there’s a sudden influx of people moving into the area, it will remain the sole Class 4 trophy 🏆.

4 Seniors, 3 Juniors, 3 Sophomores and 5 Freshman is the total count. 11 on Varsity the entire season and four late call ups. They banded together and took the Cavaliers to the Mountain ⛰ Top !

  So much of this story about a 40 year relationship with the game of Softball can be told without having to trouble people. But now comes the challenge of contacting people who I’ve never met and others that I haven’t spoke to in 10 years.

  The goal will be to contact as many former players and coaches from the two schools as possible. Present them with the opportunity to share their thoughts from 2015 as well as today. I have to understand that the level of interest will vary greatly from person to person.

Add in the bonus challenge of Maiden names and current names, depending upon marriage 💑 and the challenge increases. Thankfully, both Rick Nester and Alan Knight are on board with the effort so we have a fighting chance to include as many people as possible!

  If you are reading this and know someone who played or attended either Championship game that day, please encourage 🙏 them to reach out to me.

  This is a fun part of the story as it capped off a two year adventure for our daughter Rebecca McDowell and myself plus both Eric Benson & Bill Meade.

  The process was such a learning experience as to just how the VHSL goes about voting a person into its Hall of Fame. Thrilled to have teamed up with our youngest daughter and two close friends on this and it was certainly a well deserved moment that we were all able to share.

Page County High School 🏫 did not have a Hall of Fame of its own until just recently and above is a photo of then Athletic Director, Bill Simmons presenting Alan Knight on the second annual PCHS Hall of Fame Night.

Mr. Doug Knight, the day that I presented him with our copy of the packet that we submitted to the VHSL. We weren’t sure that Alan’s Father would still be around if and when the nomination would pay off. Happily, he was at the Ceremony in Charlottesville !