Sydney Nester was a Freshman at Carroll County High School 🏫 back in the 2014-2015 season. Eight years later she hurled her final collegiate pitch for the Thundering Herd of Marshall University.

In between that magical day in Lynchburg and the final out in Louisiana, Nester capitalized on learning how to throw a Softball, to the tune of earning a six year College education.

  Nester set both the career mark for Carroll County in  Wins and Strike Outs during her three years on The Hill. The records would stand for almost a decade, until Emma Leath eventually chased her down.

People would argue the three years versus four years but not here. Nester and Leath are two of the best to ever pitch at Cavalier Park. If we wanted to compare the duo to say, modern day NBA Superstars, Nester would be LeBron James and Leath would be Steph Curry.

Nester was in the circle 🔵 that day in June of 2015 and managed to string together seven straight Goose Eggs 🥚against a hard hitting Wood Grove squad.

  As of now the story will have 60-80 characters in it, with no ranking of importantance for anyone involved. With that said, its kinda fitting that one of the photos used here shows Nester being ranked among the Top 100 players in College Softball.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/highschools/carroll-county-slips-by-woodgrove-in-virginia-4a-softball-championship/2015/06/13/b3168a56-105e-11e5-9726-49d6fa26a8c6_story.html

Sidney Nester inside the Circle 🔵

https://roanoke.com/sports/high_schools/4a-softball-carroll-county-captures-schools-1st-state-team-title/article_8cde9c8a-bb61-5b16-b2a8-f29597d6dbfd.html

Bill Gallimore sent me looking for stories regarding the work in progress, which is our latest book 📖. Here is the game story from the Lady 👩 Cavaliers 1-0 victory.

The fact that these two Schools met twice down the stretch is somewhat remarkable when you consider the distance between the two campuses.

Head Coach Alan Knight and Megan Gordon.

  Megan Gordon is a busy, busy Lady that loves a good challenge and its safe to say that her role in this story is as relevant as anyone who will be in the book.

Let’s start with Megan the Mom as her two daughters, Kate and Maddie, both played four seasons under Coach Knight before going on to play Division 1 Softball at James Madison University and Penn State University, respectively.

Older daughter Kate played short stop and crushed the Softball when in the batters box. The titles in 2014 and 2015 were led by a Gordon on the Diamond 💎 but equally important, off the field as well. Mom ran point on a number of fun raisers during this time, many came in the form of travel Basketball tournaments.

  I was fortunate enough to get to announce Kate in every home field at bat during her four seasons playing at PCHS and this allowed me to witness the efforts of Mom as well.

https://www.vsba.org/board-of-directors/megan-gordon/

The link above will walk you through the latest challenge that Mom 👩 accepted. I am not sure if this impressive young Lady has limitations ?

  While I was there every step of the way for Kate’s years, it was hit and miss during the time that Maddie played her ball at Page County. She just enjoyed her Senior Day at Penn State University a couple of months ago.

     Mom raised two Amazing daughters that both flourished at Page County High School, helping their teams collect three State Championships. In her spare time she raised funds and then was elected to the School Board. Plenty of time and effort went into this process and when you ask yourself how both daughters were so driven, start with the Woman who raised them.

When we created the funding for the $28,000.00 project that fenced in the Lady 👩 Panthers Softball field, I made two requests. The first one was to have the field named after Coach Knight and for there to be a sign on the fence in centerfield honoring my parents.

Beatrice Dobbs Carter and Charles Taylor Carter should remain part of the complex as long as the fence stays in place. Not sure how many people notice it when they visit the park and even fewer would know who they are but the beauty of it is that I do !

  The fundraising event created to cover the cost of the fence is quite possibly the best one I ever created. We called it the    ” Panther Palooza – Got Fence ?” and its a big part of the story.