Thursday morning will be the time for getting to meet up with Mr Eddie Vaughn for our session about his role in the development of our Cavalier Park.
I was already looking forward to sitting down with Eddie because of the glowing report I received from the Man 👨 that replaced him, Mr Stephen Puckett.
Every now you can watch a Movie 🎥 on the Big Screen and see an actor or actress in a cameo role and wonder why an A-Lister Star 🌟 would subject themselves to a small role. I chalk it up to the Star having done it as a favor to the Director or Executive Producer, maybe its repayment for an earlier break.
In my five years here, I have met hundreds, if not thousands of people and many have simply Blown me away. But everyone else falls in line behind Dr Oliver McBride.
In a few days I will get to spend quality time with a pair of Top-Shelf people, my level of excitement is borderline giddy!!
The first words out of Eddie’s mouth today was how much he enjoyed his time working with a man as classy as Dr Oliver McBride !! How many times does someone lead their life story with how much respect he or she has for their Boss?
The photo 📷 here is one that shows what existed back in the early 1980’s at Page County High School.
45 years in the making
The night that we were able to dedicate the Field to the name of Coach Alan Knight, the theme song 🎵 was the old Johnny Cash diddy, One Piece at a Time.
It was very fitting because of the manner that the facility had grown right before our very eyes 👀.and done from within. Going from having won a State title but not having a home field to play on to what now sits on the hill in between the old High School and the new High School is Amazing.
When you add in the fact that it was done in-house for the most part adds another layer to the story. Just like the song 🎵, where Cash told the tale about building a Car 🚗 one piece at a time, the folks within the program created the facility one season at a time.
The dugouts, the fencing, the Press Box, the Pavillion were some of the bigger ticket items but there was plenty of smaller steps along the way.
The combination of people that rallied around each other as the Program grew is an impressive list. Coach Knight and Assistant Coach Viafora were the perfect partnership for a LONG time. They built something together that was strong enough that others were willing to step up once Viafora took up a new role in his busy life. The one of being a Grandfather.
Arthur Campbell, Dennis Zimmerman, Brian Hendrick, Lori Mongold and Meagan Gordon are some of the people that took to baton from Viafora, along with a cast of former players who treasured their time wearing the jersey.
Roy Cardin Field in the town of Shenandoah.Big Daddy and Roy
Listing all of the contributions of Assistant Coach Ralph Viafora during his lengthy time working with Alan Knight and the Lady Panthers Softball program will be a challenge. But one thing that sticks out is a sign that hangs on the Press Box at Alan Knight Field that has the team motto, if you will.
” Tradition never Graduates “
Even today, Viafora is a busy, busy Man so I’m not sure how much of his time I will get on this but one simply can’t tell the story about the facility or the program itself without a heavy dose of Ralph Viafora.
The three daughters that played in the program would be enough on its own but the fact that he stayed on after the youngest one graduated 🎓, says a great deal about the Man.
Viafora also spent time as the Head Coach for the Girls Basketball team during his stay in Shenandoah. Knight is quick to credit his former Assistant for stepping in and taking the program to another level, both in game planning and the Park.
The most impressive thing about Viafora is the love that he has for his Family. The youngest of his three daughters, Caitlin, was as tough as the day is long and after graduation she headed over to nearby James Madison University to continue her education and worked her way onto the Softball roster as a Freshman.
Mainly used as a pinch runner do to her speed and Father like understanding of how the game is meant to be played, Ralph added her games to his daily calendar. JMU traveled a great deal and if at all possible, Mom and Dad were in the stands.
Back to ” Tradition never Graduates “, I could sit here for years and couldn’t sniff a better way to describe the Softball program at Page County High School !
Thank You Ralph, for your time, your sacrifice, your Daughters and your commitment to Page County High School!
Its not uncommon for a High School community to have a Coach that sets the standard for Excellence that will stand for decades to come. In the Shenandoah Valley, there have been a few that have become known across the Commonwealth and even across the Nation.
The fact that Alan Knight is closing in on 1,100 victories, all at the same School should be a Stand Alone kind of a number but there are two things that slow 🐌 down that fact. First, Knight coached Softball and Volleyball and while those sports are rather important to me, that’s not necessarily the case with mainstream media. Football 🏈 and Basketball 🏀 rule the World, even at the High School level.
Secondly, if you draw a circle around Page County High School, you will run into a number of sensational Coaches and programs.
Chris Dodson, a fellow Page County High School graduate 🎓 operates at Spotswood High School as the Girls Basketball coach and is seeking his eighth State Championship, same number as Knight.
Turner Ashby High School in Dayton is and has been a Baseball ⚾️ factory 🏭.
Jerry Walters at Central High School is the Gold standard for both Coaching and leading a Community.
R.E Lee High School is now called Staunton High School. Paul Hatcher once led his program ( Boys Basketball) to 80+ straight victories.
The Head Coach that has the largest amount of similarly to Knight is legendary Robert Casto of Riverheads High School in Greeneville. Casto has a dump truck full of State Championship 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆and had a winning streak that led the Country at one point.
As the two programs featured in this book, Carroll County and Page County, have very little connection, the folks that live in Galax might have double digit State Championship hardware if not for Casto.
My history with Casto is that while serving as color commentator for ESPN Radio 📻 in Augusta County, we featured a number of their games each season. The next time our paths crossed was in Charlottesville in 2024 when both Knight and Casto were enshrined in to the Virginia High School League Hall of Fame.
My favorite memory of Casto was his first retirement in I believe it was 2016. Coach was talked into returning the following season and then went 39-0, adding three more State Championships.
Now let’s get to the similarities between Knight and Casto, other than being neighbors. Casto was Coaching at a Class 1 school ( smallest size in Virginia) and over his career he built an absolute Dynasty. The centerpiece was just one thing, doing the same thing over and over again, then doing it some more.
There was no long line of star players that ended up at Alabama or Southern California. Casto was only interested in throwing the football as a last resort, which didn’t happen very often and this led to extremely fast games as the clock ⏰ wasn’t stopping for incomplete passes.
From the time that a student reached the third grade the Boys knew that when the got older they were going to play football for Casto. There was no recruiting needed for the Coach and by the fourth grade the Pee Wee coaches were teaching them the Varsity teams playbook. By the time they reached High School they were ready to hit the ground running and run they did.
Lady Panthers Softball
I can still remember blogging at one of the recent Galax – Riverheads State Finals on a rainy day in Salem. Galax, who for a long time had the distinction of being the last team to beat Riverheads, put up a fight that day but couldn’t slow down the Riverheads Express.
The Segway from Riverheads High School football to Page County High School Softball is an easy one. Everything that Knight and his staff does is based on the basic fundamentals of flawless defense, aggressive base running and the ability to bunt the ball. Sounds a bit familiar when you look at the Riverheads game plan.
We are going to work on things until we can make the plays in our sleep 💤 and then challenge the opponent to outplay us.
Casto wasn’t a one man band all of those years and neither was Knight or actually I should say, neither is Knight as he prepares for yet another season.
Coach Roy taught them how to pitch, long time lead Assistant Coach, Ralph Viafora taught them how to execute and believe in themselves. Now the torch 🔦 has been passed to Lori Mongold and Big Daddy. Its very simple, practice what you need to practice and do it until it becomes second nature.
It’s a shame that the value of a Softball victory is less than a Football victory but such is life.
Note 📝 – Bill ” Pappy ” Meade is now enjoying his latest role as a Grandfather but its worth noting that Pappy has a direct tie 👔 to Hatcher, Casto and Knight. Meade attended High School at R.E Lee while Hatcher was Coaching, covered Knight for a decade and when we relocated to Stuarts Draft, spent time covering Casto. Quite the trio !
While there have been more than a few Coaches of the Lady Cavaliers Softball program over the years, there have been two Men that were responsible for the facility. First, Eddie Vaughn and then Stephen Puckett, keepers of the property as part of their overall responsibility as Head of the Maintenance department for the Carroll County Schools 🏫.
Puckett worked under Vaughn for years before finally replacing him after his retirement and both of them are searching their memories as to how Cavalier Park has reached its current state. When the dust settles, it will be interesting to see how many names are on the ” Contributed List “, by comparison to how many Lady Cavaliers have worn the uniform.
The piecing together of the oversized puzzle would be complicated enough if Cavalier Park was the sole responsibility of the Maintenance staff. It was during the installation process of the new scoreboard that I learned about the massive amount of work involved with the upkeep of everything in every building that is part of the School system.
Just in the past few years there have been a number of projects that have taken place, including the scoreboard, the Stadium seating, paving of the parking lot, the white picket fence, adding the Bleacher wrap arounds and creating the new spaces for folks in their lawn chairs / handicap area.
We are now inside of three weeks of Saturday afternoon, September 13th and this date is important on two fronts. It’s the target date for switching from gathering information about the History of the Park to compiling of said information.
Secondly, it is the date for the celebration of the Program that will include so many things that its a challenge to list them all.
A.S.P.N on The Hill 