https://www.dnronline.com/sports/riverheads-coach-casto-to-retire-after-26-seasons/article_00ad061e-ed1c-5950-a979-559face63a0c.html

   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.

  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.

The two display cases holding the Proof of Trek.

  Decades ago when I first thought about how much commitment it would take to make it to the end, it felt like most people who completed this particular Loop were either filthy rich or had sponsors.

Naturally, I wanted to see 👀 how little money 💰 it would take to hit all 30. The book 📖 would be titled, 30 Baseball Parks for under $10,000.00. In order to pull this off, it would require a great deal of creativity.

I was about 3/4 done when I realized that that I’m not that much of a baseball fan after all. Getting to the finish line required me leaning on my favorite piece of Life advice – Finish What You Start.

There won’t be a play by play of the entire journey but it will be fun to recap some of the brighter moments that took place along the way.

Cody Reece is back on The Hill, just months after Graduation 🎓 as this former Cavalier is dialed in on what he wants to do with his future. Reece will be splitting time between the Basketball staff of Anthony Barnes as a Coach and the Baseball diamond 💎 at New River Community College as a Player.

Reece developed his skills over his four years on The Hill under the guidance of Coaches like Kevin DeHaven, Casey Burcham, Jason Stockner, Kris Richardson and Anthony Barnes. Its quite possible that the leaders listed here rubbed off on Reece because he wants to join the ranks once he has completed College !

  Not all 50 of the Baseball stories are just about Baseball and that is certainly the case with the young Man whose friends call Rooster 🐓.

The moment that lands Reece on the 50 list took place last Spring up in Penn Laird, Virginia. Carroll County High School Boys Basketball team was playing in the State Quarterfinals against the Spotswood High School Trailblazers.

Spotswood would go on to capture the State Championship later that month and they had a great scouting report on how to slow 🐌 down Bryce Smoot and Isaiah Easter but they might have been guilty of overlooking the Rooster.

The moment was classic in that both Alan Knight and Allen Worrell were sitting on the floor next to me, a few feet from Ground Zero. Reece set up on the baseline and managed to drain not one, not two but a trio of 3-pointers. Cody Reece 9, Spotswood 6 was the score at that point !!!

You don’t win State Championships without making adjustments and the Trailblazers switched to having the State Player of the Year defend Reece. In the book 📖 we will leave out the part in regards to how the fourth attempt landed in the neighboring town of Elkton after it was blocked 🚫.

Reece has a cannon for an arm when playing Third Base and for a moment, he was single handily leading the best Basketball team in the State!

  What does Jay Neal and Baseball ⚾️ have to do with Lane Stadium 🏟 and Hokie football ??

  Before going to William and Mary to earn his Law degree, Jay Neal played football in Blacksburg for Virginia Tech.

  Just last month, Jay and the Strasburg Express added yet another Championship trophy 🏆to the case by claiming the 2025 Valley Baseball League crown 👑.

In a lifetime of meeting people, I have never met someone who has the skill set that Jay Neal has. Each of the past four years, our organization has presented the Jay Neal Lifetime Achievement Award to a worthy recipient. The last two years that honor has gone to residents of Carroll County, in Rick Nester and Tammy Quesenberry.

  Jay is retired from practicing Law and this gives him more time to focus on the things that he loves 💘. His wife, children and Grandchildren along with his Baltimore Orioles, the town of Strasburg and the VBL team he operates, the Express.

  If anyone has enjoyed or benefited from my efforts within OneofUs.Care or before we created the umbrella 🌂 to cover our efforts, then you are a Fan of Jay Neal. Because if there is no Jay Neal in our lives, our lives look incredibly different.

Back in 1974, it says a Hokie named Jay Neal caught four passes for 84 yards. That is one story that I haven’t heard yet but the one about his recruiting trip down to Duke University will be part of the read.

Even now, Jay still manages to try and help out his biggest fan as we try to explain where $65,000.00 went to in the past year.

The one distinction that differs greatly in regards to Jay and myself is the fact that he is incredibly Modest. Anytime I sing his praise, he will reply, ” Jay Neal is overrated “.

  I feel beyond Blessed to have crossed paths with Jay 20 years ago !