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Showing posts from August 24, 2008

A VBL Gathering down in Fishersville for Friday Night Lights

One of the topics that sits out there with the VBL is concerned is what happens to many of the people with ties to the league during the fall. Last night down at the Stuarts Draft @ Woodrow Wilson Memorial football game there were quite a few VBL folks visible. Chip Crabill (Generals Radio) and I (ATV-60) teamed up to do the radio broadcast for ESPN-1240 with Mr. Sean Youngberg (Generals Radio) operating the board for the station. Two booths down from us stood Mr. Dave Norman (Voice of the Turks) and Skipper Mike Bocock ( Luray ). They teamed up to do the television broadcast that will air on Saturday afternoon and I shared a laugh with the pair when I said it was special to see a Turk working so close to a Wrangler! Skip was kind enough to come down our way for the half time show and we were able to do 5 minutes of VBL baseball in the middle of the football game. Bocock is always fun to mix some high school football and baseball talk together with. The two of u

Checking in with the Strasburg Rams Volleyball Program- Rams claim road win 3-1 @ Page County

By: Scoop Carter Crystal Clear News SHENANDOAH- The Strasburg Rams were able to re-group after dropping game three to the host Page County Panthers to capture a 3-1 (25-22, 25-11, 19-25, 25-18) victory in non-district volleyball action Thursday Night. Strasburg (2-1) edged the host team 25-22 in game one as the two teams traded points throughout the opener. Both squads are trying to find a comfort level on the floor after being hit hard by graduation in 2007-2008. The Rams graduated seven members of their State Championship team, including team leaders Katie Baker and Kaitlin Smoot . Head Coach Suzanne Mathias was able to welcome back 5 players from last year that will form the nucleus of this years team. "We are a very young team as we start the season," Mathias said. "They are working hard everyday and playing with a great deal of enthusiasm . We lost 7 seniors that we have to replace with 7 new faces and we to build a trust level out there on the court." Str

Hometown Hero Series : Page County High School's Alan Knight

As far as Coaching Legends go these days, PCHS's Alan Knight is about the best kept secret around in the state of Virginia. The fact that Alan is a neighbor of mine here in Page County made me want to take a closer look at his amazing career with the Panthers. The 1975 PCHS graduate returned to his Alma mater after graduating from Eastern Mennonite College (which has since become EMU) back in the fall of 1981. You have to remember that my older brother Wayne has spent his entire adult life in the teaching/ school administration industry so I truly respect that Knight has been on the job done at PCHS for what is now his 28TH season. For almost 3 decades Knight has led the Panthers softball and volleyball programs for the school that campus sits just north of the town of Shenandoah on US-340. 28 seasons of coaching two sports full time plus helping out where needed in other areas as well. Knight mentioned spending some time in charge of 8TH grade basketball and the golf team d

Having some fun with Page News & Courier's Randy Arrington & Bill Meade

Bill Meade was kind enough to invite me to join the group of area sports fans that pick the winners of a combination of area high school, college and NFL games each week for our Page News and Courier. Bill is the Sports Editor at our counties weekly paper and Randy is the Editor and Chief. Bill let me know that Randy is the defending champ and is looking to repeat this season. The "Pigskin Picks" appear in the Sports section of the Page News & Courier each week accompanied by our previous results. There are a Panel of 6 Prognosticators each week and Bill finds one Guest Picker as well. The opening guest is Shawn Seal and Bill, Randy and I are joined for the year by Kevin Bush, Page Meadows and Nerissa Viafora . I had to pause for a moment there as I looked at the name Nerissa Viafora . I was wondering why that named looked so familiar to me. It took a minute but then I remembered why- I was working on a story about Coach Alan Knight of PCHS and Mrs. Viafo

Friday Night Lights with ESPN-1240 WTON... Taking the show to Wilson Memorial High School

It is game day for the Augusta County High School Game of the Week on ESPN radio and this weeks contest will have a real VBL feel to it as we head down to Fishersville for a match-up between visiting Stuarts Draft and host Wilson Memorial High School. The head football coach for the Green Hornets is none other than Mr. Derrick McDaniel of the Waynesboro Generals coaching staff. McDaniel spends his summers along side of Lawrence "Big Picture" Nesselrodt as the pair team up to guide Jim Critzer's baseball team in the months of May, June, July and August. Chip Crabill and I will go on the air with the tail gate show at 6:30 PM and the contest is slated to start at 7:30 PM. McDaniel's team competes in the Class A Shenandoah District and this game will be their season opener. Stuarts Draft plays in the Class AA Southern Valley District and is guided by head coach Rod Bowers. The Cougars dropped a thrilling 35-28 contest to Broadway in their home opener last week and

Out with the Summer of 2008 - In with the Fall of 2009

Wow! That Teresa Wease is a special lady... After finishing my story on Blaine Brown and Mike Murphy I went to see if there were any comments to post and I found one from Mrs. Turks! I would be lying if I didn't say that finding comments waiting in the inbox from readers is the coolest part of this site. I have had quite a few people ask about the Summer of 2009 but my answer was I needed to continue forward to the end of 2008 first. My thoughts the other day served as a recap for the 2008 VBL Season and just as you take your car in for a State Inspection when the sticker says to... The garage gave us a new sticker but... Now that we can close the books on the season (I wasn't willing to do that until G-S-G-Mike had the time to send in his final thoughts), I think it is safe to look forward to the rest of the off season and what the Summer of 2009 might hold. I through a great deal of things at the wall this past year in an effort to see what would work.

Taking a trip down Rebels Memory Lane while watching Greg Maddux pitch in the Nats new park!

My youngest son Christopher and I made the drive up to Nationals Park tonight to see Greg Maddux take a third shot at tying Roger Clemens for the #8 spot All-Time in MLB victories at 354. Once again Maddux came up a bit short as two UN-earned runs allowed the Nats to squeak out a 5-4 victory. The Dodgers have now dropped 6 straight games away from LA as Joe Torre and company were swept in a four game series at Citizens Bank Ball Park up in Phili before two straight losses to Washington. It was my first trip up to the new park and now the number of teams in MLB that I have seen play in multiple home parks is up to nine. It is always fun for me to get to watch Maddux pitch, even we he doesn't get the "W" and this was the first time that Chris had been there with me. I was listening to a trio of educated fans sitting directly behind me and I turned around when I heard one of them say we were watching the greatest pitcher of our generation! If you have been following f

Now with G-S-G Mike's final thoughts in the books...Exit stage Left

I wanted to wait until Mike had sent me his recap on the Generals before closing the shop down. Mike has been a huge part of what we tried to do here this summer and we are grateful for all of his help! To say that it has been quite a ride would be an under statement! A year is in the books from when I first approached VBL President Dave Biery with an idea that I thought would be fun for the teams and the fans of the league. The first ownership group meeting was held last Thursday down in Harrisonburg and this marks the end of one season and the beginning of the next for each of the now 12 clubs. They can actually begin to sign players here in a few days (September 1ST) and work on securing their coaching staffs for the Summer of 2009. We still have a little UN-finished business as Daniel is hard at work on the remaining jackets but I don't think any of it qualifies as news worthy. I have been keeping up with John Leonard's daily work and still smile every time I notice Brad

General Notes from GeneralsSignGuyMike

A General View of 2008 By GeneralsSignGuyMike  It was one great season for the 2008 Waynesboro Generals, yes they didn't make it two straight VLB Champions but they do have bragging rights on having won three straight division titles and overall best record (87-42-1) in the league dating back to 2006. They had a finishing record of (32-17) tho their regular season record was (30-14) and the 2nd straight season with 30 or more wins in the regular season. Coach Lawrence "Big Picture" Nesselrodt was named for the 3rd straight time Manager of the Year and he deserved that award. The manager of the Fauquier Gators, Paul Koch, did a great job this season with the Gators. Adam Liberatore was named one of the best pitchers this year and he deserves the award, also by far the most improved too. He went 6-1 with a 1.36 ERA going 66 1/3 inn and striking out 58. He was the ace of a super pitching staff that included: Andy Altemus (7 wins), Jake Cowan (5 wins and two of his last 3 s

Rockbridge Rapids name EMU's Mark Mace as skipper...

The Rapids made a splash this week by choosing the clubs first Skipper. Mark Mace is the head baseball coach at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg but his roots are from Rockbridge County. Mace coached high school baseball for a number of years with stops coming in Buena Vista at Parry McClure before taking over the top spot up @ EMU. Mace graduated from EMU back in 1990. You can read the entire press release over at the Rapids web site by going to http://rockbridgerapids.com/ . Congrats to both Mace and the Rapids on the announcement...

A great week for Sports for ATV-60 here this week...

For the readers that have been here since the beginning you know by now that the VBL is just one of a few things that I am passionate about in the Sports world. This week will prove to be an exciting one as three nights in a row will be filled with events that have a special importance to me. Let's begin with Wednesday Night at the Nationals game against the Dodgers. While I did complete the cycle of MLB cities I have not been to a game at the Nats new home this season. It seems that I was a bit busy this summer with the VBL . That will change on Wednesday as we head to the stadium to watch Mr. Greg Maddux take a third run at win #354 at 7:30 PM. It turns out that the game we saw Maddux pitch out in San Diego was his final game this season as a Padre. Maddux is back for a second run as a Dodger with hopes of helping Joe Torre and company catch Randy Johnson and the Arizona D-Backs before the end of the season. The next victory he records will move him into a tie for