Day 2 of the event is now set for Tuesday and the home opener for Saturday, February 21st in Beckley, West Virginia.
The Wrestling for the Boys has been moved back to Noon and now at Staunton River in hopes of getting it in.
Three of our five College Basketball 🏀 players are set to be in action 🎬 today !
In order, Alyssa Ervin, Katie Lam and Elijah Cox will be looking to lace them up while the Smoot Brothers have a contest scheduled for Sunday.
Speaking of Sunday Hoops, Vickey Ritchie is set to take 3 Special Olympics Basketball teams to Roanoke College on Sunday !
Locally, our day should conclude with some Men’s Basketball 🏀 at Southern Utah University as Tarleton State comes to town.
Have yourself a Blessed Day 🙌
When your rallying cry is we are all in this together and each person counts equally ❤, sometimes you have to lead by example.
Neither Lin or I have ever attended a College Gymnastics meet before tonight but during our 90 Day Stay we have supported both Southern Utah University and Utah Tech. Tonight that spills over to the balance beam !
First Note 📝 – the young Man in the ticket 🎟 office stated that only Football outdraws Gymnastics. I smiled back in his direction but wasn’t sure if he was pulling my leg.
BYU will start on the uneven bars and SUU on the Vault.
6:39 – underway ! The teams alternate athletes on their side of the Gym
6:50 – The teams now switch over to compete in the event that the other team just completed.
7:09 – first two events are in the Books 📚!
Next up – BYU to the floor, SUU to the beam.
7:35 – time to switch events again. The atmosphere in here borders on undescribable – Mad Energy !!
6 Athletes per team compete in each event…
Each performance is judged right after with the scores posted on the Jumbo Tron
SUU is celebrating its third straight conference Championship as they unveiled the banner before hand ✋
8:04 – end of those two events.
Awaiting a scoring update…..
196,975 to 196.000 in favor of the Cougars.
8:17 – end of competition
It would be easy to harp on the fact that the ” Experts ” tabbed the 2025 – 2026 Lady Paladins to finish fifth in the eight team Socon but Head Coach Pierre Curtis has bigger goals for his team. There is a glimmer of hope that Furman University could be playing opposite UT – Chattanooga in a few weeks in Ashville with a ticket 🎟 to the Big Dance 💃 on the line.
Yes, Chattanooga finished off its season sweep of Furman last night but Curtis received what he needed from his Ladies, especially Claire Coyle and Alyssa Ervin. If you are fortunate enough to play UT-C for a third time, you have to believe that you belong on the court with them.
Nine ➕ minutes into the contest last night Furman was still searching for its first made basket 🧺.
Two things that you know that UT-C is they play relentless defense and pound the boards. Both of those strong 💪 suites were on display last night in the opening 10:00. The team breaks the will of their opponent and usually runs away and hides from them.
Not last night, Furman exposed a rare flaw or kink in the armor if you will. Notice the six in the steals column on the stat sheet for Ervin. Curtis needs his team to believe that they could win Round 3 and advance to the Promise Land. Remember that this Furman squad is one that will not lose anyone to graduation after the season and are still playing short handed.
One of the keys 🔑 to the remaining conference schedule is for the Paladins to remain in the #2 or #3 spot. Doing so will allow them to avoid the Mocs until the lights go down and the stage is set on Championship Monday !
The day the phone rang with an invitation to bring a guest to Washington DC to meet a Washington Redskins football player I told my Boss that the timing wasn’t right. I added that the only Redskins player or alum I would have an interest in meeting would be Sonny Jurgensen.
The laughter 🤣 that came next told me that day was going to be one that I would cherish forever.
Most people simply don’t connect Jurgensen with Duke University Football because Sonny played at a time when players went both ways.
We were allowed to bring 1 guest and 1 piece of memorabilia for Sonny to sign. Hence, I brought a Duke football helmet and our youngest child, Rebecca Carter at the time. Sonny was full fledged Sonny at the site of the Duke gear.
Julio Pascual ran the transportation department at the Washington Post and to this day, my working relationship with Julio takes a back seat 💺 to nobody. Class Act and he is currently living the life of retirement down in Sunny Florida.
Jurgensen picked off more passes (10 to 6) then he threw for touchdowns while playing for the Blue Devils. After a Hall of Fame career in the Nation’s Capital, Sonny took his knowledge of the game and passion for storytelling and turned it into an impressive broadcasting career.
Teaming up for a while with Sam Huff, the broadcast leaned towards two guys enjoying a beverage and just talking about a game they loved.
That night 🌙 at the restaurant, the 15 and ➕1 of us where taking turns asking questions to the Legendary man and clearly some of the 30 people in the room didn’t know what Sonny was all about.
Each time it was my turn, Sonny smiled because he knew that I would offer him a topic that would allow him to wave his arms and tell a story. He excelled at telling a story and hopefully he can tell them for a long time in Heaven 🙏🙏🙏.
Life was simpler back then and I miss those days. God Bless You, Sonny !
A.S.P.N on The Hill 