Fort Defiance volleyball raises money for breast cancer education
The girls on the Fort Defiance High School volleyball team organized and played a “pink game” against the girls from the Waynesboro High School volleyball team in October. The girls wore special pink jerseys that evening, and proceeds from the event were donated to the Augusta Health Cancer Center’s fund for breast cancer education. The girls raised a total of $500.
They presented the check to the Breast Navigator at Augusta Health, Meg Shrader, on Wednesday. Pictured, from left, are Meg Shrader, RN, CBCN, Breast Navigator at Augusta Health, and Lauren Mozingo and Janie Layne from the Fort Defiance High School volleyball team.
KCMS invites community to take part in Rachel’s Challenge
Kate Collins Middle School will lead a communitywide effort to take part in Rachel’s Challenge, a program inspired by Rachel Scott, the first person killed in the 1999 Columbine High School tragedy.
The community event is scheduled for Wednesday, Sept. 14, at 7 p.m. in the Spilman Auditorium at Waynesboro High School.
Scott was the first person killed at Columbine High School on April 20, 1999. Her acts of kindness and compassion coupled with the contents of her six diaries have become the foundation for one of the most life-changing school programs in America.
Powerful video/audio footage of Rachel’s life and the Columbine tragedy holds students spell-bound during a one hour school presentation that motivates them to positive change in the way they treat others.
This is followed by a separate interactive 90-minute training session involving both adult and student leaders that shows how to sustain the momentum created by the assembly. The assembly creates the “want to” or desire for positive change. The training session teaches the “how to” and ensures that the positive impact will continue.
That evening the Rachel’s Challenge speaker conducts a powerful session with parents and community leaders. This session is similar to the assembly program and ends with a specific challenge to parents and community leaders, showing them how they can reinforce the decisions their youths are making.
DCCU recognizes local scholarship winners
DuPont Community Credit Union recently announced the 20 scholarship winners at the 52nd Annual Membership Meeting. Since beginning the scholarship program over $172,000 has been awarded to high school seniors, and 180 seniors applied this year.
“We are very pleased to provide scholarships to this year’s 20 recipients,” said Everett J. Campbell, chairman of the DCCU Board of Directors. “Each winner receives a $1,000 award, and the Credit Union strongly believes that by assisting in furthering these students education it is a winning combination for both them and our community.”
Among the 2011 winners are: Michael Strickler, Buffalo Gap High School; Annie Shreckhise, Fort Defiance High School; Hope Kelliher, Robert E. Lee High School; Dalton Campbell, Riverheads High School; McKenzie Kirschnick, Stuarts Draft High School; Jonathan Isaacs, Waynesboro High School, and Jacqueline Kania, Wilson Memorial High School.
Rachel Whetzel, Broadway High School; Taylor Pumphrey, Central High School; Megan Berry, East Rockingham; Savanah Cary, Harrisonburg High School; Mark Gordon, Spotswood High School; Catherine Daugharty, Stonewall Jackson High School; Jenna Swanson, Strasburg High School, and Erica Estes, Turner Ashby High School.
Shasta Riley, Bath County High; Hayley Billingsley, Highland High School; Ethan Floyd, Parry McClure High School; Katie Frazier, Rockbridge High School, and Allison Acord, Out of Area Member.
To qualify for DCCU’s scholarship, a high school senior must submit an application and essay to the Credit Union. This year’s essay topic was: “Why receiving free money for college is important to my family and me.” The students are not required to be a member of the Credit Union or have interest in a financial career path. The Credit Union has scholarships available again after the start of the next academic year in 2012.
Chris Graham: Let us now praise famous kids
Four state tournaments in five years. And that’s just the Waynesboro High School boys’ basketball team. The girls have had their runs in recent years, too, including an appearance in the 2008 Group AA state-title game led by the sublime Devon Brown.
I’ve had the fortune to be able to coach in the rec league at the Waynesboro YMCA on two different occasions now – for a run of four years ending in 2003 and then again this winter. I think the Y and the Waynesboro Basketball Club are due a pat or two on the back for teaching kids basketball fundamentals and team play and more importantly perhaps just providing an outlet for youngsters in need of something positive.
Waynesboro is still figuring itself in a lot of ways. The economy has grown a good bit in the past decade, overtaking Staunton as the region’s commercial center, but that’s coincided with the steady loss of manufacturing jobs that had formed the anchor of the local economy. Those jobs have largely been replaced by jobs in the retail and service sectors, or not at all – Waynesboro’s unemployment rate consistently outpaces the state average by a percentage point or two.
Meanwhile, more than 60 percent of our kids in public schools in the city qualify for free or reduced-price school lunches.
In the face of all this, we have basketball, something we’ve always been good at in Waynesboro, which has produced an NBA star (Cory Alexander), a successful Division I college-basketball coach (James Madison women’s coach Kenny Brooks), and an awful lot of good kids, productive citizens, mothers and fathers, valuable employees.
That’s what it’s really all about. The success in the postseason is just icing on the cake. It gives us a chance to swell our chests when our kids make the state-news headlines, gives them memories to last a lifetime, and a building block to go on from here.
But that’s all in the future. Right now it’s about making another run to Richmond. Go, Little Giants!
More columns by Chris at TheWorldAccordingToChrisGraham.com.
It’s showtime! AWE primed, ready for debut
The minutes are counting down.
“I’m pumped. Let’s get it on!” said Marvin Ward, the president of Awesome Wrestling Entertainment, a Virginia-based professional-wrestling promotion with aspirations toward the big time.
AWE will mark its launch Saturday night with its first live event at Waynesboro High School. The main event pits former WWE superstar Jimmy Wang Yang with AWE newcomer Vasaga for the inaugural Awesome Wrestling Entertainment world heavyweight championship. The AWE United States title will also be filled in a match between another former WWE superstar, Carlito, and the rising star Micah Fletcher. Midget star Short Sleeve Sampson and women’s star Traci Brooks are among the other headliners.
The event begins with an autograph session at 6 p.m. Belltime is 8 p.m.
Tickets are $10 and are available at Crossroads music stores in Waynesboro and Staunton and at Eavers BP and Liberty BP/Liberty in Stuarts Draft – and at the door.
The AWE crew was at the WHS gym late Friday night – after the big Waynesboro-R.E. Lee basketball game that came down to the wire, with the undefeated Leemen escaping with a narrow 53-51 win over their Southern Valley District rivals.
“We need to get the ring set up tonight,” said Mike Meadows, a member of the crew helping get the gym ready for the pro-wrestling action.
Another AWE newcomer, Johnny Knockout, offered a helping hand. Knockout will be facing former TNA star Sonjay Dutt in a match to determine the #1 contender to the U.S. title.
Cutting a video promo for the match, Knockout used his time on the ring crew as his hook.
“You see this ring right here. Every rope, every nook, every cranny, I put it together myself, so I know this inside and out,” Knockout said. “And Sonjay Dutt – you have got one heckuva fight on your hands. This is my world. Welcome to it. And welcome to the Johnny Knockout Reality. I will see you on the other side. You’re going down, buddy. You’re going down.”
Earlier Friday evening, Knockout joined midget star Short Sleeve Sampson and Robotron at a pep rally at the Waynesboro YMCA. The wrestlers were a big hit with the teens out for Friday Night Basketball.
“We’ve been out there breakdancing with them, signing autographs, shooting hoops. You can’t be in a better place than this,” Sampson said after the pep rally and a quick tour of the Y with executive director Jeff Fife.
“I am so fortunate that we can be able to come out here the night before our big show at the high school – to be able to hang out with these guys. If I was going to have free time, there is no other place that I’d much rather be than where I am right here, right now, tonight, in the Waynesboro YMCA,” Sampson said.
More information on the AWE Live event is available here.
Video
Story by Chris Graham. Chris can be reached at freepress2@ntelos.net.
Superstars of Pro Wrestling meet and greet at Staunton Mall
Awesome Wrestling Entertainment superstars Carlito, Jimmy Wang Yang, Luke Gallows, Short Sleeve Sampson, Sonjay Dutt, Traci Brooks and Robo-Tron will take part in a meet-and-greet with fans at the Staunton Mall on Saturday, Feb. 5, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m.
The event will take place in advance of the big AWE Superstars of Pro Wrestling show being held at Waynesboro High School the night of Feb. 5. A 6 p.m. autograph session is followed by an 8 p.m. bell time. Yang will take on newcomer Vasaga for the AWE World Heavyweight title in the main event, with Carlito matching up with Micah Fletcher for the United States title headlining the undercard.
The Mall meet-and-greet is sponsored by Battlefield Ford, Eavers Tire Pros and Domino’s Pizza.
Local show to serve as launch for new pro-wrestling promotion
It’s going to feel somewhat “Raw” or “Impact”-ful, but what Marvin Ward hopes you’re thinking when you leave the show at Waynesboro High School on Feb. 5 is, “That was awesome!”
The “Superstars of Pro Wrestling” card will serve as the launch of Ward’s new national and international touring company, Awesome Wrestling Entertainment, or the AWE. The show will crown the promotion’s two singles champions – with former WWE superstar Jimmy Wang Yang taking on Samoan newcomer Vasaga for the AWE world title and another former WWE talent, Carlito, squaring off with Micah Fletcher for the United States championship.
The card also features former TNA stars Sonjay Dutt and Traci Brooks in addition to a slew of new AWE talents who have been the focus of the development arm of the promotion the past two years. That’s how long Ward has been laying the groundwork for the launch.
Ward believes there is room for another pro-wrestling company on the landscape to compete with the WWE and TNA. “That’s anybody’s dream in the industry,” said Ward, whose company also features MVP, Shelton Benjamin, Rodney Mack, Short Sleeve Sampson, Trinity and Jazz.
Acquiring talent has been a point of emphasis – along with patience. “We want to do this the right way,” said Ward, who admits to getting antsy with the launch, which will be followed by a tour that will eventually take the company overseas for an extensive schedule in Asia.
That the opening bell will be rung in Waynesboro has been a constant question from those in the industry. Ward, an Augusta County native, got his start in wrestling promotion with the inaugural “Night of the Superstars” at Waynesboro High School in 2001.
“When it comes to me, and what Waynesboro, Va., did for me, did for my family, and did for my career, this is where we need to be,” Ward said.
Interview: Marvin Ward
Superstars of Pro Wrestling
- WHEN: Saturday, Feb. 5
- BELLTIME: 8 p.m. Meet and Greet with AWE superstars begins at 6 p.m.
- WHERE: Waynesboro High School
- TICKETS: $10
- TICKET LOCATIONS: Crossroads Music in Waynesboro and Staunton, Eavers BP and Liberty in Stuarts Draft
- ORDER BY PHONE: 540.946.4616
Story by Chris Graham. Chris can be reached at freepress2@ntelos.net.
Morris, WHS athletics director, passes
What I’ll remember about longtime Waynesboro High School athletics director Mel Morris, who passed away Friday night from an apparent heart attack, was seeing him in the stands at WHS football games every Friday night in the 2009 season.
AugustaFreePress.com did live Internet broadcasts of WHS football in ’09, and Jerry Carter and I traveled the Valley following a Little Giants team that struggled to a 1-9 finish. We broadcast road games from the visiting team stands in large part because of the lack of noise. We’d usually sit a few feet away from Morris, who took over as AD at WHS in 2000 after a long run as the baseball coach at Broadway High School.
After games, we’d talk about the challenges that Morris faced heading up at the athletics department at WHS that were evidenced by the low turnout at football games. The lone win for Waynesboro in the season that we did the play-by-play was a home win over a Rockbridge County team that late in the season was also winless. And yet the RCHS faithful made the hour drive up Interstate 81 in greater numbers than the home team could fill its stands from across town.
Facilities, scheduling and various other behind-the-scenes minutiae dominate an athletic director’s life. As do unusual requests like, Hey, Mel, do you know where I can get my hands on a hat?
I made that one to Morris a couple of years back after scouring the city in advance of the epic regional final boys basketball game between WHS and R.E. Lee. I desperately wanted a purple W hat to wear to the game. Mel gave me two, one for me and one for my wife.
“Just promise me that you’ll wear them,” was all he exacted as payment.
I saw the news that Morris had passed on Facebook on Saturday. I put on that W hat that Morris had given me a couple of years ago and wore it on my errands.
Story by Chris Graham. Chris can be reached at freepress2@ntelos.net.
New Year’s 5K in Waynesboro
The Waynesboro High School Swimming and Diving Team is hosting a 5K Run/Walk and a 1-Mile Cub Run/Walk on Saturday.
The event will start in the Waynesboro High School parking lot. The 1-Mile Cub Run/Walk starts at 9 a.m. The 5K starts at 9:45 a.m.
Entry fees are:
- 1 Mile Cub Run: $10 (adults running in the 5K may accompany their child in the Cub Run for free.)
- 5K Run/Walk: $20 (signup through Dec. 31)
- 5K Run/Walk Team: $18 per team member (six members to a team) if you sign up through Dec. 31)
- Race Day Registration: $30
More information is available here.
Edited by Chris Graham. Chris can be reached at freepress2@ntelos.net.
WHS upset bid comes up just short
Waynesboro opened its 2009 season with a 49-0 loss at Western Albemarle that set the tone for a 1-9 season.
The Little Giants came up short again on Friday night in their 2010 season opener with the Warriors, but it was nothing like the game we saw a year ago.
WHS was threatening upset until an interception by Western linebacker Tommy Mullins on a fourth-down pass attempt by quarterback Skylar Phillips with 1:40 to go closed things out in a hard-fought 15-10 Western Albemarle win.
Western (1-0) scored on its first play from scrimmage on a 65-yard run by quarterback Abbott Wallenborn that made it 7-0 WAHS 4:45 into the game.
That’s where the similarities to the ’09 season opener between the two, which Western led 35-0 in the first quarter, came to an end. Waynesboro (0-1) got on the board with 7:20 left in the second quarter on a 26-yard field goal by Tanner Walter that pulled the Little Giants within 7-3.
Western extended the lead to 15-3 at the 3:36 mark when Wallenborn connected with Adam Diehl on a 16-yard scoring pass and Pete Barber tracked down an errant snap on the extra-point attempt and hit Mitchell Parks in stride down the right sideline for the two-point conversion.
Waynesboro dodged a bullet after Phillips fumbled the ensuing kickoff and saw WAHS recover the ball at the Little Giant 20. Tre Turner intercepted a Wallenborn pass in the end zone to end that threat and send the teams into the locker room at the half with the score still at 15-3.
The game got interesting after another mistake, this one by Western Albemarle, a bad snap on a punt attempt that set up Waynesboro with a first down at the Warrior 15. Bryant Carter scored on a three-yard run into the right flat to bring the Little Giants to within 15-10 with 1:01 left in the third.
Waynesboro had two cracks at taking the lead in the fourth. The first ended on a controversial fumble call on a third-and-short run by Carter that stopped Waynesboro at the Western 40. The second ended on the interception by Mullins.
Wallenborn was the offensive star for Western Albemarle, running 24 times for 169 yards and a touchdown and going 7-for-14 passing for 62 yards and a touchdown with two interceptions.
Desean Dillard was the workhorse for the WHS offense, running 24 times for 147 yards.
Waynesboro had 219 yards of total offense. Western Albemarle had 258 yards of total offense.
Story by Chris Graham. Chris can be reached at freepress2@ntelos.net.
Generals give back to local high-school baseball programs
Edited by Chris Graham
freepress2@ntelos.net
The Waynesboro Generals have made contributions to the high-school baseball programs at Waynesboro, Wilson Memorial and Stuarts Draft as part of an ongoing commitment to benefit local youth baseball.
WaynesboroGenerals.com has the story.
Radford lays smack down on VMI, 111-84
Staff Report
VMI sports: www.vmikeydets.com
Three different players posted double-doubles for visiting Radford, led by Art Parakhouski’s 30 points and 22 rebounds, as the Highlanders defeated the VMI Keydets 111-84 in a Big South contest played Tuesday at Cameron Hall.
The two teams battled through a close game early, with six ties and six lead changes coming in the opening 9:52. VMI retook the lead on a basket by Hunter Houston, 24-22, with 10:08 left in the first half, but Radford launched a 15-2 run over the next 2:14 to go up 37-26, and the Highlanders would not trail again.
Parakhouski’s 30 points moved him past the 1,000 career point plateau, as he reached the mark in just 55 career games, the sixth-fastest effort in Big South history. His 22 boards tied the Cameron Hall record, was a new Radford school record and allowed him to post the first 30-20 game in Highlander history. Joey Lynch-Flohr had 13 points and grabbed 13 caroms, and Lazar Trifunovic scored 27 and had 12 boards.
With the win, Radford moves to 12-10 on the year and 8-4 in the Big South, while VMI falls to 7-14 and 2-9 in conference play.
2008 Waynesboro High School graduate Nick Gore had six points in 23 minutes off the bench for VMI.
