I hope I’m not in The Chief’s dog house.
After last week’s big snowfall which hit 25 inches here at the mountainside retreat, I took one look at it and decided it would be prudent to stay indoors watching the Olympics with Mrs. Wild Bill and my cats. The Chief must realize I WAS covering sports, concentrating on women’s curling, women’s ice hockey, women’s downhill skiing and……….well, you get the idea.
That meant I didn’t help shoveling the sidewalks at The Star’s corporate headquarters. But, don’t fret, Chief. I didn’t shovel any snow at my place either. My back was sore from watching women’s curling. Plus, I’m a little lazy at times.
The record flake fall had been predicted to be 4-6 inches by the experts. That’s what we call an air ball in the sports department. If The Chief’s back is in bad shape from shoveling, he should complain to those pros who called this one.
That being said, it’s time to return to work.
“Big-11” games finally returned to action Tuesday night. Final regular season games were cancelled after the blizzard and we jumped right into tournament play.
By Thursday night there had been a huge tournament fallout among the ” Big-11.” Advancing in early play were Patrick Henry, Cave Spring, North Cross, Lord Botetourt and William Byrd.
Northside, William Fleming, Hidden Valley, Salem, Glenvar and Roanoke Catholic saw their seasons come to an end.
We’ll continue to follow our five survivors as they march down the road towards Richmond and Fredericksburg.
Thursday night at Floyd County, a milestone was reached when Floyd’s Caleb Tanner became the all-time VHSL career points leader on a basket with 37.4 seconds left in the first quarter. The score surpassed the record of 2,687 held since 1997 by Twin Springs (far Southwest VA) standout Stacy Ervin. Ervin, 35, was present to witness his record being broke, driving to Floyd from his present home in Kingsport, Tennessee. Ervin joined Tanner at midcourt after the historic score in front of a packed Buffalo’s
gym. The two received a standing ovation. Tanner will add to his total as Floyd continues its tournament run.
Another milestone occurred earlier Thursday when Loudmouth agreed to continue being the official sportswear of the Wild Bill Sports Column. Now a trademark sight at local games, Loudmouth continues to be “the most fun you can have with your pants on.” A shout goes out to Loudmouth’s Cassie Kovacevich for her help in making the Wild Bill Column’s rise to stardom.
The hilarious fallout continues from readers trying to separate reality from insanity after the late-night “Perfect Polly” plastic bird appeared in these pages over a month ago.
Just when you think you’ve seen it all, I’ll give you a warning: next week’s product defies the wildest imagination. It stays in the animal kingdom, but you might not want to take it sitting down.
Enough hints. Keep the paws to the porcelain and send your comments to [email protected]
– Bill Turner
