Last week I was back in Washington and had the chance to join in celebrating the 20th Anniversary of the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation. There were two events, a lunch and then the annual banquet and auction that night. In 1997 and 1998 I served as the president of the foundation and it was a special treat to help mark this important milestone.

I took the occasion of a lovely fall day this past Sunday to shoot in the Hunters for the Hungry benefit shoot. I am delighted we are getting some rain here in the Valley, but the break in the weather was appreciated.

First, let me offer a quick explanation for my absence from these pages. After enjoying a week’s vacation in beautiful Rhode Island, I found myself hurrying back when my mother was stricken with pneumonia. She wound up spending a week in the intensive care unit at Newport Hospital.

Let us hope and dream together.

The whole time he talks — a low-toned, well-thought-out kind of talking — mom sits there and smiles.

When you hit certain milestones in your life, in my case turning 55 years old in July, you get a chance to reflect on the things you have accomplished and the things you might still want to accomplish in the future.

Unless you have been away for the last three months, then you know the Valley has enjoyed some exceptional weather — especially if you like to be outdoors. In fact it has been so good that I have not missed a weekend of fishing since early spring.

The National Fish Habitat Action Plan is one of the best efforts to address the challenges of conserving important aquatic habitat.

“Why can’t we take what we love and teach it to some kids,” Josh Wood said, his arms folded showing a tattoo on his right arm that screamed Dixie.

Listing the reasons the Buffalo Gap baseball program will miss Chad Coffey would be an exercise in folly.

There are two reasons that fans attend Valley League Baseball games, particularly in the South Division — baseball and food.

A couple of weeks ago I was in Michigan teaching fly-fishing to some Michigan State University graduate students, their friends and their colleagues. This is the third year that I have had the pleasure of teaching these ladies the fine art of fly-fishing.

“Now remember,” he says, leaning forward toward the desk to get to the unframed snapshot, “this was 42 years and 100 pounds ago.”

After traveling though the carbon-monoxide maw lined with stop-and-go-make-up-your-mind-already stoplights called Richmond Road, past a downtown that reeks of history, hoity-toit and teen angst — from the looks of those hanging outside a store called the “Dragon’s Horde” — you finally reach the jewel.

All he did was lead the team to its first regional berth in nine years.

The $70 million in funding for a new youth conservation education initiative proposed by the Obama administration recently got a bit of attention in Washington.

Coach Scott Crist gathered his Green Hornets around him.

RADFORD
Don’t put those crazy college photos on Facebook.

The players don’t come all at once, but in waves.

As most readers know I spend a fair amount of time in Washington.

What? You’re expecting to read about the three that’s-Waynesboro seniors walking off the field for the last time?

Think what you want.

If watching Jeremy Fitzgerald play American Legion ball opened up a college coach’s eyes, then Terrell Thompson running the base paths must have grabbed him by the neck and shaken him to next Sunday.

Maybe it’s because it takes 27 minutes and 39 seconds for Jeremy Fitzgerald to finally stop bouncing his back against the folded-up bleachers in a dark Stuarts Draft gym.

Excuse David Van Covern if he almost “fell out of his chair” when he got the news.

On Monday I was in Washington, D.C. to participate in the Jim Range National Casting Call. I also had the privilege that evening to be the Master of Ceremonies at the event celebrating the life and conservation legacy of Jim Range, my dear friend who tragically died in January from cancer.

Sis would just have to do.

All that stood between Sam Bowman and his second goal of the season was a little bit of grass, some exposed red clay and a Page County goal keeper who was having a hard time keeping anything out of the net.

While Stuarts Draft coach Michelle Campbell might speak in a quieter tone about her team, the confidence she has in the future of her girls still comes through.

For all the bad news coming out of our nation’s capital, sometimes our elected officials actually introduce legislation that makes good sense for conservation.