Inside HOKIE SPORTS | Vol. 9 No. 3 | January 2017

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that was the feeling throughout the game
on Saturday night. The Hokies fell, but did
so valiantly on a stage they hope to return to
regularly. However, hope for the future was
the not the postgame mood in the locker room.
Fuente had convinced the team they would
win, and they hadn’t. It was a solemn room.
That mood would fade, as they learned their
24th straight bowl destination.
Meanwhile, Cassell Coliseumwas in a festive
holiday mood the entire month of December.
Buzz and company came off their road trip
and ripped off wins over UMES, Ole Miss,
The Citadel and Charleston Southern before
hitting the holiday break. Mike and I were able
to call all of those games, and I also managed
to complete all of my Christmas shopping.
The Internet is a wonderful thing! Mike and I
also squeezed in five holiday parties together.
We’re a package deal.
The holiday break hit Blacksburg, but both
programs were ready for one more stretch to
close out a fantastic 2016. On the 23rd, I drove
to Richmond to see friends. On Christmas
Eve, I headed to Wilmington, Delaware, for
some family time. On the 26th, I returned to
Blacksburg. I scooped up Mike, and we drove
to Charlotte to put on “TTL” at the team’s hotel.
We turned right back around the next
morning and returned to Blacksburg in time
to call the Hokies’ win over UMBC. After
the game, we once again grabbed Andrew
and drove back to Charlotte. While we ate
McDonald’s chicken nuggets at midnight,
we had no idea the following night we would
witness/call the largest comeback in Tech
football history to cap the first year of the
Fuente era. In that moment, it was, as I heard
repeatedly back at the hotel, “a great time to
be a Hokie.”
We drove home the following morning
feeling that it couldn’t get much better. Then
Buzz and basketball took the final step for
Tech athletics in 2016, drilling No. 5 Duke in
the ACC opener. The atmosphere inside the
Cassell was electric. It wasn’t that Tech had
beaten the Devils. It was the manner in which
they did it. It resonated with me.
Making it sweeter for me was that my
parents, Mark and Debbie, were able to travel
to Charlotte for the Belk Bowl and back to
Blacksburg for the Duke win. Afterward, my
dad told me “Jon, that was the most fun I’ve
ever had!” As I thought about it, I realized that
the six-week stretch was the most fun I had
ever had as well—and yet it felt like just the
beginning.
I woke up on Jan. 1 ready for more action.
Can’t wait to see where 2017 takes us! Happy
Hokie New Year!
Zach LeDay and the Hokies
celebrated with fans after
closing 2016 with a win over
then-No. 5 Duke at Virginia Tech
Carilion Court.