Stories from the Center of the Universe

Paul asked Chris Gorres what he says when people ask him what he does for a living. He told Paul he is a Coach. We’ll come back to that. Chris moved to the United States from the Philippines when he was four years old. He grew up in Maryland and played all the sports growing up. That’s what he wanted to do and his Mom let him do it as long as he got the grades. The hard work on the field and in th...

Laura Redding joins the podcast as our first guest of an enduring series dedicated to telling the stories of entrepreneurs and their small businesses. Laura is the founder of Perfect Spaces Home Staging & More. In full disclosure, Laura and I are business partners in this company. As you can imagine, Laura and I are excited to share her story and discuss our business in this episode (SB1 = Sma...

Rich Brent is the Executive Director of The Big House Museum in Macon, Georgia. The Big House Museum is dedicated to the lives and memories of the Allman Brothers Band. Stu Brown (Episode 257) connected us to Rich. They grew up together in Hurt, Virginia and are great friends. Paul and Rich talked about growing up in Hurt, playing football and basketball and riding BMX style bikes. Rich talked abo...

Stewart Verdery joins Paul via a connection with John Hollis (Episodes 277 & 282). His family moved to the Richmond area when he was five and settled in Hanover on a fourteen acre farm that had had a long history. Paul learned of some very unique things that the Verdery family built on the farm in those early years. Stewart went to a couple of schools in the Richmond area before finishing his...

Paul told Ray Hedrick that he completed the trifecta for him. Ray, as the Head Baseball Coach at Randolph Macon College, now joins Pedro Arruza (Episode 99) and Josh Merkel (Episode 154) of being on the podcast and representing the three major sports at RMC. They discussed RMC and the athletic success they have been and are currently enjoying. He told Paul that it is not just three major sports, b...

Liz Dillon joins Paul for Series 4, Part 2 of the Downtown Ashland Association and we are so happy to have her on the podcast! Liz is a native of Florida and grew up on a farm in a small community so it is no wonder that she told Paul that she loves Ashland. Liz and her husband have settled in Hanover and when doing so, Liz saw an opportunity to live out her dream and follow a true passion that sh...

Barry Farmer comes to the podcast via a connection with Louise Keeton and the Downtown Ashland Association. Paul learned about what Barry knew about Ashland as a young person growing up in the city. They talked about his upbringing and how he was raised by his grandmother and what she meant to him. He discussed the close relationships he had with his siblings growing up even though they were livin...

John Hollis comes back to the podcast for the second time to talk about a book he wrote about SSG Rodney Davis. The Making of a Hero is a book about the actions of one man in one of the bloodiest and deadliest battles in the Vietnam War. John’s book focused on SSG Rodney Davis and how his act of heroism saved several lives. John talked about where Rodney came from and why he joined the United Stat...

David Thomason is the President of the Virginia Special Olympics and comes to the podcast via a connection with Rick Jeffrey (Episode 278.) David has been with the Special Olympics for thirty-seven years and has held many roles which prepared him to lead this amazing organization. They discussed his life path which has been very unique and full of many great experiences. He went to William and Mar...

Tyler Owens is back for Part 3 which ties him with Jock Jones for being on the podcast the most! In the first two episodes, Tyler and Paul covered his childhood, his time at VMI and the beginnings of his time in the United States Army. They continued by talking about his mentors in life and about Ranger School. Tyler then described the sprint he went on for the next two and a half years which incl...

Blair Dobbins visits the podcast by way of a previous guest, who intends to marry next month. He grew up in Philadelphia but a lot of his family is from Virginia. That part of his family influenced his early childhood and at times that commonwealth influence didn’t mesh well in Philly. His mom passed away far too early. His widowed father did not do a great job raising Blair due to some personal f...

Rick Jeffrey and Paul met just three weeks ago when Rick was inducted into the Virginia Sports Hall of Fame. Rick was inducted primarily due to his work with the Virginia Special Olympics. Rick is from the Richmond area and played many sports at Douglas Freeman High School. He went on to play basketball at Hampden Sydney College and then did some coaching and was a referee after college. He then t...

Pictured: John Hollis (R), The Nature Boy Ric Flair (L) John Hollis joins the podcast via a mutual friend he has with Paul … Mike Woods. John is from Fredericksburg, Va. and grew up with two brothers and his Mom. He talked about his family especially his Mom who raised all three of her boys by herself. She ran a tight ship and John and his brothers were expected to excel in school or their extracu...

Brent Scopel and Rob Dull have consumed every episode of this podcast. Since they're the only two folks on earth to have accomplished this feat, I asked them to join me to share their top 10 episodes out of the first 250.

Rayne Wright and her dad/coach Rasheed join Paul to talk high school basketball. Rayne is a player on and Rasheed is the coach of the current Class 6 Virginia State Champions, Manchester High School. Paul talked to Rayne about her basketball journey from the beginning as well as what the future may hold for her on the hard court. They discussed what she loves about the game and Paul learned about...

Paul and the podcast travel to interview Laura Peery who lives in the Richmond area on the James River. Laura comes to the podcast via being friends with Debra and Steve Hall (Episode 264). They first talked about how her house on the James grounds her, is very peaceful and has lots of wildlife. Laura spoke about being a U.S. Army brat as she was born in San Francisco, but lived in Japan and Germa...

Marlee and Chris Gaskell join Paul for both the SCOTU and the VA is for Sports podcasts. Marlee is the first high school athlete to be on the podcasts as well as the youngest person Paul has interviewed. Marlee is a junior at Midlothian HS and is a left handed pitcher for their Varsity Softball team. Marlee started playing at a young age and says it’s the competition from both the individual and t...

Pictured - Ernie Johnson (left) and Lane (right)  Lane Casadonte was born in upstate New York, but considers Richmond home. A lot of you know Lane by sight or voice as he has been reporting on Richmond area sports for thirty years. They discussed his last name, family history and growing up twenty minutes north of Cooperstown, N.Y., home of the National Baseball Hall of Fame. They discussed him gr...

Brice Fritts is the Head Football Coach at J.R. Tucker High School in Henrico County, Virginia. Paul and Brice talked about growing up and playing several sports, but over the years he settled on three very physical sports … football, rugby and wrestling. He played high school football at Freeman High school and then went on to play football at Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh, PA. They disc...

Lyndsey Hodgkins is from Redding, Pennsylvania, grew up with two brothers and a sister and had a childhood that included riding bikes and spending a lot of time outdoors. Lyndsey played a lot of team sports growing up, but soccer became the main focus and she played for a year in college. She transitioned to boxing her last two years where she learned resilience and that she could take a punch! Pa...

Frank Shamrock, the former UFC Champion and #1 ranked pound for pound fighter in the world joins Paul on the podcast. Frank told Paul about his tumultuous upbringing regarding family, being in foster homes and spending time in juvenile detention. Things turned around when he was emancipated then married at 17 and when his son arrived. That fell apart and Frank fell backwards and ended up in Folsom...

JR Wilburn is from Portsmouth, Virginia where his dad worked in the navy yards. He had a lot of friends in the neighborhood playing sports for much of his childhood. He started late with organized sports and football became his focus. He went on to play college football as a wide receiver at the University of South Carolina. JR talked about rivalries and how they both have some disdain for UNC. Af...

Eddie Webb and Paul first met in September of 2023 when Eddie was inducted as part of the inaugural class of the Patrick Henry HS Hall of Fame. Eddie moved to Ashland when he was three because his Dad, Paul Webb got the head coaching job for basketball at Randolph Macon College. They discussed growing up in Ashland and how he played all sports, but how basketball became the focus for Eddie. He wen...

Carroll LaHaye is a legendary basketball coach amassing 647 wins during her coaching career at Randolph Macon College. Carroll was born in and mostly grew up in Maine where she was one of six kids. That led to lots of sports (basketball was her favorite) and competition growing up and she played three sports in high school and two in college. After college, she landed a job in Hanover, Virginia an...

Dustin Ingle was born in Arkansas, but grew up in Texas. Dustin and Paul spoke about growing up in the Fort Worth area of Texas and playing all the sports growing up, but settling on soccer in high school. After a couple of jobs, Dustin decided to go into the U.S. Army. Paul and Dustin spoke about his early training and then his first three deployments to Iraq and Paul learned just how different t...