Carter County Sports Hall of Fame Part 3… Inductees set to be enshrined Saturday, June 20th
Published 10:04 am Tuesday, June 16, 2020
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Photo Contributed Dick Ryan was a standout baseball player at Elizabethton before moving on to play baseball at Milligan College. Ryan will be inducted into the Carter County Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday June 20, 2020.
Photo Contributed Former Happy Valley athlete Ross Garland will be inducted into the Carter County Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday June 20, 2020.
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CONTRIBUTED BY C.Y. PETERS
With another class ready to be enshrined into the Carter County Sports Hall of Fame on Saturday, June 20th, the third installment of the inductees will be introduced in today’s Elizabethton Star.
ROSS GARLAND
Happy Valley athlete
In baseball, Garland was a two-time Super 22 first-team choice in Northeast Tennessee, attracting player-of-the-year recognition as a senior (1998) — when he hit .524 with 14 home runs and 55 runs.
From there, Garland put up outstanding numbers for Walters State, was a 14th-round Detroit Tigers draft pick, and crafted a three-year minor league career.
Starting all four years in the secondary, Garland made two all-state football teams at defensive back and intercepted four passes in a 1996 playoff matchup at Knoxville Austin-East.
Furthermore, he quarterbacked Happy Valley’s 1997 team to a 12-1 record and berth in the Class 2A quarterfinals.
On the basketball floor, Garland pitched in 1,018 career points while playing for his grandfather, Charlie Bayless.
MISSY SMITH WILLIAMS
Hampton High basketball
Tossing in 24 points against Elizabethton as a freshman was a good sign Smith was really on her way. She wound up being a top-two scorer for the Lady Bulldogs in all four of her high school seasons, wrapping up her career with better than 1,200 points.
Smith was a two-time All-Watauga Conference player for Hampton. That figure likely would have been higher, but the league didn’t hand out such honors for girls basketball until her junior year.
Achieving all-district tournament status in her freshman and junior seasons, she made the Region 1-A all-tournament team as a senior.
Furthermore, Smith was a member of Hampton’s very first softball team and later excelled in adult-league activity.
DICK RYAN
EHS/Milligan baseball
Adept at hitting, fielding and running the bases, Ryan was a two-time All-Big Seven Conference outfielder (1961-62) for the Cyclones after making the honorable mentions list as a sophomore.
Ryan batted .340 and accounted for 16 runs as a senior, then embarked upon a successful playing career at Milligan College.
In his final season (’66) with the Buffaloes, he batted .321 behind a team-high 26 hits, totaled 10 runs, four doubles, three triples, 11 walks, and a dozen RBIs.
Ryan later played semi-pro baseball and turned in a long teaching/coaching career in Smyth County, Virginia.
He also played high school basketball, contributing to Elizabethton’s 1961-62 conference title team.
