ASHLAND, Ky. – What is that sound we were hearing?

It’s the L-Train chugging its way to another Amy For Africa Wiffleball Tournament championship – their fourth overall. L-Train won the first tournament back in 2013 and Saturday put another notch in their belts by defeating Villers’ Victors 14-7 in the championship.

L-Train’s roster included Captain Rob and Ryan Lynch along with David Johnson and Ben Maynard. The Lynches are Ashland sports royalty, known simply for winning in baseball and basketball whatever it takes. Maynard is a former baseball coach at Boyd County and previously played on two AFA Wiffleball champions.

Rob’s boys, River and Noah, had teams in the tournament but they couldn’t match ‘ol Dad whose team won a semifinal challenge from All The King’s Men to put them in the championship.

Villers’ Victors outlasted defending champion Kona Ice, 13-11, in another exciting semifinal.

It was poor defense that did in the Villers team in the championship. Three costly mistakes opened the door for L-Train, which scored six runs in the first and third innings of the three-inning game. (Six runs is the most you can score in an inning).

Three Villers’ brothers (Christian, Chase and Cole) and Liberty University point guard Colin Porter – known for their basketball exploits for the Ashland Tomcats – made up the Villers’ Victors. They came in as the runner-up for a third consecutive year and vowed to win the championship in 2024.

“We will knock down the door in due time,” Captain Christian Villers said. “Just gotta keep swinging.”

Rob Lynch hadn’t planned on entering a team until his sons told him the L-Train name was on the bracket. So he couldn’t refuse and began assembling the championship team.

Johnson was the biggest miracle on the field. He is a lung cancer survivor with multiple surgeries including brain surgery and chemotherapy. He was diagnosed six years ago and was given the all clear. He played extremely well as did all the balanced L-Train team swept through the field with some massive home runs from all four positions.

“We had a blast and blessed to be healthy enough to experience a rare adrenaline rush of competition at this age,” Rob Lynch said in a message.

L-Train’s reward, besides the joy of being AFA Wiffleball champion, was helping us take down the field and they did that well too.

Matt Fultz, the captain of Kona Ice, won the Home Run Derby for the first time.

Around 120 players competed in the AFA Wiffleball Tournament that lasted from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. practically non-stop. Much thanks to Unity Baptist Church for the use of their lots and to the dozens of volunteers who helped make it a success for the ministry.

ASHLAND, Ky. – There were more than 250 home runs that sailed out of the two Wiffleball fields on the corner of 29^th Street and Blackburn Avenue on Saturday. Some of them were majestic home runs, drawing oohs and aahs from the dozens who came to watch from their lawn chairs.

At a conservative average of 90 feet per home run – our fences for the Amy For Africa Wiffleball Tournament are about 80 feet – that is 22,500 feet of home runs. That’s 7,500 yards, or 750 football fields of distance.

Truth be told, though, the distance was far greater.

It was 6,000 miles away where the distance will be felt the most, a half a world away in Uganda where the real superstars – Chris and Amy Compston – are guiding the Amy For Africa ministry. The money raised from playing Wiffleball for eight hours goes directly to AFA.

The money raised on Saturday could go to any number of needs including providing tuition for at least five children to attend the AFA Christian Academy for a year. They will receive two meals a day – a luxury that most children in Uganda never see – and be taught about Jesus along with basic educational skills. They learn the importance of following Jesus and keeping Him front and center in their lives. They are the future and that’s what we want future Ugandans to look like.

The school is a lifeline for these children who may never hear the name of Jesus in a positive light in this Muslim-dominated area. But they learn The Truth from the teachers at AFA’s school that was built literally with the Lord’s hand during the time COVID was wrecking the world. It was astounding and breathtakingly beautiful.

Amy For Africa started in 2013 as a one-time fundraiser for several schools in Uganda and has since blossomed into its own organization. Chris and Amy were not able to be at our Wiffleball fundraisier because they were those 6,000 miles talking to people about the saving grace of Jesus. An evangelism team spent the day sharing the good news with the fruit being nearly 50 souls accepting Jesus as their Lord and Savior.

AFA was and continues to be built on prayer. Chris and Amy and son Jarek face daily obstacles in Uganda but with God directing their path no obstacle has been too big to overcome. They can tell you stories that makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck.

Our annual Wiffleball tournament is a lot of fun and blasting a home run well beyond the fence can throw you back in time when backyard games of Wiffleball was all we did. Unity Baptist Church graciously gives us a place to play and transform their side yard into a Wiffleball paradise. Dozens of volunteers made it happen on a beautiful Saturday afternoon, understanding the cause is worth their time that could be spent on a hundred other things.

More than 120 players, young and old, participated in the tournament and had the best time ever. But don’t forget those Ugandan children who will benefit from the fundraiser. They were the real winners.

Our prayer is that the AFA Christian Academy is raising up a generation of Christian men and women that will have an eternal impact for the sake of the gospel. And if playing a little Wiffleball can further that prayer, then praise God!

Dr. Bill Culbertson will be remembered as a life-saving doctor but 56 years ago he was a lineman on one of Ashland’s greatest football teams in 1967.

Culbertson, who died on Saturday morning (Aug. 5) in Paducah, was an All-State center for the Tomcats who finished with a 13-1 record and as the Class AA state champions.

As a football player, teammate John Radjunas said there was none better.

“He always did his job, never missed an assignment or block and never bragged or boasted,” Radjunas, the quarterback for the Tomcats that season, said. “He may have been the best of all of us as a player and person.”

Radjunas said Culbertson used his mind and was a tactician as a blocker. He also knew every blocking assignment of the entire offensive line.

“If we called a sneak, he would always tell me which side to go behind him depending on which way he would block his man,” Radjunas said. “I never knew or remember a bad snap he ever made from the scrimmage line or long snapping.”

On a team full of stars, Radjunas said Culbertson shone the brightest.

“Les Lyons, Paull Hill and Steve Scott were great high school football players and belong in any conversation about all-time Tomcat greats. But if I had to pick one player off our team that belongs on an All-Tomcat Football Team it would be Bill Culbertson. He played both ways and never came out of the game.”

One of Culbertson’s biggest defensive plays came in a memorable 21-20 win over McKell at Putnam Stadium. Culbertson blocked a punt and ran it back 52 yards for a touchdown. He had another TD on a 6-yard interception return against Russell.

With the Tomcats trailing 20-14 late in the game with McKell and Paul Hill’s grinding runs getting them near the goal line, Radjunas audibled and called for a quarterback sneak because of the trust he had in Culbertson’s blocking. He plunged into the end zone behind the big center to tie the game with 1:06 remaining. Hill’s extra point won it 21-20 against the Don Gullett-led Bulldogs.

Culbertson typically dominated whoever was in front of him except for one man -.Harry Lyles of Stonewall Jackson. Lyles was a one-man wrecking crew, totaling 26 tackles, as Stonewall Jackson downed the Tomcats 13-3 in Putnam Stadium. It would be their lone loss. In the book, Tragedy and Triumph, Culbertson recalled trying to block Lyles.

“You could not touch that guy. He played six yards off the ball. Even if I took the angle, he was too quick. That was my black spot for the year. He was definitely best player I played against in high school. You just couldn’t get to him. I remember it was a close game but mostly what I remember about that game is getting beat by Harry Lyles practically every play.”

Culbertson, who was known for his humble personality, said Lyles did the same thing to him as a junior. He believed in giving credit where it was due.

Culbertson, one of eight Tomcats who received a scholarship, went to North Carolina State and started three of the four seasons for the Wolfpack.

He was destined for much more than football though.

Dr. Culbertson was a highly regarded pulmonologist and critical care specialist in Paducah, Kentucky.  Culbertson completed medical school at the University of Louisville and did his residency and fellowship as a pulmonologist at Alabama-Birmingham. He established the Respiratory Disease Clinic in Paducah and was in private practice for four decades.

A memorial service is scheduled for 1 p.m. Saturday at Milner & Orr Funeral Home and Cremation Services of Paducah. Visitation will be from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the funeral home.

Hung out in Lexington with some old friends today from my “Wonder Years.” That’s the age between around 12 and 20, the teenage years, when life comes at you like a Nolan Ryan fastball. That’s when we are trying to figure it all out, like girls, how to hit a baseball to opposite field and, did I mention, girls? We didn’t have Google in the 1970s. Life was hard.

We had dudes older who, for lack of a better word, were our mentors. Two of them – Kevin Sutton and Tim Wallin – were at our get-together. Looking back on those “Wonder Years,” I wondered why my little band of brothers were allowed to hang with these guys who were three years older.

My brother was their age and that may have been the connection. Kevin hung out with my brother, who was also three years older. But my brother was more interested in music than sports (he had little interest in sports) and Kevin was leaning more into sports. We assumed that’s how we cracked the circle.

They may have just needed a few more players for whatever game they were playing at Stafford’s Field, our two-sport venue. We always had a handful around the neighborhood, so we could at least give them numbers.

Left: (front to back) Keith Daniel, Bill Hornbuckle, Kevin Sutton. Right: Mark Maynard, Tim Wallin, Mike Staten.

Stafford’s was made for tackle football, a long stretch of ground with a huge tree on one end that served as a goal line.

When it came to playing baseball, the dimensions were tougher because of the narrowness of the lot, but the tree remained important. Hit it into the tree and it was a home run (it took most of us years to put one in that giant tree). Perhaps the biggest and most dangerous obstacle for the baseball field was traffic on the road that ran beside the lot. Kevin collided more than once with cars while going after balls. He came away fine from the collision. I couldn’t always say the same for the cars.

Tackling Kevin was like grabbing onto a runaway freight train and Wallin was like trying to catch a jackrabbit.

We had other “arenas” too. East Jepson Street was perfect for Wiffleball as was Greg Estep’s side yard where we played countless two-on-two games with obstacles like pine trees and a straight-line row of bushes to keep hitters honest. When basketball came around, we had courts at Estep’s driveway and Jerry Henderson’s backyard. No matter what the weather was, we were there when it was basketball season.

We played baseball on what we called the Sand Dunes too. The field was exactly what it sounds like. Nothing but sand. We played until the last ball was lost or the last bat broken (we used wooden bats because that’s all they made). Kevin said he still has a Johnny Bench model bat but it’s not for swinging purposes now. A friend got Bench to autograph it for him and made him a bat holder that he could showcase it on a wall at his home.

Our older friends were good teachers and resourceful. They taught us to not hit the ball on the label. Sometimes we didn’t listen. More than once those guys pounded a nail into a cracked bat and wrapped electric tape around the handle. But once the ball was lost – usually after Kevin or Tim sent it into orbit – the game was over.

The mischievousness in them came out at night as the many stories told Saturday would suggest. I’m not going there to protect the innocent, which these guys were not. They told stories that would make the Myth Busters blush.

It could be that their influence on us was not on the athletic fields. My group, which included the unflappable Bill Hornbuckle, could match them story for story. We won’t go there either because most of what was told would not hold up in court and besides, it has been 50 years since most of our mischief was perpetrated on the streets of Ashland. Surely there is a statute of limitations?

One thing that’s not a wonder is that Kevin and Tim enjoyed long and successful careers in law enforcement in Lexington and Ashland, respectively. I mean, talk about criminal minds!

We laughed and laughed as one story after another was delivered by each of us – Kevin and Tim, Bill, Keith Daniel and Mike Staten, whose backyard was another playground for us. We had another five or six of the old gang invited for our “reunion,” but they could not make it for one reason or another.

It was a day that was good for the soul, reminiscing about our “Wonder Years” in a much simpler time, sharing stories that hadn’t been told for maybe decades and picking up right where we left off.