Marty Gordon
A former University of Delaware quarterback is settling into his new home here in the New River Valley. Tim Donnelly is the new sports talk show director at 101.7FM WFNR in Radford. He officially took over the spot left vacant by Danny Knotts.
Donnelly was under center at Delaware from 2009 to 2012. He earned the Nate Beasley MVP and conference player of the week several times over the time period.
Most recently, he hosted a sports talk show in Ithaca, New York. He also anchored the University of Delaware sports night, a bi-weekly talk show that highlighted the university and national sports news.
Donnelly also has experience at WDSD Clear Channel Media in Wilmington, Del. He is originally from Hawaii before finishing his high school career at Maryland and currently lists his hometown as Myrtle Beach, S.C.
In 2011 against Old Dominion, he threw 26 of 39 passes for 304 yards in a 27-17 win.
Donnelly can be heard Monday-Friday from 3-6 p.m. on the radio station.
Other news
Wrestling season is just around the corner, and Christiansburg is preparing to defend its 17 straight state championships.
One current Blue Demon, Andy Smith, is ranked #14 nationally (220 pounds) in the recently released FloWrestling rankings. Also ranked are: Bryce Andonian (165) and Conner Brady (152) who are both committed to Virginia Tech.
The Hokie Open wrestling tournament is slated for Sunday at the Berglund Center in Roanoke.
Recently, Brandon Wittenburg, the three-time Virginia state champion in the 6A ranks at 120 pounds announced he will continue his career at Tech as well.
A very special walk-on kicker could be headed to Blacksburg. Grassland High School’s Amanda Shepps is hoping to join the Hokies next year. She has been consistent in kicking extra points this season and attended a camp at Tech this past summer.
Shepps kicked a 26-yard field goal in her school’s regular season game last week and even made a touchdown saving tackle on a kickoff.
The Green Bay Packers have a connection to the New River Valley. Brian Gutekunst, who was named general manager earlier year, attended Belview Elementary School in Christiansburg as a youngster. His father was an assistant coach at Virginia Tech before moving on to other collegiate jobs.
Congratulations to the Christiansburg High School girls’ soccer team that was saluted this past week. The Blue Demons are one of 312 teams nationwide to be recognized by the U.S Coaches Association for academics. The team maintained a grade point average of 3.2 during the 2017-18 school year.
I‘ll finish this column with a special salute to East Stroudsburg (Pa.) University head football coach Denny Douds. The 77-year-old coach, who is the active leader in NCAA games across all divisions, called a time out in the final seconds of his team’s contest with Ohio Dominican.
Trailing 48-35, he nudged an official and called a timeout he did not have, thus receiving a penalty.
Douds announced he was retiring from the game he loved and walked off.
The penalty caused the clock to run off and the game ended with him sailing into retirement after 45 seasons at East Stroudsburg.
