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From an award given to Hampden-Sydney’s Marty Favret to a state senator recovering from surgery, there’s a lot going on in this week’s news roundup.

Ruff recovers after surgery

By the time Wednesday rolls around, the 2023 election will be over. Frank Ruff will either be the new state senator for District 9 or will be finishing out his current term. Either way, he’s out of commission for a while. 

Ruff confirmed that he went into surgery this past Friday for an undisclosed issue. Post-surgery recovery, he said in a statement over the weekend, will keep him off the road for several weeks. 

“I want everyone to know that Cindy will keep our office functioning as professionally as she has for many years,” Ruff said. “She will keep me abreast of the issues that constituents will be calling, emailing or writing about.” 

Ruff said he intends to follow the doctor’s orders to be fully ready to enjoy the coming holidays “and be fully prepared for the 2024 session. If things go as I expect, I will serve as chairman of the Committee on Finance and Appropriations.” 

Winners announced for Farmville Halloween contests

Families poured into downtown Farmville on October 31 for the annual Halloween Costume Parade. Hundreds of children enjoyed sweet treats from numerous organizations. The streets were lined with many expressive costumes as well as decorations from businesses. 

As part of the celebration, the Farmville Parks and Recreation Department held a storefront decoration contest for the fall season, with The Tipsy Carriage winning. Parks and Recreation also held two online contests, with Stephanie Carwile winning the Haunted House Decoration Contest and Melinda Cook winning the pumpkin carving contest. Cook created her carvings in support of a girls travel softball tournament at PEFYA.

Marty Favret honored by Touchdown Club 

As Hampden-Sydney football coach Marty Favret continues his final season before retirement, the awards keep coming in. Favret was honored this past week by the Touchdown Club of Richmond as the 2023 recipient of the Ray Tate Memorial Award. The “Tater” is presented, annually, to a person who exemplifies the commitment and dedication to the sport of football as exemplified by the late Ray Tate.

Favret announced at the start of this, his 24th season on the sidelines for Hampden-Sydney, would be his last. He departs as the all-time winningest head football coach with a career record at HSC of 151-89 including six wins so far this season. 

Hired following the completion of the 1999 football season, Favret inherited a one-win team and flipped it to a one-loss team, going 9-1 by 2003. This was just the start of the winning ways he created at HSC as his teams won five ODAC titles and made six trips to the NCAA Division III playoffs. For this coaching success, Marty Favret was honored as the ODAC Coach of the Year five times (2003, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2013). He’s also been twice honored by the TD Club of Richmond with the Willard Bailey Coach of the Year Award (2009, 2013).

Upward Basketball launches 

Upward Basketball, an instructional basketball league for boys in girls in K – 4th grade, is now open for registration. There’s a mandatory approximately 15 minute evaluation on Saturday, Nov. 10 that can happen anytime between 9 am and noon at Maysville Baptist Church. The church is located at 13329 W. James Anderson Highway in the Buckingham Courthouse.  Participants can register online through the Maysville Baptist website www.maysvillebaptist.com or check the Maysville Baptist Facebook page for the direct link. Questions?  Call 434-969-4657

Women’s tennis closes with solid finish 

Longwood women’s tennis closed its fall season this weekend with a solid finish at the UNCW Seahawk Classic. The Lancers combined for 18 wins between singles and doubles action in the three-day event.

Phoebe Mitchell led the charge in singles with a trio of singles wins, including a strong effort on Sunday afternoon to close out the weekend. Mitchell went 3-0 in singles, with all three wins coming in three-set thrillers. She added a doubles win to boot.

Sophia Marchetta rattled off a pair of doubles wins as well to help lead Longwood after the team started slow on doubles on Friday. She teamed up with Wiktoria Czerny for the team’s lone doubles win on Friday, and she added a second doubles win on Saturday with Feline van Eijkelenburg. Marchetta also added a singles win on Saturday as well.

“Overall this weekend was a strong showing for our women’s team as we continue to build the habits and the mentality that we need to progress as a team,” said Longwood Director of Tennis Carlos Lora. “Although we mentally slipped towards the end of our last doubles matches on Friday, we were able to bounce back on Saturday and Sunday to come up with some hard-fought wins in both doubles and singles. As we look to shifting our focus now towards our spring season, there is an exciting kind of energy building between both teams around what we are capable of accomplishing in the spring.”