World Championship/ West Virginia promo

[Malcolm Doying]

Mike Wills please post your great promo piece for the World Championship that is on NASGA.
Malcolm

[Mike Wills]

Here you go Malcolm.

CARRYING ON THE HIGHLAND TRADITION
Bridgeport, WV Hosts the Highland Games World Championships
By Mike Wills

For a thousand years they have battled. From the days of the medieval Scottish kings, they have gathered to test their strength on the field of honor. Competing in one of the world’s most ancient sports, they are at the same time world-class athletes…and ancestral links to the distant past.

They are respected as Olympians, NCAA All-Americans, and world-class strength athletes. They have trained thousands of hours and competed across the continents to earn their spot here today. But, at dusk’s setting, only one can claim his place in history as the 2008 Highland Games Heavy Events World Champion. Only one.

But, that is only half the story.

In the mountains of West Virginia, time, isolation, and the struggle to survive have all but erased our memory of from whence we came. Our strong Protestant Christian faith, our love for the music of the mountains, our iron will, our simple demeanor, and our work-until-you-die ethic all sprout from a common root.

The fact is this: Nearly 80% of the families that call the Appalachian Mountains their home can trace their heritage directly to Scotland and Ireland. When tens-of-thousand fled Scotland, and subsequently Ireland, during the Highland Clearances of the mid-1700’s, they all followed a similar path. First to the shores of Virginia, then westward, finally settling in the mountains that dominate what is today known as West Virginia and northern Kentucky.

Why? Because the British came to the shores of Virginia too. The British moved westward. But, the British could not farm the mountainsides. They needed flat land! So, the Highlanders found their new home in an area that seemed harsh and inhospitable to most. The mountains reminded them of the home they had left behind, and the Appalachians became the new Scotland in America.

Time marched onward, and quickly we forgot.

The athletes, pipers, musicians, singers, genealogists, and vendors gathered in Bridgeport City Park are all living reminders. They remind us of those who fought, died, persevered, and started over to secure our right to live in freedom and dignity.


But, more than that, they represent the ancestral link between common struggles faced by both the ancient Highlanders and today’s proud Mountaineers. You see, the original Highland Games participants were commoners, preparing themselves for battle when they had been stripped of their weapons… but not their pride. They did not seek glory, fighting without protest, finding death a more palatable choice than forced servitude.

Now, it is time for us to remember.

This is who we are. We are isolated, reserved, and often ridiculed. We knowingly walk into the dangers of the coal mines and the timbered forest every day. Scratching out an honest living and deserving of respect. We ask for little and give everything, trusting that doing the right thing is good enough. We simply want to be left alone and allowed to live our lives and raise our families as we see fit.

It seems that we are as we are, because we are as we were.

We are the descendants of Scotland. We are proud and free. And today we celebrate our heritage…many of us for the first time.

So on this day in history, the twelve greatest Highland Games athletes from around the world - each and every one a champion – will descend upon Bridgeport, WV. The prize is a place in the thousand-year lineage of warrior champions.

You are invited to be a part of this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to celebrate the rich Scots-Irish heritage of the Appalachian Mountains, experience championship competition at a global level and enveloped in a millennia of cultural heritage, and learn about your ancestry while enjoying traditional Scottish hospitality at its finest.

Please join us on Saturday, May 3, 2008 at Bridgeport City Park as we cheer these colossal men on to victory.

Say that you were there.

Neart agus urram. Strength and honor.

[FrankH]

Awesome article. Great job, Mike!

[scotbybirth]

Well done, Mike! It is a strong and proud heritage... I look forward to being there.

[Rich McClain]

Very nice promo, Mike.

[bjketchem]

That's Great stuff Mike!

[miked]

Well done, sir. Well done.

I am REALLY looking forward to Bridgeport. Hell's yeah!

[randy]

wow! good-lookin, can read, can write!!

well, at least 2 outta 3 ain't bad!

seriously, nice job MDub.

you should send it to WV and local newspapers.

r