Archives August 2025

by “Stretch” DeTrooth

Soccer is becoming more and more popular in the U.S. The game is continuing to grow at all levels: youth, high school, college, and professional. Youth and travel soccer is booming, and many small rural high schools are starting soccer teams. Our professional league (MLS) is doing very well, and it’s continuing to grow and gain more fans. Plus, the men’s 2026 World Cup will be played in the U.S., and soccer fans are excited about that. President Trump even talked about next year’s World Cup at a recent press conference.

Ronald O. Messye has been a lifelong soccer fan. He played high school and community college soccer, and he’s coached his sons in rec and travel soccer. Messye has formed The Valley Possums- a men’s semi-pro soccer team. Messye said, “I was a soccer fan and player before it was cool in The Valley. It’s good to see more people come around to this great sport. After all, it is the most popular sport in the world. I’ve been coaching my boys, and I haven’t played in years. I recently got the itch to play, so I started the Possums. I’m looking forward to getting a team together and playing.”

Messye recently held an interest meeting for the Possums, and he had 29 men show up to the meeting. Messye added, “I was glad to see a good turnout for the interest meeting. Unfortunately, only 14 had ever played soccer, and many of the guys looked out of shape. A few of the guys were even vaping. A positive was that we had 7 guys there that had Hispanic last names like Lopez and Hernandez. We’ll hold tryouts in a couple weeks, so we’ll see what happens. I plan to keep at least 16 for the team.”

I was able to attend the interest meeting, and I spoke with multiple people there. One potential player said, “I don’t know a whole lot about soccer. But, I played linebacker on the football team in high school, and I’m still in decent shape. I’m sure I can play some defense and put a hurtin on some people.”

One potential player’s wife said, “I really hope my husband makes the team, because I could use some good laughs. He played in high school, but that was 14 years ago and 50 pounds ago. Maybe, it’ll give him some initiative to get in shape and lose some weight. I have a feeling the Possums will be a fitting name, because some of the players will be probably have to rollover and play dead out there.”

The Possums will play their games on Valley City High School’s football field. There’s still a lot of work to be done to field a team, get a schedule together, and much more. Valleyans seem to be excited about the Possums, and the SRVO will be here covering the Possums along the way.

by Ima Phibber

In the South and in Mississippi, there are more Dollar General stores than you can shake a stick at. They are everywhere! In recent years, they have started popping up in rural areas in the middle of nowhere in some cases. They are very convenient, and they carry just about anything you need. However, many people and investors have complained that they cater to low-end consumers, and many have said they need to up their game and offer more items for high-end consumers. Dollar General has answered the bell.

Dollar General has created a new line of stores called Dollar General X or DGX, and Valley City will have one on Hwy. 31. The X stands for Extra. These news stores will help Dollar General attract more high-end consumers. The X stores will have a small coffee shop and sitting area very similar to Targets that have Starbucks inside them. The coffee shops will be called DG Drip. These X stores will even carry Dollar General branded coffee. They will also carry more upscale brands as well including Hey Dood, Lululime, Southern Tyde, and many more. A wine and cheese area will be in the new X stores as well.

Dollar General spokesperson Dee Gentral said, “We’re very excited about our new X stores, and we felt The Valley was a great place to put one of our new X stores because of the recent growth. Our aim is to attract more high-end consumers, and we also hope shoppers will come in and stay a while. We hope they’ll hang out, drink some coffee, and have a better shopping experience. Many people are in and out of our stores as quickly as possible, but we hope to change that with our X stores. The longer people stay, the more money they generally spend.”

In addition, the X stores should very clean. They will use robots to clean the stores, and they will also use robots to check inventory. They will also be fully staffed; each X store will have at least 3 employees present at all times. Additionally, each X store will have at least one fully functional self-checkout kiosk. I talked to multiple Dollar General shoppers, and I got mixed feelings about the new DGX stores.

One shopper said, “I shop at Dollar General because it’s convenient, but I don’t see how these DGX stores are gonna do well. We don’t have a lot of high-end shoppers around here. Plus, who wants to drink coffee and hangout in DG? I don’t. I wanna get in and get out as soon as possible. Plus, the old guys will probably take over the coffee shop, and nobody is gonna wanna hang around those old farts. I hope it does well, but I doubt it.”

Another shopper said, “I’m so pumped about the new DGX store! My friends and I will have a place to hangout and drink coffee now. That’s so cool. My parents have been pushing me to get a job after dropping out of college, and I think I may apply to be a barista at the new store. It’s so exciting!”

Will the new DGX concept work in Valley City? We’ll see, but it is great that they picked The Valley and Valley City to put one of their new stores. We’ll be there for the grand opening in a few weeks.

by “Stretch” DeTrooth

Football season is here! The Super Bowl seems like eons ago. Talking season is over, and it’s time for games. Football season is the best time of year (especially in Oct. and Nov. when it’s not 100 degrees). The only negative about football season is that it doesn’t last long enough. lt’s also time for the SRVO’s annual Valley high school football preview.

Strong River Bend

Strong River Bend (SRB) High looks to improve upon a good season last year. They made it to the second round of the playoffs, and they’re hoping to make a deeper run this year. Coach Jackie Mullen took over in 2023, and he implemented his Bulldozer offense, and it’s has been difficult to stop. Coach Mullen said, “Well, you know, we have a senior laden team this year, and they’ve worked really hard in the offseason. I think this year is gonna be a big year for us. We are going to pound the rock; they’ll be some games that we won’t throw the ball once. If you wanna come watch pretty boy 7 on 7, you probably won’t enjoy watching us play. We’re gonna wear you down and demoralize you. Stack the box, that’s ok. We still gonna run it.”

The SRB faithful has really embraced Coach Mullen and his style. They have high hopes for the year. SRB’s defense, coached by Joe Lee Grantham, should be a really good unit as well. This is Coach Mullen’s third year there, and many coaches take a big jump in year 3. We’ll see if that happens with SRB this year.

Valley City

The Valley City High faithful is hopeful for a better year this year. They were 2-8 last year and missed the playoffs. They have a new coach- Jeff Fedora. Fedora was the offensive coordinator for West Madison the past 2 years, and he brings a fast paced, high-flying offense with him. Fedora said, “I’m working with a talent gap here at Valley City, but I think our offense will be the equalizer. We’re going to score a lot of points, and hopefully our defense can make some stops for us. We hope to get our fans to start staying for the second half of games and not leaving after our halftime shows.”

Coach Fedora brought Johnson Ellis with him to Valley City to coach the defense. Many fans were not happy with that decision after his defense gave up an average 40 points last season. Hopefully, Valley City can start winning games again and live up to their great history.

Valley Prep

The Valley Prep faithful have high hopes for this year after coming up short last year. Their Standard Collective has been active this offseason, and they have brought in 8 new players that should be major contributors this season. Quarterback Austin Dart was brought in from West Smith to run the offense. He has offers from multiple G-5 teams. Receiver Donte Metcalf will be his deep threat. Metcalf, with size and speed, is a nightmare for opposing defensive backs. He has offers from all the big boys including Ole Miss, Alabama, Ohio State, and more.

Coach Lane Freeze said, “We are excited about this season. Our portal guys should help us a lot. We’re going to score points, and even though we lost some guys on defense from last year, we’re still expecting big things from our defense. Our conference is going to be tough, but I feel good about our guys.” Valley Prep hopes to maintain their recent success, so it’ll be interesting to see if their new crop of players can keep the momentum going.

Valleyans love high school football, and the quality of football continues to improve in The Valley. There a lot of interesting story lines coming into the year, and the SRVO and yours truly will be here to cover it all.

by I. B. Lyon

Fashion is very interesting these days. People living during the Victorian Age would be appalled by our current fashion. Some would say it has become unattractive and downright sloppy. Plus, it changes each year. So, people that hold onto clothing items will be awarded, because they’ll probably come back into style in a year or two. One fashion item that many are not fond of is short shorts. A Valley clothing company has gone to war over short shorts, but their issue with short shorts is probably not what you think it is.

TK Duds, a Valley clothing company, has started an ad campaign making fun of short shorts for men/boys. Short shorts for males is the style now, and it’s difficult to find shorts for men that come down close to the knee. Many male shorts go about halfway down the thigh, and TK Duds has had enough.

TK Duds Founder and CEO Tommy Klein said, “I’ve had enough of the short shorts on guys. The fashion faux pas has lasted long enough. I’m tired of seeing young guys walking around in tight short shorts showing off their thighs. I just don’t get it, and I think many people are tired of it too. So, we started making longer shorts for guys, and we’ve started a fun ad campaign mocking the short shorts. I think it’ll help us sell longer shorts, and it’ll help society at large stop having to look at guys’ thighs all the time.”

TK Duds has created a simple line of t-shirts, sweatshirts, and hoodies that have short snarky statements about shorts for guys. You can buy them in their store in downtown Valley City, and you can buy them online. They’ve already started selling like hot cakes. They’ve also started making male shorts with 9″ and 11″ inseams which are a good bit longer than most male shorts on the market now. These shorts have started selling well also.

People have mixed feelings about the new shirts and shorts. One young male said, “I like my short shorts. It makes it easy to move, and they’re cool in this hot weather. Plus, they’re the style; I’m gonna do what I have to do to be in style. I’m not gonna wear the longer shorts.”

A young female said, “Look, it’s ok for me and my girl friends to wear short shorts. We’re girls, and we shave our legs. I don’t like all these guys wearing short shorts. I even see guys my dad’s age wearing them, and I don’t like it. I’ve already bought 2 of the t-shirts, and I’m going to buy a sweatshirt soon. Bring back long shorts for guys!”

TK Duds’ new shirts and shorts are flying off the shelves now. But, will it last? It’s hard to tell this day and time, but they have definitely touched a nerve. They’re getting a lot of publicity, and they say there’s no such thing as bad publicity.

by Ben BeEssen

We’ve all been inundated with back-to-school pictures on social media the past couple weeks. It’s neat to see kids holding signs or pieces of paper showing everyone what grade they’re entering, and it’s neat to see how the kids have grown over the years. Many younger kids are excited about the pictures, but it seems a lot of older kids aren’t so excited. Some moms (we know dads aren’t involved) go all out with nice signs, and some go with simple pieces of paper.

Munder Difflin, a Valley office supplies business, has decided to have a little fun and mimic the popular back-to-school pictures with work anniversary pictures. Munder Difflin has been a staple in The Valley for about 40 years, and they employ about 25 employees. Many office supplies businesses have shuttered over the past 10-15 years because of Amazon and other large stores, but Munder Difflin has hung in there. They take pride in their customer service, and they go above and beyond for their customers.

Manager Scott Michaels said, “I see all these back-to-school pics every year on Facebook, and I thought we could do something like that to have a little fun at Munder Difflin. Work anniversaries was the logical choice, so we started taking work anniversary pics for our employees. Some employees like it, and some think it’s stupid. But, I like it, so we’re going to keep doing it.”

I was able to talk with multiple employees, and I got mixed feelings about the work anniversary pictures. One employee said, “I love the work anniversary pics! I’ve been here for 12 years and 10 months, and I can’t wait for my 13 years pic. Scott will post it on our Facebook page, and I’ll share it so all my friends and family can see. My kids and husband think it’s lame, but I don’t care!”

Another employee said, “These anniversary pics are so stupid. I hate them. I might quit if Scott makes me do it again. It’s just another one of Scott’s ridiculous ideas. It’s just so silly and not serious, and it doesn’t help us do our job. I really hope Scott stops them sooner than later.”

It will interesting to see if any other businesses start work anniversary pictures for their employees as well. I have a feeling Munder Difflin is a one off and not many businesses will follow suit. You can follow Munder Difflin on Facebook and MySpace to see their employees’ photos.