- [Donna] Good evening and welcome to the Upper Cumberland Camera.

Tonight we'll learn about a new program designed to help troubled youths.

And we'll also meet this year's Golden Eagle volleyball team, but first, this story.

Mr. James Asberry of Allardt has a big pumpkin and we do mean big.

Raised from giant pumpkin seed, it will be up for competition next Thursday night at the Fentress County Fair.

We talked to Mr. Asberry about his great pumpkin.

- [Donna] Mr Asberry, I understand that you've been growing a huge pumpkin in your garden this year.

- Yes ma'am I have, it's a good sized pumpkin.

(laughs) - [Donna] How big do you think that pumpkin is?

- It's 13 feet around it.

I don't know it could weigh anywhere from 700 pounds on up.

- [Donna] Now you said it's still attached to the vine at this point, is that the only pumpkin you've gotten off this vine?

- Yes, I keep all the rest of them pulled off just leave the one pumpkin.

[Donna] When you first planted the pumpkins this year did you have the idea that you were going to try to build, to have a giant pumpkin grow?

- Well, I've always wanted the three to 400 pounder, it was what I be shooting for this year.

- [Donna] I noticed you have some others around that are just a little babies, right?

- Yeah, 200 pounders, 225.

- [Donna] Now, did you get a special kind of seed to do this?

- Yes, I ordered the seed at Atlantic Giant Pumpkin Seeds.

- [Donna] Do you think that's probably the biggest pumpkin ever grown in Fentress County?

- Yes, and maybe the world.

- [Donna] Now you told me, I thought it was a field pumpkin but it's not.

- No it's not a field pumpkin it's a squash type pumpkin.

It's mixed with squash.

That's where you get the size.

- [Donna] But if you ever wanted to, you could cut it up and eat it, right?

- Oh, yes.

It could be eat.

- [Donna] Now I understand that you're gonna have that on display at the fair.

- Fair - [Donna] The Fentress County Fair.

- Fentress County Fair.

Yes ma'am.

We will weigh it next Thursday and certify it, to certified weight on it.

- [Donna] I was rather curious to know how you're going to get it to the Fentress County Fair.

- Well, we'll have to get it up on a tarpaulin type thing and get it on a pallet and then use a forklift to load it on truck, and get it out there.

- [Donna] How many people do you think it's gonna take to lift it?

- Seven or eight?

- [Donna] What do you estimate it weighs?

- I don't know.

We've got a chart that we go by and they could be somewhere 700 pounds and up.

- [Donna] Have you entered the fair in past years?

- Yes.

For the last two years I've entered it.

- [Donna] What categories do you like to enter in?

- In the big pumpkin.

I had a State winner two years ago.

One in this County and also one at Nashville in the State Fair.

But they were small pumpkins, compared to this one.

- [Donna] Are you hoping to take this one at the State Fair too?

- Oh yes.

Yes, I'll like known State Fair.

- [Donna] I noticed you also have some giant gourds.

- Yes, I wanted to try a long gourd, see how long one I could grow.

- [Donna] But how long did you manage to grow?

- I've got one 78 inches now.

Six foot six, and got quite a few six foot ones.

- [Donna] I understand you also have some, what everyone else would consider to be big watermelons.

- Yes, I have several round a hundred pounds or over one, maybe 150 something like that.

- [Donna] Do you think you're gonna become known as the pumpkin man of the State?

- Well, I don't know I already I am, I guess around in this country up here.

- [Donna] So you are gonna try again next year?

- Oh yes, I'll keep trying.

I'm in competition against myself.

I'm not in competition against anybody else.

I just wanna beat myself.

- [Donna] What would the average pumpkin run?

I've seen some at the Putnam County Fair and they're not that big.

Obviously they were a little.

- I'd say in our fair here in Fentress County this year, we'll have quite a few over 300 pound pumpkins, three, maybe 400.

There'll be quite a few of them.

Because the pumpkin contest is a big deal in this County, has been for the last three years.

It's really interesting.

Lot of tales told about it, about the pumpkins.

But it's a real big day I think we'll have a lot of big pumkins in this year's at fair.

- [Donna] But you deliberately ordered the giant seed to see if you could outdo all the tales, right?

- Oh yeah.

Yeah, that's try to grow as bigger ones I can.

- [Donna] So, do you think if we cut that and not that we're going to cut it open, but if we cut it open that you could use it to cook with?

- Oh yes.

Some of them out of the... Well, of course, wasn't this big, but some of them made pies out of them last year at the same time.

- [Donna] Well, I noticed you own a restaurant.

I think you might have a deal there to make pies out of the giant pumpkin.

- No I don't believe I'll make pies out of it, but you could.

- [Donna] By the time you take it to the local fair and then the State fair, it probably will have started to swell a little bit.

- Well, if it's not, if it's still good, if it holds good until the 1st of October, we will go on to Hope, Arkansas, to the worldwide way off on it.

- [Donna] So there is a big contest in Arkansas?

- Oh, it's worldwide.

Worldwide contest.

They have a weigh station in Hope, Arkansas fair - [Donna] But you enjoy the competition?

- Oh yes, I do.

Enjoy a lot.

We have a group, it comes in every morning in the restaurant, drinks coffee and tells tales about pumpkins.

It's that way every day, year around.

- [Donna] Can you tell me a good pumpkin tale?

(laughs) - No.

- [Donna] You got any then go on tell us.

- No, don't (indistinct) (laughs) - [Donna] You didn't really do it in the soil, there's no special manure in the soil?

- No.

- [Donna] It's just normal Pentress County soil.

- That's right.

- [Donna] But you use the giant seed?

- Giant seed.

- [Donna] But now your secret's out.

You think a lot of people gonna be using the giant seed next year.

- Oh yeah.

They have this year.

There is a lot of people right here who use the giant seed.

They ordered from the same place I do.

- [Donna] But you go to Vegas?

- Oh yeah.

For some reason he got rid of the others.

- [Donna] And you have no tale to tell me about why it's growing so well.

- No.

No I have no secrets whatsoever.

I just plant it and let it grow.

- [Narrator] While Fentress countians are looking forward to their fair beginning next week, Putnam countians are looking back on one of the biggest fairs ever held.

A 10 day fair.

We talked to Fair Board president, Bruce Lewis about the event.

- Would say it was a great success this year, where all of our receipts were up from gate to Carnival, and all of our exhibits were up and entries.

- [Donna] What would you say were some of the highlights of the fair this year?

- Probably all the horse show people were real satisfied with their shows.

It was a draft horse show as everybody probably knows was a big success.

It took a little bit longer than we intended for it to, but those were some of the big highlights.

The beauty contest had just lots of ventures, this time that seemed to go over pretty well.

A lot of our exhibits in the south grandstand we're up this year.

Of course all of our commercial booze and north grandstand for a full this year which is something that hadn't happened in several years.

So I don't know, I'd say it was a quite a successful fair.

- [Donna] I know it's hard to estimate, but do you have any idea how many people came to the Putnam County Fair?

- [Lewis] We had a paid gate of slightly over 51,000 people.

And if you consider that we don't charge during the day time, and the only day that we charge is on the last Saturday of the fair.

I would say probably at least half again that meaning possibly more than that.

- [Donna] So a lot of people enjoyed the Putnam County Fair?

- [Lewis] I hope they did.

I certainly did and there was a lot of people here and they seem like they were enjoying it.

- [Donna] I think one of the highlights as you mentioned was the draft horse and draft mule contest And I think a lot of people were...

I know it did last into the horse show on Saturday night but we've had a lot of entries.

I think the judge was from Ohio and he said he'd not seen that many entries in a while.

- [Lewis] (indistinct) judge is the Ohio State show and he indicated that was more interest than they had in their show in Ohio and of course we had a lot of the quality of the stoppers was very good too.

Most of the stock we had was from good quality of stock and it was from places other than Putnam County a lot of it people came here quite a ways to be able to show.

- [Donna] And I think a lot of people were interested in seeing the sixth mule hitches that you had out here late Saturday.

- The wagon hitches always do well and especially that six horse hitch we had this time is first time we'd had it in Putnam County.

Of course (indistinct) we will try to do it again and hope it'd be more entries.

We would've probably had a few more entries in that on Saturday, but we ran a little late and there was also another mules show going on in Lebanon.

So some of those folks when they got here so they didn't get down on time for their show.

- [Donna] And I think you mentioned that that is one thing that you might move back next year and start the mule exhibit like nine o'clock on Saturday, instead of 11.

- I would say that we will probably start by nine o'clock, at least next year so that we done alert and not hold horse people up.

- [Donna] Are there any other changes that you think you might make next year in the fair?

- There'll probably be some small changes in the way we enter these things and maybe in a way we've got some of the classes set up, some of the agricultural things we'll probably do some things, and it's nothing major I don't think.

- [Donna] Were you pleased with the way that the sense and the new painting and things that you'd done worked out?

- We had lot of comment, and most of it was positive about the appearance of the fairgrounds, the fans, the ring out seemed like it was in pretty good shape.

Most of the people that use these facilities they were...

Most of their comments were positive.

- [Donna] Now as president of the Fair Board, I presume you know that we all know about the fair and it's very active, but fairgrounds are for rent for different organizations, is that correct?

- We rent the fairgrounds to just about anybody that wants them within the reason for different events, demolition derbies, motorcycle races, some people ranch have cattle sales, just different activities in that land.

- [Donna] So it doesn't have to sit idle until next August?

- We try to use it the year around 'cause in the winter months it's pretty hard, but when the weather breaks in the spring, we try to use it so it's rented four or five times this fall already.

- [Donna] I guess my final question is, are you ready for next year's fair?

- I hope we can wait just a few more days but I'll be looking forward to next year is fair.

(laughs) - [Donna] Sharon Bilbrey and her Golden Eagle volleyball team will open the season on September 3rd at UT Chattanooga.

We talked to her and her players about the upcoming season.

- Well, we're gonna have a lot of new faces on the team this year.

I've got a brand new setter from from Indiana.

My setter who would have been my lone senior for this season was accepted at Veterinarian school at UT, D.D Malone.

So she is gone.

So we're starting with a freshman setter and her name is Emily Bavo, and she is working out tremendously well, we're very excited about her.

I have a freshman middle blocker, I have three juniors and one sophomore that will most likely be starting.

And so it's a very young team, a lot of excitement, a lot of enthusiasm and a lot of fun.

It has been a lot of fun.

It's been a good two weeks so we've really enjoyed it and we look forward to our season opener next Tuesday with a lot of anticipation I think.

- [Donna] Is it hard to get a team that hasn't played that much together ready this soon?

- It's challenging to say the least but one thing that is making it easy is that Emily's very experienced.

And that makes everything a lot easier.

- [Donna] Is the setter really important for the game?

- The setter is just like the quarterback in football.

I mean, if you don't have one that knows what they're doing (laughs) you're in trouble.

(laughs) - [Donna] You said you had girls on the team from Tennessee, Indiana and one girl from Chicago.

- One girl from Chicago (indistinct).

Got one local girl from Gainsborough, Christy Lee got two girls from Knoxville, Jennifer Cannon who's a junior this year and Alicia Reese, and I have one girl from here, Tammy Hougas, and then I have four girls from Indiana.

They are two middle blockers, Bonnie Zoss and Jill Turner.

And then Lori Pomeroy and then the one girl from Chicago.

Then I have another young lady that will be red short this year because of a summer injury, Korean.

But yeah, we're stretching our revise and it's just a little bit in our recruiting process.

- Okay, what is your name please?

- Jennifer Cannon.

- And Jennifer where are you from?

- Knoxville, Tennessee.

- And your name?

- Bonnie Zoss.

I'm from Indianapolis, Indiana.

- And yours?

- Lori Pomeroy I'm from Auburn, Indiana.

- I understand from the coach that volleyball is big in the State of Indiana.

Was it big in your high school?

- Yes, very big.

We usually got to regional every year.

In my freshman sophomore in junior.

So it was pretty big in my school.

- And how about yours?

- Yeah, it was real competitive program.

We went to semi-State two out of my four years, so real.

Have four girls out of my class play college volleyball out of my graduating senior class.

- [Donna] Well, that's a very good percentage.

Now you went to school in Knoxville, and it's beginning to get some prominence in Tennessee, right?

- Right.

It's starting to get bigger, like up in the North they have club volleyball in the spring time and we don't have that down here.

In my senior year, we started playing in tournaments and started to get girls from different schools together and play.

That's the only thing we have.

It's not really that big.

It's getting big though.

Starting to.

- Why do you like playing volleyball?

- I don't know.

I just fell in love with it.

I started playing my eighth grade year and I registered, I played, I fell in love with it and I love it, the competition is incredible playing.

- Now you're fairly tall and I bet people say to you, "Why aren't you playing basketball?"

Right?

(chuckles) - I played basketball also through high school and I was recruited and everything, but I like volleyball.

One main reason is I like it 'cause it's all in one semester school which helps you out with your grades a lot.

And also it's a lot more of a...

I don't know It's still as competitive but it's not as aggressive as is like, It's not a contact sport so it's fun for me to play.

I like it better that way.

- You contact the floor a lot.

- Yeah.

(laughs) Yeah, it's not as rough, It's more feminine sport I guess.

(chuckles) - Now I understand you look so fresh because you do have a sprained ankle at this time.

- Yeah that sprained it Friday and we have our first match, is next Tuesday and I'll probably be able to play then.

I don't know yet.

- And now you are an example of people that say volleyball is not a difficult sport to play.

You probably would like to let them look at you like you are now.

- [Lori] Yeah.

(laughs) And it's true.

A volleyball takes a lot of technique.

Needs little things like passing, there's whole bunch of things.

In basketball, there's a lot of techniques too, but there's just little things that you have to learn and be you're best at.

- [Donna] And it is hard to do.

It's not an easy sport.

- It's very hard.

I mean, you can tell by looking at us that it's pretty hard.

- [Zoss] Yeah.

- It's very, yeah.

- [Donna] I think a lot of people have the attitude, "Oh, volleyball is just a sport you play on the beach".

I think there's a current commercial now somebody is gonna play volleyball, but it's really a lot more strenuous and a lot more disciplined when you get bring inside, right?

- Very much so.

It's a very intricate team sport, with every time the ball is passed up to the setter, the setter has at least nine options where she's gonna set and how she's gonna set it, and all the hitters are aware of that and they have, plays that are called and intricate defenses that we run and blocking patterns that we do.

So, yes, it's a lot more intricate than most people realize.

- [Donna] How about volleyball in the OVC?

Is pretty strong?

- Well, we have in the OVC the haves and the have-nots and the top part and I think Tennessee Tech is probably in the middle.

Competitive wise, we will compete with and can beat anybody in the OVC.

Last year we knocked off the number one team during the season.

And although we ended up fourth, I think in the overall, any one of us could have beat anybody else at the top four teams which would be Eastern Kentucky, Murray, Morehead, and...

But then the other teams aren't anywhere near funded like the Kentucky teams.

The Tennessee teams are not are funded like the Kentucky team.

It's the same song and dance as it is in all the other sports.

As far as the strength of... And the way we're set up, we have automatic bids that we're trying to get and things like that and monies to keep it at all.

And so when you don't have that, you don't get the rest of it.

(laughs) - [Donna] Do you think the NCAA emphasis on more women's sports in different schools will strengthen those that are already there?

- The plan as it stands now hopefully gives.

I know that as far as the commitment that's made here on university will strengthen volleyball a great deal if the plans go through and the money comes in like it's supposed to.

- [Donna] Karen, you are now graduated but you're an assistant for the volleyball team.

- Yes I am.

- [Donna] And you played for four years of Tech?

- Yes.

- [Donna] And what we all we see last year?

- Yes ma'am.

- [Donna] How do you feel about not playing?

- Well, I'm not gonna lie to you I do miss it.

It's a big change for me coming out on the court and not being able to play with them.

But by being able to be their assistant coach, I feel that I'm helping them in different ways.

So, some of my skills maybe I can give to them.

- [Donna] What do you like about volleyball?

- I love the competition of volleyball.

People think it's just a beach sport, but I think volleyball is...

I mean, there's so much competition in volleyball as there is in basketball or softball or baseball.

And I think a lot of people do not realize that yet but they will.

Give them a couple more years and I think everybody's gonna realize that.

- [Donna] Now you hope to be a volleyball coach?

- Yes.

Yes I do.

I don't know, I could have had the opportunity this year to be a coach back where I'm from, but I want to do this first, and I'm gonna be here in the next two years, I think doing this.

But that's my plans for right now and then we'll see.

- [Donna] What would you like to say to the people in the community about coming out and supporting the volleyball team?

- We've been trying every year to get people out.

We've been trying to put our posters up and everything and people don't seem to come up but it's a very...

I mean, a lot of people like it, we get people especially like our baseball team, they always come and support us.

And they get so excited and it brings us up when people come and watch us.

It really makes us play higher than we should.

- Okay.

- We have a lot of home games almost every Tuesday night and it's free, it's something to do on a week night.

It's a lot of fun.

A lot of people come out there, you can meet new people, sit in the stands, talk.

They try to get some prizes out there, Rob does some kind of little, I don't know what it is exactly, but you can win I think pizzas, I think.

And it's just a lot of fun and we try to be entertaining I guess.

(laughs) - [Donna] There is a unique program here in Putnam County that few of us know about.

It is Home TIES designed to help troubled views, those about to be institutionalized and their families cope with and overcome problems.

We talked to Pat Ryan, director of Home TIES about the program.

What exactly is the Home TIES program?

- Well, Donna, this is an exciting program that was set up by the State to prevent the placement of children at State expense.

And at the same time, to provide quality services to maintain the integrity of the family.

so that they could live at home and do well with their families.

- [Donna] What age of children do you work with primarily?

- Primarily 13 to 18, but we do have a few younger children.

18 is our upper limit.

- [Donna] Now you said to keep them from being placed at State expense.

and most of these children would be incarcerated or?

- They don't use that word incarcerated nowadays with children, but some of them do fall pretty much into that category.

Others have emotional problems, some are hyperactive, some have anger management fighting tendencies, truancy at school, things like that.

- [Donna] How do you find out about these children?

- Well, they're referred to us from the agencies that pay for the program and those are the Department of Youth Development, Department of Human Services, the mental health centers and people.

Also there's a committee called ACAM which is an arm of the court.

They do assessments for the court and they can refer also.

- [Donna] Now is your main job to try to keep the child in the home and to figure out what the problem is in the home?

- Yes, that's very well put.

We want the child to stay home but it needs to be safe and they need to be able to resolve the issues that are causing the problems to begin with.

- [Donna] What is the typical child that you see?

Is there a typical child?

- Well, there are a number of different typical children in a way.

In younger children, we see more who are hyperactive and we need to help them get to a doctor for medication and we need to help the family to set up a behavior modification program.

Those two go hand in hand.

With older children we see a lot of anger, lot of oppositional behavior, we see some drug use.

We often see parents who maybe don't have confidence in their parenting, and they're afraid to enforce anything.

I'm not saying they're abusive, I'm saying they may be afraid to set any kind of limits so the children become domineering.

There are some who really hate school and some who've gotten into alcohol and drug use like I mentioned before.

But we're trying to pick up signs of these problems and work with them.

Then the case of say a child using alcohol and drugs, we would work with a family doing behavior modification, cognitive behavioral, restructuring, that's like teaching self enhancing ideas, helping a child deal with his anger.

But we would also get the child hooked up with an ongoing alcohol and drug program.

We work very intensively with the family for a short period of time.

And even though we might put in as many hours in a month as a typical person might get an a year of counseling, still that's not long to deal with an alcohol and drug problem.

So, it's important that they continue in an outpatient program of some sort.

- [Donna] Do most families welcome your intrusion or not?

- I would say most of them do.

Most parents love their children and realize that these problems are out of hand and they want the help.

There are a few for whom this is just terribly inconvenient.

I don't believe I mentioned our work is only have two cases at a time.

So, you can imagine we spend a lot of hours a week with each family.

And in addition to the time with the families we talk with the referring agent, we talk about ongoing services.

They may have concrete needs.

I mentioned to you that sometimes we need donations for needy families.

We might help them pay a light bill or the rent, something like that.

- [Donna] The children that you you're treating, of course you said the program's only been in place for two years, but are you able to see that you're making a difference in some of these children's lives?

- Yes.

We have about a 70% success rate and we'd like to get that up at least 80% as we become more experienced.

I think it's very important that we work with the family in the home.

They seem to open up morer.

And we're not going in to tell the parents what they have to do.

This program is voluntary, and they tell us what the needs and problems are.

But we do want them to learn behavior modification techniques and good new ways of looking at things so that they can carry on after we're left.

It's important in a sense for the parent to be the ongoing therapist.

We don't want it just to stop at the end of four to six weeks.

(upbeat music) - [Donna] And that's the Upper Cumberland Camera for tonight.

Join us next week at the same time or Studio 22.

The Upper Cumberland Camera is made possible by the financial support of viewers like you.

(upbeat music)