When it comes to sports movies, I can be a tough critic, especially if the movie is based on a player or team with which I’m somewhat familiar.

Everyone loves the old classic “The Pride of the Yankees,” about baseball Hall of Famer, Lou Gehrig, but I cringed at the movie's inaccuracies the first time I saw it.

Several years ago, John Goodman starred in a biographical movie about Babe Ruth. The movie didn’t do Goodman or the Babe any justice.

Don’t get me wrong, I have seen some movies that I found very accurate and compelling. “The Blind Side” is one of my favorite movies and I even interviewed the real Michael Oher when he played in a basketball tournament in Fort Walton Beach his senior year in high school.

I also think highly of “61*,” a movie produced by Billy Crystal about Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris as they chased Babe Ruth’s then single season home run record in 1961.

I loved “42,” the movie about Jackie Robinson and — as is the case with “The Blind Side” — the movie is now a part of my library.

The next sports movie I’ll be purchasing in the coming months is “When the Game Stands Tall.” I saw the movie Wednesday and came away extremely impressed.

The movie is based on the De La Salle High School football team of Concord, Calif. De La Salle holds the national high school record with 151 straight wins and the movie focuses on what led to the end of the winning streak and how the team rebounded to regain championship form.

The football in the movie is as real as it gets. I could feel the hits and almost smell the sweat as players battled it out.

Some critics say the movie is corny and sappy; that it lacks a solid storyline. I found it to be inspirational and heartwarming.

The best part is the movie is something you can take your children, grandchildren or grandparents to, and not be embarrassed.

The movie embraced the virtue of team and paid tribute to the game that makes high school football such a great sport.

De La Salle coach Bob Ladouceur was more focused about winning in life than he was on the football field. The results of doing the right things the right way helped his players become winners in the classroom, on the football field and in life.

I think we can all benefit from the discipline and commitment taught by Bob Ladouceur.

EmailNews Bulletin Sports Editor Randy Dickson, randyd@crestviewbulletin.com, follow him on Twitter @BigRandle or call 682-6524.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: SIDELINE OBSERVATIONS: 'When the Game Stands Tall' is a must see movie

Friday night, I embark on my 14th season of covering high school football in Okaloosa County.

Twenty-nine years ago, I began as a sports writer, stringing for the old Gulf Breeze Sentinel. Thirty-nine years ago, I was a senior at Gulf Breeze High School getting ready for my final high school season.

As I think about 14 years, 29 years and 39 years, I’m reminded at how quickly time passes.

At age 56, I have more football seasons behind me than I do ahead of me, but none of that seems to matter as I think about another fall on Northwest Florida's sidelines chasing my football dream.

It may sound crazy, but my football dream today as a mid-50s sports editor isn’t too much different than the one I had as a player so many falls ago. I dream of a state championship for Baker or Crestview. And I wouldn’t be upset if both teams won it all.

I know my job requires that I be neutral in my approach to covering games and teams. But I wouldn’t be human if, deep inside, I didn’t want the teams and players I know best to do well and win.

I believe the best part of this job is the relationships I’ve built and not the games I’ve covered. It’s hard not to pull for teams or individuals when you spend two, three or four years getting to know players during their high-school careers.

Just as, so many years ago, I wanted my friends and teammates to do well, I want the young people who have befriended me to do well.

My body now has aches and pains the young Randy Dickson could have never imagined. However, each Friday night I find myself immersed in my own Fountain of Youth under a local high school's stadium lights.

If Juan Ponce de Leon were alive today he could find that magic wellspring he sought some 500 years ago at Crestview High School’s Jack Foster Stadium or Baker’s Doug Griffith Memorial Stadium.

And so another football season is upon me. Players I once covered are now coaches as the game comes full circle in the path of life.

I’m at the point where I have learned to savor the seasons and the games that make up those seasons.

I will never again put on helmet and pads in anticipation of a Friday night. My days of hitting are behind me.

And yet another football season calls me and I will answer that call Friday night.

EmailNews Bulletin Sports Editor Randy Dickson, randyfollow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: SIDELINE OBSERVATIONS: Football season calls

I’ve always had mixed feelings about Title IX, which mandates female student-athletes be given the same opportunities to compete as their male counterparts.

It’s not that I’m against equality for women — I have three sisters and five nieces — but there comes a time when equality for females becomes inequality for males.

I believe Title IX stands for equal opportunity. But equal opportunity doesn’t always result in equal numbers.

Davidson Middle School's football team only has 30 players on this year's roster — a direct result of Title IX. Administrators set a limit on the number of boys playing football so there will be an equal number of girls participating in Davidson sports.

The thing that troubles me is that my understanding is that not one young lady wanting to participate in Davidson athletics was being denied that opportunity because there might have been 40 or 50 players on the football team.

The discrepancies are at every level where young men have been discriminated against because of Title IX's effects.

Did you know a Division I men’s college basketball team gets 12 scholarships, but the women’s basketball teams get 15?

Division I baseball teams are allotted 11.7 or 12.7 scholarships to be divided, as the coach decides, among 20 or 25 players. But Division I softball teams receive a full allotment of scholarships for every player.

Many Southeastern Conference schools were forced to discontinue their wrestling programs more than 20 years ago as women were given sports such as rowing, field hockey and gymnastics.

How many Florida high school rowing teams can you name?

Give up? So do I.

I have a nephew who was an all-state wrestler at DeLand and had the choice of Division III or club wrestling at the college level. I feel he has been cheated because he wasn’t given an equal opportunity to compete at the highest level in the sport of his choice.

Don’t get me wrong, I think if the school district pays a supplement for a boys basketball coach the same supplement should be paid to the girls coach. But if the boys team raises more money and can afford better equipment, it shouldn’t be penalized for success.

When I was in high school in the 1970s Gulf Breeze offered football, baseball, basketball, tennis, golf, track and field and cross country for the boys. The girls had volleyball, basketball, track and field, cross country and tennis.

If Title IX had been enforced then the way it is today I would have been cut from the football team and missed out on the best part of my high school experience.

I believe we must do everything we can to make sure every young lady has an opportunity to play sports.

We should secure the best coaches possible and help them raise the funds needed to field top-notch women’s teams.

But we can’t be so focused on making sure no young woman is left behind athletically that we ignore the young men who have an equally burning desire to play ball.

Not every young man will be good enough to make the basketball team or baseball team. There might be times when funds are not available to allow every boy to play high school football.

However, a boy should never be cut to balance gender numbers.

Equality is a street that should go both ways.

Email News Bulletin Sports Editor Randy Dickson, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: SIDELINE OBSERVATIONS: Gender equality goes both ways

For those of us born in the Deep South and raised on Southeastern Conference sports, nothing is better than SEC.

And the only thing that could be better than SEC sports is more SEC sports.

Guess what, fans. The SEC Network premieres Thursday on cable and satellite providers across the nation. Cox Cable, along with satellite carriers Dish Network and DirecTV, will carry the channel.

That's good news for folks like me. I was raised on Southeastern Conference sports.

From my earliest days I was taught there is something special about the SEC and the great rivalries such as Alabama-Auburn, Florida-Georgia, Alabama-Tennessee, Florida-Tennessee or Ole Miss-Mississippi State.

Those great SEC rivalries are the heartbeats of many fans across Dixie.

I might not be able to tell you where I was when John F. Kennedy was shot; I was only 5 years old then. I was 20-something when Ronald Reagan was shot, but I couldn’t tell you where I was when I heard that news, either. But I know exactly where I was when I heard that legendary Alabama football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant died.

Most people first think football when thinking of the SEC — and rightfully so.

Since being established in December of 1932, Southeastern Conference football teams have won more national championships, produced more All-Americans and had sent more players to the National Football League than any other conference.

Beattie Feathers, the first player to rush for 1,000 yards in a season in the NFL, was a Tennessee graduate. Feathers rushed for 1,004 yards in 1934 and average 8.44 yards a carry that year. His yards per carry remains the NFL record for players with at least 100 rushing attempts.

Emmitt Smith, the leading rusher in NFL history, is a Florida grad.

Pete Maravich, the leading scorer in the history of college basketball, played at Louisiana State.

And nobody can think about basketball without mentioning the University of Kentucky men or the Tennessee Lady Vols.

Vanderbilt won the national championship in baseball this summer. Last year, Alabama won the national championship in softball.

Southeastern Conference golf had given the world Milton product Bubba Watson. Watson played his college golf at the University of Georgia and won this year’s Masters.

And that only scratches the surface of all things SEC. From tennis, to track, swimming and gymnastics, the SEC has long been a leader in the world of college sports. It seems only fitting that the SEC now has a television network to call its own.

The SEC Network plans to cover all 21 sports sponsored by the league and will reportedly televise at least 450 live events a year.

I know I won’t watch every show on all things SEC, but I imagine I’ll be getting a healthy dose of the SEC Network at my house. I’ll be setting the DVR to record the games I might miss and a coach’s show or two.

Are you ready for the SEC Network?

Randy Dickson is the Crestview News Bulletin’s sports editor. Email him at randyd@crestviewbulletin.com, tweet him @BigRandle, or call 682-6524.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: SIDELINE OBSERVATIONS: SEC Network to showcase the best in college sports

It’s hard to believe I’m old enough to have experienced things more than 40 years ago. But the calendar doesn’t lie, and time has a way of marching on with the years cascading by like a mountain waterfall.

I was a Gulf Breeze Middle School seventh-grader in the fall of 1970 when I saw my first high school football game. It was the first year for Gulf Breeze High School.

In that long ago fall, my little hometown on the south end of Pensacola Bay was alive with high school football fever.

I fell in love with high school football in the fall of 1970. In 1974 I had the privilege of being on the first winning Dolphin team.

My high school football experience has now spanned the better part of 45 years.

I’ve covered high school football games in Florida, Georgia and Tennessee. And I’ve watched games in couple of other states.

My high school football experience involves games played within a long touchdown pass of the bays and bayous of Northwest Florida, as well games played in the shadows of the mountains of East Tennessee and North Georgia.

I have practiced on mornings when the heat index was above 100 degrees at 7 a.m. I have covered playoff games in Tennessee with wind chills below 0.

I weighed less than 100 pounds when I saw my first high school game. Now, if I lost 100 pounds, I would still weigh 30 pounds more than I did when I played my last high school game.

Given the choice of covering a game from the press box or the sidelines, I’m a sidelines guy. I love being close to the players and looking in their eyes when the game is on the line or feeling their emotions after a big play.

I love college football, and enjoy the National Football League. However, deep down, more than any other sport, I am a high school football guy.

The players I looked up to when I was in middle school are now in their 60s, and I’m not too far behind. I attribute the aches in, and scars on, my body to high school football, although I can’t really be sure about some of the scars.

And yet, with the dawn of another high school football season on the horizon, I feel young again.

I am a high school football guy with a lifetime of memories and countless games to prove it.

Randy Dickson is the Crestview News Bulletin’s sports editor. Email him at randyd@crestviewbulletin.com, tweet him @BigRandle, or call 682-6524.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: SIDELINE OBSERVATIONS: A high school football guy life