Last Wednesday was Christmas Day, and so much has changed since last December, when my family gathered in DeLand to celebrate the birth of Bethlehem's Baby.

The Dickson family has always embraced and looked to the hope and joy the birth of the Christ child represents. I'm sure there will be a little less joy and a few tears around the table today. There was an empty chair at the table and a little less laughter as we had our first Christmas without my dad, who, as most of you know, passed away earlier this year.

But in the Christ child we have the hope that our separation is only temporary and that we will again be reunited with those we love.

So many memories of a lifetime of Christmases come pouring back as I write this column.

I think of the sacrifices my parents made working extra hours and denying things for themselves so that we kids could get many of the gifts we wanted.

Many of my Christmases were filled with gifts I could use in my athletic endeavors. Somewhere in an old photo album there's a picture of me at the age 4 with a football under my arm, standing next to an inflatable Popeye punching bag.

Through the years there were more footballs and football equipment as well as basketballs, tennis rackets, and even a ping pong table and a BB gun.

And, no, I didn't shoot my eye out, but I did manage to put a hole in the kitchen window that first long ago Christmas morning.

I have no BB guns, footballs or ping pong tables to give our local coaches and players. But, if I had the magic of giving certain gifts, I have a list of things I'd like to pass along to those players and coaches that are such a vital part of my job.

My first gift would go to the Crestview football team. I would give the Bulldogs another win over Niceville in 2014.

Along with the win over the Eagles, I would give Bulldog football coach Tim Hatten and his crew a District 1-7A championship and a long run into the playoffs next fall.

I also would give Hatten a long and productive stay with the Bulldogs.

My next gift would go to Baker football coach Matt Brunson and his Gator team. And I also would give the Gators a championship.

For Crestview volleyball coach and girls basketball coach Kathy Combest, I would give a little patience to deal with dreadfully young teams.

I would give first-year Bulldog boys basketball coach Greg Watson a strong showing in a tough district this year.

I would give Crestview basketball star Ronnie Baylark the college of his dreams, where he could continue his playing career.

I would give former Crestview High School baseball star Dakota Dean, who is now a freshman at Louisiana State, all the success his older brother, Blake, had while playing for the Tigers.

I would give former Baker basketball star Chad Donley and his Liberty University teammates another opportunity to play in the NCAA tournament.

If I could, I would give former Laurel Hill basketball star Jeff Reese a healthy heart so he could again play the game he loves. I would give Jeff's older brother, Brad, continued success playing basketball in Europe. I really would love to give Brad the gift of playing in the National Basketball Association.

Legend has it that Santa's gift bag is bottomless so he doesn't have to worry about running out of space as he takes gifts to little boys and girls around the world.

Since I'm not Santa, and my space is limited, I only have a couple of more gifts I would like to give.

I would give the gift of love to all the athletes, coaches and fans that make this job such a pleasure. I would also give shared memories to last a lifetime with special teammates and those you love.

Finally, I would give us all the gift of peace on earth and good will to men that the angels outside of Bethlehem proclaimed 2,000 years ago.

Merry Christmas.

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 belated Christmas wish

If you are like me, there is something about the last few weeks of year that makes you want to stop and reflect on the events of the past 12 months. No matter how busy I am I always catch myself looking in the rearview mirror a little as I think about what has been and what might have been.

Part of that reviewing of the past year goes with the territory of being in the media. It doesn't matter whether it's a small hometown newspaper like the News Bulletin or a major network like ESPN, we all love to look back and think about the people and their stories that caught our attention over the previous 12 months.

Many of us have personal stories that never make it to print or on the air. Our own stories of heartache and triumph are those stories that impact our lives far more than a flood in Iowa or some movie star or athlete getting in trouble with the law for the 20th time.

It's not that we don't feel for the flood victims or someone that was killed in yet another senseless shooting, but sometimes we are numbed by our own pain and floods of life.

As I begin thinking about the top sports moments of 2013 in our little corner of the world I know many of you will disagree with some or most of my choices.

I don't mind telling you it can be difficult selecting 10 stories that had the greatest impact on the local sports scene.

Every year there are stories that are easy to pick. A football coach stepping down and a new coach being hired will always be in the top five of any list.

Big wins and district championships also are easy choices, as are athletes signing with a big time university.

It's usually easy picking the big stories to make the top 10, but it isn't as easy trying to decide the bottom five or bottom three.

I just try to get to as many games as I can and see as many athletes as possible.

I usually attend four games a week of some sort from the middle of August until the middle of May. I estimate that I see close to 150 games a year.

As the old Christmas song, "When Santa Claus Gets Your Letter" reminds us, "It takes a little time, you know, to check off one whole year."

I have begun my process of checking off the whole year of 2013 in sports. My top 10 of 2013 will appear in our Dec. 28 edition.

Even as I begin checking off the events of 2013, my mind races to the events and athletes that might shape the local sports scene in 2014.

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: Picking the top stories

From youth league games to professional games, the sports we are supposed to enjoy have all too often led to deadly games.

And that, my friends, is a sad indictment on American society.

It has almost become common place to hear about a fan from one team assaulting a fan from another team. Sometimes, the violence turns to murder. At times, a weapon such as a gun or knife is used.

We've all seen and heard of the youth league dad who assaults another parent for some flimsy excuse. In many cases, the victim is a coach who didn't play little Johnny enough. Frequently, the official calling the game is the victim.

Earlier this year, a local high school athlete's irate parent demanded to talk to a coach after a game. The parent was unhappy about a child's playing time. The coach handled the situation as well as could be expected and, to the best of my knowledge, no threats were involved.

Fans at their worst can even turn on fans of their own team, as was the case when Alabama fan Adrian Laroze Briskey allegedly shot and killed fellow Crimson Tide fan Michelle Shepherd. Briskey allegedly was mad because she felt Shepherd wasn't upset enough that Alabama lost to Auburn in the Nov. 30 Iron Bowl.

A friend of mine, who happens to be an Alabama fan, posted on Facebook that he was looking to worship at a different church because of comments made after Auburn beat Alabama.

No game or series of games would ever cause me to kill someone or leave a church.

The closest I've ever come to fighting over a game was in the fall of 1976 when I was a University of Tennessee freshman and Florida beat the Vols. I was standing on a corner in my Gulf Breeze letter jacket, which was blue and gold, waiting for my grandparents to pick me up so we could go get a steak dinner.

An intoxicated Tennessee student approached me and, upon seeing my Gulf Breeze colors, associated me as a Gator. He told me he wanted to fight because I was from Florida. I admitted to growing up in Florida but said I attend UT.

It took a few minutes, but I finally convinced the guy I was a Tennessee student and he staggered on down the street.

Northwest Floridatends to be a melting pot for college football fans, especially fans of Southeastern Conference teams. I grew up with, or have worked with, fans of almost every SEC team.

In those relationships, there has been plenty of room for some good-natured ribbing.

Georgiabeat Tennessee on a dramatic last-minute touchdown in 2001, my first year working at the Northwest Florida Daily News.

It so happened that my fellow sports writer and good friend, Cal Powell, is a Georgia grad. When I got to the office later that afternoon, my desk was covered in black and red streamers, and Cal left a note saying something about glory, glory to old Georgia.

I'd like to think I took my medicine like a man.

I've had to deal with my share of upset parents and an occasional coach either in an email or an angry phone call.

While working at a Tennessee paper, I once ran a photo of a school's star football player being helped off the field. But in the story, I also mentioned two or three times that the player returned to the game.

My next work day, the player's father called and accused me of trying to cost his boy — who set the state record in single-season rushing yards that year — a scholarship. I assured the father that was the farthest thing from my mind.

The boy had a chance to walk on at Tennessee, but accepted a scholarship offer from a smaller school that offered him a chance to play right away. A little more than a year later, the boy was back home working for his dad and marrying his high school sweetheart.

I was a sports fan long before I was a sports writer with a byline and a column. I remain a fan today, and I understand the passion many fans express with the triumphs and defeats of their favorite team.

It troubles me when fans become too fanatical and react in a violent or mean-spirited way after a game.

Whether it is the lowest level of youth football or the Super Bowl, T-ball or the World Series, they are only games. Sadly, we have turned our games into a matter of life or death.

Sadly, many of us have forgotten that games are played. And play is supposed to be fun.

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: It's only a game

Whenever I read about a Division I college football coach being fired, I question my career choices.

What would have happened if I pursued coaching instead of writing sports? Would I have had what it takes to reach the top of the profession and demand the major bucks top coaches and assistants make?

I asked myself those questions again over the weekend after the University of Florida head coach, Will Muschamp, fired Gator offensive coordinator Brent Pease. Pease reportedly was making $600,000 a year, had two years left on his contract and will be paid $1.2 million to leave the Florida program.

It amazes me that Pease — who in two seasons coached offenses that finished in the bottom quarter of big-time football programs — is still walking away with his pockets full of cash.

You could argue that Pease should return part of his salary to the university after the Gators finished dead last in total offense in the Southeastern Conference this season, and 112th in offense of a 123 Bowl Championship Series teams.

In the real world, if someone doesn't do their job, they get fired. In rare cases, they might get a month's severance pay.

In the world of college athletics, if a coach is fired, he gets the remainder of his contract.

Some coaches, such as former Tennessee men's basketball coach Bruce Pearl, can break the rules, be fired and still walk away with a nice check in their pocket.

It's not uncommon for football and men's basketball coaches at major universities to receive a seven-figure buyout when their teams underachieve.

Former Tennessee football Coach Derek Dooley — who never had a winning season in his three years in Knoxville — walked away with a settlement that paid him $5 million not to coach UT. Dooley is now an assistant coach with the Dallas Cowboys, making NFL money to supplement the money he's receiving from Tennessee.

Only about 30 or 40 of the elite athletic departments with powerful booster clubs can afford to throw away that kind of money.

Schools such as Troy or South Alabama pay their coaches well compared to the average salary most of us make. But those schools won't empty the bank to pay a coach not to come back.

Still, it's nice to think about what might have happened if I had gone into coaching, made it to the top of a big program and then been fired.

I think I could live off a multi-million dollar buyout.

But when you consider how few coaches make it to an elite program, you probably have a better chance of returning a missed Alabama field goal for a touchdown to win the Iron Bowl than you do landing one of the big jobs.

There are only about 40 elite programs with boosters in place to write a check, or series of checks, that equal $4-$5 million. Most college athletic programs struggle to stay above water financially, as the only teams that make money are usually football and men's basketball.

At some schools, such as Louisiana State, Florida State or South Carolina, baseball is a break-even or money-making sport. Some schools even make a little money off women's basketball, but those schools are the exception to the rule.

I know all the numbers and comprehend the realities, but it doesn't hurt to dream.

It's just too bad that dream check isn't real.

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: Big bucks not to coach

Thursday we celebrate Thanksgiving and so many thoughts flood my mind about this special day.

In many ways I believe every day should be Thanksgiving. Most day just waking up and coming to work is a blessing.

I'm usually pretty good with words, but sometimes they do fail me. In those times I reflect back on a year that will soon end and peeling back the layer of days I see so many things for which I can give thanks.

I am thankful for the relationship I had with my dad. And that there were no regrets when he passed away earlier this year. I'm thankful for every time we told each other, "I love you," right up until our last conversation less than a week before Dad died.

I'm thankful for the games of catch and watching Tennessee play football Dad and I shared.

I'm thankful for those of you who have prayed for me and encouraged me in what has been, in its own way, the most difficult time of my life.

I'm thank that the seasons move on and memories live on.

I'm thankful for my relationships with coaches and fans in the area and all the fine young men and women I get to cover throughout the year.

I'm thankful for not only the coaches I interact with now at Baker, Crestview and Laurel Hill, but my high school coaches that helped shape my life as well.

Robert Freeman the athletic director at Pace is one of those men. Coach Freeman was my track coach and an assistant football coach at Gulf Breeze 35 or 40 years ago when I was young.

Today I'm thinking about another of my former coaches, Mike Walker. Coach Walker coached the defensive line and linebackers at Gulf Breeze. Sadly, the Wild Man as he was affectionately called, died while still in his mid-30s the day after Thanksgiving in 1983, Nov. 25.

Sometimes, when things in life seem to be pushing in against me, I can hear the Wild Man shouting words of encouragement that meant so much to me as a kid trying to play the game.

I am thankful that Coach Walker loved all of his boys equally from superstar to wishful star. My life remains so much richer for having played for Mike Walker.

It's hard for me not to be thankful for sports.

The competition and being a part of a team that are associated with sports helped shape me as a youth. The games and athletes I've covered as a man have helped feed me. And often the games I watch while sitting in my favorite chair, have helped heal my wounded spirit.

I believe God has richly blessed most of us with an abundance worthy of Thanksgiving.

It has been almost 400 years since the pilgrims first celebrated Thanksgiving. Those brave men and women had endured more hardship and turmoil than most of us in the 21st century will ever face. And at the end of the season of labor they saw the fruits of their labor and celebrated their abundance.

So finally I'm thankful for my labor and the abundance it provides not only physically, but in the blessings I receive in being a part of the local sports community.

Happy Thanksgiving!

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: Thoughts for Thanksgiving

I'll admit I didn't watch all of the Auburn-Georgia football game Saturday. I was channel surfing trying to find the best game and, with Auburn leading 37-17 early in the fourth quarter, I settled in on the Duke-Miami game.

I did get back to Auburn-Georgia just in time to see the final dramatic moments.

If you are a fan of Southeastern Conference football, you're probably aware that Georgia came back and took the lead with 1:49 left in the fourth quarter. Then, in dramatic fashion, the Tigers pulled the game out on an amazing — and somewhat improbable — 73-yard touchdown pass from Nick Marshall to Ricardo Louis with 25 seconds left.

The pass was deflected by a pair of Bulldog defenders and, as Louis turned around, the ball floated into his hands for the easy score.

Veteran CBS color commentator Gary Danielson went a little batty on the play. Danielson called the play, "A miracle of miracles."

I'm sorry, Gary, but that was a football play, not a miracle. Yes, it was a great play, an amazing play and an improbable play. But calling it a miracle is going overboard.

Too often, members of the sports media confuse great plays or great wins with miracles.

Al Michaels' call of the 1980 USA Olympic hockey team's win over the Soviet Union will forever be remembered by his rhetorical question, "Do you believe in miracles?" A few years ago, a movie, "Miracle on Ice," was made to celebrate that special team and the place it holds in our nation's sports lore.

To answer Michaels' question, Yes, I believe in miracles, but no matter how spectacular the play or improbable the win, don't expect to see me call an athletic endeavor a miracle.

I have five nieces, two nephews, three great-nephews and two great-nieces; each of their births was a miracle.

I have watched several couples stay together a lifetime when society seems as comfortable with divorce as it does with marriage. As an old bachelor, I know that finding love is a miracle. And having a love that lasts long after that first spark of romance is, what I believe, to be a true miracle.

I have witnessed, and been a part of, the miracle of friendship. I believe it's a miracle when people walk away from hurricanes or tornadoes uninjured after the storm leveled their home.

I believe in healing miracles, but not in the way some TV preachers go about it.

I would hope that everyone, regardless of their faith or lack thereof, would consider the functioning human body just by itself a miracle.

I believe that fine-tuned athletic bodies are miracles that allow the athlete to do amazing, seemingly impossible things, but you won't hear me calling those plays a miracle.

In Crestview High School's spring football game earlier this year, Bulldog running back Emmanuel Reed reached behind his back and flipped an under-thrown pass over his head and caught the ball in stride. Reed's play was amazing — and probably better than the Louis catch.

I once covered a high school girls basketball game when a player made two half-court shots at the buzzer to end two different quarters.

Again, great plays, but no miracle.

I understand that those of us in the media rely on hyperbole when we are caught up in a moment we find hard to describe. But highly sought after, well-trained athletes making great plays will never be a miracle in my book.

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

WEDNESDAY EVENINGS

Watch the "North End Zone Sports Report," 6 p.m. Wednesdays at crestviewbulletin.com/video, for more of Randy Dickson's insight on North Okaloosa sports

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: SIDELINE OBSERVATIONS: Defining a miracle