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District volleyball tournaments start Monday around the state, as coaches, players and fans watch the post-season.

Crestview will play in the District 2-6A tournament, set for Choctawhatchee High School in Fort Walton Beach, while Baker and Laurel Hill will head to Milton for the District 1-1A tournament at Central.

It has been an up-and-down season for Crestview, but the Bulldogs have enough talent to pull off the upset if they play well and can start believing they are capable. Coach Kathy Combest has instilled work ethic in the team, but the girls must figure out how to win on their own.

It’s also fair to say that Laurel Hill will have to battle to get past the district tournament. The Hoboes have shown steady improvement under first-year Coach Ashley Miller, and they took Baker to four sets on Oct. 9 — so anything is possible. If the Hoboes show up and play a little beyond themselves, they could head to the state tournament.

While Crestview and Laurel Hill enter the district tournaments hoping to make the playoffs, Baker is expected to win. The Gators have won nine straight district tournaments and have advanced to the state playoffs each of the last 19 years and 20 of the last 21 seasons.

Baker made it to the Class 1A finals last year before falling to Lafayette in the championship match.  The runner-up finish was the fourth in the program’s history.

The Gators are once again flying high and seem poised to make another deep run for a championship.

Baker has played up in competition throughout the season and has beaten Class 6A teams Choctawhatchee and Fort Walton Beach. Scheduling up in classification is only going to help the Gators’ confidence as they seek to advance through the playoffs.

The Gators have a strong starting lineup and the depth needed to survive long matches.

Katie Wickery provides Baker with the big hitter needed to get the opposition’s attention. Jordan Linzy, Savannah Risen, Haley Wagner, Hartley Moate and Alex Roy have been rock-solid impressive throughout the season.

Baker’s trip to Kissimmee and last year’s state tournament also should help the Gators. The Baker players have experienced the venue at the state tournament and know the routine if they advance to the final four.

For now, the Gators, Bulldogs and Hoboes must focus on the cliché of one win at a time. The most important things for all three teams is making it to the district tournament championship match and earning a spot in the state tournament.

Good teams usually rise to the top, come tournament time, so it will be interesting to see just how far in the tournament Baker can go this year. With an upset here or there in the district tournaments, Crestview and Laurel Hill could go to state as well.

The second season known as the playoffs is time for teams to dream big — so let the dreaming begin.

Randy Dickson is the Sports Editor of the Crestview News Bulletin. Email him at randyd@crestviewbulletin.com, tweet him @BigRandle, or call 682-6524.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: SIDELINE OBSERVATIONS: Volleyball playoffs are just around the corner

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It is now or never for the Crestview football team when the Bulldogs travel to Fort Walton Beach on Friday to take on Choctawhatchee in a District 2-6A game that could make or break the season.

Crestview is now 2-4 overall and 0-1 in district play, but a win against the Indians could get the season headed back in the right direction. With just one district game under their belts, the Bulldogs are still very much in a wide open district race, but a loss Friday would change all of that and send Crestview to the bottom of the pack in the district.

When the season started six weeks ago, many people — including me — considered the Bulldogs one of the area’s top teams and the team to beat in District 2-6A. However, Crestview’s current four-game losing streak has raised questions about the Bulldogs and has thus far marred what could still be a promising season.

I’ve witnessed each of the four losses from the Bulldog sidelines, but you don’t have to be up close and personal to understand what is hurting the Bulldogs. All you have to do is look in the box score and see that in the four losses, Crestview has been penalized 45 times for 332 yards. The Bulldog opponents have been flagged 24 times for 167 yards.

In other words, Crestview has given up 83 yards a game in field position — and that doesn’t count big plays that were wiped out by an untimely flag.

In Crestview’s most recent loss to Fort Walton Beach on Friday, the Bulldogs were called for 15 penalties for 135 yards while the Vikings were flagged five times for 35 yards. One of the Bulldog penalties, a holding call against a Bulldog offensive lineman in the second quarter, wiped out a 33-yard touchdown pass from Dakota Davis to Tate Sweatt.

It could be argued that the penalty was a 43-yard penalty when you add the penalty yards to the yards gained that were negated by the flag. As it turned out, the Bulldogs were unable to score and were forced to punt.

While I don’t believe one play ever cost a team a game, had the Sweatt touchdown stood, the Bulldogs probably would have won the game 24-17. I say Crestview probably would have won because I don’t have a crystal ball that allows me to see how the touchdown would have changed how the respective coaching staffs would have managed the game.

Having played the game, I understand that penalties are a part of football and that the best teams can be the most penalized. Nevertheless, when things aren’t going well, it could be argued that penalties are a sign of an undisciplined team flirting with disaster.

I still believe Crestview has the talent to win out, claim the district championship and make a long run into the playoffs.

However, unless the Bulldogs cut down on the penalties, the season could continue to be a disappointment.

Randy Dickson is the Sports Editor of the Crestview News Bulletin. Email him at randyd@crestviewbulletin.com, tweet him @BigRandle, or call 682-6524.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: SIDELINE OBSERVATIONS: Penalties plaguing Bulldogs

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I’ll admit that I’m a very competitive person by nature. Whether I’m playing a game of Monopoly, video baseball, trivia or an actual sport, I want to win with every ounce of being that is within me.

I took a communication conflict class at the University of Tennessee and the professor told me I was the most competitive student he had ever had in the class. Of course, that was a few years before a certain quarterback by the name of Peyton Manning took the class.

I don’t want this to come out the wrong way, but I’ve always held the belief that if you show me a good loser, I’ll show you a loser every time. That’s not to say I don’t believe in accepting defeat as graciously as possible and showing good sportsmanship. However, I think, there is a difference between being a good sport and a good loser.

A good sport congratulates their opponent, but the bitterness of the loss sticks with them for a while as they strive to get better. A good loser blows off a loss as part of life and finds their sense of happiness in just playing the game.

I guess there’s nothing wrong with perspective if you like losing, but I don’t like losing.

Every Thursday morning I can’t wait to open the Daily News sports section to see how I’m doing on the Panel of Experts football picks section. I enjoy seeing my name at or near the front of the pack.

Sometime my desire to win the weekly picks will lead me to choose the team I think will win over the team I want to win. Most people know that I never want the University of Tennessee or Gulf Breeze High School to lose. I hate picking against the schools I attended and still hold dear, but when it comes to winning or losing I’m going to pick the team I think will win.

I know my picking against Crestview or Baker doesn’t always sit well with local players and fans, but it’s nothing personal I just want to win.

When making the picks I try to throw out the emotional angle and look at the straight hard facts. If a coach tells me off the record that a key a player is injured I’ll keep that information to myself, but it will influence my picking process.

I try to find out as much as I can about teams from outside the area when I’m picking a game involving a school from another state or another part of Florida. It’s not always easy, but I do want to win and will look at every side of things in deciding who might win.

Yes, a fire that burns deep inside me hates losing, even when it comes to football panels.

This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: SIDELINE OBSERVATIONS: A good loser is still a loser

CRESTVIEW — The Shoal River Middle School football team enters the preseason coming off a strong summer.

Mustang coach Ryan Gillis praised his team for its willingness to get the job done after an impressive scrimmage against Ruckel Middle School on Friday.

"They have a maturity and a dadgum work ethic," he said. "They work hard in the weight room and it's showing off. We were running over people today and they are actually a bigger football team than us.

"They work hard when it's hot. I'd say they've had two bad practices with the heat. When I say bad practices, guess what, you are going to have a bad practice in the heat."

With the season’s beginning just a couple of weeks away, Gillis said the Mustangs are about where he expected them to be at this point.

"We still have a long ways to go, but I like where we are," he said. "We've got a lot of kids that are returning, but at the same time we've got a lot of new kids playing, so it's a good mix.

"It's usually about half and half on offense and defense with new kids and returners. It's usually a one-year turnover. Luckily, we've had a good run of kids that were good enough to start or play in the seventh grade and come back and be a base to build around in the eighth grade."

The Mustangs will have experience at linebacker, but will be young in the secondary. Gillis likes his defensive line that will have one sixth-grader starter.

Now, the Mustangs must finish the preseason strong as they look to the start of the regular season later this month.

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: Shoal River Mustangs look to build on strong summer