Sports Archive

Crestview Lady Bulldog softball coach Michelle Howard wants to grow the program into a contender for district, region and state championships.

She knows the best way to do that is to not only get girls excited about the sport at a young age, but to make sure they have the proper fundamentals as well.

Elesi Simmons is finally coming back into form.

Simmons, a senior post player for Crestview’s Lady Bulldogs basketball team, suffered a season-ending knee injury as a sophomore. She was still recovering much of her junior year.

Baker traveled to Laurel on Tuesday for high school boys basketball action between the North Okaloosa rivals.
Quick score by Gators Kayleb Wagner and Dustin Nixon gave the Gators a 5-0 lead in the first minute of action as Baker took the tip off to final horn win. The final score was 58-42.

Crestview High School’s boys soccer team finished out the regular season at home against Pace on Friday in what was a defensive battle.
For more than 70 minutes the defenses on the respective teams were unrelenting in turning the opposition away.

Sometimes, especially at the high school level, life lessons are more important than a win. If an athlete is fortunate enough to have a coach that will dish out some tough love, they have a head start in life.

One glance of the statistics for the Baker Lady Gators basketball team and one name stands out.

McKenzie McGraw leads the team in almost every category of importance. She leads the team in scoring, steals, assists, blocks and rebounds. She is second on the team in shooting percentage. And the best part, said Baker coach Chelsea Medley, is McCraw is just a sophomore.

It will probably seem strange for Baker boys basketball coach Brent Zessin when he looks down his bench next season and doesn’t see Dustin Nixon to call on.

Nixon, a senior, has been with Zessin since he was in the eighth grade. Soon the relationship between player and coach will become one of former player and coach.

Down by a point with less than10 seconds left in the game, things didn’t look good for Crestview’s Lady Bulldog basketball team against Pine Forest on Wednesday.
And then, call it luck or good fortune, the thing that shouldn’t have happened did. A busted play went from near disaster to total euphoria.

Down by 10 points to Navarre at the start of the second half, things didn’t look good for Crestview’s boys basketball team on Tuesday. At least, that’s what some people might have thought.
Bulldog assistant coach George Stakley, serving as acting head coach, was not one of those people. Stakley told the Bulldogs at halftime they could come back and win the game.

The most recent regional rankings are out and several area teams are in contention for playoff spots.

In 6A, the top eight teams will make the postseason, including the four district champions in the region. In 1A, the top four teams earn spots to the regional.