Sports Archive

Ask any coach and they will tell you defense wins championships. The Baker Lady Gator basketball team is living by the mantra as, at times, scoring is hard to come by outside of McKenzie McGraw.

Whatever challenge the Pace boys basketball team posed for Crestview on Thursday night, the Bulldogs were hard pressed to find an answer. If the challenge was the length of the Patriots, the Bulldogs struggled. If the challenge was the Pace 3-point shooting, the Bulldogs were a step late on defense. What counters the Bulldogs had early in the game disappeared like the morning fog on a warm summer day.

A big second quarter by Crestview’s Lady Bulldogs broke open Thursday’s girls basketball game with Washington. Crestview led 16-12 after the first quarter but after that the game wasn’t really close. The Lady Bulldogs outscored Washington 19-11 in the second quarter on the way to a 66-55 win. The game really wasn’t in doubt after the first half.

Lorenzo Blackwell is a linebacker and receiver for the Crestview High School football team in the fall.

As is the case with many Bulldog athletes, a change in seasons simply means a change in sports. Now that the winter has arrived, Blackwell, a sophomore, plays guard for the basketball team.

Preston Nixon graduated from Baker School in 2009. 

He was a fixture on the Gator football and baseball teams during his time at Baker. Nixon is back at his alma mater teaching and coaching.

Everyone’s familiar with the story of the tortoise and the hare. The one about slow and steady wins the race. Don’t tell the Cordova (Ala.) Blue Devils that. They represented the tortoise and the Crestview boys represented the hare in the final day of the Island Beach Blowout basketball tournament.

Those who believe it’s never over until it’s over might have had second thoughts on Monday when the Crestview Lady Bulldog basketball team took on West Carroll, Tenn., in the opening round of the Navarre Beach Holiday Classic. Crestview scored the first 15 points of the game and had a 20-2 lead at the end of the first quarter. At that point any hopes the War Eagles had of winning were likely gone.

There were no best of times and worst of times as Crestview High School’s boys basketball team squared off against a talented South Cobb team out of Georgia in the opening day of play in the Fort Walton Beach High School Basketball Beach Bash on Tuesday. A miserably slow start to the game by the Bulldogs made for a long day with only the worst of times. That is, unless one considers Crestview didn’t allow the Eagles to go up by 35 points and start a running clock in the second half.

It was the newest school in Okaloosa County taking on the oldest school in the county when Destin squared off against Crestview in the Basketball Beach Bash at Fort Walton Beach High School. Crestview’s boys have won more state championships, two, than the number of full seasons the second-year Sharks have completed.

Crestview boys basketball coach Greg Watson can’t say enough good things about junior point guard A.J. Johnson. 

“He’s just unbelievable guy,” Watson said. “He’s where he’s supposed to be all the time. He goes to class and makes good grades.