Brian Out Loud
For starters, we’ve been reminded that fans will turn on coaches in a hurry if things aren’t going right in a football season.
No one complains when you win. Everyone complains when you lose.
On the field, it’s been an interesting start to the year.
Navarre started 0-3 for the second consecutive year, but the Raiders have has shown flashes of potential, with players like Marquez White, Brody Powers and Bryce Wheeler, and the team always plays hard. It’s just a matter of being more consistent and executing for four quarters of football. If that happens, the rest of the year could be a different story.
In the north end of Santa Rosa County, Pace’s team is exactly what we expected. The Patriots have had a lot of success running the ball, thanks in large part to star Makael Williams and a talented offensive line headed up by Clemson-commit Grant Wise. Their defense has been tough as well. On paper, the Patriots are the district favorite—but time will tell.
Milton has been the story of the year so far, winning its first four games after going 0-10 last season. Head coach Ronnie Douglas has changed things there in a hurry. The team has been impressive on the defensive side of the ball, shutting out Tate in a battle of unbeatens two weeks ago. Big things are ahead if this team continues to play the way it has up to this point.
Jay nearly won the ‘War on Highway 4,’ and while the Royals are 1-2 after three games, don’t overlook them. Jaymes Youngblood is one of the best running backs in the area and the defense has a lot of talent. Jay has become a hunter instead of the hunted and it will be in the discussion for a playoff berth in the Rural classification.
Speaking of being in the postseason discussion, Baker is one to talk about. The Gators won their first four games behind a balanced attack, headed up by Justice Baldwin at quarterback. A team coached by Matt Brunson is always a good team, and the Gators have high expectations for the rest of 2025.
And then there is Crestview. The Bulldogs lost their first two games but pulled off one of the biggest wins of the year so far, beating Niceville on the road.
If you’ve been to Eagle Stadium, you know how tough of a place it is to play. The fact that Crestview came back from 21 down is crazy. The Bulldogs are going to have a say in how the district title race plays out.
The second half of the season should be fun. A lot of storylines are yet to be written. Stay tuned.
Volleyball Roundup: Baker puts together win streak
The Gators are 5-4 and ranked fourth in Rural Region 1. The top four teams will make the playoffs, with district tournament champions earning an automatic berth.
Season Stat Leaders
Kills: Annalese Saunders, 61; Katerina Price, 56
Blocks: Katerina Price, 16
Digs: Carleigh Krumnow, 108; Katerina Price, 51; Peyton Hardy, 55; Bailey Johnson, 44; Annalese Saunders, 32; Lacy Adams, 30
Assists: Katerina Price, 73; Lacy Adams, 63
Crestview
Crestview’s volleyball team is 8-8 through its first 16 games after losing in three games to top-ranked Gulf Breeze on Tuesday.
Season Stat Leaders
Kills: Kaeden Foxx, 157; Aubrey Sheffield, 104; Dina Sheikho, 102
Blocks: Aubrey Sheffield, 49; Braeyln Ditrapano, 25
Digs: Kelsey Griffin, 316; Kaeden Foxx, 150; Dina Sheikho, 149; Sara Robinson-Hamer, 136; Aubrey Sheffield, 130
Assists: Aubrey Sheffield, 253; Kyla Fry, 120
Laurel Hill
Laurel Hill’s volleyball team is 4-4 after eight matches this season. The Hoboes ended a two-game losing streak with a win over Walton on Monday. Laurel Hill beat the Braves in five games.
Season Stat Leaders
Kills: Aiyana Dixon, 42; Savannah Riley, 37; Carlee Boddy, 25
Blocks: Aiyana Dixon, 11
Digs: Kyndall Morrill, 92; Carlee Boddy, 88; Savannah Riley, 71; Andrea Barnhill, 67
Note: Stats are based on MaxPreps
Expectations as high as ever for Baker Gator volleyball team
“They love it,” Baker head coach Chelsea Medley said. “It brings them all together. It’s something worth fighting for.”
And no one wants to be part of the team that doesn’t keep the streak of district titles rolling. Baker is at 22 and counting.
This year’s edition of Baker welcomes back of a handful of key returning players, including Annalese Saunders, who ranked third on the team in kills (143) and racked up 155 digs. Carleigh Krumnow is also back after leading the team in digs (293) a year ago.
Those two are seniors, as is Kat Price, who tallied 92 kills, 33 blocks and 78 digs.
Medley said she likes the way this team has come together leading up to the start of the year.
“I feel really good about this team,” Medley said. “Great teammates make great teams, and these girls are all in it for each other. They are willing to battle for each other.”
One thing Medley has noticed about this team is the way it plays on the court. The Gators won’t make anything easy for opponents.
“They are very scrappy, and that’s always been something for Baker,” Medley said. “We’re going to have the intense heart and hustle that you need to win in big games.”
Baker went 11-13 last season, though the record is a deceiving as the Gators, who play in the Rural classification, don’t back down from playing against bigger schools. That won’t change this season.
“The competition is only going to make you better,” Medley said.
Baker is scheduled to open its season Aug. 21 against Destin.
“We are excited,” Medley said. “We’ve been pumped up since July. We are ready to go.”
County plans to buy more land for future park by the Shoal River
On Tuesday, the County Commission approved paying up to $575,000 to buy five vacant residential lots and two stormwater lots, totaling about 6.4 acres, on Shoal River Drive for the future park.
The overall park site is on a part of the now-defunct Shoal River Country Club property located southeast of the Live Oak Church Road-Shoal River Drive intersection. It’s also a quarter mile east and upriver from the Cox Bridge and the county-managed Shoal River Wayside Park.
Most of the Patriot Park site consists of 165 acres of land – mainly lowlands – that Patriot Ridge LLC donated to the county in January 2024.
The LLC is the developer of the huge Patriot Ridge subdivision between Airman’s Memorial Road and Shoal River Drive. The land donation helped the company satisfy concurrency requirements for parks and recreation as provided in the county’s land development code.
The lots the commission approved buying stand adjacent to Annabelle Lane, Live Oak Church Road and Shoal River Drive and on the northwest corner of the park site, and southwest of the Pinnacle Point Drive-Shoal River Drive intersection, near the park site’s northeast corner.
The property to be acquired represent “higher elevated, better-quality property that was formerly used as ends of the golf cart path and will essentially add to the donated property,” according to Deputy County Administrator of Operations Craig Coffey. “The acquisition of these lots will allow the completion of a 1 1/4-mile loop for walkers/runners using much of the cart path of the former golf course.”
The lots to the west will serve as the main park site and as a trailhead, according to county information. Coffey said these lots could provide access to the Shoal River for canoeists, kayakers, and paddle boarders, and could include a parking area, playground, pavilions and restrooms. The lots to the east will likely just have a trail and minor recreational items, he said.
A master plan for the lots to the west, which will have input from nearby residents, might be ready for the commission’s consideration later this year.
County officials plan to use American Rescue Plan Act interest money to pay for the $550,000 cost of the five residential lots and two stormwater parcels, as well as closing costs of up to $25,000, for a total of $575,000. By May 2, they anticipate closing on the overall purchase from Phillips Homes LLC, of Holt, and Patriot Ridge West Owners Association Inc., of Destin.
Currently, county workers are clearing some of the trail areas on the larger property that was donated by Patriot Ridge LLC.
The overall Patriot Park site someday could provide public recreational access to more than 2,200 acres of county-owned and currently undeveloped land to the east.
Latest college football scores
Iowa 42, Wisconsin 10
SMU 48, Pitt 25
Louisville 33, Clemson 21
Miami 53, Duke 21
Vanderbilt 17, Auburn 7
Tennessee 28, Kentucky 18
Georgia 34, Florida 20
Indiana 47, Michigan State 10
Ohio State 20, Penn State 13
Boise State 56, San Diego State 24
Army 20, Air Force 3
Mississippi 63, Arkansas 31
Minnesota 25, Illinois 17
Texas Tech 23, Iowa State 22
Houston 24, Kansas State 19
South Carolina 44, Texas A&M 20
Georgia Southern 34, South Alabama 30
UCF 56, Arizona 12
Troy 38, Coastal Carolina 24
South Florida 44, Florida Atlantic 21
UWF 70, Erskine 0
You don’t know Jack
I would refer to them as addictive sometimes with the information being overwhelming and constant.
One thing about these sites is that they feature a large array of fans.
Some are relatively new to the program, some are lifelong, and others may have played for the college or have relatives on the team, making them even more connected than a beat reporter who covers the team exclusively.
However, when viewing a team message board recently, I noticed something. Even when the team won, the fans were miserable. They criticized every play whether it turned out to be a negative or positive result.
The criticism wasn’t just at critical times in the game. Sometimes it was in the first quarter.
I have seen it in other sports as well. It is very prevalent in basketball and baseball.
Fans would then go on to bash players, sometimes even going as far as attacking them on a personal level. After reading through a couple of threads, I had enough. I realized that we as fans need to be better to these student-athletes and coaches.
The same rhetoric is often used against coaches and officials, with all these remarks being said in real-time.
There is no need to constantly bash the teams we supposedly love over something as small as a player dropping a pass or missing a block.
It goes the same for officials and coaches.
A coach not using a timeout at the 8:36 mark of the second quarter is not the end of the world, and neither is a missed holding call in the middle of the third period.
We need to have better expectations, realizing no one is perfect.
With the addition of smart technology over the past quarter-century, instant gratification has become the norm. A person can have the answer to how to properly make a whole meal on their phone in five seconds.
However, it seems as though we have taken that mentality into the sporting world as well.
To expand the cooking analogy a little bit further, we as sports fans need to let things marinate a little bit. If your favorite team does not score 50 points in the first half, the world is not going to end. Teams, and their players, are not always at their best and the sports world needs to realize that.
High school football season is past the mid-season point while college football and the National Football League are just now nearing their halfway points. All of these teams only have a finite time to practice and hone their skills.
They are trying their best, and they expect the fans to be at their best. That means supporting the team and showing them grace when they fail. You do not get heckled in your career anytime something goes wrong. So please be a fan but not a crazy fanatic.
You don’t know Jack
My parents, Lynn and Alan, always said that someday they would see me on ESPN as a sports reporter and just like Sal, I would say “Jackson Buhler, ESPN.”
Well, mom and dad, I did it, I am a sports reporter.
Growing up in South Florida in the early 2000s, I was in a literal hot bed for high school, collegiate and professional sports. My parents would take me to games of every team, including the Miami Hurricanes, Miami Dolphins, Miami Heat and Florida Panthers. Through watching all the teams and players, I gained an affinity for statistics and journalism. I would go to my parents room every Sunday morning, grab the South Florida Sun-Sentinel and immediately take the sports page to get caught up with what happened the day before, reading every single column and story like it was my favorite novel. As I transitioned to high school, writing became a passion of mine, and once I went off to college at Louisiana State University, I found the perfect blend of writing and sports in their sports information department. That time at LSU led me to the University of West Florida where I became a graduate assistant and later worked full-time in athletic communications, learning as much as I could about the Northwest Florida sports scene.
I have lived in Northwest Florida for over five years now, and it has truly changed my life. I met my beautiful wife, Becca, here, and we have an amazing three-year old Labradoodle named Mandy. I have made countless meaningful friendships with some of the best sports icons in the area, including Bill Vilona and Paul Chestnutt.
Now, I’m the new sports reporter in the area, which is an amazing feeling as I get to follow in their footsteps. I get to be what I admired and loved so much as a kid. Now, I’m the person on the sidelines with a camera and notepad in my hand, relaying the stories that you want to know about. Hopefully, there’s a kid out there somewhere that wants to work in sports, and I can be the one that shows them a path. I am super excited to highlight all the athletic talent that we have in the area, whether it be youth sports, high school, college athletes, or even those who are currently excelling in the professional ranks.
Becca and I love trying new coffee shops, places to walk Mandy and finding local markets, so if you have any suggestions of the best coffee shop in the Crestview area, please let me know. If you have any stories you would like to tell, please send them my way and if you see me in the meantime, say hello and let’s continue telling the history of Crestview sports together.
UPDATE 9-23-24 | 12:30PM
Check this page for real time hurricane updates and information
Crestview man arrested after 8-hour standoff, making email threat toward law enforcement
A Crestview man was arrested after a tense, eight-hour standoff on Barbarree
Drive on June 27 and is accused of sending emails to Gov. Ron DeSantis
threatening law enforcement.
Michael Pechacek, 49, had barricaded himself in his home with children
present but eventually surrendered peacefully.
Deputies had gone to the home on Barbarree Drive around 6:40 a.m. to serve a
felony warrant. Pechacek was wanted for making written threats to kill or do
bodily injury, and use of a two-way communication device to commit a felony,
according to a press release from Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office.
Investigators said Pechack had made numerous threats toward law enforcement
and government officials since January of this year. A threat was emailed to DeSantis’
office June 22 with a subject line of “death to law enforcement and
civilian populous imminent.” Pechacek claimed in the email he had proof of
government officials tampering with evidence in a child abuse case, according
to the press release.
OCSO crisis unit negotiators and other OCSO specialty units were on scene
and worked to convince Pechacek to come out of the home willingly. He did so
around 3:15 p.m.
“The OCSO would like to thank the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office,
Crestview Police Department and Fort Walton Beach Police Department for their
assistance,” OCSO said in a press release.
Sheriff Eric Aden praised the OCSO’s crisis negotiators and other units on
the scene for their efforts to bring the situation to a peaceful resolution.