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Randy’s Report

Written by Randy Dickson on . Posted in Uncategorized.

Several years ago I was coaching the ladies softball team at my church in Knoxville and I asked the ladies if they wanted to play for fun or to win. They told me they wanted to win, which I was hoping they would say. I then told them they had to have an attitude that if they were trying to score a run and their mother was blocking home plate that they would run over her.

Believe it or not, the team chant before a game was, “Run over your mother.”

These ladies were Sunday School teachers on Sunday morning, worked in the church nursery and helped chaperone the youth. Professionally, I remember at least three nurses, bookkeepers, teachers and other professions. They were ladies in every way, that is until they stepped on the softball field.

The two years I coached the team they won a regular season league title and a tournament championship. Two titles in two years while taking an attitude of inflecting pain on dear old mom.

Yes, they were competitive, some of them to a fault. There was one lady on the team that never stopped at third when I was trying to hold her up. Sometimes she was safe at the plate and other times she was thrown out. When I mentioned to her husband that she never listened to me, he simply welcomed me to his world.

If winning isn’t important then car dealerships wouldn’t recognize their top salespeople, students wouldn’t compete for top honors in their class and we wouldn’t keep score for the games we play.

Vince Lombardi, the legendary Green Bay Packer coach to whom the Super Bowl Trophy bares his name, once said, “Winning isn’t everything, it’s the only thing.”

Longtime baseball player and manager, the late Leo Durocher once said, “Nice guys finish last.”

I think what both of those icons in sports from yesteryear were saying is you need an edge to win. You have to push to the limit and then find that next level to win, even it means running over your mother.

I am not a good loser. I believe if you show me a good loser, I’ll show you someone that has become accustomed to losing. I want to be a bad loser.

Don’t get me wrong by those statements. I don’t want to be a poor loser.

I want to be a gracious loser. But losing eats at me to the point I still feel some loses 48 years after the fact.

The truth is the best team doesn’t always win. But the team that has a certain talent level and puts in the work, will win a lot more than it loses.

I don’t want a participation trophy for showing up. I want to be rewarded for hard work. I desire to have coaches and bosses that will push me in the ways I need to be the best I can.

I want to compete hard. And I always want to win, even if my mother was standing between me and home plate.

Former Gator lands football head coaching job at Tennessee powerhouse

Written by Randy Dickson on . Posted in Uncategorized.

Mainor graduated from the University of West Florida, moved to East Tennessee and started his high school coaching career.

That career started at Ooltewah High School in Hamilton County, Tenn., just south of Chattanooga. He made the jump from wide receivers coach to offensive coordinator within a couple of years for head coach Scott Chandler.

When Chandler took the job at Tyner Academy, a charter school in Chattanooga, Mainor went with him as the offensive coordinator for the Rams prior to the 2021 season.  The Rams won the Class 2A state championship in 2022 with their only loss coming to eight-time defending Class 3A state champion Alcoa.

Chandler stepped down as the Tyner coach in February to be close to his family in Georgia. Mainor was named head coach of the Rams on March 3.

Mainor admitted that he was surprised to a certain degree to get the job at such a young, but in other ways he wasn’t surprise.

“If you look back and when I played (at Baker) I went from one week playing defensive end to one week playing corner to one week playing outside linebacker,” he said. “It was the same thing on offense. I’d go from playing quarterback to receiver to tight end, sometimes in certain sets even fullback.

“As far as the Xs and Os and being able to see the field during the game, I don’t know if I’m surprised by that end. I would say being 30 and taking over the reigning state champions is a big surprise, but I don’t know if being 30 and being a head coach is surprising.”

Baker School principal Mike Martello was the Gator basketball coach when Mainor was in school. Martello is happy for his former player and said Tyner made a great choice.

“He was an awesome kid,” Martello said. “I can’t think of a better role model for high school kids than Christian Mainor. He’s going to be an awesome coach and an awesome role model for the kids.

“I think he is going to instill hard work in those kids. If you can get a group of kids to work together and work hard, you are going to see things like state championships and success like that. I think that one of his strengths was working hard to get better and that’s what he is going to bring to those kids in Tennessee.”

Mainor is confident of the football aspect of the job. He knows other aspects of being a first-time head coach will require more of a learning curve but he believes he has gleaned from Chandler, his mentor.

“There’s a lot more to football than the Xs and Os,” he said. “There is the culture aspect, the leadership aspect. Those are things that I think being under coach Chandler has really helped me. He has a saying that our job is not to build boys, but to make men that will be good husbands, fathers and members of society.

“I learned how to do things the right way as far as implementing culture from him.”

Mainor recalls his days as a Gator with fond memories. He said he loved the Friday Night Lights of football, the close relationships he built with his teammates in basketball and he loved baseball because it was his best sport.

Mainor is a Christian by given name, but more importantly as a Christ Follower. That is a bond he shares with Chandler as well as his Baker head coach Bob Kellogg and assistant coaches David Oglesby and Andy Valmus. Mainor knows first-hand the importance of having a coach that lives his faith in all aspects of their life.

“It was a huge,” he said of having Christian coaches. “It really wasn’t even just coach Kellogg that I was fortunate to have. Coaches David Oglesby and Andy Valmus, I still talk to them today. “They were big part of the reason I wanted to be a coach.

“The games are big and you want to win. But it’s more than that. It’s being able to impact kids, especially from a spiritual standpoint.”

Panel backs lowering age to buy guns

Written by Florida News Service on . Posted in Uncategorized.

The Republican-controlled House Criminal Justice Subcommittee voted 12-5 along party lines Monday to approve the bill. Under the 2018 law, people under 21 can receive rifles and other long guns as gifts but cannot purchase them.

“The Florida House is restoring the ability of young adults to exercise their Second Amendment rights,” Renner, R-Palm Coast, said in a prepared statement after the vote. “Florida allows 18- to 20-year-old adults to obtain a long gun by having it gifted to them. This bill expands Second Amendment rights and improves public safety because it requires young adults who have the intent of purchasing a long gun to go through the background check process that is consistent with Florida law.”

But opponents questioned why the Legislature would reverse course five years after including the 21-year-old minimum age in a broad school-safety bill that passed quickly after the Parkland shooting. Federal law prevents people under 21 from buying handguns.

“I just find it, when we are having shooting after school shooting after school shooting, there are children who are dying in my district, and this gun violence is happening by 18-, 19- 20-year-olds, that we are slapping people in the face when we’re saying, well, let them go have a gun,” Rep. Michele Rayner-Goolsby, D-St. Petersburg, said.

Monday’s vote came after a panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday upheld the constitutionality of the 2018 law. The National Rifle Association has waged a long-running legal challenge, arguing that the 21-year-old minimum age violates the Second Amendment.

The appeals court traced a history of gun regulation dating to the Reconstruction era. It also pointed to people from age 18 to 21 being able to receive guns as gifts.

“To begin with, the act (the law) is no more restrictive than its forebearers: While the act burdens 18-to-20-year-olds’ rights to buy firearms, unlike its Reconstruction era analogues, it still leaves 18-to-20-year-olds free to acquire any type of firearm — including ‘the quintessential self-defense weapon,’ the handgun … in legal ways, as long as they don’t buy the weapons,” Judge Robin Rosenbaum wrote in the opinion.

But House bill sponsor Bobby Payne, R-Palatka, said the state has the authority to set the minimum age. Payne said he voted for the 2018 law because it included school-safety measures that he supported.

“I feel like it’s an infringement upon 18-, 19-, 20-year-olds constitutionally to not allow them to have rights to firearms, long guns, I would say shotguns and rifles,” Payne said.

As of Monday afternoon, a Senate version of the bill had not been filed.

Lady Gators fall to Walton

Written by Randy Dickson on . Posted in Uncategorized.

“It was a situation where we did make some adjustments where we need to,” Baker coach John Carlisle said. “We had a double, a scratch hit and we tried to claw our way back into the ball game late. But we came up short.”

Baker starting pitcher Alaynah Smith battled most of the evening as she tried to give the Walton batters off balance and off base. More often that not she was successful in the effort. When she wasn’t, the Walton batters made her pay.

The Braves scored two runs in the first and added four more runs in the fourth to put the game out of reach. A two-run homer by Bailey Crowther was the big shot of the inning for the Braves. Jami Murray hit a  solo home run in the bottom of the sixth inning to close out the Walton scoring.

Baker had a batter reach base every inning with the exception of the fourth.

Carlie Hopps had a one-out walk in the first for Baker. Jena Fedorak walked in the second inning. Riley Frazier walked in the third.

The Lady Gators finally got on the scoreboard in the fifth inning.

Blakely York had the first Baker hit of the night to lead off the inning. Leighton Mitchell was next and walked. Karley Bishop was safe on an infield hit to load the bases.

There was one out when Baker scored its first two runs on an unusual play. The bases were loaded when Hopps lifted what looked to be an easy fly ball to the infield. The umpires correctly called the infield fly rule which states, ‘When runners are on first and second or the bases are loaded with less than two out, the batter is automatically out and the base runners advance at their own risk.’

The purpose of the rule is to discourage an infielder from intentionally dropping a pop fly to set up an easy double play.

As it turned out, the Walton first baseball did drop the ball and York and Mitchell scored on the play for Baker. Jolee Sloan scored for Baker in the sixth as she reached on a single and later touched home on a wild

FWC press release does not make agency look good

Written by Staff Reporters on . Posted in Uncategorized.

Last week, we received a press release from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission on a long-term investigation they conducted that led to the arrest of Steinhatchee, Florida, man on multiple poaching charges.

While reading to see if there was any local connection to the arrest that would warrant us running it, we didn’t find one, but we did become more and more disappointed with the FWC’s Division of Law Enforcement’s investigation the more we read.

First thing, let’s be clear that it is a good thing that FWC got this alleged poacher off the streets and away from Florida’s wildlife. For that they should be commended.

However, there are things about the way the FWC law enforcement went about this investigation, at least the way they presented it in their own press release, that are pretty upsetting.

So here are the basics: On Feb. 28, FWC investigators arrested Sidney Brent Hurst, 37, of Steinhatchee, on charges of taking over the season bag limit for turkeys, taking over the season bag limit for deer, scheming to defraud, armed trespass, unlawful use of a two-way communication device and cheating. The charges range from second degree misdemeanors to third degree felonies.

The investigation began in spring 2020 in response to tips from the public, which led investigators to social media posts Hurst allegedly made.

During that first year of the investigation, FWC officers found evidence that Hurst and his young son had both killed more wild turkeys than the two per person bag limit allowed. In fact, FWC put in the press release they had evidence that Hurst by himself had killed 15 to 20 wild turkeys during the spring 2020 season.

To us, that seems like enough to arrest a fella on.

FWC decided they needed more evidence, so they continued the investigation into 2021 and widened it beyond just wild turkeys.

In 2021, they compiled evidence that Hurst continued to poach wild turkeys, both hunting beyond the legal bag limits in season and continuing to hunt outside of the legal hunting season, but that he also likely killed 20 buck deer, well above five per person bag limit.

Despite that extra investigation, no arrest was made in 2021 and FWC allowed the investigation to continue into 2022, when they believe Hurst killed at least another 15 wild turkeys.

So, if our math is correct, FWC, the state agency mandated to protect Florida’s wildlife, allowed at least 35 or more wild turkeys and 20 deer to be killed in 2021 and 2022 when they already had evidence that this person was poaching. They should be ashamed for allowing that to happen.

This is how FWC Deputy Director of North Operations Lt. Col. Gregg Eason explained FWC’s reaction to Hurst’s action over a more than two-year period:

“Over the course of the investigation, we were shocked by the egregious nature of both Hurst’s illegal exploits and his social media posts. He bragged about the number of wild turkeys he poached, often trespassing to do so, and his ability to elude law enforcement.”

Here’s our quote:
“Over the course of reading FWC’s Division of Law Enforcement press release, we were shocked by their egregious investigation and their willingness to knowingly let this suspected animal remain free and illegally hunt Florida’s wildlife for more than a year after they had evidence of his illegal poaching habits. If we were a wild turkey or deer at that point, we’d be asking FWC ‘What the heck, guys?’”

For God’s Sake: Listen to the teachings of Jesus

Written by Rev. Mark Broadhead on . Posted in Uncategorized.

Many people mistake revenge to be a form of justice. “Hah! How do you like it?” “Hah! You’re going to hurt like I do!” And what happens? The cycle continues.

The Old Testament teaches a lot about revenge and settling the score. But it sounds as though it focuses on intentional harm done to other people rather than accidental harm.

Leviticus 24:19-20 says, “Anyone who maims another shall suffer the same injury in return: fracture for fracture, eye for eye, tooth for tooth; the injury inflicted is the injury to be suffered.”
Getting even was the rule and practice for thousands of years. Can you imagine what this world would be like if this was the standard? No mercy. Get even. Get more than even. The violence would never stop because violence perpetuates itself.

When Jesus came, he changed everything. Jesus taught about a gentler way. He taught about peace. He taught lessons that were designed to cause people to think about ending abusive and hurtful behavior.

He taught, “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say to you, do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile.”

Jesus also taught, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven.”

If you pray for an enemy, if you love an enemy, the situation is going to change. The person you are praying for may not change, but you will. The way you look at them, the feelings you have toward them will change because of God’s intervention.

Being disciples of Jesus Christ, we are called to go above and beyond the ways the world would prefer to act.

Listen to the teachings of Jesus.

We are to go above and beyond because of what Jesus has done for us.

Rev. Mark Broadhead leads First Presbyterian Church of Crestview. The Crestview News Bulletin is interested in hearing from pastors in northern Okaloosa County who would like to contribute their faith messages in the form of a column.

Email editor@crestviewnewspaper.com if you are interested. You can also send church news, including upcoming events, photos of past events and service times for possible publication.

Where there is a will, there is a way

Written by Staff Reporters on . Posted in Uncategorized.

But this 19-year-old returned to the scene and killed more people.

It could happen to any journalist. It could happen at any time. We go to the scene of shootings, road rage incidents, wrecks, fires. Those are all considered dangerous places.

We are privileged to live in a small but big place in Northwest Florida where we don’t have daily shootings and too many murders to count. We live in a county where our sheriff is tough on criminals and firmly believes in our right to defend ourselves. He even offered shooting classes.

In the aftermath of that shooting, and every other shooting, there is a call for stricter gun control laws. The problem with that is, it only applies to people who are trying to legally purchase a weapon. Those are not the ones out there shooting people.

The criminals and gang members are the majority of people shooting and killing others. And they do not obtain their guns legally. We already have a law that makes it illegal for felons to own a weapon. Does that stop them? No, because they are buying guns on the street.

Does it prohibit or make it harder for your everyday American to own a weapon? Yes. Those weapons are used for self-protection and the protection of others, not to shoot and kill people at will.

There are some things that you can’t legislate your way out of. Guns are one of those things. It is illegal to possess illicit drugs. Does it stop the addicts from using drugs? Does it stop the sellers from selling drugs? No. They are criminals who care nothing about the laws in this country. If you legislate to ban guns, only the bad guys will have them and we, the lawful gun owners, will then have nothing to protect ourselves. And the bad guys win.

We are deeply saddened by the killings last week and we will continue to pray for those families. Bad things happen. Bad things will continue to happen. We can’t stop it. We can’t make enough laws to stop bad guys because in the end, a law is written on a piece of paper and the police can only enforce it once it has been broken. That is the American way. It is living in a free society. People have the option of making very bad decisions. We can’t legislate every problem away. We cannot know what is in someone’s mind before something bad happens.

What we can do is pray for the families left behind. We can honor those who lost their lives. We can refrain from mentioning the name of the person who pulled the trigger – he doesn’t deserve to be famous for what he did.

We can do some extra parenting. We can give pre-teens and teens the tools to cope with stress and chaos. We don’t know the background of the teen who did this. We wouldn’t venture to guess what led up to it.

But we do know that more laws and stricter gun control would not have prevented this from occurring. Where there is a will for evil, there is a way for evil. Where there is a will for good, there is a way for good.

Randy’s Report

Written by Randy Dickson on . Posted in Uncategorized.

Under previous rules, every team in a district played each other. In sports such as baseball and basketball, they played each other twice, with both teams having a home game. If it was a six-team district, every team would play 10 district games.

Simple enough, right? With that format you could have a true seeding of the best to worst teams in the district for the district tournament.

That’s not the case as things stand today. A team isn’t required to play a set number of district games. There were seven teams in Crestview’s boys basketball District 1-6A.

Only Crestview and Milton played 12 district games, each opponent twice. Crestview finished the third seed in the district with a 9-3 district record. Gulf Breeze was the top seed with an 8-1 district record, the lone loss coming from the Bulldogs.

Tate, the two seed, played six district games and finished 5-1. The Aggies split with the Bulldogs. In an ironic twist, Gulf Breeze and Tate, the two top seeds in the district, didn’t play each other in the regular season.

District champions (determined by the winner of the tournaments in team sports other than football) receive an automatic bid to the state playoffs. In the past, district runners-up would go to the playoffs.

Now there’s a formula, which is only slightly less difficult than the one used to split an atom, that ranks teams based on strength of schedule among other factors that determines non-champions that make the playoffs.

The whole idea of playing a tougher schedule to get into the playoffs, in a lot of ways, makes no sense. A 1A school should be judged by how it plays other 1A schools, especially the schools in its district. A school can’t control the talent level in its region and if it’s one of the best two teams in the district, it shouldn’t be penalized for not playing teams that were stronger.

The fact is, the more populated areas of the state, no matter what classification, will have a higher competition level most of the time. That’s not to say a team from Crestview, Pensacola or Fort Walton Beach can’t win a state championship.

I would love to see the FHSAA credit teams for playing district games. Let’s say a team would get a point for a district win and lose a half point for a district loss, or even lose a point for a district loss. District games should impact district tournament brackets with teams playing the most district games being rewarded accordingly.

Under the current format there’s a less likely chance that a dark horse will break free to a state championship run.

An athlete at Laurel Hill should have the opportunity to make the playoffs as a member of the number two team in the district. Maybe a district runner up will get blown out by the district champion one district to the west, but at least the kids have been given the opportunity to say their team was in the playoffs.

The history of sports is filled with magical upsets that remind us dreams can come true. Let’s give the kids from district runners up the opportunity to again dream. Or at least make everyone in the district play the same number of games leading into the district tournament.

Bulldogs gear up for 2023 baseball season

Written by Randy Dickson on . Posted in Sports, Uncategorized.

“It does feel like the season should be here,” he said when asked if he felt it had arrived quickly. “We’ve done a lot of work around the facility. I’m ready to start playing games.

“I know the kids are. We’ve had a couple of god weeks of preparation and we had a good fall. We’ve got a good group of kids that work hard.”

Crestview will play this year in District 2-6A with Niceville, Mosely and Tallahassee schools Chiles and Leon.

Gillis expects every game to be a battle.

“Moseley’s two years off of being a state champion plus they got they’ve got a pitcher that’s signed early with Florida State,” he said. “Chiles is always good. They were ranked first and second in the state last year.

“Leon won eighteen games last year as well. Niceville is still Niceville, they’re good.”

Crestview should be pretty good as well. The Bulldogs boast veteran pitchers in senior Brayden Ruschmeier and junior Anthony St. Vincent.

“I think we’ve got some very good arms that have some experience,” Gillis said. “Brayden Ruschmeier and Anthony St. Vincent have been in the fire a lot.

“They’ve pitched in some big games so they are kind of used to the pressure.”

Gillis thinks the Bulldogs will swing the bats pretty good this year.

“We’ve probably got 12 kids that can swing the bat really well,” he said. “Obviously there is only room for 10 in the lineup and nine hitters (with one player on playing in the field). There will be some good players not hitting.

“You’ve just got to go with maybe the hot hand. If guys are swinging it well, you get them in there (the lineup). There will be times when some good players are not hitting.”

Javin Shoemake might be the best returning hitter for the Bulldogs. As a junior, the catcher hit in the four hole. Gillis is considering having him bat leadoff as the guys in the top of the order in 2022 graduated.

“Javin Shoemake was really good for us last year,” Gillis said. “I’m trying to figure out where to hit him in the lineup. He may lead off.

“He may bat second. We are just going to have to wait and see.”

Gillis believes the team will be good defensively. Once again, the situation facing him is finding key replacements in the middle of the diamond at second base, shortstop and center field.

“I think we’ve got some guys that are capable, but they haven’t been in a varsity situation yet,” Gillis said of the players competing for those positions up the middle.

“I think we got about four or five guys that can run a little bit with some good instincts. So, we got some maybe some guys could steal some bases.”

The time has come for a new set of players to fill the holes left by graduation. Gillis knows practice doesn’t always make perfect when the lights shine on the diamond.

“We talked about that a lot (playing when it counts),” he said. “We got some guys can that can really whack it around in that cage. We we get out here between the lines when it counts, are they going to be able to do the same thing?

“Let’s hope so.”

Randy’s Report

Written by Randy Dickson on . Posted in Uncategorized.

On Monday, I’ll be able to mark Feb. 20, 2023, as a day for another surgery. I guess that makes Tic, Tac, Toe, three in a row, at least as calendar days go for surgery.

I started having pain in my right stomach/side and back on New Year’s Eve. It was as if Rocky Balboa was using me instead of the sides of meet for boxing practice.

One ultrasound, and two doctor visits later, and I’m heading for gallbladder surgery this coming Monday.

It’s not so much the surgery that frustrates me, I’ve had a total of five. In addition to the ones mentioned, there was a second neck surgery in June of 2003 and two shoulder surgeries spanning almost 40 years.

And that’s not counting two cataract surgeries.

What I hate is I’ll miss the first week of high school baseball and softball season. I enjoy almost every sport, but baseball and softball, along with football, are my favorites.

I don’t care if it’s actually too cold to be playing baseball and softball through, perhaps, the end of March.

I love the diamond sports and the pace that allows you to sit back and enjoy the game while chatting with your neighbor.

I will miss the first day of the season and seeing parents, grandparents, school personnel, fans and the coaches and players that have become family. I’ll miss eating from my bag of peanuts, a healthy protein I might add, as the game goes on.

Without pretending to know too much more than I actually do, there are two types of gallbladder surgery. The first one is what they are plan on doing and would be outpatient surgery. I’ll be back to work in week if that plan holds true.

If they find they need to perform the more complicated surgery, I’ll be out for two or three weeks.
In a perfect world, I’d know I wouldn’t have any more problems with my gallbladder until school gets out.

If it were that perfect world, I’d wait until June for the surgery. The thing is the next attack could really mess me up and I’ve been advised the sooner I get it done the better, thus I’ll be under the knife in Pensacola on Monday morning.

Brian Lester, from our sister paper in Navarre, will help while I’m gone.
I’m thankful for his support along with owner Sandi Kemp, publisher Gail Acosta and editor Dusty Ricketts. I’m blessed to work for people that care about my body more than my body of work.

If you are up around 7 a.m. on Monday and you’re a praying person, please lift up a prayer for the team performing the surgery and that my body will respond accordingly. I’ll be 65 in May so I don’t bounce back as I did when I was a young buck.

The love of this job keeps me young and I’ll be back before you know it in my familiar spot behind home plate as well as on the sidelines for the other spring sports.

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