Actually, it’s a good idea to pay close attention to all your benefits. Some of the offerings may have changed from last year — and you might have experienced changes in your own life, too, which might lead you to look for something different from your existing benefits package.

You may want to start with your health insurance. If you’re satisfied with your coverage, and it’s essentially the same as it’s been, you may well want to stick with what you have. However, many employers are increasingly offering high-deductible health plans, which, as the name suggests, could entail more out-of-pocket costs for you. But high-deductible plans may also offer something of benefit: the ability to contribute to a health savings account (HSA).

Your HSA contributions are made with pre-tax dollars, so they can reduce your taxable income for the year. Also, your earnings grow tax-free, and your withdrawals are tax-free, provided the money is used for qualified medical expenses. (Withdrawals taken before age 65 that aren’t used for qualified medical expenses are taxable and subject to a 20% penalty; once you reach 65, the penalty no longer applies, although withdrawals are still taxable as income if not used for a qualified expense.)

Your next benefit to consider: Life insurance. Your employer may offer a group life insurance plan, but you’ll want to evaluate whether it’s sufficient for your needs, especially if you’ve experienced changes in your personal situation over the past year, such as getting married or adding a new child. There’s no magic formula for how much life insurance you need — you’ll need to consider a variety of factors, such as your income, family size, mortgage and so on — but it may be necessary to supplement your employer’s coverage with a private policy.

Your employer may also offer disability insurance as a benefit. Some employers’ disability policies are fairly limited, covering only short periods of time, so you may want to consider a private policy.
Beyond the various insurance policies your employer may offer, you’ll also want to closely look at your 401(k) or similar retirement plan.

Typically, you can make changes to your 401(k) throughout the year, but it’s important to make sure your investment selections and contribution amounts are still aligned with your risk tolerance and goals. Also, are you contributing enough to earn your employer’s match, if one is offered? And if you’ve already receiving the match, can you still afford to put in more to your plan if such a move makes sense for you?

Your employee benefits package can be a valuable part of your overall financial strategy. So, as open enrollment season proceeds, take a close look at what you already have, what’s being offered, and what changes you need to make. It will be time well spent.

Hobo coach Kasey Campbell had a simple explanation for her team faltering.

“They got tired,” she said. “They got gassed. We went with the six strongest that we thought were good.

“They got tired and got sloppy and beat themselves. Tomorrow they will be running in practice and then we will be going into volleyball.”

The teams battled back and forth in the early part of the first set. Raelee McDonald was in serve as the Hoboes scored the first point of the night. Laurel Hill scored off a Bella Gibson serve a few minutes later to go up 3-1.

The score was tied at 5-5 when Laramie Boykin took over in serve for Laurel Hill. The Hoboes reeled of five straight points with Boykin in serve to take control of the set. Boykin ended the run with a service ace.

Laurel Hill was able to maintain the 5-point advantage as Rylee Boddy served. Later, back-to-back aces by Kennedi Kilpatrick made it 22-16 in favor of Laurel Hill as the Hoboes cruised to the win in the first set.

The Hobo positives were faded as the night progressed.

Laurel Hill fell behind early in set two but rallied behind the serving of Boddy and Hannah Twitty to go in front 16-11. Jay finished the set on a 14-3 run.

The Royals carried the momentum into the next two sets as the Royals moved on to the win.

Campbell did see some positives to take out of the match. Most notably, she saw improvement from the night before when Laurel Hill lost to Rocky Bayou Christian.

“They did a lot better job tonight than they did last night at Rocky Bayou talking, reading the hitters and getting into their spots,” she said. “We had a lot of standing around our first game and we did a better job of getting down and getting to where they were going tonight.”

“I thought we played with great effort tonight,” CHS head coach Thomas Grant said. “Obviously there are some things we have to clean up on both sides of the ball, but our players did what I told them before it started, ‘I want you to play with great effort and have a lot of fun and fly around,’ and we did that.”

The format of the night was for the teams to trade possessions. Each team started at its own 30-yard line ran 10 plays. The ball was advanced downfield, first downs were recorded and officials from the Miracle Strip Officials Association were on hand to call penalties.

A play that had a penalty was repeated. If a team scored a touchdown or turned the ball over before the allotted 10 plays the ball remained in that team’s possession until the end of the 10 plays.

And while the format might have been statistician’s nightmare, it gave Grant the opportunity to see the Bulldogs in various situations on both sides of the ball.

His conclusion was the Bulldogs passed the test.

“We have to be a mature team now,” he said. “We are a little banged up so we have to be able to get mental reps so we can be fresh moving forward.”

Throughout the scrimmage Bulldog quarterbacks Jerome Brazan and Nathanial Nocher delivered the football on time and on target.

“ I’m very pleased with our them,” Grant said. “I feel like for the most part, the quarterbacks did a great job. The receivers did a great job of winning one on one battles.

“Escambia plays that ‘Cat defense’ where they are saying, ‘I’ve got that cat.’ We did a good job of making our reads and throwing the ball in a timely manner.”

Crestview was able to run the ball well and as expected Jason Jones looked very good.

Grant noted that all the Bulldog running backs did a good job.

Unofficially, Jones, Jay Tassin, Lazarius Parks and Rakis Studevan scored rushing touchdowns.

Brazan connected with Parks on a 20-yard touchdown pass. Nocher delivered a short scoring strike to Issac Thomas.

“All them that ran the ball tonight, ran it very well,” Grant said. “They all did a great job.

“And they can’t do their job without the offensive linemen doing their job. We played 10 guys up front tonight as far as moving people around and that’s a testament to some of those young guys getting in there and getting a hat on a hat, which is all we preach.”

Grant said that Ryan Duncan and Jaden Appleby were the leaders on the defense. Duncan picked off two Gator passes. Appleby was the proverbial Swiss Army Knife for the Bulldogs lining up at safety, outside and inside linebacker and edge rusher.

With the preliminaries of Meet the Bulldogs and the Kickoff Classic out of the way, Grant and the Bulldogs can now get down to the serious matters they have been preparing for since last season ended. Friday night the game counts when Crestview travels to Orlando to play Ridley, Penn.

“You look at your mistakes and you get better,” Grant said. “We’ve got five weeks before our first district game (at home against Niceville on Sept. 30) and that’s when we need to be clicking on all cylinders.

“I’m hoping we get some of our offensive linemen back (that are injured). Like I said, we got banged up, but look, the guys that came in did a great job. We just continue to work on our mistakes and strive for perfection.”

Shoal River won the opening toss and deferred allowing Davidson to receive the opening kick. Manwell Robinson made the Mustangs pay returning the kick 80 yards for a Panther touchdown. Fifteen seconds into the game Davidson had a lead it would hold the entire way en route to a 40-16 win.

“It’s always a rivalry,” Davidson coach Chris Small said. “They know each other. They around each other.

“They play with each other. It’s always a great fight.”

Small stressed the importance of the opening kick return for the touchdown.

“We had a great start,” he said. “It was a great kick return from Manwell. You always want to get on top early no matter what you are playing.”

That great start continued when Small went with an onside kick recovered by the Panthers at the Shoal River 49-yard line. Four plays later Davidson quarterback Hayden Graham connected with Ali Ingersole on a 44-yard pass play for a TD. Raymond Rentz took the all in for the 2-point conversion as Davidson led 14-0 two minutes into the game.

The Panthers showed their ability to move the ball throughout the first half with Graham spreading the football around the field in a preview of a player that could one day be leading the Bulldogs.

Graham’s favorite target was big tight end Austin Stanley.

A rain-soaked second quarter slowed the pace of the game and the ability of either team to move it as Davidson held the 14-0 lead at the half.

The football gods continued to shine on Davidson in the opening minutes of the third quarter. The Mustangs fumbled on their first play from scrimmage of the quarter.

Graham recovered the fumble. Seven plays later, with the Panthers facing a fourth down and 25 yards to go, Graham teamed up with Stanley for a 52-yard touchdown pass. Stanley shook off several would be tacklers on his march to the endzone as the Panthers moved the lead to 20-0.

Davidson’s next score came courtesy of quarterback Chasen Lawrence finding Zach Smith an 8-yard touchdown pass. Ingersole scored the 2-point conversion increasing the lead to 28-0 with a minute left in the third period.

The Mustangs finally got on the scoreboard early in the fourth quarter when quarterback Amir Reese scored on a 4-yard run. Landon Scott scored the 2-point conversion.

By that time it wasn’t a matter of if Davidson would win, but by how much.

The Panthers had a pair of fourth-quarter touchdowns from Jonathan Duenas on runs of 20 and 54 yards.

Reese scored his second touchdown of the night for the Mustangs from a yard out. Malachi Akins scored on the conversion.

While happy with the win, Small wasn’t about to declare the Panthers a contender for the county championship.

“I’m not really sure what this means going into the season,” he said. “We had a lot of mistakes we have to clean up. We saw some good things.

“We just have to be able to polish some things up if  we are going to make a run at the county championship.”

At 24, Connor already has an impressive resume coaching girls basketball having been the head coach at Central High School and headed an AAU program. Crestview High School principal Jay Sanders announced on Wednesday that Connor will succeed Steve as the head coach of the Lady Bulldogs.

Connor checks all the boxes Sanders was looking for in a girls basketball coach. He has a passion for the girls game and has already accumulated a wealth of experience. Most importantly, he isn’t looking to use the position as a steppingstone to a boys opening and he’s a man of integrity.

“For me it came down to a coach whose number one priority is the girls basketball program,” Sanders said. “I was also looking for coach that had girls head coaching experience.

“He’s a bright, energetic young coach. I’m excited to see where he takes our program.”

Williams couldn’t hide his excitement for getting the job.

“It feels really good to be at Crestview,” he said. “I’m just so pumped. This is my first rodeo in the big leagues with the big schools.”

Connor has developed his own coaching style with a blend of those he has worked with and been around.

“I like to be a run and gun kind of team,” he said. “I like for us to control the pace of the game both offensively and defensively. I feel like if you are the one to attack, rather than absorb the hit the other team give you, it gives you the upper hand.

“I think that’s a very similar philosophy to what my dad does and did. I think that’s why he found success here at Crestview because we have the right pieces (players) to do it and it’s going to find a lot of success here.”

Connor helped his father as a volunteer assistant and paid assistant for several years before embarking on his own head coaching career at Central. He had recently returned to the CHS staff and has worked with the team throughout the summer.

Not only is he familiar with the players he’ll be coaching, he also knows the ins and outs of Okaloosa County teams and most of the local opponents the Bulldog will be facing on the court.

Connor believes his youth is more beneficial than harmful as he takes over the Crestview program.

“I’m very big on tying life lessons into practice and team meetings,” he said. “I believe my perspective might be a little more relatable to them (the girls) and that helps them trust me because I get what they are kind of experiencing. It’s a little more relevant to my age.”

Connor played high school basketball at Paxton and was a student manager for his father with the Lady Bobcats. He was dual enrolled at Northwest Florida State College while in high school and graduated with his associate degree at the same time he graduated from high school.

He continued his education at the University of West Florida where he was a student manager on the Lady Argo basketball team adding to his wealth of basketball knowledge.

Only time will tell if Connor is able to accomplish the things Steve has in the coaching ranks. One thing that is certain is Connor embraces the challenge of following in his father’s steps while trying to make his own path.

“I want to instill that the legacy my dad started will live on (at Crestview),” Connor said. “He has a way about him of creating winning cultures. It’s defining what we represent on and off the basketball court.

“I want to keep the same culture and I want people that are going to buy into that and really continue what my dad started. I’ve been told that I have some big shoes to fill. In a way I want to fill those shoes, but I also want to create my own footprint here.”