The FHSAA Board of Directors voted unanimously by a 10-0 count on Tuesday to approve the open division for the postseason in several sports.


The top eight teams, regardless of classification, will be a part of its own tournament starting this school year for football, basketball, volleyball, soccer, baseball, softball, flag football and lacrosse.

The word on the street is we may soon be going back to the single-game format for the regional tournament in high school baseball.

Many of the graduates in Santa Rosa and Okaloosa counties are high school athletes I have covered over the last four years.


Navarre, Pace, Milton, Central, Jay, Baker and Crestview have all been represented well by those athletes and now it’s time for them to bid farewell and move on to the next chapter of their lives.

Sometimes it comes down to just doing what is right for the student athletes in our area high schools.


It doesn’t always happen. State tournaments are played on the day of high school graduations, and even locally, all-star games are played on graduation nights.

Softball has taken a big step forward in the area this year.

Connor Harmon pushed the bar up with everything he had and successfully hit his final lift on the bench to put himself in a position to clinch a state weightlifting championship for the first time.

Crestview’s boys weightlifting team didn’t have anyone medal at the FHSAA 3A state meet last Thursday at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland.


But the Bulldogs have good reason to be optimistic about the future.

One of the local schools in Northwest Florida put out a post a few days ago seeking money for its playoff trip to the Jacksonville area for a best-of-three baseball series.


An athlete asked me to share it on social media in the hopes it would help their cause. I did. I’m always here to help the athletes any way I can.

I know this current generation of high school athletes can sometimes be given a hard time about not being tough enough or focused enough.


But there is a lot of promise and potential for the future.

Cayden Cook was among the medal winners for Crestview’s weightlifting team at the Region 1-3A meet Saturday at Pace.