It doesn’t take student athletes long to learn life, and athletics aren’t always fair. But the lessons of youth learned that truth about life being unfair often pushes them to success beyond their wildest dreams. In the grand scheme of all things unfair, Pensacola Christian Academy being in the same track and field district as Baker, Central and Jay might not even rate a one of a scale to 10 unless you are from one of the rural schools fighting for a title.

It was the old good news and bad news story for the Crestview beach volleyball team this week as the Lady Bulldogs opened play in the District 1 tournament on Monday against Marianna. The goods news is Crestview won the battle of the Lady Bulldogs 4-1 over the visitors from Jackson County. The bad news is the win advanced Crestview to a second-round showdown with Gulf Breeze, the top ranked beach volleyball team in the state, on Tuesday.

For more than three decades, Baker’s Old Spanish Trail Rodeo has been a hit with cowboys and cowgirls as well as the fans.

Held annually the second weekend in April, and hosted by the Baker Area Recreation Association, this year’s rodeo was April 12-14 at its home in the Barnhill Arena.

There were no surprises Monday evening when the Class 6A Crestview softball team hosted 1A opponent Paxton. As one might expect, the Lady Bulldogs dominated in every aspect of the game. And is almost always the case, the dominant team won.

In what might very well be his final home game as a Crestview Bulldog, senior Anthony St. Vincent was lights out on the mound as the Bulldog baseball team hosted West Florida in the last regular season home game of the year. St. Vincent threw a complete game shutout in the 7-0 win over the Jaguars.

Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church senior pastor Geoff Prows had never heard of Baker, Florida before the Lord started putting Florida on the heart of the East Tennessee native in 2013.

Alfred Joyce Kilmer, an early 20th-century poet, is best known for his poem, “Trees.”

Kilmer started the poem with the line, “I think that I shall never see a poem as lovely as a tree.”

Hits and runs were hard to come by Friday as the Baker softball team hosted Catholic. The Lady Crusaders scored three runs on four hits, all coming in the first three innings. Catholic pitcher Isabelle Little-anoai was even more stingy allowing four hits. She also walked four, hit one Lady Gator batter and was the victim of two Catholic errors.

Crestview High School’s beach volleyball team closed out the home part of their regular season Wednesday with a 5-0 sweep of Walton. The team of Dina Sheikho and Kaeden Foxx won the match of one seeds, Aubrey Sheffield and Kennedy Harrell took the two seed match. Three seeds Sara Robinson-Harmer and Avery Price won as did four seeds Hope Stoutenburgh and Camille Reeves.

Although the game only lasted five innings, it was a long afternoon for the Laurel Hill softball team Thursday as the Lady Hoboes hosted Destin. To say Laurel Hill was slow out of the gate would be the definition of an understatement. To say the Lady Hoboes ever stopped fighting would be a lie. But by the time the Lady Hoboes finally scored in the third inning they already trailed 18-0.