It is countdown time for me as another school year approaches. I’m not so much excited about the start of the school year on Aug. 10 as I am the start of another high school sports year.

Small children count down the days to Christmas. I count down the days until teams can officially hold a sanctioned fall practice on July 31.

There’s an old joke about two little old ladies that decided to go to their first baseball game.

Neither ladies knew anything about baseball more than three strikes and the batter is out and when a team makes three outs that team goes to the field and the other team bats.

I believe there is a part of us all that aspires for greatness. There’s another part of us that is in awe of greatness.

That awe of greatness or fame is the only way I can describe the feeling of intimidation we might get when meeting someone famous or outstanding in his or her field.

Crestview High School held its commencement ceremony last Friday night and another school year is in the books.

The 2022-2023 school year was my first full year of covering high school sports since the 2014-15 school year and it was great. It doesn’t take me long to bond with athletes and my heart is full while somewhat sad as I watch another class go into the world.

There are very few blackhole times of year when covering high school sports when things disappear into a vacuum of sorts.

The months of June and July are the closest thing we have to a blackhole. The two months between the end of the school year and the start of fall practices are when things slow to a crawl. It’s a time to catch up on other sports news in the community.

Baseball Hall of Fame catcher Roy Campanella said of baseball, “You have to love it like a boy and play it like a man.”

I thought about that quote recently as I took a few minutes to watch youth league baseball at Baker as I waited for the varsity game to start.

I’ve always been fascinated by mascots and how schools went about deciding their mascot.
Look around Northwest Florida and you will see everything ranging from Raiders at Northwest Florida State College and Navarre High School to Vikings at Fort Walton Beach High School.

It has long been said that the two favorite sports in the Deep South are football and spring football. And while we have to wait another four months or so for high school football season to start in the fall, spring football is upon us.

It’s hard to believe we are in the home stretch of the school year.

The boys district weightlifting tournaments were last week. District tournaments in the spring sports will continue through April and end with the baseball and softball district tournaments May 1-4.

I am competitive by nature. I make no apologies for that.

I don’t understand why any athlete would put in the hard work required to compete and not want to win.

I don’t understand why people in any walk of life don’t want to be the best in their profession.