Brian Out Loud Archive

You all remember Quentin Randolph.

Especially in 2019 when he took NCAA Division II football by storm and helped propel the University of West Florida football team to its first national championship.

Devin Wright was 12 the day he walked into the Navarre Press office on a summer morning with his mom to talk about his experience at the Ripken Futures Game in Baltimore.

Some days, it seems like that interview took place just yesterday.

We need a new rule book written on how certain things should go when it comes to sports.

Things that need to be off limits simply because they serve no real purpose.

We often get caught up believing great stats give you the green light to write a ticket to the pros in permanent marker.

Don’t get me wrong. It’s awesome to have a batting average over .300, a scoring and rebounding average that is good for a double-double almost every night, or a rushing or passing total that translates into a touchdown on every drive.

Maybe you noticed and maybe you didn’t, but some of the people involved in the decision making efforts when it comes to high school athletics did something right this month with boys weightlifting.

Two regions in the state were divided into sub-regions, including one locally.

Scrolling through Twitter late one evening ahead of my trip home for my father’s visitation and funeral, I came across a post I was tagged in by an athlete.

He posted a video of himself throwing a football to his dad in the backyard and mentioned me, stating that he would be dedicating his first touchdown of the 2022 high school football season to my dad.

Maybe I missed it, but I don’t remember hearing anyone talk about how well their brackets did for the NCAA women’s basketball tournament.

I also don’t ever remember a lot of talk about women’s college swimming this year, at least not until Lia Thomas came along and created controversy with her participation in an NCAA championship meet last month.

As most of you already know, perhaps from a previous column on the topic, the FHSAA made some changes last month to the way football teams are classified.

We now have a metro/suburban split, and while not everyone is for it, in this corner of the state of Florida, it makes a lot of sense.

It was some point in early August of 2019 when I first took notice of Austin Reed on the football field.

He was slinging the ball around in a scrimmage on one of those hot and humid evenings we are all too familiar with here late in the summer here in Northwest Florida, looking like a quarterback capable of doing big things for a UWF football program with high hopes.

I owe Mike Krzyzewski a thank you in writing.

And seeing that his final season as the head coach of the Duke Blue Devils is winding down, it’s fitting that I publicly issue that thank you now rather than later.