I received a message late Wednesday night. The person sending it was informing me that Navarre head football coach Jay Walls was taking a job in Georgia.
This inside source wanted to make sure the ‘Navarre guy’ had the opportunity to break the news first.
I come from a very large family – nine kids – and the mealtime rule in our house was you ate what was put before you. If you refused to eat it, well, you didn’t eat. If one of us asked for something else to eat, my mother’s stock answer was, “What do you think this is, kid, a restaurant?”
Saint Patrick’s Day is this Sunday and the Shamrock Stroll 5K Fun Run/Walk and Pet Parade and Costume Contest is this Saturday on Navarre Beach from 8-10 a.m. There is a registration fee, but you can get there as early as 7 a.m. the day of the event and register. The next holiday is Easter. Easter Sunday is the last day of March on the 31st. Santa Rosa County Schools (and UWF) are out for Spring Break the week before Easter. There is a large concert, Spring Jam, going on at Juana’s on March 24, the Sunday before Easter. Okaloosa Schools have Spring Break March 15-22.
In February, Santa Rosa County commissioners approved letting RaceTrac install underground fuel storage tanks in a wellfield zone that supplies clean drinking water to about 100,000 residents. On Monday, Commissioner Colten Wright, who voted to approve the variance allowing the tanks, proposed updating the wellfield protection ordinance to address issues raised during the RaceTrac debate – including what to do about existing underground tanks in the area.
As interim State Commissioner, Pam Stewart keeps reiterating, there’s a difference between curriculum and standards. The author of an article written on Thursday, August 8th, wrote as if they are one in the same. Supplementing lessons plans with standards isn’t accurate. You would instead supplement the curriculum with Common Core aligned curriculum. Common Core State Standards (CCSS) are nationalized standards that every student will have to master while curriculum is the material being taught.
It’s been nothing short of an honor being a sportswriter for the Navarre Press and Press Gazette. But now I have bigger dreams to fulfill.
Last Tuesday morning, in my potential spam direct message folder on social media, I received an invitation to participate in the 2024 National Combine Series, opening the door for the possibility to play in the US Army Bowl at a later date.
It is Wednesday evening and I realize that I have not written a column for the coming week. It seems I have a poor memory. Admittedly, I am getting older, and some forgetfulness is to be expected, but the forgetfulness that is troublesome to me has less to do with my age and more to do with my faith. I forget what God has done in the past, what he assures for the future, and his faithfulness in the present, and so I worry.
Navarre High School students built an electric car funded by Florida Power and Light. After two months of work, they were able to take it to Five Flags Speedway and test it. What a great project for our students.
Did Santa Rosa County compromise the integrity of its water protection zone by approving a variance to allow RaceTrac to install underground storage tanks at a station on State Road 87? We don’t think so, but the unpopular decision raises some questions about how the county manages its various overlay districts.
This just in. We are past the point of ‘that would never happen in sports.’ Way past it.
In fact, I can’t even tell you the date of when it officially happened. But we are there, and no way does it ever trend in the other direction again. It would take a miracle for it to happen.
