Opinion Archive

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.

“We locals call it ‘our Basket Full of Diamonds,’” said the guide as our tour boat glided past the lighthouse in Jupiter, FL in the diminishing light of evening.

My wife and I, both locals, gave one another an incredulous look and mouthed, “We do?” Many of our friends were long-time residents, including a man whose father had been the lighthouse keeper.

Hey dad, if heaven had a newspaper subscription, I would ask God to pass this column along to you.

It’s been nearly two weeks since that heartbreaking Sunday morning I found out you were gone. Mom called just before 6 a.m. to let me know. I wasn’t ready for the kind of news that has changed my world forever.

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.

There’s a ticket stub attached to the inside of one of my binders that holds basketball cards from an era a long time ago.

We won’t get into just how long ago, except to say that every time I take a look at those cards, I swear I still smell the bubble gum that came with each pack of cards I bought.

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.

You know when a kicker lines up for a field goal that seems destined to go in only to end up sailing wide left or wide right?

It almost happened this week.