We already live in a world, at least here in Florida, where athletes can transfer freely thanks to the free agency style set-up here in the state. We are about to live in a world high school athletes can get paid.


Never did I think I’d be typing those words out in a column at any point in my lifetime. Just goes to show you to never say never.

Midnight was still a little over a couple of hours away in the eastern time zone on the night of May 24, and Pace was on a softball field in Clermont celebrating a 6A state championship that was four years in the making.


A week earlier in Fort Myers, Jay’s baseball team was on the field of the spring training home of the Minnesota Twins celebrating its first state title in more than a half century.

I’m not complaining that the spring football game between Navarre and Pace was postponed a couple of weeks ago.


I was driving back from Fort Myers after covering a state baseball championship game the night before.

Sports seasons are complete and the only thing remaining for the senior athletes in the area is to walk across the stage and receive their high school diploma.


They’ve spent the last four years representing their schools on football fields, baseball fields, softball fields, basketball courts, tennis courts, volleyball courts and more.

Central won 21 games this baseball season, including its first 12. It was one of the best seasons in program history for the Jaguars. Impressive is one way to describe it.


They lost only four games, two of which came against state powerhouse Pensacola Catholic, which seems to have the talent of a Double A minor league team.

I wish Santa Rosa County would get out of its own way and figure out how to make an aquatics center happen.


Before the Dallas Cowboys win their next Super Bowl would be ideal. Well, on that note, you’ve got some time to get it done.

If you have seen the “Miracle on Ice” movie, you’ll remember the scene where Team USA head coach Herb Brooks has his team basically sprint back and forth on skates after a game for hours on end.


The players would do a sprint and Brooks would yell “again.” It went on for who knows how long.

Lighthouse Christian College is starting a football program. At least that is what I’ve been told from credible sources. And it’s supposed to get rolling this fall.


I also know the program has a coach in place. I’ve been told Ronnie Cottrell will be at the helm.

You are only in high school once. It may seem like, at times, the four years are never going to end, that it takes forever to get from freshman year to senior year.


But the reality is it’s over in the blink of an eye.

Sometimes you get reminders that Disney is right. It really is a small world.

Matt Painter coached his Purdue basketball team to the Final Four earlier this month, marking the first time the Boilermakers have reached that point in the tourney since 1980.