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 earlier 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.

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.

Some teams dream of winning a state championship but never achieve it. But Pace’s softball team might just have a chance to get the job done this season.

The Patriots were a final four team a year ago and have nearly their entire roster back, including a pitching staff that might be unmatched in this area.