"A Ring Side Seat"

By Clint Cox

One of the privileges of covering local sports for the newspaper and radio is that it gives you a ringside seat to memorable moments. In the past 19 years of covering local sports on the radio and newspaper I certainly have had the privilege to witness many of those memorable moments.

I think back to the late 90’s and some of those thrilling wins for Marianna football that propelled them deeper into the playoffs and to a state championship appearance. I think back to some last inning wins that Bulldog baseball pulled off en route a state championship and several other final four appearances. Malone basketball provided numerous nail biters during their championship runs (five of them) in the mid 90’s. Bulldog basketball gave us a good run last year as well. And Chipola basketball, baseball and softball have done their fair part in loading up my memory bank with memorable moments.

I had another ring side seat this past Saturday night for a memorable moment. Chipola was on the road playing Tallahassee. After leading at the half the Indians fell behind in the second half. In the last two minutes the game was nip and tuck. Tallahassee took a 3 point lead with less than 10 seconds to play so the Indians had one more chance. Gary Flowers missed a three point shot with seconds to play, but the ball bounced straight to Malcolm Armstead at the top of the key. He launched a long range bomber as the buzzer sounded and it was nothing but net. That tied the game and sent it into overtime, of which Chipola won 86-81.

Now the finish was memorable enough. But the most memorable thing about this game was the performance of Chipola guard Casey Mitchell. He finished the night with 37 points, 25 of which came from the free throw line. The memorable moment is that he made 25 out of the 26 free throws that he shot. In fact, he was 25-25 from the free throw line before missing his last attempt with only a second to play.

I’ve watched a lot of basketball in my life and I don’t ever recall watching anyone make 25 straight free throws in a single game. It easily broke the old Chipola record of total free throws made in one game, which was 18 (Stefhon Hannah in 2005). Bobby Paschal hit 15-15 free throws in 1962 for the record on shooting percentage (1.000%). According to my research, Mitchell’s performance broke the previous NJCAA record of 23 free throws without a miss in a single game (Sam Watson, Southwestern Michigan College 1968-69). The NCAA record is 35. The NBA record is 23 consecutive (Dominique Wilkins – 1992) and the old ABA record is also 23 (Rick Berry - 1969).

Simply Put, it was another memorable moment and I had a ring side seat.

From the front porch: Coach said life is 10% of what happens to you and 90% of how you respond to it.

"Here’s To Obama"

By Clint Cox

I, along with millions of other Americans, watched the inauguration of our 44th President this past Tuesday. All Presidential inaugurations are history makers, but this one had the added flavor of our nation’s first African America taking the oath of office as President.

I will confess that I did not vote for Obama. My not voting for him had nothing to do with the color of his skin and I am offended when folks hint or outright state that not voting for him had to do with his race. I did not vote for him because I generally do not agree with most of the positions taken by the National Democratic Party, from which he was nominated.

And this opposition to the National Democratic Party platform didn’t start just recently. In fact, in the eight Presidential elections that I have been privileged to vote in, I have voted for the Republican nominee every single time. So the seven previous times I voted for the Republican nominee had nothing to do with race, and this last time did not either.

All that said, I watched the history making inauguration and was proud that our country has advanced to the point that an African American can be elected. It demonstrates that much improvement in equality for all persons has been made. For all the greatness of our country’s early achievements and our founding father’s proclamations of equality, our government’s establishing the institution of slavery and their abominable treatment of the Native Americans are major moral failures of our early forefathers.

I believe the consequences of these major moral failures are still with us today in the form of strained race relations. Race relations are significantly better than they used to be, but let a controversial race relations issue arise and watch how quickly it becomes heated and divisive. But here’s the reality. There are still some white folks who dislike black folks simply because of the color of their skin (they probably didn’t vote for Obama). But there are also some black folks who dislike white folks, simply because of the color of their skin (they probably did vote for Obama). Not voting for him solely because of his race is wrong and voting for him solely because of his race is wrong. Racial prejudices are a two way street and neither are okay. I suspect both sides of that street must displease our God and creator immensely.

I don’t normally venture into politics in my column but I said all the above to say this. Even though I did not vote for Obama he is now "our" President and we should hope he becomes the most successful President in our history. Our nation faces difficult times and we need him to succeed. Hoping he fails is the wrong way to show your American pride. So "Simply Put" here is to Obama, our new President. God Bless him and America.

From the front porch: Uncle Bob said some folks wear their halos much too tight.

"My Bucket List"

By Clint Cox
I watched a movie over the Christmas holidays called "The Bucket List." Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman were the lead actors and the primeses of the movie is fairly simple. Two older fellows who do not know each other wind up in the same hospital room. Both are told they have terminal diseases and have only a short time left to live.

Freeman’s character starts a "bucket list," things that he wants to do before he dies, or kicks the bucket. Nicholson’s character likes the idea and the two set out to accomplish all the things on the list.

The movie got me to thinking and as you know that is always dangerous and that also means a column is usually soon to follow. I haven’t been told that I have a short time to live but no man is promised tomorrow. My own personal family history has sadly taught me that we can be here today and gone tomorrow. Our time can be so fleeting and I have a tendency to get so busy with my three jobs that I don’t take the time to smell the roses so to speak. I certainly haven’t figured out all there is to know about life, but one thing I am pretty sure of is that not many folks lay on their death bed and wish that they had worked more.

There are many things that I want to do before my time on this earth is up (and hopefully that will be a long time). Some of those things involve traveling to places I’ve never been to before, like the Grand Canyon and whitewater rafting down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon. Some involve doing things that I’ve either never done before or things I want to do out of love for my family, friends or fellow mankind.

I’m killing two birds with one stone so to speak (going to places I’ve never been before) with a couple of father / son camping trips (I want to do out of love for my family). I went camping with my oldest son in the mountains of North Georgia (Fort Mountain State Park) over the past holidays. It was mighty cold but fun. I head out this holiday weekend for a camping trip with my middle son to Key West. We hope to do a little kayaking and taking in the sites. Both of my sons are young men now (age 21 and 19) and I want to make sure that I stay connected with them. And I had never been to Fort Mountain State Park and I’ve never been to Key West.

My bucket list gets longer every day as there are so many things I want to do and so many places I want to go. I want to live life to the fullest. How about you? Are you living life to the fullest or are you just making time. Simply Put, the choice is ours to make.

From the front porch: Coach said it is not difficult to make a mountain out of a mole hill, just keep addin’ dirt.

"Out with the old, In with the new"

Well another year has come and gone. That makes 48 of them for me. With last week’s Year in Review Edition, we re-ran some of the most notable stories from this past year. While I’m sure that we left a few stories out (due to space limitations), we tried to hit the highlights so to speak.
2008 was a good year in my book. There were plenty of sports memories that will fill young boys or girls scrapbooks for future reference. Looking back though, I note that one great aspect of the year was that we did not lose any of our county’s young athletes to tragic deaths. We lost two in 2007 (Mary Black and Justin Burch) and I am thankful that those tragedies were not repeated in 2008. Sadly though, we did lose several big sports fans during the past year. Mack Rooks and Ed Revell were two of the county’s biggest sports fans and both passed away in 2008. While I am sure there were others who passed away that also loved Jackson County sports, these are two that I knew personally. Both are missed dearly by their families and friends.

But the circle of life, like a good book, means that we must close the chapter of 2008 and move on to the next chapter, 2009. We’re all familiar with the poor state of our economy and the forecasters are calling for more dismal times during the upcoming year. That’s all the more reason to go out and support your favorite high school, college or youth sports team.

We are blessed to have some outstanding sports teams and programs right here under our noses. You need not drive long distances or pay big money for entertainment. Just go and check out some of the local programs. Our high school basketball programs are as good as they come. There are plenty of teams that are having outstanding seasons. Many will make the playoffs and one or two have a shot at going to Lakeland.

And Chipola is having another fine year as the men’s basketball team is ranked #1 in the state and nation. The ladies are ranked #2 in the state and #8 in the nation. Expect the baseball and softball teams to once again vie for a state title. And if that is not enough, there are youth teams by the dozens in our county that boast the future stars of our sports programs.

So support our county teams with your attendance, encouragement and finances. I’ll continue to cover the local sports scene as best as I can and have the extra features (Yesteryear, In The Spot Light, Movin’ On Up, Rollin’ Down The River) that make reading the Jackson County Times something you look forward to. If you do your part and I do mine, Simply Put, 2009 will be another great year.

From the front porch: Uncle Bob comes from a school of thought that if everybody becomes somebody, there wouldn’t be anybody left to be nobody.