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Saturday, March 2, 2024

The night Palatka shut down an entire basketball program for good



The story that I find unique in all these years here is one that took place on a Friday night, March 2, 2018. Like all those other stories above, this, too, happened on the road. When you leave your home area, you really aren't in control of what happens to you or your story.

This night, though, was different. Palatka High School's boys basketball team, coached by Bryant Oxendine  and winners of the Region 2-6A championship the year before and running through an amazing 27-2 season, was looking to repeat that regional title on the road against 27-3 New Port Richey Ridgewood.


On the outside, you might think it's a terrific matchup between two great opponents.


But there was more to this night. In November 2017, the Pasco County school board had voted to end Ridtgewood High and turn it into a technical school and the students there would go to either Gulf High or Fivay High the following year.


It was no secret that night to Oxendine or his players who the villain was in what would be the last high school basketball game hosted in that Ridgewood gym.


"I had read about it before we went down there," Oxendine said recently. "It did overwhelm me a l ittle bit, thinking in my mind this would be that team's last game on that court. I know I didn't want my kids to focus on that."


The problem was it was a 2-hour, 45-minute trip to Ridgewood for Oxendine and his team. And he made it clear on the trip: No basketball talk. He even said he made up something he was mad about so his players wouldn't be thinking about the sentimental part of this very different game.


"We get there and already, it's getting full," Oxendine said of the crowd. "I think they had the students wearing white shirts to have a white-out night. We go into our locker room and I'm thinking, 'Let's see how they respond to this.'"


When I walked into the gym for my one and only time in my career that night, it was a growing madhouse. Ridgewood was trying to make it to Lakeland for the 6A Final Four and many, many students were filling into this nice-sized gymnasium. By estimate, there was easily over 1,000 fans at this game.


You would think the Panthers players -- even with that 27-2 record -- would be a little intimidated by it.

You would be right. Palatka was dominated in rebounds, 11-2, and was fortunate to be down 15-10 at the end of the first quarter because the Panthers forced the Rams into eight turnovers.


Center Mitchell McKinnon's three-point play capped a 6-0 run and gave the Panthers a 16-15 lead. The lead would change hands five times in the quarter before the Rams went in with a 25-24 lead.


"I knew we had not played our best half of basketball," Oxendine said. "But I knew we were defending well. We were in this game."


Oxendine also reminded his players of something that rang true the entire season: They were a third-quarter team. And with that shot of enthusiasm -- and a Ridgewood-dominated fan base continuing to yell everytime the Panthers had the ball -- Palatka went on a 9-3 run to start the quarter, taking a 33-28 lead.


Ridgewood did not back down and went on a 5-0 run to tie it at 33-all. The Panthers answered back with another strong run of 8-4 and held a 41-37 lead going into the fourth quarter.


Two things started to tell the tale down the stretch: A technical foul against Ridgewood's Will Dawson was called.


"Wesley Roberts was asking me who was going to take the techncal foul free throws and my coaches were asking if Chamar (point guard Dumas) or Malik (forward Beauford) would take the free throws and I said to them at that point, 'Let Wesley take them.' And he hit both free throws as part of a 13-point night."


The other thing was how ragged Ridgewood players looked after chasing around the Panthers all evening.


"I saw (Ridgewood) fade and get tired and our guys were not tired," Oxendine said. "By the fourth quarter, we were running them out of their shoes and there were two or three guys on their team that had their heads looking down and someone in the crowd said, 'They're tired.' I could see that and it's something I'll always remember."


But the Panthers player who had the biggest impact on this night was Dumas, the four-year varsity senior who Oxendine said played the best game of his career, scoring a team-high 16 points with seven assists, six rebounds and a steal. Throughout the game, Dumas put his team on his back and eventually guided it to the 64-51 triumph that led to a second straight Final Four appearance, the first time a county boys basketball team had done that in 54 years.


"It was the best game he ever had," Oxendine said of Dumas. "He didn't score a lot of points, but he defended well, he got to the (basket) and he set the tone for us in what was a college basketball atmosphere. He took charge of our team."


At the final buzzer, those who made the long trek from Palatka to Ridgewood were dancing and celebrating the triumph. And those who came to cheer the home team on in what was the last game in that gymnasium left broken-hearted, some even teary-eyed. After 40 years as a program, it was over.

Even Ridgewood head coach Derek Delgado had to hold back tears talking to media members after the game.


"This program had never been to a Final Four before and we really wanted it," Delgado said after the game. "We were so close."


They were until Palatka tired the Rams out down the stretch. And after Oxendine celebrated this title with his team in the opposing locker room afterward, telling them to enjoy this win until midnight, he had to leave the gym that just hosted its last basketball game ever.


"You see all these people coming up to you and congratulating you as you are walking toward the bus and then you get on and you sit and you realize those guys are never going to see their team play again," said Oxendine, who begins a new coaching venture with Interlachen Junior-Senior High this winter. "That's where it hit me. We were a footnote in history as the last team to play (Ridgewood). That's a huge thing to me."


Palatka's bus was heading home, and my car was desperately searching for a fast-food restaurant opened after 11 p.m. to write the story and send to Andy. Thankfully, US-19 was not far from the high school. But it became increasingly difficult to find a restaurant that was open that late, and also had a plug outlet. More and more fast-food places don't provide plug outlets anymore.


Three restraurants had Wi-fi, but not the outlet. If desperate, there was always a hotel to find, but it didn't have food like I was needing at this time.


Finally, I found a McDonald's somewhere between New Port Richey and Holiday. It had an outlet. No one was occupying the seat. So I brought my laptop and paperwork from the game in to type. It's 11:20 p.m. and my deadline is just before 1 a.m.


I order something to eat. Then I get going on the story after reviewing the notes from the game. I get the story written and sent to Andy by 12:20 a.m.


But I had more to do. Interlachen's track and field team was at a meet at Jacksonville Wolfson that night and coach Gerald Swayze was nice enough to get me the information I needed to write a story. So after toggling between the email he sent and the story I was writing through email, it took another 20 minutes to get that done. 


By 12:45 a.m., I was done. I had my last bites of food and was reminded that the restaurant was closing at 1 a.m.


"Thank you so very much for helping me out," I told the manager. By 12:55 a.m., I was on my way back home taking the long route: US-19 to SR-44 in Crystal River, then up CR-491 into Marion County and onto SR-200, which got me to I-75, then US-301 and eventually SR-20 for the final 26 miles home.

By the time I reached my front door, it was just about 4:15 in the morning.


It was a long night, but a very enjoyable night.


I saw the joy of victory and the agony of defeat.


And the end of a high school program.

Monday, February 26, 2024

These Panthers were hardly intimidated



This night five years ago was pretty special.

All I kept hearing was that this Gainesville Eastside High School boys basketball team was dominant and had too many ways for Palatka to handle. There's no way that the Panthers would hang with the host Rams and that the Eastside gym would be too intimidating for the Panthers to handle.

I found that astounding considering that some of these Panthers like Wesley Roberts, Malik Beauford, Y'dontae Smith and Mitchell McKinnon had gone to two FHSAA Final Fours. No matter where these guys traveled, the crowd was the "least" of their concerns.

So on this Tuesday night, February 26, 2019 -- and after I had eaten at Sonny's BBQ up the road from the school where my waitress was a former Interlachen High girls soccer player -- I had made the short jaunt from there to Eastside High for the Palatka-Eastside game.

The Panthers had all those solid veterans and were 24-4 going into this Region 2-6A semifinal showdown. But the Rams certainly had the homecourt advantage. They were 12-0 at home during the year and were 26-2 overall. They had a gunner who was not afraid to take the ball to the basket in Koren Bradley. They had steady senior guard James Pope and a dominant big guy in forward Emontea Shannon.

If that was not enough, the Rams also had a strong shooting guard-strong forward at 6-foot-4 who was a better football player, but a very good basketball player named Anthony Richardson.

Yes, THAT Anthony Richardson who went on to play quarterback at the University of Florida and is now the projected starting quarterback for the 2024 Indianapolis Colts after recovering from an injury.

He was just another good basketball player on this great Rams team. But Bryant Oxendine, now in his third year as Palatka coach, was not intimidated by this Rams squad at all.

Even as the bleachers was filling up, and before long, fans started to stand up against the wall behind the basket on the gymnasium entrance side.

The teams spent the first half measuring each other out and by the break, Eastside had the 29-26 lead.

But I've seen Palatka teams under Oxendine rally in the third quarter. They got rejuvenated in that third period, but Eastside stuck with the Panthers and held a 47-46 lead going into the fourth quarter.

Then it got interesting.

The Panthers would take the lead, only to see the Rams take it back. Palatka had the ball with 33 seconds to go and Oxendine called a timeout. He set up a play for his point guard, Smith, to find an alley way to the basket, draw a defender to him and dish the ball to an open man underneath OR ... just take the ball himself to the basket to give the Panthers the lead.

But with 33 seconds left, Smith started dribbling to find that opening. There was none. There was no defender leaving his man to pick him up. So Oxendine called another timeout with eight seconds to go and the ball to be inbounded in front of the Panthers' bench on their side of the court.

"We called the play (the first tine), but (Eastside) didn't bite for it. We called another time out and ran a play called 'in-the-quarter' play. We wanted to take the last shot. I told Y'dontae to run the clock all the way down," Oxendine said.

So Smith got the ball in front of the bench. He passed off to McKinnon, Palatka's 6-5 center and tallest player, near the sideline. McKinnon got the ball back to Smith and Smith began to dribble in front of Bradley.

With one quick step, Smith beat Bradley. That drew Shannon from his forward spot in front of Beauford toward Smith. Finally, McKinnon was not in a hurry to head to the basket, so that meant the guy who was covering him was just hanging out until he saw Smith make his move to the basket.

Yup ... Anthony Richarsdon.

Richardson (slightly) and Shannon left the young men they were guarding and Smith had a wide-open Beauford under the basket that he threw a perfect short pass to and Beauford nailed the shot to give Palatka the 61-59 lead with 4.6 seconds left.

Pandemonium among Palatka fans broke out. Eastside legendary coach Herman "Pop" Williams called a timeout.

That's when it got a bit off the rails. The officials had to reset the clock time and Eastside did not have one of those clocks that they can punch in a time and just go from there We had to wait over a minute so the clock would get to where it needed to be.

Under his basket, Bradley threw a pass to Shannon. Shannon raced as fast as he could and just as he was ready to take a shot, he was fouled by Smith.

Yes ... fouled! What the hell was he doing?! Smith would explain later he didn't think Shannon was going to shoot. Seriously?! They are in hurry-up mode and down two points!! How can you NOT see this coming?

But the damage was done and all of us who had made the trek across State Road-20 to Eastside were not out of the woods yet with 1.6 seconds left in regulation. Shannon was two successful free throws away from tying this game again.

Once the ball was handed to Shannon, he took a few dribbles, then put up his shot.

Clang! Off the back iron!

Palatka fans were elated, but the moment was nearly marred by one fan who didn't think about what his actions were going to be like when he stepped out onto the court in celebration.

The whistle blew.

Oh, no!! NOOOOOOOO!! Please, officials ... don't let this game be decided by an enthusiastic kid who didn't know his place at that time. Another officials meeting took place for about 30-45 seconds. I mean ... they were literally thinking about slapping the Panthers with a technical foul.

In the end, the officials chose not to penalize Palatka, much to the chagrin of the Eastside fans. So Shannon got the ball from the official and we ALL KNEW what was going to happen next. Down two and with one free throw left, Shannon was to bang the ball off the rim and then a free-for-all would take place in those last 1.6 seconds. It was inevitable.

Except it didn't happen. Shannon, for some reason, sank the free throw to make it 61-60. OK, so now I'm expecting Mitchell McKinnon to get the ball in to a teammate and that teammate be fouled to send them to the line.

McKinnon got the ball from the official and hit Roberts.

But no one was near Roberts. Suddenly, 1.6 seconds turned into 0.0.

Palatka fans celebrated, then hit the court to hug and celebrate with the players.

Palatka had survived the 61-60 win. It was emotional, and at one point in my interview, I asked the tougher-than-nails Oxendine if he even cried a little afteward.

"Hell, no. We don't cry here!" he answered.

OK, so for much for emotion. Oxendine did say, "We're a good basketball team. I tell these guys everyday just to compete."

And while the elation was there on one end, I ended up with a couple of other reporters, I think one from the Gainesville Sun, interviewing Williams. For all the great the Rams had that year and in the previous ccouple of years, they couldn't conquer the Panthers in three straight postseason games the last three years.

Oh, and Williams was blunt when he said this.

"We don't have the toughness to dig down. They are great kids, but they've got to learn to dig down and play hard. And Palatka started to come up into us. It was a great officiated game. I just think we didn't stand up to the challenge ... the boxing match. If we had stood up to the challenge, I think we would've come out on top."

Getting out of the gym and back in the car, I sped back east on SR-20 to get back to the Daily News building to recount what I had just seen. And what "Pop" Williams said afterward.

It made great sense because in all those postseason losses, Eastside may have had the better record, but it did not have the physical presence to push Palatka around.

And Palatka made more plays than Eastside in the end. I got back to the building by just after 10 p.m., wrote the story after chasing down some spring sports stuff. And got done with plenty of time with everything.

Palatka WAS the better team that night ... not by much, but the Panthers were. Their physical AND mental toughness was better. Unfortunately three nights later, the bid to make it to Lakeland for a THIRD consecutive Final Four was taken away by a better Brooksville Nature Coast High team, especially when Palatka shot 6-for-28 from the field and had to play catch-up most of the second half.

But the Eastside win will always stand out. The Panthers were tested ... they knew they were going to be tested ... and stood up to a really good Eastside team.

A Rams team that was 12-0 at home ... until that game.

These Pathers were unique.

Sunday, January 21, 2024

Oh, so close



The Jacksonville Jaguars were a study of futility. Either the team was woefully bad or teasing its fan base with almost being a playoff team.

The 2016 season ended at 3-13 and saw management fire the affable Gus Bradley with two games left in the season. Though Doug Marrone didn't have that gregarious personality, he was very friendly with us media types who have covered this Jaguars team, me since 2003.

Until the 2017 season, I had never witnessed a Jaguars postseason game in person. But with what the Jaguars had -- and the blossoming play of fourth-year veteran quarterback Blake Bortles -- the 2017 season was setting up to be something special. We just didn't notice it was going to happen.

So when the Jaguars clinched the AFC South title -- and first divisional crown since 1999 -- us scribes knew we were going to get one home game at least. That was January 7, 2018. It was far from a pretty game, but if you loved defense, you were in your element.

The Jaguars beat the offensively deprived Buffalo Bills, 10-3.

This meant a trip to the AFC Divisional round and a matchup in Pittsburgh. I told my boss, Andy, that if the Jaguars found a way to beat the famed Steel Curtain, I would be on a plane with our Jaguars/Gators photographer, John Studwell, by the following weekend to New England and to cover the AFC Championship game between the Jags and the defending Super Bowl champion Patriots.

First, though ... the Steelers. Unlike the previous game I saw in person, defense was optional. The two teams battled it out until the Steelers simply ran out of time.

Jaguars 45, Steelers 42. Mark was on his way to Foxborough.

Suddenly, it was reality, and not that I was going to be in Foxborough for the AFC Championship. Checking air prices for the trip became harsh reality. A simple flight from Orlando International to Providence went from $79 round trip ... to $258 round trip.

That was out. Orlando to Boston was not much cheaper and also out. And prices from Jacksonville International to key New England cities were ridiculous.

The only thing that worked for John and I -- and we spent more time on the phone than we normally did during regular seasons -- was a trip from Orlando to Hartford. That was $157 round trip. This was not including the hotel (I worked a deal on whatever points I had with the hotel chain we were staying at for both of us to pay $62 a night at a hotel 10 miles south of where Gillette Stadium was in North Attleboro). 

We arrived at Hartford, got the rental car that I would use for two nights and we were on our way through the hills of Connecticut instead of taking the Massachusetts Turnpike. It was cold and I didn't know how icy it was. We stopped at a pizza place along the way that wasn't bad with pizza, but not great either.

It wasn't until about 8 p.m. we got to the hotel along U.S.-1. We checked in and both of us paid for our hotel room nights. I was working on a musical project up until 11:30 p.m. when Saturday Night Live came on our TV (Jessica Chastain was the host). Went to bed just after 1 (John was long asleep) and woke up about 8 a.m. that morning.

John and I had a couple of stops to make. We stopped at Dunkin' Donuts (where its plentiful in New England) and got coffee and something to eat, then went to a CVS to pick up something else. We were back in our hotel room and just hanging out there until it was time to go. That was 12:50 p.m. for a 3 p.m. kickoff.

Ten miles away didn't take long and the traffic surrounding Gillette Stadium was manageable. In total, it was about 25 minutes total from the time we left our hotel to arrive in the parking lot. If Jacksonville could be this manageable.

It took some time for John to get his equipment, but I was taking in the sights and sounds of this stadium I had never been to before. It was 46 degrees, so it was winter comfortable for me in a warm jacket. John and I found our way to the main gate of the stadium.

Once there, we were told to put our equipment on the ground. A big brown dog was going to sniff our bags. I thought, "This is unusual." But once the dog did his duty, we were allowed to continue to where we needed to go. We parted ways and I was on my way up to the press box where I saw some Jacksonville-based scribes I had known over the years. And I saw Boston-based writers I had seen over the years, including longtime Boston writers that I had only heard of or seen on television. I sat at a table next to them having the pregame meal.

I had a really great seat in the press box in the corner of the stadium. It was so surreal: For the first time since Super Bowl XXXIX in Jacksonville 13 years earlier, I was here covering an important NFL playoff game. One Jaguars win and they were heading to Minneapolis for Super Bowl LII.

The first half was promising as the Jaguars could make it. Blake Bortles threw a touchdown to veteran tight end Marcedes Lewis and running back Leonard Fournette scored on a 4-yard run, and though James White scored in the late first half after a controversial pass interference penalty was called on A.J. Bouye, you felt good for the Jaguars and the fans who made the trek to Massachusetts for the game.

But could they hold on? I got me a bowl of authentic clam chowder and returned to my seat in the press box as the second half began. Josh Lambo provided the only scoring of the third quarter with a 54-yard field goal, making it 17-10.

Lambo would follow up that kick with a 43-yard field goal eight seconds into the fourth quarter to make it 20-10. The Patriots had the ball again and then came the play of the game.

The Patriots tried some razzle-dazzle with a double pass. The second of those passes went to running back Dion Lewis, who had blockers in front of him as he matriculated the ball down the field. But he never saw linebacker Myles Jack, who not only got a hold of him, but literally took the ball away from him. When they both fell to the ground, Jack had the ball, jumped up and started heading the other way for what should have been a Jaguars touchdown the other way.

I knew something did not look right when Lewis and Jack fell the ground from my view way up in the press box with the naked eye. But the way Jack reacted by slamming the ball to the turf after the whistle was blown, I knew the Jaguars were getting screwed.

And they did. Instead of possibly 27-10 with 13 minutes to go in the game, all the Jaguars got was the ball back on the fumble. And with the way the Jaguars' offense sputtered against an improving Patriots defense, I knew it was a matter of time before the game's momentum shifted.

Eventually, the Patriots got the ball back and scored on a Tom Brady TD pass to Danny Amendola of nine yards to cut the lead to 20-17,

Suddenly, I remembered all the bad moments the Jaguars had leading up to this season. When something went wrong or was going wrong, things would snowball out of control. And when Bortles and the Jaguars could not move the ball and were forced to punt the ball away, the reality was settling in.

It's Tom Brady. He has the ball and the game is on the line.

GOAT at work.

Thanks to that Amendola guy again -- returning the punt 20 yards to the Jaguars' 30 -- Brady needed five plays to go those 30 yards with the last play being Brady hitting Amendola in the back of the end zone with the receiver tip-toeing the back line.

The extra point gave the Patriots their first lead since 3-0 with 2:48 to go.

Bortles and the Jaguars had one more chance. And if not for Stephon Gilmore making a dynamic, one-handed defensive play, Bortles and Dede Westbrook would have been Jaguars heroes for life. Gilmore knocked a potential 42-yard down-and-out TD.

That was on fourth down. The Patriots took over and when Lewis ran for a first down on an 18-yard run, the fate was sealed in a 24-20 Patriots triumph and trip to Minneapolis for the Super Bowl.

Once I found my way with other writers I knew to the Jaguars smallish locker room, we talked with Marrone nd Bortles, who addressed the media. I remember talking with the great Calais Campbell, the leader and "mayor" of Sacksonville defensively. I talked with Marqise Lee, one of the Jaguars' top receivers, and I talked with Jack, who was impressed by the Patriots' resiliency down 14-3 and not panicking.

As for the TD that wasn't by Jack, none of the players, including Jack, were going to berate the officials afterward. They, as everyone mentioned, didn't make enough plays in the end. As for the future, Campbell cautioned how difficult it is to get back to this point again after working so hard to be there. Lee thought it was going to be a given to be back there after all that work Campbell described and the experience the team picked up along the way.

Turns out Campbell was a profit. The Jaguars have won just one potseason game since then and had to endure a 1-15 2020 season along the way in which Marrone was fired and Doug Pederson took over.

I had started writing my lead, but John said he would wait in the car. So after getting the interviews I needed, I packed my stuff up and took the elevator back to the ground floor. But before I headed back to the parking lot and the car where John was sitting warmly in since he had a key to our rental, I walked onto the turf at Gillette Stadium and took in the sights and sounds one last time in a now-empty stadium except for the workers. I decided on taking a selfie of me with the scoreboard behind me.

From there, I headed off back to the car as John and I headed back to our hotel room. There, I got my laptop out of my bag and started working on the rest of the story, while watching the Philadelphia Eagles (with Pederson as coach) destroy the Minnesota Vikings in the NFC Championship.

It wasn't until after midnight that I went to bed. I was up at around 4:45 in the morning since John and I had to check out and head back on a rainy, cold Monday Massachusetts morning. This time, I took the Massachusetts Turnpike heading west to Springfield and down I-84 back into Hartford to drop the rental off, then get driven to the airport to head back.

It was just a miserable morning with the rain and the clouds and the cold. But eventually, John and I boarded our Spirit Airlines flight back to Orlando. We arrived at 2 p.m., got taken back to my car and we drove to a nearby Wawa to get something to drink, then back onto I-4 and eventually to I-95 where I got John safely back to his wife at Denny's at Exit 305, then headed back up SR-206 back to SR-207 and eventually back to Palatka, where I made it back to my apartment by 5 p.m.

I got an hour-and-a-half sleep and eventually got to work after 7:30 p.m. where it was business as usual.

The weekend was officially over. And though the Jaguars lost, it was a fun time in Foxborough. One day, I'll make it back to an AFC Championship where the Jaguars actually win.

Until then, I'll continue to live the dream until the dream becomes reality.



Tuesday, November 28, 2023

Back to Jersey for my first non-Florida NFL road game



Until this Sunday afternoon, the only time I had seen the Jaguars play a football game outside of Jacksonville was the road trip I took to Tampa in 2007 to see them beat the Buccaneers. Oh, and if you ever get a chance to do a game at Raymond James Stadium, try the Bananas Foster ... to die for!

Once the 2010 NFL schedule came out, I had one road game pencilled in: November 28 at the New Meadowlands Stadium (now Met Life Stadium) against the New York Giants. It gave me a built-in excuse to escape northeastern Florida and come home for Thanksgiving.

And by Thanksgiving, the Jaguars were vying for a postseason spot at 6-4 and a contender for the AFC South crown. The Giants were 6-4 as well and also a playoff contender. Everything was perfect for a homecoming.

It was a long day before Thanksgiving, though. I had come into the Palatka Daily News building to do some work. I needed to be done by 4 p.m. so I had a fighting chance to get on an airplane. First, though, I had to travel from Palatka to Jacksonville to pick up the parking pass as well as press credential. Then I had to turn around after 5:30 p.m. in complete darkness now and head off to I-95 and down to I-4 and onto Orlando International Airport for a trip to Atlantic City International.

Throughout most of the trip, I made the mistake to listen to sports talk radio on Sirius XM. The whoooooole trip from Jax to O-town was about the terrible 8-7 start of the Miami Heat and new free agent signings LeBron James and Chris Bosh, who joined Dwyane Wade as this impenetrable and dynamic force.

Sports talk radio, aka Specialty Diarrhea of the Mouth.

Thankfully, I had enough to change the station to one of the other dozen stations I was listening to.

Hello, Seventies on 7!

I arrived at Orlando International sometime around 8:15 p.m., got shuttled from my car to the airport, and it didn't take more than 5 minutes -- I swear! -- to go through security before I could sit and relax before the flight. It was about 8:45 p.m. The flight was at 9:35 p.m. I was to arrive at around 11:35 p.m.

Boarded the plane and found out I was sitting near the back of the plane next to the father of a former Toms River South athlete who I really got to know in the early to mid 1990s when he worked at 7-Eleven on Route 37 named Bobby Batullo. Very nice man.

The flight was smooth and uneventful actually. Arrived at 11:30 p.m. and got picked up by my sister and her boyfriend not much longer after that and we were on our way back to my childhood home by 12:45 a.m. (there was a stop at Wawa for something to eat).

Little did I know this would be the last Thanksgiving dinner I would have with my parents while they were still alive. I was up there for almost a week. I had gone out to Applebee's at the Ocean County Mall the night before the game on that Saturday. I do not remember if any of my stories I did at the Observer from the 1998 Little League World Series venture of Toms River East American were still up on the wall, but I do remember trying to find them while I was there.

Anyway, the 28th arrived and I was to take my mother's Cadillac to the game. It wasn't until I got to the Garden State Parkway entrance at Exit 88 did I feel comfortable traveling in it. But once I got that car going toward East Rutherford, I was cruising.

Left at 10 a.m. and finally parked at 11:30 (traffic ... oh, the traffic!!). It was my first time ever in this stadium. At the old Giants Stadium, the only time I ever went there was for a Billy Joel-Elton John concert in July 1994. Never had I gone to the old stadium for a sporting event.

Yet, here I was walking toward this new stadium, going through security with press credentials around my neck heading into the stadium and finding my way upstairs to the press box, putting my stuff down next to fellow Jacksonville-based scribes. Found out Times-Union writer Vito Sterino came from Jersey like me. The little things you find out.

This would turn out to be the first of three trips to Met Life Stadium over the next eight years (I'd do a Jags-Jets game in 2017 and another Jags-Giants game in 2018). I ended up grabbing some rye bread and roast beef and turkey and making a sandwich before the game. Yeah ... try that option in Jacksonville!!

As for the game itself, the Jaguars held a 17-6 halftime lead and were looking good toward another victory. Then Eli Manning went to work at quarterback, hitting Brandon Jenkins and Kevin Boss for big completions berfore delivering a 26-yard TD pass to Mario Manningham. Ahmad Bradshaw's 2-point conversion to tie it at 17-all.

Josh Scobee would kick a 42-yard field goal to give the Jaguars the lead again, 20-17, but Manning and the Giants would respond and when Courtney Green could not wrap up Boss, the Giants' tight end was on his way to a 32-yard touchdown and the lead at 24-20 with 3:15 left.

The Jags had one more opportunity, but big David Garrard was sacked three times in the final drive and the final one forced a fumble that Antrel Rolle recovered to seal the Giants' victory.

The day itself was sunny, but cold. And I remember having to take an elevator down to the ground floor and walking through a tunnel way to get to where the Jaguars' locker room was located.

"Got to do it for 60 minutes," said Maurice Jones-Drew, who ran for 113 yards on this day. The loss dropped the Jaguars' record on the road to 2-3, a point emphasized by then-head coach Jack Del Rio.

"You need to put wins together and this was an opportunity today where many things transpired and we had a great opportunity to do just that and didn't get it done."

There were a number of straight-laced but sad-looking faces in the Jaguars' locker room. Little did we know that loss would lead to four setbacks in the final six games and keep the Jaguars from the postseason.

I made it back upstairs and I started writing this story. Now, I was in Jersey -- my old stomping grounds. And I remembered I was at the Meadowlands ... near the swampy areas of Jersey. Suddenly, a line came into my head that New Jersey's most famous modern-day poet wrote and wouldn't you know it ... INSPIRATION!

"Then came the second half. And to paraphrase favorite state on Bruce Springsteen's car in his classic, "Rosalita," the Jaguars' offense became a dud and was stuck in the mud somewhere in the swamps of Jersey."

This was why I get paid the big bucks in intelligence dollars since the real ones don't exist in my profession at all.

It was dark by the time I left to head back home to Toms River. I now pretty much had the next day and a half to myself. I met my friends Yanny, Double-V and Bobby G at an area eatery the next night on Route 37. By Tuesday morning, I was back on a plane and heading back to Orlando, thankful for the time I had there.

My first non-Florida NFL road trip was over, and a part of me wondered what it would be like to do this on a weekly basis. I was indifferent over it.

But I can say it was memorable.

Friday, November 10, 2023

The ecstasy and agony of a state football tournament victory ... for us

Not every story I tell is a glorious one.

Well, there ARE glorious stories I tell, but there's a lot of shit behind it that makes you wonder why a) I put up with what I do and b) I never got arrested for smashing people's heads in.

In my 21 years at the Palatka Daily News, only one county team has won a Florida High School Athletic Association state football playoff game (I'm stopping you now, Interlachen 2022 fans of that Sunshine State Athletic Association title ... it doesn't fit this category!).

It was this Friday night five years ago that my late boss, Andy Hall, and I were over at Wisnoski Field at Wiltcher Stadium covering Crescent City's state playoff football game between the Raiders and Fort Meade, which was coached by former Florida Gator Jemalle Cornelius. And here's the weird part: I COVERED Cornelius when he WAS Fort Meade's quarterback in a destruction of Marathon High in the FHSAA 1A semifinals in the Keys in 2000 when I worked down there as Citizen sports editor.

Crescent City had also played Fort Meade before when they were District 8-1A rivals, so I got to know Cornelius as a coach.

While Cornelius was a former Gator, Crescent City's head coach was a former Florida State Seminole -- the beloved and legendary Clarence "Pooh Bear" Williams. He was now in his second year as the Raiders' head coach and they were having a great campaign with an 8-2 regular-season mark.

In the restructured FHSAA football playoff system, Crescent City was the fourth seed compared to the fifth seeded Miners, so that meant they had to come all the way up from south Polk County to play this game against the Raiders on their field. Trust me when I say this: I don't wish that ride on anyone. It's three-plus hours on state highways and Interstate-4. It's far from a fun trip and win or lose, Fort Meade was not coming home from this game until sometime after 1 in the morning.

As far as the coverage of the game went, it was planned out that I would cover the football game and Andy would write the column. This was NOT our plan, by the way. This was the "scheme" of our editor, who shall remain nameless since he is the worst editor I ever worked for.

Because HE had a background as a former sports editor, HE thought he could run our sports department for the short time he was there. In all my years I've been in this business, I have never wanted to punch a news editor in the face more than this guy. It was seven days earlier on November 2, 2018, that I got called into his office and asked me why we didn't have pictures of Crescent City's regular-season finale, a dominant win at Newberry, in the paper. He didn't ask Andy ... he asked me. I guess he felt that I was more reasonable to deal with than my old-school boss.

"It rained," I started. "And I've got a deadline to meet and I'm trying to do the statistics and write a story. That's time consuming enough! Then you want me to find pictures with no guarantee that I might have a good picture. No! I'm not multi-tasking like that and beside, Andy told me I didn't have to take pictures."

"Well, he isn't in charge of that! I want you to take pictures! We're supposed to have a picture for every football game we cover in this paper!"

Now keep in mind -- this jackass thought it was a wonderful idea to work the one photographer we did have, Chris, into the ground, so much so that Chris quit. This was mere weeks earlier and there was no way in hell we were going to get another full-time photographer at that point. That was made clear by said-jackass.

"So let me see if I get this straight: If I'm covering a boys basketball game and I'm keeping statistics and what not and trying to do a A-class job, I'm supposed to take photos, too?"

"Yes."

"No! I ain't doing that shit because you're taking away from what I do best. You're going to ask me to do the impossible task of all those jobs in one? Absolutely not! If I have a guy who is going for a triple-double, I can guarantee you the young girls who are doing the statistics aren't going to be as thorough as I am."

He basically didn't give a shit about that explanation ... or my job for that matter. He was trying to appease a publisher who put clamps down on him so hard that he was willing to accept mediocrity instead of excellence, and I'll say that to my dying day.

It was in that conversation I just wanted to hit this guy. I've never felt that way about any immediate boss I ever had. He thought his way of doing our jobs was better and both Andy and I knew he was not good at all.

Anyway, back to this story: To do our jobs properly, Andy and I were going to concentrate on the game with me keeping the stats upstairs in the press box, him next to me and having conversations during the game. Our editor was going to be on the field taking pictures and doing a Facebook interview with coach Williams at halftime.

As long as he stayed out of our ways and let us do what we had to do, we were going to be OK.

So I remember before the game began, I'm up in the press box and the editor is already there killing time before he went on the field. Turns out we had to wait almost an hour before kickoff -- lightning was in the vacinity and no game kicks off until that distraction is out of the area. Ironically, the season began with a lightning delay on the same field in the preseason game. Great bookmarks, weather-wise.

And we waited. Meanwhile, the editor asked me to do an interview outside the press box on Facebook to talk about this game. I gave my keys as to what Crescent City had to do, the natural "control the game" and "not commit turnovers" and they would be successful.

By 7:30, the teams were allowed to come out and warm up again. Andy arrived before that and I told him of the delay, which drew a blank response because that meant we were going to miss the 1 a.m. deadline.

Reason No. 53 as to why I was hating this job.

The teams finally kick off and Crescent City grabs a 7-0 lead when all-everything quarterback Naykee Scott throws a touchdown in the back of the end zone of 25 yards to Bernard Wright III on the first possession of the game. Christian Lopez kicked the point after.

The Raiders' defense was doing the rest. The Raiders held Cornelius' Miners to just 57 yards in the first half. And quarterback Dearrick Howard was having a nightmare-like game, getting sacked six times by that relentless Raider D.

The Raiders added on to their score as Scott dodged and weaved Miners defenders for an 11-yard score to make it 14-0 with 5:32 left in the half. They had another chance to score before halftime, but running back Mario Miler fumbled inside the Miners' 10 and the Miners recovered at their 9. 

Our editor took pictures and got his interview with Williams and left. Andy and I had one more half of football to cover. Before this game, the Raiders and Palatka had combined to go 0-14 in the postseason since 2002, the last time a county team won a state tournament game in the sport.

That stop of Miler on the fumble gave the Miners some momemtum into the third quarter. Twice, Howard had his team in Crescent City territory. But Wright ended one drive with an interception in the end zone, then Howard was stopped on fourth and 5 at the Raider 25 after the Miners had picked off Scott in his own territory,

Those drives may have made a difference for the Miners -- and shown how snakebitten Crescent City ... Putnam County, really ... was these last 16 years in the postseason.

Finally early in the fourth quarter, the Miners finally found the end zone as Howard hit receiver Jonathon Berrien with an 8-yard scoring strike. But kicker Adam Reyes missed the extra point, making it 14-6. Still, the Miners were within one score of the Raiders in spite of all their offensive woes.

It was Scott playing the role of punter that kept any momentum going on the Fort Meade side. His second beauty of a punt -- a 37-yarder -- was downed at the Miners' 4-yard line late in the game. The Miners couldn't punt the ball away anymore. This was do or die for them. And after getting 1 whole yard on the drive, the Miners forfeited the ball back to the Raiders at the 5 on downs with 2:08 left,

Two plays later, Scott scored on a 2-yard run in which he was pushed with the help of his team rugby-style into the end zone. Scott ran the 2-point conversion in to make it 22-6 with 1:52 left.

It was over and the Miners knew it. One last offensive attempt failed and the Raiders and their fans celebrated their first state playoff win since 2000, a 22-6 triumph that had players beaming from ear to ear. Andy got his interview with defensive coordinator Wes Thompson, whose defense held the Miners to 100 total yards. He left to go back to the offense and do his column.

I stuck around for a bit to hang out in the Raiders' football building and locker room, interviewing both Williams and Scott. I remember Scott telling me he never had dreams of being a quarterback. He was more than happy to play defense. But three years after I saw his debut at quarterback under dirress and difficult circumstances in Pahokee, he had helped make history for his team ... and Putnam County.

As for Williams, he was not just satisfied with the win. 

"We want to win a state championnship," he said. "When you're confident in what you're doing, you think about winning a state title. We are excited not because we won, but we keep going."

I said my goodbyes to the coaching staff, left the building and headed back up US-17 to Palatka and back to the Daily News headquarters. My boss was still writing his column, but close to finishing it, and my editor was sitting diagonally from where I sit trying to put together the "photo" page from this game.

He had dumped his photos into our sports photo folder. Andy got done writing his column and I was working on my boxscore/summary and then story when he called me over.

Andy had seen the pictures and he turned his head away from me, trying not to laugh as I looked at the photos our boss gave us.

They were awful. No, no, no ... they were f*cking awful. The backs of heads, coach Williams reacting to a play but you don't see his face and stupid pictures -- I do mean stupid -- of players lining up before the ball is snapped. It was complete amateur hour stuff.

I've said it before and I'll say it to my dying day: Any idiot can take a point-and-shoot picture, but you need some talent to actually take clear action shots!

I did my best not to say anything or react. I went back to writing my story and doing the boxscore. I was done around 12:10 in the morning (I had gotten back to the paper just after 11 p.m.). I still had a scoreboard page to put together, and Andy still had the rest of the sports section to do. He found the one action picture that worked ... even if it was a bit blurry.

So we're trying to finish the paper out and get it to print by 1 in the morning on Friday football nights ... our deadline. It's 12:45 and we finish up. That's when Mr. "I Know It All" Editor speaks up.

"How many of my pictures did you use? He needed an idea of what Andy did so he could really go full out with the photo page.

Andy answered in only the way Andy could:

"Just one."

"One?! That's it? Why did I work so hard to get pictures for this game? I do think we should use more than one!"

And now, here's the moment I will always remember when the affable, funny, charming Andy Hall completely lost it for one moment:

"Fine! I'll f*ckin' re-invent the wheel!!"

And so to appease him, he put a mediocre picture of the two teams lining up before a play on the jump page, which meant whatever extra agate I had gotten done had to be taken out, not that I was going to lose sleep over it at all. We got done, but we were now 10 minutes late.

Our boss was still working on that "photo page," which featured some really terrible pictures on it. I'm not lying by any means there. Once he said he'd post the e-edition online, something either Andy or I did normally, we posted the local sports stories on Facebook and our website and left.

That was it. On a night where we saw a Putnam County team win a state tourament football game, both he and I had gone through this torturous evening with a clueless boss who thought his way was the best way.

Three days later, I'm back at work. And the first thing I see is a memo from our publisher to tell us that our editor was no longer employed by the paper. Either he quit out of disgust or got fired. Turns out it was the latter from my sources.

We didn't have to have this overbearing human being run our sports department ever again. But Andy and I decided we would double cover Crescent City's next state playoff game against Hawthorne ... same scenario where I wrote the story and he wrote the column.

The Raiders lost that game, 50-27, but that's another story considering I got threatened before that game by one of Hawthorne's coaches. Oh, it's a doozy and showed me that people do read what I write, even if it hurts their feelings a little.

As I said before, not every story I tell is a glorious one. But at times, it has a happy ending.



Friday, October 6, 2023

For one weekend, I was "Perfect-Score Guy"

It was the late summer/early fall of 2003 and ESPN was conducting a contest to see who would be the next "SportsCenter" anchor. It was part of the promotion called "ESPN Dream Job."

I happened to look at the schedule and there it was: St. Pete Times Forum, Saturday, October 4, 2003.

Now what the heck did I know about being a broadcaster, reporting the news to millions of people who were watching it?

Abso-freakin'-lutely nothing! I had plenty of work on the radio over the years in Toms River, N.J. and in Key West. I did the occasional sports show on Clear Cable 8 in the 1990s with my good friend Art Criss hosting. It took a lot of paying attention to what the host or commentator said and me not answering, "What? What did you say?"

Other than flapping my gums to make it sound like I was talking coherently, I just danced the on-the-air stiletto dance. In other words, I had plenty of knowledge, just not enough to think I was anything great in broadcasting.

Good, I thought, but not great.

Still, it couldn't hurt to find out if I had what it takes to play the role of a broadcaster. The arena was 2 1/2 hours away and I was willing to start heading down to Tampa at 2:50 in the morning with no sleep at all and done with the Palatka Daily News after another round of Friday night football.

I didn't know how long I was going to last, but I planned to be done with this and meet an online friend named Michele afterward. She lived in St. Petersburg. At least I had that to look forward to.

I drove throughout those early Saturday morning hours and then arrived at the arena by 5:50 a.m. There were a few people in front of me, but I was in a very good position to be part of the first group to go in and interview/test. It was mostly a lot of talking about our "dream job" and how it was going to go and there were mostly young men, at least 10-15 years younger than me, and there were a few ladies in the line.

We started talking about how this was all going to go down ... figured it would be "write your own script with something that happened" or "see how well you speak in front of a camera." Honestly, I"m not sure what any of this was going to be like. So you know everyone had to be on guard here.

At 7:10 a.m., the first 30 of us were allowed in as the line behind me began to grow with lots of candidates to be the dude or lady working next to Dan Patrick or Stuart Scott or Linda Cohn. In other words, there were a lot of wannabe dreamers behind us.

The 30 of us or maybe more than 30 of us were brought into the arena and we had to walk down a hallway until we got to a place that looked like a large college classroom. We were about to find out what the first part of the test to be a "SportsCenter" anchor was going to be about.

They put a test in front of us and those running this little event wanted to find out how much we knew about sports.

Unless everyone there was an absolute sports nut, I knew I was going to the second round. Now, I can't remember every question that was asked on these four sheets of paper, but I do know a couple: Who was the American League Cy Young Award winner in 2002? (Barry Zito) and what were the two leagues that made up Triple-A baseball (International and Pacific Coast leagues).

I knew I did well. When the tests were taken from us, I felt confident I had made the second round. I was uncertain of a couple of these questions (and they were all from a variety of sports), but I felt like I was going to move on.

A half-hour passed by and we were still in our seats. Then one of the young ladies running the entire day bellowed out the first names of those who were moving on.

I heard my name. So we were moving on to another room after the names of 10 of us were revealed aloud. As I put my blue dress jacket back on, I head out the door and the young lady who had told us who was advancing approached me.

"I just want to let you know that you got all the questions right and you're the first person we've tested in all our stops who got all 30 correct."

I was absolutely, freakin' dumbfounded. I smiled, but it felt awkward. All these stops ESPN's tour made and I'm the first person to nail all 30 of these questions? Wow! 

But though I may have aced the test, the next part was going to throw me off. The 10 of us were put into another room not very far away from the testing area. This time, we were standing around a table, all 10 of us, and we had another representative, though to be honest, this guy was so far away from where I was that I had no clue whatsoever what we were about to do next ... and sure as shit, guess who got to be the starting guinea pig for this?

Yup ... me! And I had no freakin' clue what this hopped-up-on-Red Bull bunny was saying. He just points to me and I go, "What? What am I doing?" He told me to emulate by play by play my most favorite sports moment of all time.

At that moment, I couldn't come up with anything other than a luke-warm "And it's going back ... way back ... it's gone." I still believe to this day that if I didn't go first, I would have done much better. But I had no idea of what I was going to emulate. This is what happens when you have several great moments in your head, but your mouth doesn't record what your brain might be thinking.

After I went, the others were nailing their favorite calls of all-time in the way they interpreted it. Then I, along with the rest of the group, was asked who the nost overrated athlete was at that time.

Thankfully I wasn't going first here. I had time to think about it. When it came to me, I knew what I was going to say.

"Chipper Jones. Because for all the greatness he delivers every year, how many World Series titles does he have? One. That's all ... one."

I redeemed myself a little better here, but that play-by-play bit hurt. And I knew it did. I just wasn't good at that time at improvisation, making shit up as I went along.

I never said I was a great dancer. By the time this was done, it was 8:45. And because I was among the first people tested, I had to wait hours upon hours upon hours to see if I made it into the next part of the testing.

By that time, it was almost 2 p.m. I had been at this arena for eight-plus hours. I was asked by one of the young ladies there to write a short "SportsCenter" spot that I would read in front of a camera, whenever that time was going to be.

Thankfully, the bar inside the St. Pete Times Forum was open. And that meant the TVs were on. And I had my eyes affixed to what was on that day: Major League Baseball playoff games. One TV had Game 4 of the series between the San Francisco Giants and Florida Marlins in Miami, another had Game 3 of the series between the New York Yankees and Minnesota Twins at the Metrodome.

I knew this was going to take awhile, so like a good "SportsCenter" anchor did, I took notes of the games that were going on. Remember: In the world of sports anchoring, you only have so much time to do a highlight, usually about a minute. So that's what I did: Try to melt all the individual moments into the biggest highlights of the day.

If you remember Game 4 of the Marlins-Giants series, you remember how it ended. A base hit to left field by Jeffrey Hammonds. J.T. Snow is heading to home plate to tie the game up, but Mr. Marlin, Jeff Conine, gets the ball on a hop and fires a strike to catcher Pudge Rodriguez, who is bowled over by Snow, but keeps possession of the ball for the third out and the Marlins winning the game 7-6 and advancing to the National League Championship Series.

The Yankees-Twins game wasn't going to have too many highlights. The biggest of those highlights was the two-run home run by Hideki Matsui off starter Kyle Lohse that gave the Bronx Bombers a 2-0 lead. There was also the RBI single by Bernie Williams that scored Juan Rivera in the third inning to make it 3-0. And other than an A.J. Pierzynski home run in the third, Yankees starter Roger Clemens was on top of his game, allowing five hits over seven innings with one walk and six strikeouts. Mariano Rivera came in for the final two innings and held the Twins hitless, striking out three.

It was a long wait by now -- it was almost 6 p.m. and finally, I was brought into the room to do a "SportsCenter" type reading. By now, I don't think the two women who were in the room with me wanted to hear me talk, but I told them, "You said have something ready. Well I do! Let's go!"

So I basically read the copy since they ddin't exactly put a teleprompter in front of me. I read my script fluently -- proved I knew the English language well -- and gave a dramatic reading of the Giants-Marlins game: "Now there J.T. Snow on second as the winning run. Jeffrey Hammonds singles off Uggie Urbina to left field. Snow is sent home, but Jeff Conine delivers a perfect one-hop throw to Pudge Rodriguez, who gets mauled at the plate by Snow, but holds on to the ball ... then shows it off to everyone with eyes on him! That's the ball game! That's the season for the Giants as the Marlins hold on for the 7-6 victory and advance to the National League Championship Series!"

It was obvious the two women were so busy with what they were doing they had no idea what was happening in the outside world. I can still hear one of them saying, "Wow." Then I read them the much-shorter version of my Yankees-Twins report. 

One of the women told me it was fine, but they would let me know if I moved on to the next round, which I think was in Atlanta or somewhere close to there. They thanked me for my time and I was finally out the door by 6:30 that evening. Over 12 hours later, I was back in the car and headed to St. Petersburg to meet Michele at her place. I picked her up and we went to a fairly nice restaurant. We ended up spending the night together in a hotel in Pinellas Park and we left the next morning.

But after I dropped her off, I got a copy of the St. Pete Times. The headline on Page 5C blurted out "ESPN offers shot at a 'Dream Job.' I read the story and how all these wannabes wanted to be the next anchor. Some had no idea about sports, others thought they had the personality to move on.

Imagine my surprise, however, when seven paragraphs into the story, I'm reading, "And ESPN, which gives a 30-question written trivia test as Step 1 in the process, was treated to the first perfect score."

Then came the eighth paragraph: "But it took more than sports knowledge. Only a perfect score kept perfect-score guy in the game, though producers admitted he probably wouldn't make it much farther, as he lacked those other qualities they desired."

You know ... like a personality!! Mine, apparently, was too, ummm ... shitty ... for them. Either way, I got to read my own obituary of this contest in a newspaper and I hadn't died. ESPN producers were sinply just confirming my thoughts ... even though I felt I was better than how they rated me.

Needless to say I got a post card from these fine people who told me I did not make it to the next round, but told me my knowledge of sports was so overwhelming, I could have succeeded as a contestant on their game show "2-Minute Drill." Found that fascinating.

The reality show moved on without me (waah-waah) and in the end, a guy named Mike Hall wound up winning it all. Good for him. I'm almost certain he was much, much better than me.

But that's not the end of the story. It was over a year later -- December 26, 2004 -- and I'm sitting in the meal room below the press box at Alltell Stadium in Jacksonville as I'm getting ready to cover the Jaguars game with the Houston Texans. I looked up where I was sitting alone at ... and there was the stunning story of the death of NFL legendary defensive star Reggie White, dead at the age of 43.

I was shocked, practically saddened. Moments later, a female voice came over me from behind.

"Hey! Perfect -score guy!"

She was clearly close enough for me to know I was who she was talking to. I turned around and it was her -- the young lady who told me that I scored 30 for 30 on the sports knowledge test. She just wanted to say hi because she was working with an ESPN crew that was on location for this particular game.

I smiled. I don't know why I did, but I did. 

Actually, I knew why I did. I may not have been perfect for what ESPN was looking for nearly 15 months earlier. But for one weekend -- thanks to the St. Pete Times -- I was "Perfect-Score Guy."

That was perfect enough for me.






Saturday, September 16, 2023

A Trilogy: If only I were allowed a punch to someone's face

There have been plenty of frustrating moments over the nearly 40 years I've been a writer/editor/layout guy in my business.

But none of those were quite like Monday, September 24, 2018. Never in all my years in this business did I want to start a fist fight with someone I worked with more than I did that particular day. I'll get to that point later ... and trust me when I say this: I am not going to pull any punches here.

All this started on Friday, September 14, 2018. We were transitioning into a new editor who was two weeks into running the Palatka Daily News. Honestly, I didn't know what to think of this guy. He had a lot of bravado to him, but I've seen my share of new leadership and bravado.

It never works out in the end. Ego being too big, wears down on co-workers and someone wants to have a fist fight with this person, but never does because that person is eliminated or moves on rather quickly.

Anyway, let's get to this three-part story.

Part I

On this Friday night, I was to go to Wildwood High School, some 86 miles away from Palatka, to cover a football game between Crescent City and Wildwood. The two teams had met for years but this was the first meeting between the two teams since the fateful and unpopular decision by Wildwood High to not make up a football game at Crescent City the year before when Hurricane Irma rambled through Florida and one athletic director told the other "it wasn't going to make a big difference in the end."

Bullcrap! It very much did. When the seeds were announced for the 2017 FHSAA state tournament, Crescent City was on the outside looking in. The Raiders' coach, the legendary Clarence "Pooh Bear" Williams, was deeply upset, but he kept a strong, positive demeanor throughout. And as a "consolation" gift, the team was awarded co-championship with Wildwood in the short-lived North Central Florida Football Conference.

So this game at Wildwood was very much circled on Crescent City's calendar and there was no way in hell Wildwood was going to wriggle out of this one in case of hurricanes, tornadoes or other natural disasters. Not this time!

Still, Pooh Bear, the assistants and players, made it clear that "last year was last year and this was a new year" as they were playing yet another game in the NCFFC.

The Wildcats, though, weren't pushovers and they let the Raiders know that when quarterback Nate Mikell dashed 32 yards for a touchdown to make it 7-0. The Raiders, though, responded when quarterback Naykee Scott hit Dustin Carmichael for a 6-yard score to tie it at 7-all going into the second quarter.

The only score in the second quarter was a 3-yard strike by Mikell to Marcus Niblack, who also booted the extra point to give the Wildcats a 14-7 lead.

I will say this before we talk about the second half: Wildwood's press box people were some of the nicest individuals I ever came across. There was no hatred, no bias, nothing toward Crescent City at all. They knew this was a bitter rivalry, but they stayed above the fray throughout.

But I also noticed that things were beginning to slow down in this one. And it became apparent something happened to Mikell and by the third quarter, Wildwood had a new quarterback in Alfred Corbin, who was in because Mikell reportedly suffered a groin injury.

It was Corbin's game the rest of the way. But he struggled to move the Wildcats, and the Raiders pounced in the third quarter. Scott capped a four-play, 56-yard drive the first time Crescent City touched the ball with a 1-yard plunge to tie it at 14-all after Christian Lopez's extra-point kick. Then on the kickoff, Rodney Mitchell struggled to get a grip on the ball and fumbled it right into the waiting arms of Jeremiah Roofe, who scooped it up and went 11 yards for the score to make it 21-14 in the Raiders' favor.

The Wildcats responded after the score by going 75 yards on the next drive, capping it with a 4-yard Mitchell run on the first play of the fourth quarter to make it 21-20, but the Raiders blocked the extra-point kick, so they had the one-point lead. Wildwood's defense stopped the Raiders, forcing them into a punt.

I can still see the ball go off Lopez's leg in a wrong-way manner and going out of bounds. It was 12 yards and the Wildcats had first and 10 on the Raiders' 39. Then at the 32, Corbin threw a jump-ball pass that Nyzer Lucas came up with for the touchdown to make it 26-21. Corbin and Wildwood went for the 2-point conversion, but his pass was not on the mark and the Raiders could win the game with a touchdown.

There was 6:50 left. Plenty of time for the Raiders to do something.

Actually, the Raiders didn't need much time. They needed 100 seconds.

Crescent City went six plays to go 81 yards in that time frame. Scott hit receiver Tyler Unruh for 19 and 37 yards, while running back Kevin Williams had runs of 23 and 5 yards. It was Williams, who had 88 yards rushing on the night, who finished the drive with a bulldozing 6-yard run up the middle, giving the Raiders the lead as Lopez added the extra-point kick.

The Raiders weren't thinking about the previous year, but they wanted the win badly and needed to stop the Wildcats at least a couple of more times. The first drive ended somewhat quickly as Williams picked off Corbin. The Raiders had to punt the ball away and with 1:51 to go, the Wildcats had one more opportunity.

They got into Raiders territory, but Corbin was picked off by Bernard Wright at the Raider 25 with 50 seconds left that sealed the 28-26 victory, one of the better games I've ever covered.

Both teams had wonderful handshakes at midfield afterward and I had the chance to talk to an exuberent Pooh Bear, who told me, "I was interested to see how we responded to falling behind. My coaches had a vision of what we were to expect (from Wildwood) and our guys got back up and played well."

He smiled that Pooh Bear smile I recognized to his sad passing on February 17, 2022, and wished him well in the next game the following week against Interlachen.

From here, my job was to get something small to eat, jump on I-75 and head north to Ocala to a reliable hotel I had been to many a time to type in a story before deadline, the Courtyard by Marriott. My deadline was 1 a.m. All I needed to do was just type in the boxscore of the game as well as the story and we were done, even though I had the obstacle of a football game that lasted 3 hours and 10 minutes and saw the two teams commit 31 penalties for 259 yards.

I don't wish that sloppiness on anyone, Both teams played a great game, but both were fairly sloppy in the process.

Turns out the beginning of my nightmare was under way.

Part II

It was 10:35 p.m. after leaving this great game and total debacle all in one and I headed north on I-75 until I got to Exit 350, which was State Road-200 in Ocala. I knew my way to this hotel, which over the years was absolutely fantastic to me in writing up stories, the first of which came in the spring of 2009 when Palatka lost to Dunnellon in the state softball tournament.

I had written at least five game stories on deadline there whenever I was in Marion County or in the surrounding areas. I got there just after 11 p.m, knowing I have two hours to get things done. Piece of cake. I reach the front desk and a very friendly face is there and I ask if I could use the Wifi because I'm on deadline to get a story done and they have always been great about telling me I could.

That was the same situation here. I went into the restaurant area, which was now closed other than the seats to hang out in, to start typing my story. First thing I needed to do was get a pair of briefs done, one being Crescent City volleyball in an annual tournament they go to in Bell, the other being a girls golf match involving Palatka that took maybe two graphs and that was it.

Done! Out of the way. The next part is the toughest: Compiling the statistics of a game that got complicated because of all the penalties became a chore. It was after 11:30, but I vowed I'd be done in 15 minutes with it, leaving me only the game story from this Friday night.

I got that out of the way when I said I would. Now I have the story and it's 11:45 p.m. It's about this time I'm going to be meeting ... the overnight manager. I'm starting my story and, of course, it's not the typical 35-0 or 42-0 blowout that I can bang out in 15-20 minutes. This was a heck of a game in spite of all those stupid penalties.

We make small talk and then she hits me with a question that I to this day believe had no relevance to this situation whatsoever.

"How do you like your room?"

If I knew now what I didn't at that time or of what was going to happen next, I could have just lied my way through the conversation and said, "It's quite nice, ma'am. Thank you!"

But I told her the real reason I was there and that didn't sit well with her at all.

"I can't have you staying here after midnight if you aren't a guest."

Really?! After all these times I've come here to get rescued by writing and sending a story, now I get the Overnight Manager from Hell telling me I've got 15 f**king minutes to get my story done and get the hell out?!

I told her I would be done in about that much time and I'll be out of her way. Obviously, this horrible human had decided I was some unwelcome guest at her little workplace and I absolutely had to go, f**k deadlines.

Now, I'm rushing to get this story done because if I'm not done in 15 minutes, we will have an unpleasant episode if this horrible woman was of her word. I get halfway through this thing and then she comes over to me to tell me time is up.

Needless to say, it's just after midnight and I'm not done. And here comes you know who in my direction.

"You have to leave now." 

Let's say it got heated, but I left before she called security. That's how bad it got. Before I left, I promised I'd send a letter dressing her down to her company and that she wouldn't have another job in the hospitality business ever again.

For the record, I didn't, but I figured she probably wasn't a good manager anyway and someone would find the truth out in the end.

But it's now 12:05 a.m. and I have to find another hotel to finish this story out. Thankfully, there were enough hotels up and down SR-200 for me to stop in. I ended up stopping at the La Quinta down the road. 

When I got to the front desk, I met Bill and Stephanie, the overnight front desk people. Bill was an older man and Stephanie was a younger lady who was an absolute sweetheart. After I explained my situation and how I got thrown out because "I wasn't staying at the hotel" and that I was trying to beat deadline, they could not have been nicer to me. You know: How hotel employees treat guests, whether they're staying there or not.

They showed me where to set up, gave me the password to the Wifi and off I went to finish the story.

But now I had a new problem: Where the Wifi was perfect at the last place, La Quinta's was giving me trouble and suddenly, my laptop was acting stupidly slow. Remember: All I had left was to send the story! That was it.

I got done with my story and proofreading it by 12:35 a.m. Sending the story was a nightmare because nothing seemed to connect. I think I ended up calling Andy about half a dozen times before we got the story through.

By then, it was 12:58 a.m. Needless to say, we were late.

I thanked the pair one last time for being upstanding people and letting me get my job done correctly.

Oh, but the fun was just beginning after I left their hotel.

Part III

The scars of what I had to go through one week earlier: And the horseshit that was taking place in our newsroom with a new editor who thought he was the greatest thing to ever come out of journalism school (ha!) and whose sports background commaned him to go run our sports department.

What a f**king asshole! That's another chapter in my career that I will share someday. Let's just say I have never covered another regular-season golf match or a piss-poor excuse for a volleyball match involving two lousy teams since then.

Again, what a f**king asshole.

It was now Friday and I had survived the week with only a Crescent City-Interlachen football game to cover that night. I still had a column to write.

So I wrote about my trials and tribulations the prior Friday ... and I held nothing back on both kudos and criticisms, especially the woman who gave me the hardest time. The only thing I spared my reading audience from was her name. I never found out and I didn't care. She was going to be turned into my personal whipping post and I asked for her being reprimanded.

Even fired. I didn't care. It's my goddamn opinion as far as I'm concerned.

Now it's Monday, September 24, 10 days after the horrible ordeal I had dealt with. I am summoned into the office of the editor.

He takes out a piece of paper -- this shit's not even on official Palatka Daily News letterhead, just the name typed at the top.

I'm told by him how bad a person I am for even doing a column like I did and that I'm supposed to sign this piece of paper that for all I cared, I could have thrown on the parking lot grounds, whipped my dick out and pissed all over it.

He wrote this, but I know this wasn't his dirty work by any means. This was my publisher's work, and let's just say my four years at the Daily News with this guy in charge was a little bit frosty. I hated him. I'm sure he hated me. This man threatened me with my job at least five times.

Yes ... five times! And a big reason why: I was doing a morning radio show at WPLK down the road from the paper from 6-7 a.m. This guy didn't like my format because half of it had to do with telling people scores and highlights of games, but I was also promoting our paper to people who wanted to read it or subscribe to it.

Oh, he also didn't like the fact I had a sports guest on every Thursday on the radio show and that I'd interview them there, even though I had interviewed them for our paper as well.

Simply put, he hated the people at the radio station. I know they were not crazy about him, either.

But in 2018, my publisher made things personal against me. I know he did.

Let's put it this way: NOBODY said a word about my column during that week or the week after or the week after that.

My publisher decided to make it about "Mark's a baaaaad person and needs to be punished."

So here is the memo as chiseled out by my editor, but actually written originally by my publisher. I know this: The editor didn't give a shit.

Re: Sept. 22, 2018 sports column

Let this serve as a written warning as it pertains to your job performance following the publishing of your sports column on Saturday, September 22, 2018.

The column should not have been written for a number of reasons, first and foremost is the fact that you publicly criticize a corporation for not allowing the utilization of their services at no cost. This happens to be the same exact same policy that not only Community Newspapers, Inc. implements on a daily basis, but most businesses throughout every industry follow the same policy. It is common sense. CNI will be very lucky if Marriott doesn't ask it to publish a public letter of apology. Secondly, you cite a specific Mariott International employee and state that she should be suspended or terminated. Your basis for this assessment is that she implemented company policy and you didn't like it.

It is one thing for a sports reporter to write a column calling for the termination of a prominent coach or team executive. That comes with the territory of sports reporting. It is quite another to do so for an employee of a corporation, who doesn't work in such a public environment, especially when all she did was enforce a corporate policy.

Thirdly, this topic may have been a significant matter to you, but it is of little interest to our readership,. In fact, it paints the Palatka Daily News in a terrible light.

The message to our readers is that we will use our platform to disparage a business simply if we don't like its polices or we are inconvenienced.

I have spoken with the publisher regarding this matter and we have agreed that a written warning is needed at this point, as well as a 30-day probationary period. If any further behavior similar to this occurs within that time frame, further disciplinary action will be taken up to and including termination. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

OK, let's answer each one of these points:

1. Marriott didn't give a shit and we never heard from them over it.
2. Not all businesses work under the same congeniel attitude. When I went into that hotel that night, I was given the go-ahead to do so without the threat of being thrown out. If the person there had told me I was not allowed to do my work from the start, I would have been disappointed, but would have left without incident.
3. This person I called for termination wasn't the first time I asked for such an action to a non-sports person. Nobody gave a shit about that then. So this wasn't my first rodeo where all bad things happened because someone got a case of crotch itch and decided I was the person to take it out on. Publishers shouldn't judge award-winning column writers on subject matter, really.
4. As stated above, NO ONE cared about what I wrote about. So really, it never put us in a bad light.
5. The "acceptance" that I get thrown out of a hotel at deadline is the first sign that you don't really give a shit about whether a story of local note gets into the paper or not. That's an easy sign for me to know you aren't a very supportive person.

Believe me when I say this: I soooooo wanted to tempt that last fate badly. Things that particular week before (when I got sent to meaningless regular-season boys golf and volleyball) got so bad, I called up my buddy Skeet Alford, who ran WPLK, and asked if I could get a fulltime job there. He painted a less-than-rosy picture, but still wanted me to think about the situation.

And to be honest, if they had fired me during that time period, they would have done me a favor. 

This newspaper stopped being a wonderful place to come to every day. It started to feel like a prison and that everyone had to be on their best behavior. Really, the only reason why I didn't try to get myself canned was because of my boss, Andy. He kept trying to tell me that he wasn't ready to start anew with someone else instead of me after 15 years together, and certainly not under the current situation at that time.

I bit my lip and tongue until it bled, but I did all I could to be a good co-worker. Every day, I told myself the same thing, over and over again, when I went into that building: Please don't do anything to make me punch these people in the face.

Man, was that challenging! That period of my life is long over now, but the memories of it still sadly linger Sarcasm gets me through those times.

Nothing ever gets you prepared for the worst time of your life.

And September 2018 was the worst that it got.