BillJohnson's blog

Please click "Add new comment" link below to enter your Player of the Week nomination.

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My Clay Sun is seeking your nominations for its high school football Player of the Week feature. To nominate a Clay County football player for our weekly honors:

Please click "Add new comment" link below to enter your Player of the Week nomination.

***

My Clay Sun is seeking your nominations for its high school football Player of the Week feature. To nominate a Clay County football player for our weekly honors:

Please click "Add new comment" link below to enter your Player of the Week nomination.

***

My Clay Sun is seeking your nominations for its high school football Player of the Week feature. To nominate a Clay County football player for our weekly honors:

Please click "Add new comment" link below to enter your Player of the Week nomination.

***

My Clay Sun is seeking your nominations for its high school football Player of the Week feature. To nominate a Clay County football player for our weekly honors:

Please click "Add new comment" link below to enter your Player of the Week nomination.

***

My Clay Sun is seeking your nominations for its high school football Player of the Week feature. To nominate a Clay County football player for our weekly honors:

Please click "Add new comment" link below to enter your Player of the Week nomination.

***

Frank and Janice Wimpee have lived in their home on stilts along the banks of the North Fork of Black Creek in Middleburg for 25 years. So far Tropical Storm Fay hasn’t come close to being the biggest menace they’ve ever faced.

Fay backs up Black Creek into Middleburg backyards.

“That’s where the water got to in 1992,” Frank said, pointing to a mark about eight feet high on one of the pilings that hold his home well above the river-creek that flows past his backyard.

On Friday, well before most of Fay’s rains had a chance to filter into the area’s main waterways, Black Creek had already created a large pond in his backyard and flooded the street in front of his home.

Last March I paid the Florida Striders $30 to turn me into a runner. And though my slow jog puts Herculean strain on the definition of the word run, the Striders have more than earned their money.

With their expert help, I went from barely being able to run for 60 seconds to pounding the pavement for more than 60 consecutive minutes at a time.

The 2008 District 3-4A Champion Middleburg Broncos.

The patchwork pitching staff and near-perfect defense that defeated Bradford Wednesday to put Ridgeview in next week's regional playoffs was unable to stand up to second-straight night's pounding Thursday as Middleburg banged out 12 hits and took advantage of numerous fielding miscues on its way to claiming a 15-7 victory and the District 3-4A championship title.

Middleburg, which had home-field advantage as the district tournament host, will continue to enjoy the friendly confines of Bronco Field for Tuesday's regional quarterfinal, as well as next Friday's regional semifinal, should it win Tuesday. In the first round, the Broncos will play the loser of Thursday night's District 4-4A championship game (either Bishop Kenny or Stanton). Ridgeview, the District 3-4A runner-up, will travel to winner of that game for its regional quarterfinal Tuesday.

Ridgeview wasn't supposed to win with a kid barely out of the junior varsity on the mound. Middleburg wasn't supposed to defeat the No. 3 team in the state, and certainly not by roughing up its ace pitcher for eight runs.

But the Panthers and Broncos did all those things Wednesday, and more, as they ignored their tournament seedings and upended the district's No. 1 and 2 seeds in back-to-back games to set up an All-Clay County District 3-4A baseball championship game. More importantly, both teams have qualified for the regional playoffs for the first time in six years. They will play each other for the district championship and the right to host that first-round regional game at 7 p.m. Thursday at Bronco Field.