By Staff
Editor's note: Standard sports editor Bruce Hixon is on vacation this week. Tim Cottrell, who is a sports writer for The Atmore Advance, contributed this column.
Covering youth sports can give someone quite a perspective.
Most of the time when watching baseball, even at the high school level, players seem to be almost as concerned with how they look in their uniform as how they are playing on the field.
But not when watching Little League Baseball (here in Atmore it is referred to as Cal Ripken Baseball, so it was a bit unnatural to type that).
It is quite interesting to stroll through various dugouts and hear the kids talking, and see what they're doing.
Going down the line you generally have one crying because he struck out, one patting him on the back, two talking about whatever it is that may be on their minds, one eating French fries, and one kind of staring into space.
As my dad always likes to say, when the seven and eight-year-olds are playing, the main thing you hope is that a helicopter doesn't happen to fly over the field.
While youth baseball is heavily on the minds of many youngsters and parents throughout this county, an even bigger subject is the upcoming graduation of the many high school seniors.
With graduation comes summer, and the thoughts of lazy hazy days on the beach. But not for me. Summer is too hot.
The start of Summer means only one thing to this reporter, and that is the release of several college football preseason magazines. A couple have been released already, and while I haven't had the chance to look at them yet, word on the street is that Auburn is ranked around number 15 and Alabama is hovering around the top 25.
College football season should be interesting as always, but the newspaper business has also brought me back to the old high school scene.
August 26, the day the high school football season starts in Alabama, is fast approaching, and the Escambia County Blue Devils will be traveling to Brewton to take on the T.R. Miller Tigers.
I must say I've been looking forward to this game for the past four months, and the anticipation is only growing. Exciting things are happening in Atmore, and don't be surprised to see a much more competitive Blue Devil squad make the trek down Highway 31 that night. While odds are the Tigers will walk away with their 12th consecutive victory in the series (the class of 2006 was in Kindergarten the last time Escambia County beat T.R. Miller), the rivalry should become exciting again.
It will also be odd for me to stand on the opposite sideline from Coach Riggs, as the last time I stood on that sideline I was standing right next to him.
So to sum things up, watching kids play baseball is a nice breath of fresh air, Summer is approaching, football season is also approaching (thank God), and you can be sure to see the old Atmore-T.R. Miller rivalry regain some of its luster.
Have a good week Brewton.