Ridaught: Taking time to reflect

Basketball on the court
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Tonight the Bradford (Starke) boys basketball team will play for its first state title in school history.

The Tornadoes (15-10) advanced to their first final four since 1974 this past Wednesday and defeated 2020 state champion Hawthorne in the state semifinals at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland to advance to tonight’s title game against Paxton.

It will mark the end of the winter high school sports seasons.

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Often times we move on to the next sports season, as they overlap each other, and we don’t get as much time to reflect.

But looking back I realize how blessed I was to experience the things I did this past winter, especially with our radio coverage of hoops on 106.9 FM “I am Country.”

The month of November seems so long ago, but my first boys basketball broadcast of 2021-22 with Cam Parker was an overtime game as Gainesville defeated Class 4A state runner-up Santa Fe (Alachua) on Tuesday, Nov. 30.

My last boys basketball broadcast with Marty Pallman was a double overtime game was on Tuesday, Feb. 22, as Hawthorne defeated Trenton to advance to the state semifinals.

Along the way, there were several broadcasts that featured games that came down to a final possession.

Just to name a few others, the Hawthorne-Williston game on Feb. 17 was just a one point game with 17.9 seconds to play for the right to advance to the Class 1A Region Final, Buchholz defeated GHS in overtime on Jan. 28 in front of a standing room only crowd, and the Bronson-Trenton game was a 70-68 game on Jan. 20, a game that featured 15 3-pointers by Trenton.

And even though it wasn’t a radio broadcast, I did get to be a part of the broadcast crew for Santa Fe College men’s basketball in the FCSAA/NJCAA Region VIII tournament in Niceville this past Wednesday, where the Saints lost a close one to nationally ranked Florida SouthWestern State College.

March Madness is my favorite time of year. But I’m so thankful for all of the broadcast moments that I was a part of these past four plus months.

Now on to the spring. 

Our first broadcast of high school softball and baseball is this Tuesday, March 8, as the Gainesville softball team hosts Suwannee (Live Oak) at 7 p.m. Our coverage will begin at 6:45 p.m.

All of our softball/baseball games will be broadcast online (audio only). We’ll have a complete schedule, along with our broadcast link at MainStreetDailyNews.com.

Have a great weekend!

 

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