With raindrops not dampening her enthusiasm, 5-year-old Kaitlin Mixon of Valrico bounded through the puddled parking lot of a theater complex determined to catch the opening of "High School Musical 3: Senior Year." ...more

October 25, 2008

The rain does nothing to dampen the enthusiasm of 5-year-old Kaitlin Mixon of Valrico as she bounds through the puddled parking lot of the AMC Regency 20 theater complex this morning, heck-bent on catching "High School Musical 3: Senior Year." ...more

October 24, 2008

On June 20, there was an airplane crash at Placid Lakes Airport involving Mason Smoak and his passenger David Maehr. In December 1941, Pilot officer John G. Magee, Jr., a 19-year-old American serving with the Royal Canadian Air Force in England, was killed when his Spitfire collided with another aircraft inside a cloud. Several months before his death, he composed his immortal sonnet, "High Flight," a copy of which he fortunately mailed to his parents in the United States. This is the poem quoted in President Ronald Reagan's speech after the Challenger disaster. Here is John Gillespie Magee Jr.'s sonnet in hopes that it will be of some small comfort to the Smoak family and the entire community during this time of grief. ...more

June 23, 2008

In a small book titled "Un Spun, finding facts in a world of disinformation" co-authored by Jackson and Jamieson, the following statement was made: "The skeptic demands evidence, and rightly so." ...more

May 29, 2008

The two-year drought gripping nearly all of Florida has extracted a toll in the hundreds of millions of dollars from the state's agriculture industry and people could begin seeing a pinch in the produce aisle next month. ...more

February 19, 2008

AVON PARK — Plays are being run and audibles are being called in the search for the next Avon Park Red Devil head football coach. Principal Stu Guthrie and athletic director Mort Jackson are in the heart of the search for the next Red Devil head coach, with 13 candidates from as far away as Illinois, Tennessee, South Carolina, Georgia and a few from Avon Park all vying to succeed former coach Earnest Perkins on the sideline. With spring football approaching, a new football coach is expected to be named by the end of January. "We've narrowed our search and have been interviewing candidates for the vacant coaching position," Jackson said. "We're still open-minded in our search and want to choose the right person for the job." Perkins, who finished his tenure as head coach at Avon Park with a 7-13 overall record, was fired as the Red Devil head coach in November and the search began immediately for his replacement. ...more

January 19, 2008

AVON PARK — Fred Mixon always has the last word in at least one family argument: "10-7." The final score of the Avon Park football team's stunning defeat of Hardee this past season is a bragging right Mixon's 2007 Red Devils have over a decade-full of AP teams before them, a fact Mixon doesn't mind pulling out at the dinner table. "It's amazing, all the people who came before me, who never beat Hardee," Mixon said. "I've got older cousins, so it's nice to just say: 'Ya'al couldn't do it.' " The Red Devil win over the Wildcats was more than the highlight of the team's season, it turned out to be the highwater mark for a AP defense that would ultimately give way when the Devil offense struggled to keep themselves on the field. ...more

January 18, 2008

SEBRING — It's quite a sight to behold, watching football players from rival schools Avon Park and Sebring on the same side of the ball. Red Devils and Blue Streaks playing side by side with some Wildcats and a few Bulldogs for good measure — it must be the ninth annual South-Central All-Star game. The event, which is sponsored by the Sebring Firemen, is known for assembling the best talent of senior football players from the region. The All-Star contest has always drawn a contingent of college recruiters, who get one last look at local seniors before signing day in January. First-year Lake Placid head coach Tim Grant has been chosen to lead the Central squad, which features many kids from the Heartland. ...more

December 21, 2007

AVON PARK — Tears of joy and sorrow mixed with laughter and joyous ovations, as the legacy of Earnest Perkins filled the APHS auditorium, and supporters young and old paid tribute to the former Avon Park football coach. "This was a very sentimental night for all of us," said Red Devil senior captain Fred Mixon Jr. "It hasn't really hit me yet that he isn't the coach anymore, even though I'm graduating. He was more than a coach to all of his players. "I'm blessed that I was a part of this and belong to the last Circle of Honor." ...more

December 16, 2007

Members of the nonprofit, no-kill Critter Abuse and Rescue Effort animal shelter recently selected new board members for 2007-08. ...more

December 5, 2007