I recently ran across a story about a college bass fishing tournament. Yes, it seems that in some circles bass fishing is considered a college sport.

I having nothing against fishing. In fact, I enjoy dropping a line in the water and trying to hook a big trout or flounder. And when given the opportunity, I’ve been known to head out in the gulf for a day of fishing.

But come on, bass fishing as a college sport?

I can understand rodeo and even fencing, but don’t expect me to take the bait that bass fishing should be a college sport.

I can just see it now, a kid calls his parents from State U and proclaims, “I did it. I lettered in bass fishing.”

Football equipment is expensive enough so I can only imagine what that sleek bass boat with huge outboard motor on it will cost. I hope the kids provide their own boats, or at least a boat manufacturer cuts a sweet deal with the colleges involved as far as sponsorships and such, but I don’t know if they do or not.

What might be the worst thing about these tournaments is they are probably catch and release. Just think, all that work and nothing to eat.

I received an e-mail from my Cal Powell on Saturday afternoon telling me he had just seen on the Daily News web site that former Niceville star running back and sprinter Danny Royster had been killed in a car accident. Once again I felt that sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach that has become all too familiar the last eight or nine months as I learned yet another young person has been taken from us.

As I thought about Royster I remembered his easy way and quick smile that made him such a joy to be around. I recalled how he was listed at 5 feet, 7 inches and 145 pounds, but he was closer to 5-5, 135. Size didn’t matter when he had a football under his arm or he was turning the corner to hit the home stretch in track.

Yes, Danny Royster a special athlete among special athletes having been named the Daily News Football Player of the Year in 2003 and the Athlete of the Year for the 2003-2004.

Sadly it’s the athletes that are most often recognized as being “special,” at least from a newspaper guy’s perspective. Because the athlete can run faster, jump higher or throw harder than his or her friends, right or wrong, we place them on some sort of pedestal.

I have five nieces and two nephews and only one niece and one nephew have competed in high school athletics. Yes, Stephanie and Stuart are special, but no more special than Kelley, Rachel, Krista, Leah or Stephen, who each have other interest  and strengths. Just because they have never heard the cheer of fans don’t make them any less special.

The relatives and friends of a kid in the drama club hurt just as much as relatives and friends of an athlete that dies too soon.

The kid that plays the tuba is, in his own way just as gifted as the kid that plays tailback.

Yes, all kids are special.

It seems some coaches will do anything when they are trying to get their team to break out of a slump. Unfortunately, in some cases drastic times don’t always call for drastic measures as the baseball coach at Palm Harbor University found out.

It seems that during spring break he had his team purchase a snake and kill said snake and bury it on the school’s baseball field. His reasoning was simple, the team was snake bitten and he was symbolically, or in this case, actually killing a snake to get his team out of the funk.

The school administration didn’t agree and he was suspended. I guess killing a snake was the wrong answer.

I’m not a fan of snakes, but I don’t go around intentionally killing them. That said, I can understand both the coach’s point of view and that of his bosses that handed down the punishment. But I still question if suspended the coach wasn’t a little over the top.

Athletes are often a superstitious group by nature.

Hall of Fame third baseman Wade Boggs wouldn’t eat anything but chicken on game days. That’s a lot of bird when you think about how long he was in the Major Leagues.

College basketball’s all-time leading scorer, Pete Maravich, wore the same floppy socks through college. Some guys find their “luck” in a t-shirt or by listening to the same music before every game.

The bottom line is a superstition is simply another mental aspect of the game. Socks didn’t make Pete Maravich a great basketball player. And I’d dare say Wade Boggs could have gone 4-for-4 on a day that he had a nice steak.

Were they superstitious? Yes. But at least they didn’t kill any snakes.

Almost three years after former Daily News sports writer extraordinaire Cal Powell left I still have people ask me how the old Calster is doing.

As many of you know, Cal left in 2006 to teach school and get closer to a little lady, Miriam, that he ended up marrying in June of 2007.

Cal added another title of daddy to the list of teacher and husband Tuesday when Miriam gave birth to their first child, Parks Calvin Powell. Parks weighed in at 6 pounds, 13 ounces and stretched out to be 19 1/4 inches. Baby and mother are doing well.

I’ve seen some photos of Cal with Parks, and the smile on Cal’s face tells me he couldn’t be happier if he was chompin down on some fried mullet and cheese grits.

With Cal and Miriam both Georgia grads, rumor has it that Parks will be a part of the freshman class in Athens in the fall of 2027. I’m guessing Parks will play a little baseball and maybe some tennis too as those are two of Cal’s sports.

If you would like to congratulate Cal and Miriam you can post your message with this blog or you can e-mail it to me at randyd@crestviewbulletin.com and I’ll see that they get it.

I wish I could tell you that the story about the closing of Heritage Plantation that appears in Wednesday’s News Bulletin is just an April Fools gag. But the fact is there is nothing funny about 30 people losing their jobs. Nor do I find humor in the thought that we have one less golf course in north Okaloosa County.

That said, it has been my experience that most April Fools jokes perpetrated in a news room never make it to the print edition, or there would be a lot more unemployed journalists.

I’ve been involved in a few April Fools gags in my time. My favorite of these pranks happened in 2004 when I was working at the Daily News and our sports staff was six-men strong.

Sports editor Perry Ballard was off that night, and I believe it was the warped and deceptive mind of award-winning writer Cal Powell that hatched the plot that we would pull on fellow sports staffer Ron Seibel.

Early that afternoon Cal announced he had received an e-mail from Perry saying that Destin city councilman Dewy Destin told him there were plans in the works to get a minor league baseball team in Destin. From there the prank took on a life of its own.

George Bremer was our ace page designer in sports and he started talking about the news hole where he would place the story. Rick Flores and I were in on it too.

Rick, who covered the then Okaloosa Walton basketball teams and professional sports staked a claim for the beat. Not to be outdone, I stated since I covered the Raider baseball team, and was the best pure baseball mind on staff, I should be the one to cover minor league baseball.

Ron’s claim to the beat was he had covered an independent minor league team in Yuma, Ariz. Ron then said he had a contact, I believe in the Pittsburgh organization, and was going to call him for some sort of confirmation.

Cal nipped that idea by telling Ron if he contacted an outside source somebody might break the story before we did. That’s when Ron wanted to call editor Pat Rice, who was still in his first couple of months on the job. Fortunately, we were able to talk him out of that idea as well.

Cal, George, Rick and I continued to e-mail each other throughout the evening as the prank took another turn. We even got some of the production people in on it as well as some folks in the newsroom.

Finally the moment of truth arrived when we presented Ron with the sports front to be proofed complete with the baseball story of minor league baseball coming to  Destin.

The summary graph of the story said something like, “Daily News sports staffer falls for April Fools joke.” Ron was so busy reading the story he didn’t pay attention to the summary graph.

When he gave the page his OK, Cal told him he missed something. When Ron asked what? Cal instructed him to read the summary graph. That’s when Ron knew he was had in an April Fools Classic.

Don’t look now, but Congress is about to look into college football’s BCS system to see if it violates antitrust laws.

I’ll leave it up to each individual to decide as to whether or not the like the current BCS system or would prefer a playoff. That’s another discussion.

What troubles me is in the middle of the worst recession n my lifetime members of Congress are so interested in fixing college football. I’d much rather see them get a grip on illegal immigration or taking the pork out of some of their spending programs. I want to see them fix things so Americans will stop losing jobs, or those of us who have jobs, will stop seeing our pay cut.

Yes, I want members of Congress to do the things we elected them to do. I don’t vote for people to govern college sports, but rather to govern this nation.

Maybe, just maybe, if the economy were good, crime was down and immigration was under control, I might not have a problem with Congress taking a look at things. But these are the guys that can’t get their own houses in order and it’s no time to let them stick their noses in college sports.

I won’t be surprised if eventually Division I college football adopts some sort of playoff system, but it will be a natural progression that involves the universities and those that sponsor the college game.

Until that happens I’d just as soon Congress try and help run  the country and leave college sports alone.

Consider me among those who can’t get excited about March Madness this year. Maybe it’s because my Tennessee Vols were one and done in the tournament. Or perhaps it’s just easier for me to get excited about spring football.

My indifference to this year’s NCAA basketball tournament might even have to do with the fact I’m in a bit of a funk.

The fact is I don’t see the great players that jump out and demand that I watch them. Where are the Larry Birds and Magic Johnsons in this year’s tournament? I just don’t see a kid that I will regret not watching.

In reality I’d rather be at a high school baseball game or following spring football at Tennessee. I prefer fresh air and sunshine over some basketball team’s shining moment. But that’s just me…at least this year.

Maybe that’s because I feel as if there is something missing from the March Madness.

I’m going to do my public duty today and remind everyone that Daylight Savings Time starts this weekend. So when you go to bed Saturday be sure to “SPRING FORWARD” with your time pieces one hour.

With Daylight Savings Time now lasting 34 weeks, I have to wonder why even bother with the time change. I know, during the 18 weeks of standard time we need the extra hour in the morning so the kids can get off to school and such.

Don’t get me wrong, I like Daylight Savings. I prefer sleeping late in the morning whenever possible and any idea that keeps the sunlight from getting in for one hour is OK with me.

If I was a morning person that liked to jog or ride my bicycle at 6 a.m. the shuffling of daylight might upset me. But let’s face it, we don’t really save that hour we just move it from the front end of the day to the back end of day.

I really appreciate the hour at the end of the day this time of year. Anyone that has attended a local baseball or softball game in February or early March knows it can get downright cold once the sun goes down. Any extra warmth that goes with the sunshine feels good when the temperatures after dark will be dropping like the stock market.

More sunlight in the evening also helps our photographers. There’s nothing worse for a batter than to have a photo flash go off in their face. By the same token, a photographer needs adequate light to generate a usable photo. So it seems this makes it a win-win situation.

I never paid much attention to things like Daylights Savings Time when I was a kid. Maybe that’s because it seemed to start about the time school got out and ended about the time we started back in the fall.

I always longed for that fleeting moment of sunlight to stick around a little longer so I could climb one more tree, cast for one more fish or play one more inning of baseball.

The funny thing is 40 years later I’m still trying to squeeze the most out of every moment of daylight.

I’ll admit there were times as I covered the Region 1-2A wrestling tournament this weekend that my mind was elsewhere. But it was on high school wrestling.

There is no disrespect to the local wrestlers when I write this, but my thoughts kept drifting to the Region 1-3A tournament where my nephew, Stuart Maddox, was in action for DeLand High School.

I’m proud to report that Stuart qualified for state in the 189-pound class. As best I can tell, he finished third in his region. If I remember correctly, Stuart has a 32-9 record this year and has beaten last year’s 189-pound Class 3A runner up. Not bad for a junior in just his third year of wrestling.

Things didn’t work out for me to make the trip to Lakeland to see Stuart wrestle in the state tournament this year. But if he makes state next year I don’t plan on missing the 2010 state finals.

For now I’ll just follow the tournament online and stick out my chest like one proud uncle.

The NCAA football rules committee recently approved a provision allowing both teams to wear colored jerseys. There are a few stipulation in the provision that include the agreement is subject to conference approval, there must be a clear contrast in the color of the jerseys and both teams must agree to wear colored jerseys.

It makes sense that Alabama and Arkansas both shouldn’t wear red jerseys when playing each other. Players and fans might have a hard time telling the teams apart. But when Tennessee and Alabama clash in late October it would be great to see the Crimson and the Orange jerseys. And why shouldn’t Alabama wear Crimson and Auburn Navy Blue when they tussle in their annual battle in the Heart of Dixie?

If you do a little research you’ll discover that the white vs. colored jerseys was due to television. In those early TV days when the only sets were black and white, it was hard to distinguish dark colors. The blue of Kentucky might appear very similar to Georgia’s red on the old sets. In the digital age when black and white TV is simply a memory or a rerun of Leave It To Beaver, there is no such confusion.

I’m hoping the idea will catch on quickly and we’ll see teams wearing their primary colors when the play each other this fall.

If we are lucky maybe high school teams will follow suit and Crestview can wear red while Fort Walton Beach is decked out in blue. After all, team colors are very much a part of the game.