DESTINFM SCOREBOARD SHOW WEEK OF 4/13

The Destin FM Scoreboard show is a Weekly Show hosted by DestinFM's Sports Director Rich Quinones, who takes an in-depth look at the local HS and College Sports scene, from recaps, to previews to in-depth interviews and breaking news! 

Q has you covered! If you are looking for 100% local sports coverage in the Emerald Coast, this is the podcast for you. 

On today's show, Q opened breaking down all the HS Baseball Playoffs, and why he believes that South Walton is poised to win a Title, as he also highlighted who he believes might be on the top MLB Prospects in the region.

Plus, Q gives some updates on flag football, lacrosse and tennis and who made history on the tennis courts this past weekend? 

Always remember to get social with us, follow us on Facebook DestinFM, on IG @destinfm and x @destin_fm and tiktok @DestinFMradio

Catch Q with the DestinFM :60 scoreboard every Tuesday and Thursday during Surfs up in the Mornings. 

Get the latest by downloading the free DestinFM app in the App Store, Google Play, or at DestinFM.com.

DESTINFM SCOREBOARD SHOW

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Welcome, sports fans, to another edition of the Destin FM Scoreboard Show. I am your host, Rich Canyon, is coming live from the friendly remote confines of our Destin FM Remote Studios. And you've got to absolutely love this time of year. I mean, you want to talk about so much going on uh locally in the region, high school sports, springtime, playoffs and baseball, softball, home stretch, spring practices and football, which is always unique and fascinating, by the way. Especially when we start to get into the transfer talk, which I'm gonna tease that for now, and we'll hold off till the end of the show. But it's a very busy time in our area. Uh obviously, high school baseball playoffs are among us. And let me just say the talent that we are seeing across the board in the region stacked with a ton of MLB prospects, you know, a ton of future college stars and two-way stars. And South Walton, my goodness, they are as good as advertised. Now, during this week's 60 second uh scoreboard updates that you hear every Tuesday and Thursday, oh, by the way, in the morning, during our wonderful friend uh compadre, our brother in arms, our Hermano, uh Billy Surf surfs up in the morning. We have mentioned to you that this team, Southwalden, is red hot. I mean, they are poised for a deep run and perhaps a state title. Now, over the last couple seasons, they've been the bridesmaid and never the bride. Uh, and we hey, no one ever wants to feel that way, right? In sports and our life. Uh, two straight state runner-up finishes. This season, a little different. And if you go back a couple weeks ago, they had their most impressive win of the season. They routed pace, and that was the number one team in Class 6A. Took care of them, blanked them, 11-0. Starting pitching was outstanding. They just took care of Walton's 16-1 in a 3-8 district one playoff game, 16 runs, 11 hits. What does this team do offensively? They jump on pitching early. Five in the first, five in the second, loaded. Load it lineup, and I think they are led arguably by the best prospect in the entire state of Florida. Uh, Walton, by the way, had no path to the postseason without winning the district. But going back to a player to watch, uh, Coleman Borthwick, you're talking about under 18, 2025, under-18 baseball World Cup MVP. Uh, he is an uh Major League Baseball prospect. I've already had some conversations with um baseball writers uh throughout the country. They know exactly who this kid is. He's an Auburn commit. He's a two-way star. It's just incredible what he's doing from behind the plate, uh close to 40 hits, uh, 28, I believe, 29 ribies. He's got a little pop in the bat, eight home runs. But on the mound, it's just fascinating to watch. I mean, this kid has struck out 67. He's allowed six hits all season long, and he hasn't given up a run. That's incredible. I don't care on what level. Now you're talking about a 458 career hitter, stud on the mound. Again, I just want to emphasize it one more time. 67 strikeouts. He's fanning kids left and right. He's got ridiculous control and velocity, and he hasn't given up a run this season. And he's just unhittable. And their lineup is sick. They're stacked. I mean, Vaughn Howard gets on base. Nathan Whitney gets on base, right? Um, the uh young uh the young kid uh Hudson Quint gets on base. Their lineup is just stacked. They really are. They just, I mean, they're they're at times, they're just they get on base, they steal bases, they manufacture runs, they're that good. And the rotation behind this young man is equally uh locked and loaded. And I mentioned this, you got two-way guys, you got guys coming all over the place, right? So Virginia is going to get Griffin Lloyd. Uh, Denton Lord is going to Mississippi State, I was reading. Uh, you got uh uh Leiden Flannery, uh FSU. You got a couple more Auburn commitments, and you're talking about stud young arms, and I think their head coach, uh Nick Borthwick, has done a phenomenal job. And you're talking about a team that won 21 games, 21 and 4. Uh, they were ranked top 20 pretty much all season long. I believe their highest ranking in the state of Florida was uh three. And again, they had some big wins. They had some really, really big wins. And now uh you got West Florida in the playoffs. The Jags are 17-7 on the season. They got the 7-1 win over Pensacola to advance at this point. So that's your matchup right there. Uh, and it's gonna be a dandy. It really is. And I think when you get an opportunity, if you can watch some of these kids in action, I mean, it's gonna be fascinating to watch. Now, again, we'll talk about this game, we'll recap it next week, but that's where you're at right now, South Walton and West Florida, uh, bookmark that one. That's gonna be an absolute uh dandy, and we'll talk more about it. And I can tell you this too. If if um if we get any uh I guess um updates, even if it's uh late on a Saturday or into the Sunday, if I kind of go back and if we have some time pending, maybe we'll pop on uh just for maybe five, ten quick minutes. We'll throw it on to man on the scoreboard show uh because we know baseball is just very busy right now in the region with all these playoffs going on. It's really extremely busy. And certainly, as I mentioned, you know, the point of what we're doing is we want to shed a lot of light and exposure on all these teams, right? So Crestview, they ended their season. They had that tough 12-1 loss to Tate. They led this one 1-0 after three. Tate woke up in the fourth, four runs in the frame, pitching held. They shut down that offensive, rested away, left them uh hitless. You got Eskambia that got a really uh easy win, eight to four over Booker T Washington. Now they took advantage as well. Some very spotty pitching early on. They grabbed a quick five-nothing lead after three. Uh look, uh BTW Booker T made an interesting. They got back three in the seventh. They couldn't really manufacture anything late in the frame. Couple players that stood out in that game. Uh Clayton Sanders went two for four. Senior, uh Caleb Bates went three for four. Junior, Tyler Wilson had a bases clearing double in the win. Now they're going to take on Chuck Tall for the 4-A District 1 title. Uh, Gators are 15-11. Indians are 21-5. Remember, too, they had a run of 10 straight wins after that 10-8 loss to New Albany. Uh, they ripped off four straight, including that six to four win over Full Watten Beach. Offensively, the bats have been solid. They can score runs, they can jump on pitching early. If you are as can be a you have to, you have to get out of the first couple innings unscathed. Now, I went back. Penskola Catholic got to them very early a week ago in a 9-1 win. They scored 6-4 to break it open. And they were also held to five hits and a loss against Tate. They gave up two in the first, which set the tone in a 5-0 loss. Oh, by the way, they were no hit in that game. Uh, by the way, congrats to Rocky Bayou, their high school, uh, their athletics department, AD, Anthony Thigpen. How about this? Rocky Bayou Christian Knights, the varsity uh boys baseball team, back to back district championships. And it was really a no-contest against Lee Academy. They just overwhelmed them. 11-0. Uh, they've dominated this 2026 season, right? I mean, they they really had, you know, it's so uh you talk about their record, uh, winning 14-15 games. They had some really nice uh scoring streaks offensively. They have been as dominant as a baseball team in the region that you will see. I mean, they they put up runs. They really do. They put up runs, and as I mentioned, there's probably multiple players, multiple, multiple players that I can um highlight. But they they have they have turned RB has turned into a uh powerhouse, like a a strong contender over the last several years. They really have. I mean, these kids can flat out play. They're that good. I mean, collectively as a unit, they bat 591. Their uh on base percentage is 654. And that game against Lead Academy, it w it wasn't even close. It wasn't even close. It was 10-0 after three innings. You know, you had to go by that that that uh the the mercy rule. But that's a fantastic job by Rocky Bayou. Fantastic job. And they had you know, they had stretches this season. If you think about this, right, leading up to this point, they beat um Artmore Christian, they beat North Bay, uh uh Gulf Point, right? Ponce de Leon, uh North Bay again, they put up 18, they put up 24 against Laurel Hull. I mean, heck, it was a football score, it's 24 to 7. Now they got blanked by North Florida Christian, which snapped that really nice winning streak. Eight games in a row. They won 10 out of 11, and then they come back and they win districts with the 11-0 win over Lead Academy. So uh that's a that's an athletic department doing a really, really uh nice job. All right, so a little flag football. Got to mention some girls' flag football. Destin had no answers. For pace and their 32-6 loss. They will play again on the 21st. Um, and they sit with an extremely solid 9-4 mark. Two-game winning streak came to an end for Walton Beach. They've dropped three straight, two to Destin. Back-to-back games. They're coming off a 13-0 loss to Crestview. Uh, they have a mark of 5-10. They will get set for a home playoff game against a winless 0-9 Pine Forest Eagles Monday, the 20th at 6 30. So good luck to the squad in that regard. Uh oh, how about this too? I want to mention uh 3A, District 1, Niceville. They look like the team to beat right now. Top seed in the 20. First round bye. They get the winner of uh um Navarre against Crestview April 21st, which would be the semifinals. Pace is sitting at the two seed. They have a bye, they will get the winner between Gulf Breeze and Tate. The winner plays in the semis as well. We might get Pace versus Niceville in the championship, and Pace lost to Niceville earlier in the season. That was a wild game, 39-20. I mean, just uh score, you know, touchdowns all over the place. Uh, I would like to mention too, now this was last week on X at Rich Q on Q. Joe in Fort Walton Beach hit me up and said, Q. Like he knows me. Joe, I appreciate it. I love it, by the way. And I say that nothing but love. I love that you sit there and you say, Q, we need some lacrosse updates. Who you got, my friend? All right. So uh I will give you an update or two for Walton Beach. Uh boys there, lacrosse uh fell to Sal Walton 17-2 in a playoff affair. They finished the season six and nine. Heck of a job in district play, Joe. Five and one, tough loss. Sal Walton, very strong offensively, just a ton of talent. How about this? Um, the two brothers here, right? Junior, Gardner Crouch with six points. His brother, freshman Connor Crouch, five points in the win. They combined for five goals in that one. So, as I said, it is a ridiculously busy time high school sports-wise. You got so much of the baseball. You have the high school spring practices, which I wanted to kind of close out with that, because I know there's going to be a lot of talk of how some things kind of play out with new coaches, different places, and the ability for the players now, the student athletes that can transfer. So, you know, before it was a long-standing rule in Florida, not allowing players to transfer, you know, or who transfer to participate in spring football games. So, in short, a student can switch schools in April. You can jump into spring workouts, start building a rapport with a new team. You might have to sit out the final spring scrimmage, depending on the exact transfer timeline. But the reason that it's kind of pronounced and prominent is because you're going to see if some students now, with some of the coaching carousel that we've highlighted over the last several weeks, if they're going to transfer. So students can transfer, participate in spring practices, including football, in the state of Florida, as the state allows students to transfer multiple times with immediate eligibility. However, transfer students cannot play in the actual spring football game if they transfer after the fall season's official start. That's considered your basically continuation of the previous year. And we already know that uh there are some new head coaches in place. Are there not? Right? Coach Robinson right now in uh Niceville. And I know that uh we're gonna try to get him on, I promise you. I mentioned this a little bit, you know. Uh, here's a coach that's a lifer, well entrenched in the community, was uh part of that '88 championship team, won the state title, was also the girls' flag football coach. Uh, had a pretty darn good track record under the three coaches before him. And I and I bring it up because I think the sentiment, the opinion is, well, we're gonna see how some of the kids react to this if they're gonna transfer. We'll see what happens during spring practices. And it's one of the reasons I felt that Niceville had to move on quickly. Um, they did it last offseason. They moved pretty fast to replace Grant Thompson, who had that overall record of 64-10 during his time with the Eagles. He had two final four appearances over the span of six seasons. And then we saw what happened with Coach Morgan, didn't work out. Uh, I know that Niceville is bringing back some pretty darn good offensive players. Uh, they ended the past season six and five. They were ranked, I think, 79th. But again, you know, their goal is to what? Make deep runs in the playoffs and build and build within the region and the community. And obviously, uh, I think I think Coach Robinson is the right hire. I said it last week on the show. But as I mentioned, it'll be it'll be fascinating to see. Same thing with uh Coach Morgan now with Rocky Bayou, right? How are some of these players going to react? You know, what are their parents going to want to do? Do they want to keep them in these districts with these schools and these coaches going forward? And that's kind of the fascinating thing with high school sports. I mean, it was a rarity many, many, many, many years ago where you would see kids transfer. You just, you know, because you had to live, if you lived in a certain region, a certain district, you couldn't play. Uh, you had to play within um your region. And, you know, a couple guys hit me up on X, and you know, they they asked me what I thought of the Niceville hire. And again, full disclosure, I've never met Coach Robinson. I can only go by research on those that I've spoken to. I'm looking forward to interviewing him on the show. But, you know, anytime you can bring in a coach that's entrenched in the community, that understands the high school, that's been on the coaching staff, that was also part of a championship team, um, that's always a good thing. Now, there's a flip side to that coin. There's always a little more pressure when you bring back the local hero because right away, boosters, admin, parents, they want to see instant success. They want to see instant success. And we know that Niceville um has had a storied football tradition. We know that. You know, you have several players that played in the NFL. Okay. So when you're talking about, you know, going back 88 state championship team, here we go. I think the reason they also hired was because of the loyalty, but the commitment to just the consistency and the um continuity, right, uh, of trying to build the program based on past uh success. And that's why I like this hire. I do. I really do. And it's not an indictment on Coach Uh Morgan. You know, he came with a lot of fanfare. It's one of the reasons. So, again, a couple of you guys um last week, and I and I'll and I'll mention it because you guys were kind enough uh to reach out to me. Uh Ryan over in uh uh in in Miramar Beach uh hit me up, asked me about you know why some of the coaches uh are leaving. I saw Coach D actually hit me up on X, asked me the same sediment and different states. Uh there's always some different reasoning behind why some of these coaches are leaving. And a lot of times when the coaches come from out of state, I mentioned it's it's a tough sell. It really is. It is a tough sell because if I am not local, right, then I gotta build some equity. I gotta build some equity. And you know, the fact that let's just say I'm coming in, I'm bringing a strong track record. And let's be honest, Coach Morgan, Richard Morgan, is a heck of a head coach with multiple state championships, well over 220 wins, that is pedigree. That is pedigree. So they jumped on the opportunity to grab him after Grand Thompson uh after he resigned. And this was a very extensive coaching search, but you brought in a gentleman that had a lot of coaching achievements. So I think the expectation is right away you gotta win. You're talking about a coach that coached 185 college football players, 21 all-Americans, 72 all-state, seven players have reached the NFL. That is a heck of a resume. So then you have to wonder why after one season it doesn't work out. Nobody knows. Nobody knows the next move. But the bottom line is right now, this is Coach Robinson's team going forward. So I understand hesitation from some within the community, but I always believe sometimes it's better to dance with the devil you know than you don't know. And you got to give them the benefit of the doubt. You know, by all accounts, good guy, good character, good morals, leader of men, knows the game of football, and he's a lifer and knows the community. To me, that is a win-win-win. That checks off all the boxes. Checks off all the boxes. And if they jump out of the gate and they're two and oh, three-o, three and one, four and one, all's good. The adversity comes out when you lose some games early on, and then you gotta figure out okay, what kind of team do I have? Who's gonna rally behind me? Where's the support gonna be? And I think they're gonna be good. I think they're gonna be okay. And they've got some, as I mentioned, they got some talent coming back. They got some talent coming back. All right, gotta start wrapping it up. Uh, so I mentioned last week too, and I always I always enjoy uh doing this. So we get to add like new segments to the show, right? So now we got the cue shout out. And this is for those that hit me up on Facebook and said, Rich, you gotta give me a little tennis talk. How about this? A great job. This is a cue shout-out on this uh edition of the Destin FM scoreboard show. I have to give a shout-out not only to Niceville Boys Tennis, runner-ups in 3A District 1, but uh, how about the Brother and Sister Act for Destin making waves on the court? So Charlie and Lucy Frankfurt, brother and sisters, they just made history with Destin tennis. Okay. Uh let me walk you through it. So now you have two tennis district champions. As I mentioned, they are brother and sister. Um Lucy, pardon me, Lucy, um, served up the win. Girls district champion for line two. So Lucy, line two. Uh she won her match. I gotta pull my notes, 6'3, 6'4. And then Charlie, who again, I believe, is her big brother on line three, was named Boys District Champion. He won his match six, four, seven, six. So now you got boys and girls tennis finished third. Place, being knocked out of second place by just one point. But Charlie, Lucy, that is a heck of a job. That's a first. That's history making. You get this week's uh cue shout out. All right. As always, we encourage you guys. You can catch my 60 second, my Destin FM 60nd scoreboard updates on um the morning, the AMs with my guy, Billy Surf. Surfs up in the morning every Tuesday and Thursday. Then every week we drop a new episode of the Destin FM scoreboard show. I mentioned I'm gonna try to kind of keep locked in with all my other broadcasting duties this week and see what's going on baseball playoff wise. If anything breaks, we'll try to come on the mic inside our remote studios and we'll try to um uh get you a quick little uh show out there. But if you missed any of the shows, always on demand. That's the beauty of what we're doing. That's the beauty of what Destin FM does because all the content, always, always on demand. We always want you guys to not only download the app, but get social with us first and foremost, right? So you can follow us on Facebook, Destin FM on IG at Destin FMX, formerly Twitter at Destin underscore FM, TikTok at Destin FM radio. For me, it's very simple. Uh Rich Q on Q on IGNX. Also TikTok Rich Q on the mic. Uh, but the main thing is keep supporting local high schools, local high school athletic programs, uh, the student athletes go to the games, um, you know, support what these kids are doing on the field, off the field, in the classroom, outside the classroom. There are so many great stories that we're gonna be telling over the next several months. And I do appreciate everyone hitting me up. You guys can ask me any question, and I'll try to come up with the answer if I don't know it for you, uh, sports related in the region. But I definitely uh love the engagement that you guys are already going back and forth with me on um social media platforms. And I do promise you we're gonna try to get as many head coaches on as possible. I know it's a crazy time too, because a lot of these kids are also um signing letters of intent to go play college ball, which is always fun. Which is always fun. They're posting it on social, on Facebook, on X. So I think there's a lot of stories to tell uh when we talk about, you know, the area and what's going on, whether it's uh Choctaw, Crestview, Destin, Fort Walton, South Walton, Walton, Niceville, right? Rocky Bayou. Uh, we want to give uh some shine and exposure to what these kids in these high schools and these athletic departments and these sports teams are doing. And uh I think it's just fun to watch, uh, to be quite honest with you, and just kind of admiring from afar. I think this region is a hot spot when we're talking about high school sports. I mean, it just you can't beat it. You can't. You just really can't beat it. There's so much going on, it's utterly ridiculous in the Emerald Coast. So eventually we'll get to a little more spring football, flag football, lacrosse. I mentioned, you got volleyball coming up. Uh, so we will give you uh the run of the gamut. And as I mentioned, we try to condense everything into that 60 second, uh, even though Billy knows I always go over, but that's okay. You know, we don't want to peel back to Kern and give you guys all the secrets. Um, but we might be expanding that as well. So stay tuned. But always appreciate the good folks over at Destin FM. And appreciate you guys keeping us locked in for another edition of the Destin FM scoreboard show. So as we part ways, uh again, just a reminder, very easy to do. Uh as we are closing out, it's going to do it for another edition of the Destin FM Scoreboard show. We want to thank everyone. Remember, get social with us one last time. Facebook, Destin FM, on IG at Destin FM, X at Destin uh underscore FM, and TikTok at Destin FM Radio. I'm Rich Canunis. Get the latest by downloading the free Destin FM app in the app store, Google Play, or as always, at Destinfm.com.