DESTINFM SCOREBOARD SHOW FRIDAY MAY 22ND, 2026

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 starts off with some shout outs to those who just signed their respected college letters of intent in the region, plus Niceville Softball looking for a measure of revenge in the State Championship. Q also gives up an update on the Wahoos and SEC Football news and notes and so much more. 

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

DESTINFM SCOREBOARD SHOW

DESTINFM SCOREBOARD SHOW

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome you into another edition of the Destin FM Scoreboard Show. As always, I am your host, Rich Canyunas. Hope everyone had a wonderful sports week and you are getting set for your Memorial Day weekend. If you got that long day weekend, certainly enjoy it. For us, there is a lot of sports to get into in our region, in the area, and of course up and down the coast. And let me just say again, appreciate everyone that's been tuning in to our daily as we expanded our Destin FM 60 second scoreboard updates during the week. You guys have been phenomenal. Follow me on social media with the input. And obviously, you guys have been extremely complimentary. And I know it's a tough time right now because you know we're we're starting to creep in with the official start of summer. So obviously, high school sports season, you know, it starts to trail off spring into the summer. You get spring practices, summer leagues here and there. You've got a couple teams that are still playing and vying for a state championship, which we will certainly get into uh in a moment. But we always like to, you know, first and foremost, um, you know, appreciate and thanks and uh the gratitude for you guys keeping us tuned in to the Destin FM scoreboard show as well as the 62nd Destin FM scoreboard updates. As I mentioned, too, during the week, lots of seniors graduating this weekend. Uh and uh, you know, again, it makes it a little more quiet on the local front, but we've got some uh that we wanted to highlight. Uh, and Fort Waltham Beach has a ton, a ton, 21 student athletes, 21 student athletes across 12 sports sign letters of intent to compete at the next level. Um, that announcement was made earlier in the week by the school and their athletic department, and just kind of give you a lowdown on a couple of them. Uh, Austin Balk is going to Jacksonville State, Jamal Jefferson, uh, Ripong College, Miko DeLong, Manchester U, Stella Swint, Troy University, uh, Isaiah Espowderza. How about that? West Alabama, um, Chloe Burgos, Miami Dade College. We mentioned her a lot during uh past uh 60 second scoreboard updates, as well as uh the scoreboard show. That's a name you should know. Cameron Coraggio, Shelton State uh College, Meredith Miller, and also Kelsey Herne, Enterprise State Community College, Sabrina Delarca, United States Sports University. Uh you've got Chiera Pulgarian United States Sports University. So it's good to see some of these, you know, uh uh players, uh teammates, they're going on and they're going to be doing that uh journey together. Uh Madison Perez, Millsaps College, uh Lila Smith, Pensacola State College, Logan Bentley Community College in Baltimore, County, Essex. That's a actually very good JUCO college. I that's a very good JUCO college. Parker Jugen, St. Thomas University, Sawyer Downs, Indian River State College, Ethan Chant, Lynn University. Uh, I believe that's a name I'm gonna throw out later on as well. Uh Nate uh Jucha, Southeastern University, Marcy Cater, Weber International, and Leyland Davis, Warner University. And oh, by the way, you know, sticking with the Fort Walton theme for a moment, shout out Izzy Douglas, standout softball player, just announced as the newest inductee into the Fort Walton Beach Vikings 2026 Hall of Fame class. Also, Ethan Chance, by the way, elected as well. So I did um mention that you have a couple teams vying. We saw some of these great runs by Destin, you know, and flag football and Choctaw and the baseball team and a flag football team having an opportunity for states coming up a little short uh uh last weekend as well, which was a heck, by the way. You know, you gotta give the you have to give the shout-out where the shout out is due. And I know we talked about this uh last week, but the uh chalk tall run in flag football was remarkable. Now they just came up against a bigger beast than Robinson, 42 to 12, but fantastic job all around. This is a team that went 17 and four, and they had the early loss to Land of the Lakes, right? And then they also uh went on the road, lost to Niceville 20-12, lost to Pace 32 to 7. They regrouped, they went on a seven-game winning streak, and then they ultimately fell to Robinson. But, you know, we wanted to give them that extra shout out. Uh, but as as far as the championships in states, niceville softball. They're moving on state championship on Saturday. That'll be Saturday, May 23rd. So obviously, if you guys are tuning in on this Friday edition, that'll be tomorrow. They defeated Braden River two to one to advance. Niceville got two in the second. They held BR scoreless until the seventh. They got back a run for the final tally. Uh, they held them just three hits. Niceville collected only three hits, but they made them count. Junior, Natalie Miller, Senior, Annabelle, Shackelford each had ribbies in the win. Uh, they will now take on winner springs, who shut out Pembroke Primes in the late uh Pembroke Pines in the late semifinal. Score that one was 4-0. So here's a huge, major, monumental opportunity right now uh for Niceville. I mean, that's that's unbelievable. Now, and and by the way, this is their second straight state championship game. And I mentioned here's another name, right? These names are so familiar uh when we're talking on the scoreboard show or during the week. Chloe Bailey struck out the final, batter, and they advanced. And I'm I'm looking forward now. I'll be able to tune into that game tomorrow. I'll be looking forward to that game. And you know, I think teams like this, all they're trying to do is kind of get back to that big stage, right? And as I mentioned, Miller had that fielder's choice, and then they uh pushed across another uh run to make it 2-0, and pitching at the end of the day was the difference in this one. And this is going to be a rematch with Winter Springs. I I just told you they defeated uh Pembroke Pines. That was in the 5-A semi. Winter Springs beat Niceville 43 in last year's state championship. So here's what we call a little measure of revenge, a little redemption. And if Niceville goes on to win tomorrow, it would bring the area its fifth state title this school year. It would give Niceville its second straight championship of program history and the second of head coach Danny Hensley's career. So um, you know, the best of luck to that squad tomorrow afternoon going forward. That's going to be a well, a heck of a contest. And uh, I'm gonna be locked in. And then obviously I've got the late West Coast basketball games to call, but I'll be locked in tomorrow uh and uh, you know, pulling uh for Niceville to get the win and the upset. Uh all right, so uh I mentioned too during the week, you know, we've been talking a lot more SEC, which we will get into, but we've also been pinpointing a lot of what's going on with minor league baseball. And uh the Wahoos, they're starting to kind of find a little bit of their rhythm and rhyme. Now, they dropped a 4-3 decision to Columbus on Thursday. They continue that six game set Friday night into the weekend. They won four or five prior to that. If you want to check out the game, first pitch later for 605 live broadcast beginning at six on Blab TV, Bally Sports Live, Blue Wahoos.com slash radio on the MLB app. You can always check out the ticket information, bluewahoos.com. But pitching starting to come around, you know, we start to look at these teams differently once they get around 500 or creep over 500, and the wahoos doing a nice job. Remember, they struggled. They struggled out of the gate. They really did. They did not have the best start to their season. I mean, we were going through some of these games and just the inconsistency. If you were a Wahoos fan, it just had to be uh, yeah, you had to just beside yourself, right? I mean, think about how they started the season. They had three at home against Montgomery. They lost all three. Then they came back, they went on the road against Biloxi, they dropped three straight, four of six. So they were already in the hole. Um, you know, they didn't play well at home against Knoxville. Uh, they won three out of four, three out of five against Montgomery. They started to kind of turn it around a little bit. Biloxi's kind of been a thorn in the Wahoo sign. And then they started to play much better baseball with pitching and timely hitting earlier in May. Remember, they took that Friday, that Saturday, uh, that uh those contests against Rocket City. That stopped a three-game slide. Then they come back and they won four out of six against Chattanooga on the road. And now up until this point, they had one, as I mentioned, four or five Tuesday and Wednesday, really good efforts. Again, they did it with timely hitting and a six to five win, and then timely pitching and a three to one win on Tuesday, Wednesday, respectively, and then they fall four to three. So after this final three-game set, if you will, part of the six-game series, they go back on the road against Birmingham uh beginning on Tuesday. So Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. That's how the schedule plays out. That close out May. And then we'll kind of see where they're going to be at at the break. But keep an eye out for them. Once you start to creep around 500, then we start to take a little more of a notice. How about this, though? Speaking of uh colleges, which we'll get into in a moment with the SEC, FAU has filed NIL transfer contract breach lawsuits in Palm Beach County against former football players Asad Wasman, Tyler Stosky, Zion Parrott, and Jamari Sands. This is a report via uh Boca Raton Tap, which I saw on X. And that's pretty significant. That's pretty significant because, again, we talk about these college players, student athletes, the NIL, the name image, the likeness. Now all of a sudden you start, you know, contract or or breach of contract is never a good thing. That is never, ever a good thing. And you have to be really careful when you start to get into that conversation. And this is why a lot of people uh they look at NIL, they look at somebody's contracts, they look at, you know, signing on with some of these universities. You have to be very, very careful, you got to do your due diligence. Uh, you got to be careful. You you you really do, because you know, again, a lot of people will sit there and say, well, um, you know, you just you you kind of don't want to have a breach of contract, right? Like it's it's one thing to leave, you can't blame the player, but if you sign a contract and you break it, it's kind of a welcome to the real world, uh, real world, right? But it's kind of a goofy look, um, because it just shows that you're not being consistent. And and you you have to play, it's gotta be a level playing field. It has to. And now what's gonna happen is that FAUs, they're gonna have to figure out a way to recoup funds because if athletes are a violation of these agreements, uh, where's that money going? So now I gotta recoup because I'm investing in you and oh oh by this, oh, by the way. Now I double check this. So I don't know how damages are calculated, but some of the numbers. Now, this is per uh this is per Rick Henderson who does uh pretty good pod. FAU uh Al's Nest on X, Wasim received 69,000, Stolski 45k, Parette 30K, Sans 18. Uh look, they're gonna try to recoup that money. You need representation if you are student athletes and you're you're starting to get in that NIL space. You just you have to. All right, SEC, college news. So obviously, we got the big boys Texas right now sitting on top of the CBS Sports post-spring SEC power rankings. Uh, Texas will open up their season against Texas State. That should be a gimme on September 5th. Then you got a massive non-conference game at home against Ohio State. Uh all eyes are going to be on Arch manning. Everyone's talking about the draft and which teams might be tanking, the March for Arch, which, oh, by the way, I I phrased that. I coined that on my daily show on Q, which you guys can obviously hear on my YouTube channel. Uh follow me along on social media at rich q on q or just uh rich q on q on YouTube. But I coin the phrase, you know, the march for Arch. So Arch Manning right now, uh, he is the primary quarterback. All eyes will be on him. He's gonna have an opportunity for the Heisman, he's gonna be able to lead Texas. Then you get Georgia. And Georgia, we know that uh Georgia has a great defense. I think they're gonna add a little bit of a caveat to their offense. They arguably have the most complete tight end room under Kirby Spart, and I think it's gonna be a major asset. Kirby Spart's gonna want to throw the football to tight end and these seam routes. So uh Alabama, Texas, Georgia, we know those are the big time schools, and we certainly know those are the powerhouses to watch going forward. Uh, and I think all these squads, all these teams, are going to be ranked. And I just look, I'm curious to see what Texas does and and Arch Manning. You know, obviously, with Alabama, Auburn, Georgia pretty much in our backyard, all eyes are going to be on Arch Manning. So Texas AM had a heck of a recruiting class. And if you think about right now, we are creeping into Memorial Day weekend. Uh if you were to kind of rank it, Texas AM, Oklahoma, Notre Dame had a really good recruiting class, Florida, Ohio State, Texas Tech, the Red Raiders, USC, you know, Miami Hurricanes. You know, they broke through finally last season in the national championship game. Now comes the hard part, right? Because they got waxed by Indiana. UCLA, you know, Michigan, you never count out Michigan. Uh, you've got a new era under Kyle Winningham. Uh, and uh he brought along some players as well. So, you know, you always look for those strong recruiting classes, and typically these are your top 10 to 15 teams in the country. All right, as far as baseball, the pros. We've been talking a lot about the Rays, the Marlins, the Braves, obviously, the Braves and the Nationals get set to do battle. Braves are playing really good baseball. They took three out of four against the Marlins. They dropped the opener of that four-game set. They've ripped all three straight. They have one five out of their last seven. They are 35 and 16. Don't look now, the Phillies hovering right around 500, still nine and a half back in the NL East, but I do like what the Braves are doing, especially with their pitching. I mean, they're really a good baseball team and they're well managed. And give the cred uh give credit to the Phillies and Don Manley taking over after Thompson got fired. He's done a heck of a job. Now, as far as the AL East and the Tampa Bay Rays, huge series. Huge series on the road. Boogie down Bronx, Tampa, Tampa Bay is 33 and 15. They're first in the AL East. They have a huge series starting this evening on the road for three against the Yankees, then to go down right down 95. They got Baltimore for three. So this is a big test right now for the Rays, who have just been one of the hottest teams in baseball, 15 out of their last 18. Their only two blemishes was a 5-3 loss in extras to Toronto and a 10-5 loss in extras to Miami. Go figure. But they are playing outstanding baseball. Diaz is having a phenomenal season, batting 316. Aranda is getting on base, lead leader with 37 ribies. His OPP is 394. Diaz is. Keman Arrow is one of them. He's got 13 already, but the pitching is always the key with Tampa. Now, I can't say that when it comes to the Marlins. Because the Marlins and the Mets are pretty much buried in the NO East. And I just don't know what it's going to take for either of these teams. If you are a Miami fan, they are 22 and 29. They're already 13 back. The Mets are 12.5 back. The Mets, you know, teasing the fan base winning seven out of the last 10, but the Marlins just can't figure it out. They got waxed by the Braves. They dropped three out of four. They lost two out of three against the Rays. They lost two out of three against the Twins. And their only successful series over the last four or five weeks was against the Nationals. They took two out of three. They had that four-game losing streak. They lost two to the Phillies, two to the Orioles. They can't get out of their own way. They're not a good baseball team. They are slumping. They really are. They are a slumping team. And they can't hit for power. They just can't. Whether it's Lopez, Edwards, Hicks, they just really don't have a strong lineup. Pitching's not helping them out. The Mets, the Marlins, I think they're going to be buyers come the trade deadline. I think the Braves, I'm sorry, sellers, I think the Braves might be buyers. And the Rays are always going to try to strengthen up that pen. So that's a quick look at what's going on MLB-wise. We announced this yesterday, and I don't want to have the letdown of the show, but uh we would be remiss if we didn't mention the passing of NASCAR icon Kyle Bush. Now, as we know, racing is prevalent uh up and down Emerald Coast to Panhandle. I mean, it it's prevalent where we are. And Kyle Bush, a two-time Cup Series champion, he's won more races across the sports three national series than any other driver, passed away at the age of 41, way too young. Racing series announced. Uh, it's just really sad. You know, he was calling for a doctor last weekend. Uh, you know, there's there's conflicting reports going on. It was like 11 days after he radioed into his crew near the end of the Cup Series race at Watkins Glen that he needed a doctor to give him a quote shot, finished a race, and then passed away on Thursday. You don't want to speculate, we have no idea. Still waiting for more information to come out. But uh I spoke to a couple of my buddies who cover NASCAR, an ARCA series, and they all texted me the same thing. They said, Q, this is our Kobe Bryant. So if you remember, Kobe Bryant, who tragically died in the helicopter accident, was in the prime of his life and just sent shock waves through the sports world, the NBA, you know, the world as a whole. You know, this is it's it's it's tragic. You know, he fell ill and then he passed. Um, anytime you have a young man that passes away or a young person, it's tragic. So, you know, we're not trying to apples and oranges with a uh someone getting sick and then passing to a devastating plane crash. Anytime uh a life is lost, it's never a good thing, especially when you're 41 years of age and you have your whole future ahead of you, and you have been a legend in your respected profession and in this case sport. And I think it's one of the reasons that the Bush family, Richard Childress Racing, NASCAR, I think it's just kind of sent shockwaves up and down the NASCAR community. Um, he was a heck of a racer. I mean, he was a really good, you don't have to really follow NASCAR 63 cup victories, ranks ninth all time. He's got 102 O'Reilly Auto Parts wins, 69 truck victories. Those are records as well, but gone too soon. 41 years of age. So thoughts and prayers go out to Kyle Bush's family, and uh certainly uh rest in peace. All right, NBA quickly. Uh you've got game three of the Western Conference Finals, Thunder and the Spurs. That series has knotted up at one apiece. I know during the week everyone, especially on My Airwaves, was talking about my show, talking about the foul discrepancy in that series. Thunder were able to come back at home, got the split at home, beat the Spurs. Now the series shifts back to San Antonio. They are at uh right now, uh they're sitting right around a point and a half to two-point favorite. I think that series goes seven. And then, you know, for me, being a Knicks fan, you got game three of the Eastern Conference Finals, Knicks and the Cavs, the Knicks with that historic, remarkable down 22 with seven and change to go in the fourth quarter. Not only force overtime, beat the Cavs in game one of that series. Uh, they also turn around, they beat them on Thursday night. They go on the road for two in Cleveland. All the Knicks need to do is get that split. They can come back and close it out next week. Madison Square goes. And get to their first NBA final since 1999. I need to see my Knicks win a championship in my lifetime. And quite frankly, I don't think that's asking a lot. All right. And then finally, to close it out, NFL Matthew Stafford signs an extension with the Rams. He's going to get paid, I believe it's $55 million. And everyone thought that Stafford was going to retire. No, it's a one-year, $55 million extension. Joe Shane agrees to a multi-year contract extension with the Giants as their GM. We told you that Eagles linebacker Nolan Smith was clock on 135 in Georgia. You got those Georgia Bulldogs, and they love to just speed and race way too fast. And we'll see. We'll get into a little more of college in the NFL next week. But as I mentioned, best of luck on Saturday to Kniceville softball. We told you in the beginning of the show, they're moving on to the state championship Saturday after they beat Braden River 2-1 to advance. They got a rematch of last year's championship game against uh Winter Springs, who got the best of them. So a little revenge, a little redemption. Here you go. Keep it locked in with the Wahoos, especially next week. See if they can start picking up these wins again. Brazor looking good. Marlin's struggling. Razor looking really good. Huge three games set against the Yankees. We'll talk a little more NBA, get into a lot more of the SEC. And then shout out once again to all the student athletes that are graduating or have already graduated in our region. They are going on to college. They will pursue other endeavors. Maybe they're going to play, maybe they're not going to play sports, but they're going to further their education, which is paramount. First and foremost, that is the most important thing. So the best of luck. We love giving you all these kids shout-outs on the air during the Destin FM scoreboard show. All right. With that, we got to start wrapping up. We always encourage you guys to get social. You can get social with me. Very easy to do on XIG at RichQ on Q, uh, TikTok, RichQ on Mike, and of course, YouTube at RichQ on Q. You can check out on Q Monday to Friday. Um, and uh we are live. We've got a lot more of the uh Florida listeners chiming in as well and contributing to the show. And you guys have been fantastic on X when it comes to the 60 second scoreboard updates and as well as the Destin FM scoreboard show. So we greatly appreciate it. If you got some student athletes that you also, you know, want a little pop, a little mention, right? Let me know. Let me know. We'll give them a shout out. And I did want to make you know one announcement before we got off the air. You've got the FCP Sports, FCC port uh fcc sports.org, which is Fort Walton's only dedicated basketball facility. It's gorgeous, 14,000 square feet, climate-controlled indoor gym. I mean, are you kidding me? They have their 2026 summer camp, which runs nine weeks, June, July for grades K-12. They got a variety of sessions available. They also offer, this is very important, military DOD, and sibling discounts. Registration open now. Very easy to go online. Uh, go to fcpsports.org, lead the uh forest. We're gonna try to get him on the show, uh, doing a fantastic job. And they've got some big names behind this, right? Because the program's led by USA basketball certified coaches, uh advised by one of the all-time greats, you know, New York legend, NBA legend Kenny Anderson. They've trained over 500 local athletes through their prep school, uh, which is uh FloridaCoastalprep.com. So we just wanted to give them a little shout out, uh a little pop, if you will, on the air. And if you guys want to get a hold of me, you can always email me richq at destinfm.com. Richq at destinfm.com. So you know how to get social with me, you know how to tune in every Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday in the morning. You catch me during my guy surfs up in the morning with Billy Surf. Uh, he does a fantastic job with the show, the music, the energy, everything. The news, the notes, the entertainment. It's a fantastic listen. And if you, you know, just kind of focus a little bit, you'll catch me as well with the 60-second scoreboard update. So the programming is fantastic. And uh, we always tell you very easy to get locked in at Destinfm.com. You can check out the programming grid. Also for the local businesses out there that want to um support what we're doing content-wise, programming wise, now sports-wise. Uh, we've got our rate sheet, we've got our blocks of different packages. You can always, as I said, email me. You can hit me up on social media, and uh, we will get you some information. Uh, A S A P. So that's gonna wrap it up for another edition of the Destin FM scoreboard show. We want to thank everyone for tuning in, everyone for always getting social with us, and we always want to remind you guys it's very, very easy to keep us locked in, right? It's very easy. Get social with Destin FM, follow them on Facebook at Destin FM, on IG at Destin FM, X at Destin underscore FM, TikTok at Destin FM Radio. As always, I'm Rich Canonis. Get the latest by downloading the free Destin FM app in the app store, Google Play, or at Destinfm.com. Have a wonderful sports weekend, extended holiday weekend, and again, shout out, military men, women, thank you so much for your service. Nobody don't don't work on Monday. It's it's Memorial Day. Take the day off. But you will catch us with the 62nd Destin FM scoreboard. And later on next week, another edition of the Destin FM scoreboard show. Have a wonderful sports weekend. We will talk to you next time inside the friendly confines of our remote studios of Destin FM for another edition of the Destin FM scoreboard show.