Community Diamonds

I have a suggestion for holding future county meetings, particularly in the spring.
Conduct them immediately after a Wewahitchka versus Port St. Joe softball game.
Last Friday night could serve as Exhibit A.
The two teams met in the regional semifinals and the score is irrelevant in this space because the story here was the crowd.
This wasn't standing room only, this was a bulging-at-the-seams crowd, with people surrounding Lady Gator Field all the way around to the outfield fences.
There were flags, there were chants, there was radio and newspaper coverage and more photographers than could fit in the tiny boxes set aside for media along both baselines.
I have attended a lot of softball games over the years - I began in this business as a sportswriter - and it was the single largest crowd for a softball game I have ever seen.
Don Rich, the public address announcer and father of star Wewahitchka pitcher Samantha Rich, commented on the number of people around the third inning.
Leaning out and scanning the tops of all those heads below, Rich said it was the biggest crowd he'd ever seen for a softball game, including those for the state championships.
Considering how much Mr. Rich has followed his daughter around Florida and the country watching her play, his statement had the gravitas of experience.
And it was a happy crowd, enjoying themselves under a bright sky, darkened only by the somewhat mysterious appearance of a mosquito spray truck beyond the outfield fences, spraying while in the middle the game to considerable consternation by some in the crowd.
But mostly, this was community at work.
You can convene all the town hall meetings and economic forums desired, but it would be hard to believe any event has attracted such a crowd in recent memory, unless it was a festival or the like.
The grills were churning out hot dogs and hamburgers, the refreshments, whether a water or soda, were flowing and, where the stands ended, folks were lined up two and three deep to watch the action.
Let me first say, what a game. Tense, back and forth action, the Lady Gators jumping out first, Port St. Joe answering and Wewahitchka responding to pull out a 3-1 victory.
As Wewahitchka coach Coy Adkins noted after the game, it was about as tough a scrape as the Lady Gators have had in their region - Northwest Florida - and their classification in some time.
The Lady Tiger Sharks have closed the gap, having a standout pitcher such as Kayla Minger provides a huge assist in that regard, but Wewahitchka's playoff experience and their overall depth was enough.
Oh, what next year, when both Samantha Rich and Minger will be seniors, could bring.
After all, it was last year that it appeared the two teams would face each other four times, twice in the regular season, then for the district championship and then for the regional title. Port St. Joe stumbled in the region playoffs instead.
This year that vision came into focus, though the Florida High School Athletic Association, in its infinite wisdom which has little correlation to the exorbitant ticket prices they force schools to charge or the absurd messages Mr. Rich had to read after every half inning, seeded the brackets such that the two best Class 2A teams in the region met in the semifinals instead of the finals.
Idiocy.
Having jumped the hurdle of the Lady Tiger Sharks, Wewahitchka seems poised to successfully defend their state championship.
The striking thing, though, wasn't so much on the field as the stands. Sure, the teams played their usual spirited game, complete with unblemished sportsmanship.
But in the stands, there were folks clothed in the purple-and-gold of Port St. Joe sitting beside others with T-shirts emblazoned with "Beat PSJ."
There was no visitor's side, no home side and, finally, there were no district lines to divide, just the softball fans of Gulf County gathered for a much-anticipated game.
Folks weren't nasty with each other because they lived on different ends of the county, there was no one there advocating for a bridge at White City to divide north and south, no dissing of players, schools, just fun under the setting sun.
There is a boatload of research out there that supports the argument that athletics is one of the last bastions of genuine discipline for school-age children.
On Friday night, under a glorious dome of a sky, two high school teams and hundreds from the county demonstrated that athletics might also be one of the last arenas where political, social and philosophical differences can be eclipsed.
It was hard not to walk away with a chest bursting with community pride.