Sports

To my readers, who expressed concern over a brief lapse in my column, the opening of the North Carolina deer season, Mother Nature beckoned to me requesting my presence there to do my duty of attempting to thin the herd. We did OK, but not as well as previous trips. The weather was a little tough for a Floridian as some mornings greeted us with layers of ice. However, as it has been said so many times before, all god things must come to an end. So it is back to business as usual.

DAYTONA BEACH -- The Ocean Center willone again play host for an NCAA men's opening season basketball tournament Nov. 21-23.

Teams from Marshall University, Morgan State University, University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, University of Utah, University of Mississippi and Rollins College will compete in the second annual three-day Glenn Wilkes Classic for the 2008-'09 season. The schedule is as follows:

Friday, Nov. 21
2 p.m. Marshall University vs. Morgan State University
4:15 p.m. Rollins College vs. University of Wisconsin-Green Bay

Part 1

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Barracudas sophomore running back Stephen Jackson is supposed to be the star of the future, but earlier tonight he showed why the future is now, wracking up 100 yards on the ground along with a pair of touchdowns for a 23-7 romp over district 7-4A foe Rockledge at home.

With the victory, New Smyrna Beach, now 1-5 overall, finds itself in a three-way tie in the district at 1-1 with Titusville and Seabreeze of Ormond Beach.

No Karenia brevis, the Florida red-tide organism, was detected this week in water samples collected from the Indian River Lagoon (Brevard and Indian River counties) nor were there any evidence of Karenia brevis, the Florida red tide organism, detected this week in water samples collected alongshore between Pinellas and Monroe counties. Offshore samples collected north of the Florida Keys also contained no K. brevis.

NEW SMYRNA BEACH, Fla. -- The Barracudas scored the first touchdown of the game, but the offense sputtered after that en-route to a 38-7 loss at home tonight to Spruce Creek. 

The amount of water accumulation after Fay was substantial and led to plenty of flooding. The next bad news is that two new storms – Gustav and Hanna – are about to give us more rain. A few days ago I went to check on my hunting stand. To my dismay, after cutting up four fallen trees blocking the road, I found the water so deep that it was impassable to get to the stand. It was an exciting day though. I saw seven deer including a buck in velvet and roughly 27 wild pigs, and several hawks.

On August 22, 2008 in Elkin, North Carolina, David Hayes' granddaughter, Alyssa just asked him to hold her Barbie rod and reel while she went to the bathroom. He did. And seconds later he landed the state record channel catfish at 21 pounds, 1 ounce. Alyssa stand beside him with her Barbie rod and reel

The typical summer-time fishing weather of hot, humid and thunderstorms got interrupted by a tropical storm named Fay, which ended up taking 6 lives and did considerable damage throughout the state . The good news is that the storm is now history for northeast Florida. The storm did cause some turtle hatchlings to have problems but thanks to rescuers they were protected from the crashing seas until the seas settled down and they will be released. Near Melbourne International Airport a slew of confused animals were wandering through the grounds of the airport thinking that the field were wetlands  - four walking catfish,  two gopher tortoises, a blue indigo snake, and an couple of alligators.