Rain, Possibly A Thunderstorm Today
December 17, 2017
Here is your official North Escambia area forecast:
Sunday: Showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm after noon. Cloudy, with a high near 71. South wind 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts between a tenth and quarter of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.
Sunday Night: A chance of showers and thunderstorms, then showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm after midnight. Areas of fog. Otherwise, cloudy, with a low around 64. South wind around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%. New rainfall amounts between a quarter and half of an inch possible.
Monday: Showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm. Cloudy, with a high near 74. Southwest wind around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%.
Monday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers. Areas of fog. Otherwise, cloudy, with a low around 62. Calm wind becoming south around 5 mph.
Tuesday: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 75. Calm wind becoming south around 5 mph in the morning.
Tuesday Night: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 63. South wind around 5 mph.
Wednesday: Showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm before noon, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after noon. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 73. Southwest wind around 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%.
Wednesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 53. Northwest wind 5 to 10 mph.
Thursday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 71.
Thursday Night: A 20 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 56.
Friday: A 40 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 70.
Friday Night: A 40 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 55.
Saturday: A 50 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 63.
Charlie Howard Sutton
December 16, 2017
Charlie Howard Sutton, age 91, of Molino, passed away peacefully at home with his family by his side on Saturday, December 16, 2017.
He was born July 10, 1926 in Clio, Alabama to the late Ezra and Mattie Sutton.
Charlie graduated from Pensacola Adult High School in 1965, he worked for Noonan Construction Company for 27 years, went on to work 12 years for Chadbourne Construction Company, ultimately retiring as Superintendant of Construction in 1990. He was one of the first ever Certified Concrete Specialists, a skill that called him to work on airports and roadways across the southeast.
Charlie was a proud member of Highland Baptist Church for 65 years, where he taught 12 year-old boys Sunday school and served many terms on the board of deacons. A favorite scripture of his was Ephesians 5:15-16 “Be very careful then how you live, not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity.” He also served on the Molino Water Board and the Molino Volunteer Fire Department. In his limited down time and into his retirement Charlie enjoyed working in his yard, tending to the catfish pond he cultivated against the odds, gardening and fishing. His most prized accomplishment is his devoted family.
Charlie was preceded in death by his wife of 44 years Lillian McKnight Sutton and his parents.
Those left to cherish his memory are his children Donald H. (Mary) Sutton of El Rancho Mirage, Ca., Ron (Margie) Sutton of Troy, Al. and Glenda Sutton Herring; grandchildren Daron (Carol) Sutton of Scottsdale, Az., Staci (Tim) Bina of Laguna Beach, Ca., Nathan (Lauren) Herring of Rochester, NY., Debbie (Mark) Wells of Helena, Al., Tammi (Brent) Watson of Anthem, Az., and Jackie Sutton; a heavenly host of 14 great-grandchildren; and many nieces, nephews, church family and friends.
Visitation will be Monday, December 18, 2017, from 9:30 a.m. until the funeral service begins at 11:00 a.m. at Highland Baptist Church, 6240 County Highway 95A, Molino Fl. 32577. Interment will follow at Highland Baptist Church Cemetery in Molino, Fl. Rev. Brian Calhoun will officiate.
Pallbearers will be Robert Kennedy, Donnie Nicholson, Jason Chaney, Tyler Barry, Doug Gardener and Jackie McCaskill. Honorary Pallbearers are Charles Purvis, Harold Holder, Charles Barton, Jack Hodge, Duke Carraway, Bob Miller and Wayne Blackmon.
Donations in lieu of flowers may be made in Charlie’s name to the Lillian Sutton Library at Highland Baptist Church, or to the Highland Baptist Church Cemetery fund.
Middle School Students Learn About Cotton, Timber In North Escambia
December 16, 2017
Seventh grade students from Workman Middle School visited North Escambia Thursday to learn about the cotton and timber industries. The students learned about cotton from producers Brett Ward and Heath Ward in Walnut Hill and forestry from landowner John Russell and Escambia County Forester Cathy Hardin in Oak Grove. Courtesy photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
More Than A Dream: Northview Grad Very First To Sign With UWF Argos
December 16, 2017
The University of West Florida Argo football team fell in the national championship game on Saturday. Not a bad way at all to cap just the second ever season for the team..
Editor’s note: This story was originally published prior to the national championship game.
And for Northview High School graduate Blake McCall, the game marks the end of a three year dream. McCall made history in December 2014 as the very first student athlete to sign with the new University of West Florida football team during the NCAA midyear transfer signing period.
“It’s absolutely unbelievable to be here,” McCall told NorthEscambia.com from Kansas City, KS, Friday afternoon, just over 24 hours ahead of kickoff of the NCAA Division II National Championship game against Texas A&M-Commerce. “I’m not sure anybody really thought we’d be here right now; it’s taken some of us by surprise.”
“I knew we would do well; it’s just unreal,” the UWF senior remarked.
Putting it all on the line in a championship game is not new to McCall. It wasn’t the national stage, but a first-ever state title for the Northview Chiefs in 2012.
McCall helped lead Northview to an 11-3 overall record and a 4-0 district record as a senior. Northview averaged 42.9 points per game and took the Florida Class 1A state championship with a 42-21 win over Trenton High School during his senior year. McCall was a three-year starter and played all five positions in the offensive line.
“That was a crazy senior year,” said Mccall, who grew up in Bratt about a mile away from Northview. “I keep telling the guys now about being in a championship game, even though it was on a smaller scale.”
In 2013, he redshirted during his freshman year at Division I Jackson State. And during the 2014 season, he saw playing time as a redshirt freshman at Jackson State. On the offensive line, McCall helped lead the team to 25.8 points and 376.1 total yards per game.
Then he met a coach named Pete Shinnick who was working to build a brand new team at the University of West Florida.
“He is one of the most genuine guys I ever met. He was selling a new team when he recruited me, and I have learned that he does what he says,” McCall said.
Perhaps partially due to the inspiration instilled by Shinnick, McCall hopes to coach college football when he graduates.
But in the here and now, he knows that folks back home in Bratt and North Escambia will be rooting for their hometown boy as they watch the game on ESPN2 beginning at 5:00. (The game is also available on the WatchESPN app.)
“I love that community,” he said. “I have received so many Facebook messages and texts from people back home. It means a lot.”
Now, he’s focused on Saturday evening as the DII national championship game kicks off.
“Knowing that you are here in the national championship game will take your breath away,” McCall said as he nears his final football game. “Man what a way to go out. It’s surreal.”
Pictured top: Blake McCall, John Williamson and Devin Gibson at Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City, KS — site of today’s NCAA Division II National Championship. Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
National Championship Game: One Last Chapter In UWF’s Storybook Season
December 16, 2017
It’s almost unfathomable. West Florida is in the national championship game against Texas A&M-Commerce today is Kansas City, KS.
Both teams will be playing for their respective program’s first national championship. Texas A&M-Commerce has taken nearly a century of football to get to this point. West Florida?
Two years.
“I don’t know how you can expect this,” redshirt-freshman quarterback Mike Beaudry told NCAA.com. “Of course you have faith in your team and believe in yourself, but to be in the national championship game? You have to play a lot of great football for a lot of games in a row. I wouldn’t say I expected this, but I’m not really surprised.”
“My goal was to make the playoffs in year two,” head coach Pete Shinnick added. “I don’t know that I thought beyond that to be honest with you. I always felt once you got in, if you got a hot team anything’s possible. And we got a hot team.”
The Argonauts are the feel-good story of the DII football season. It started with a regular season finale upset of No. 24 West Georgia and continued through the playoffs. The Argos claimed their first Super 2 Region championship by defeating three nationally ranked teams — No. 16 Wingate, No. 25 West Georgia and No. 17 West Alabama — on the road, before heading north to Pennsylvania to upset No. 1-seeded Indiana (Pa.) in conditions unfamiliar to the Pensacola, Florida natives.
“We can’t let the elements stop us,” Beaudry said. “I think we did a really good job at that as a team in Pennsylvania, that was the coldest game we played in.
“It’s cool to see how we can perform against the No. 1 seed. It shows that when we play our best football it’s good enough to play with anyone. But we can’t focus on what happened last week.”
The task at hand won’t be an easy one. Texas A&M-Commerce has one of the best student-athletes in DII football in quarterback Luis Perez. The Argos know one of the main focuses will be stopping the high-octance Lions offense.
“I think it will be a great matchup,” Shinnick said. “[Luis Perez] can probably win the Harlon Hill. We know we got a challenge and we know we got our work cut out for us. But every week we’ve done this, we’ve kind of felt the same way. We’ve been telling our team our best is good enough and they’ve been answering the call.”
Luckily, they have a red-hot defensive front up to the task. John Williamson and his GSC-best 13.5 sacks leads an aggressive unit tasked with facing one of the best offensive lines in DII football. It should be the battle of the championship game.
“They’re a group that has a lot of fun together,” Shinnick said of his defense. “They’ve really responded well to Darian Dulin, our new defensive coordinator. It’s really kind of our team, though. Our team likes being together, traveling together. Both sides of the ball are very excited for each other no matter what’s taking place.”
“To have a defense like we got, it changes games really,” Beaudry said. “From an offensive standpoint we started to realize that all we had to do was change the field position and they were going to perform. Not every possession you have to get points. If you start backed up in your own end, we just have to change field position, if we get points, we get points, that’s great.”
The West Florida’s offense shouldn’t be looked over though. Beaudry had an award-winning season his first year under center, taking home Gulf South Conference Offensive Freshman of the Year honors. He threw for 2,963 yards and 28 touchdowns, but it was more than the numbers that he brings to the table.
“Mike’s been a very mature guy,” Shinnick said. “He’s one of the hardest working guys on the team. He’ll continue to stay out after practice to throw routes and extra balls. He’s really provided tremendous leadership though his work ethic and example. He’s a great guy also. All those things wrapped together, guys just like playing for him.”
Battle tested. Road tested. Weather tested. There really isn’t anything left that West Florida hasn’t faced. They can attribute that to playing in the GSC, the conference that sent four teams to the postseason, one of which was not the 2016 national runner-up North Alabama. That’s just how deep this conference runs.
“The thing that we found out very early is that the Gulf South Conference is great competition,” Shinnick said. “Then having to play Wingate and IUP, the GSC prepares you well for the postseason because you’re going to see really good players across the board at every position.”
This team has grown closer than most teams could ever imagine. The Argos aren’t simply making new history, they are living it every day, building it from the ground up.
“I really think we have the best culture out of any team in the country right now,” Beaudry said. “A lot of people here have been through a lot together, so many people were here from the start when we didn’t even play a season. The people who have come here have joined the family right away. It’s been fun to experience this with people like this, we have a great brotherhood going. This is an experience we’re never going to forget.”
It’s the last dance for Cinderella. This remarkable story, win or lose, will come to an end Saturday. Whatever happens, this program set a precedent for future Argos that anything is possible.
“I’ve told people all along, the first recruiting class is a special class because they did buy into the vision,” Shinnick said. “They did believe what we said. I couldn’t be happier for them to reap the benefit of great success early because it was them saying I want to be a part of that team that opened the door for everybody else.”
By Wayne Cavadi/NCAA.com, reprinted with permission.
Photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Sunny And Cool Today, Rainy Period Begins Sunday
December 16, 2017
Here is your official North Escambia area forecast:
Saturday: Mostly sunny, with a high near 57. East wind around 5 mph.
Saturday Night: Mostly cloudy, with a low around 46. East wind around 5 mph.
Sunday: Showers likely, mainly after noon. Cloudy, with a high near 72. Southeast wind 5 to 10 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%.
Sunday Night: Showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm. Areas of fog. Otherwise, cloudy, with a low around 64. South wind around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 70%.
Monday: Showers likely and possibly a thunderstorm. Areas of fog before noon. Otherwise, cloudy, with a high near 73. South wind around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 60%.
Monday Night: A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Areas of fog. Otherwise, cloudy, with a low around 63. South wind around 5 mph.
Tuesday: A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Areas of fog before noon. Otherwise, cloudy, with a high near 74. South wind 5 to 10 mph becoming west in the afternoon.
Tuesday Night: A 40 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 54. West wind around 5 mph becoming north in the evening.
Wednesday: A 20 percent chance of showers. Mostly sunny, with a high near 68.
Wednesday Night: Partly cloudy, with a low around 50.
Thursday: A 20 percent chance of showers. Partly sunny, with a high near 70.
Thursday Night: A 30 percent chance of showers. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 57.
Friday: A 50 percent chance of showers. Cloudy, with a high near 69.
Cantonment Man Convicted Of Local Shooting Death
December 16, 2017
A Cantonment man was convicted Friday of shooting another man in Cantonment in 2016.
An Escambia County jury found 21-year-old Marquis Derrell Bryant guilty Friday afternoon. Bryant shot 29-year old Alphonso Leon Griffin. Griffin suffered a gunshot wound and was found in the yard of a residence in the 200 block of Sheppard Street in Cantonment just after 9 p.m. on July 23. He was transported by ambulance to Sacred Heart Hospital where he later passed away.
A sentencing date for Bryant has not yet been set.
Kids Shop With A Cop For Christmas
December 16, 2017
Over 60 Escambia County children will have presents for Christmas thanks to the Shop with a Cop event on Friday.
Chief Deputy Chip Simmons, over 90 children, over 70 deputies and civilians and the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office Explorers met at the Ensley Precinct on Hood Drive and then walked over to Walmart. They were escorted by the Escambia County Mounted Posse.
Smiles filled the store as children were grabbing their carts taking off with their deputy to shop with their $200 gift card. The gift cards were provided through the generous donations of many Escambia County businesses, organizations, families, and individuals.
Over 5,500 Jars Of Peanut Butter Donated To Local Food Pantries
December 16, 2017
Thousands of jars of peanut butter were delivered Friday in Escambia County to area food banks, thanks to the generous donations of local residents and peanut producers.
The peanut butter was collected during the recent UF/IFAS Extension Annual Peanut Butter Challenge and donated by the pallet by Mike and Rodney Helton and Ken Barton from the Florida Peanut Producers Association. All total, more than 20 food pantries will receive their share of over 5,500 jars of peanut butter.
Courtesy photos for NorthEscambia.com, click to enlarge.
Now Six Bulbs Lit In ‘Keep The Wreath Green’ Fire Safety Campaign
December 16, 2017
Sixth Red Bulb Lit
A structure fire on the 6200 block of Trent Street represents the sixth red bulb on the “Keep the Wreath Green” fire safety wreath. Escambia County Emergency Communications received a call reporting the mobile home fire at 5:05 a.m. Friday, Dec. 15. Crews arrived on scene to find the mobile home on fire and 50 percent involved.
Escambia County Fire Rescue called the fire under control at 5:52 a.m. The fire destroyed 50 percent of the home, and it was declared a total loss. Three occupants were at the residence at the time of the fire, but all were able to get out with no injuries reported. The Florida State Fire Marshal is investigating the cause of the fire.
There were no smoke detectors present in the residence.
Fourth and Fifth Bulbs
Two structure fires that occurred on Wednesday, Dec. 13 represent the fourth and fifth red bulbs on the “Keep the Wreath Green” fire safety wreath.
Escambia County Emergency Communications received a call at 11:22 a.m. reporting a residential structure fire in the 900 block of Bremen Avenue. Crews arrived on scene to find a working fire with black smoke showing from the multi-family residence. Escambia County Fire Rescue called the fire under control at 11:48 a.m., with one apartment in the duplex sustaining fire damage along with heavy smoke and water damage. The other apartment was saved, but all occupants have been displaced due to damage to the shared electrical system. The two adults and seven children who were displaced are being assisted by the American Red Cross. No injuries were reported. ECFR determined that the fire was caused by unattended cooking. The apartment where the fire started did not have a working smoke detector.
The second fire occurred at approximately 4:15 p.m. in the 7200 block of North Palafox Street, at the Palafox Landing apartment complex. The apartment’s sprinkler system extinguished the fire prior to ECFR’s arrival. No one was injured in the fire, but occupants of the first and second floor were displaced. ECFR determined that the fire was caused by unattended cooking. Working smoke detectors were present and alerted residents to the fire.