The 33rd Volusia County Amateur Golf Championship is approaching. Venetian Bay, in New Smyrna Beach, is serving as host for the third straight year, Oct. 3-4 (Saturday-Sunday).
The annual County Am features three divisions — Championship, Senior (55-plus) and Super Senior (65-plus), with prize money awarded to the winner of each. The field is limited to the first 72 entries.
Entry fee is $150, with another option $10 for skins play each day, and $35 fees for practice rounds Oct. 1-2. For more info, or to register: VenetianBayGolf.com, or call 386-424-5775.
Tee times start at 8 a.m. each day, and Sunday's play will be followed by lunch and awards.
Grey Cooke, of Brevard County, won last year's County Am with a 36-hole total of 7-under-par 137, three shots better than 2024 winner Dave Bouton.

#championship #winner

The 2026 Western North Carolina high school football season is almost halfway through.
Here are score updates from Week 4 across WNC.
Stream North Carolina HS football games live on NFHS Network
LEADING BY EXAMPLE: How Brayden Crain became a leader without saying much for Christ School football
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#school

Melbourne Central Catholic traveled to Palm Bay on Aug. 25 to play Brevard HEAT in a matchup featuring undefeated teams.
Brevard HEAT's strong serving and balanced attack propelled the Firehawks to the sweep 25-12, 25-18, 25-16.
"Our first set was really strong," Brevard HEAT head coach Darrah Bowen said. "We struggled a little bit set two and three and just played.
The Firehawks ended the match with 26 kills and 14 aces. Senior Aine Hanley led the attack with 6 kills and 3 aces. Senior setter Anna Livengood comprised nearly have of the service aces with 6 to go with 2 kills. Sophomore Charis Bennett and senior Brooke Arce recorded 6 and 5 kills, respectively.
"We really work hard to make our serve an offensive weapon instead of just getting it over and it showed," Bowen said.

#aces #heat

Across Brevard County on Aug. 13-14, fans got a glimpse of what the area's teams might look like this season following the FHSAA Kickoff Classics and Week 1 of the SSAA season.
In the preseason edition of the FLORIDA TODAY Super 10 Football Rankings, Eau Gallie leads the way given they feature the most talent in the county.
However, behind Eau Gallie is a bunch of teams capable of winning district ****** les and advancing deep in the state playoffs.
Here is the preseason top 10 high school football teams in Brevard County with the season kicking off on Aug. 21.
The Commodores reached the regional final last year despite playing the entire season without quarterback Joseph Allen. The senior is back under center with running back X'Zavier Corbin, pass catcher Lukas Viselli and offensive lineman Jayden Jordan leading the unit.

#county #brevard

Football season is underway, but the FHSAA games count for real on Aug. 21 after a week of Kickoff Classics. The SSAA teams already have their first game in the books.
Get ready for the 2026 season by checking out the teams profiled in our Tour of Brevard series.
After narrowly missing the state playoffs the last two years, Astronaut High seeks a return to the postseason in a new class and district.
After back-to-back first round SSAA state playoff exits, Bayside High football got off to a positive start with a Week 1 win over Crescent City. The Bears look to prove they are capable of achieving postseason success.
As Cocoa High enters the 2026 season with a young team and new head coach Nate Hooks, the Tigers are embracing an underdog role as it pursues its 20th consecutive regional ******* le.

#ssaa #Football #week

The Mountain Amateur Athletic Club committee has announced its 2026 Hall of Fame class, featuring longtime coaches and former standout athletes from Western North Carolina.
The five-person class includes former Reynolds football coach Scott Conner, former Mars Hill football coach Tim Clifton, former Brevard College cross country coach Norm Witek, former Clemson women's basketball player Annette Wise and former UNC Asheville women's basketball player Sheila Ford Duncan. The Lifetime Achievement Award honorees are longtime Western Carolina football and basketball play-by-play announcer Gary Ayers, sportswriter Pete McDaniel and former Western Carolina and Cherokee football coach Kent Briggs. They will be inducted Oct. 4 at the Omni Grove Park Inn.
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Conner led the Rockets for 14 seasons, accumulating a 116-41 overall record, nine conference championships and two state championship game appearances. He also coached the Reynolds girls basketball team, leading them to the regional championship in 1991.

#western

A 4,000-year-old disease often ******* ociated with biblical times is making a slow but steady comeback in one U.S. state.
Leprosy, also known as Hansen's disease, is an illness many often relegate to the history books. Florida, however, has recorded 17 infections this year as of July 18, according to state health data. Of the 174 cases recorded nationwide in 2025, 36 occurred in the state, including 27 that were contracted locally rather than abroad.
Hansen's disease affects up to 225 people in the United States and 250,000 globally every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). While most cases are contracted abroad, the agency notes that Southern states have reported illnesses not linked to travel that were "likely contracted from armadillos."
In the past decade, roughly 223 cases were recorded in Florida, the majority of which occurred in Brevard County. Central Florida, specifically, appears to be a recurring hotspot, accounting for 81% of state cases and almost one-fifth of nationally reported cases, according to research published in the CDC's journal Emerging Infectious Diseases in 2023.
While it appears a pattern has emerged, scientists aren't entirely sure why. The same 2023 report concluded that an increase in leprosy infections in non-foreign-born residents that "lacked traditional risk factors" indicated that the disease is probably now endemic in parts of the United States, with one cited case in a landscaper raising questions about environmental exposure.

#disease #states #year #according

New details have emerged about past allegations involving a Florida woman's dogs that police say mauled a neighbor to death.
And in a bizarre twist, a criminal investigation has been opened after three dogs were found dead at the travel trailer where mauling victim Jodi Cowan was living at the time of the fatal attack.
Deputies responded to a call on June 11 about a bad smell at the residence, said Tod Goodyear, public information officer of the Brevard County Sheriff's Office.
The "case is ongoing awaiting an examination of the dogs to determine the cause of death," Goodyear said. "Charges would depend on the outcome of the necropsies and the cause of death. The residence was under the control of the boyfriend of Cowan."
Florida Woman Mauled To Death By Dogs That Had Allegedly Terrorized Neighborhood, Owner Charged In Killing

Pelicans eye the sky as rocket takes wing in Photo of the Week

It could've been just another shot of a rocket rising, something Malcolm Denemark, FLORIDA TODAY senior photographer, has been behind the camera for again and again in a record-breaking year for launches in Brevard.
The bird, however, is the word in this Photo of the Week, which pictures pelicans viewing the Dec. 2 launch of a ***** eX Falcon 9 rocket carrying a load of Starlink satellites.
Turned out the birds' choice of a landing spot, at just the right time, gave Denemark a shot that took wing.
"It would have been a routin