It’s amazing what winning can do.

It’s said to fix everything, and after a recent loss to perennial area power Niceville, the Crestview Bulldogs — who managed just one win last year – are 10-4-1 under new coach, and former Niceville assistant, Carl Everitt.

The recent winning has obviously upped morale and made the extra time and rigorous practices worth it. With the bitter taste of defeat out of their mouths, replaced by the sweetness of victory, the team has forged relationships that were nonexistent last year.

Relationships that have made a positive impact — on and off the field.

“In past years, we’ve had big cliques,” Crestview defender Heather Daron said. “And this year we came together and we are kind of like sisters.

“I’ve come to be like sisters with almost every single one of these girls.”

Like Daron, Myah Olvsasky feels a connection with each player on the team unlike last year’s squad, but credited the new coaching regime for the change.

There is a much simpler strategy to getting on the field now than there was in previous years at Crestview.

“Last year the coach played favorites a lot and listened to the girls on the team,” Olvsasky, a starting defender, said, “and I sat on the bench a lot because I’m not going to try to be her best friend.”

As a seasoned veteran player and coach, Everitt emphasizes a team first attitude that his players have bought into. 

The team puts in the work on the field, but they also know how to take it easy away from the field. Whether it’s making fun of their coaches’ British accent or playing with Everitt’s English Bulldog, Winston.

“All the parents are so excited,” Everitt said of the team’s recent success. “(The girls) all like each other. Of course there is the normal stuff, but the team is very tight. The Christmas party was fun.”

For a coach that wanted to get away from the complicated politics often seen around the over-competitive club teams, he couldn’t have found a better match. 

“I’ve got just about every qualification you can get,” Everitt said of his coaching background. “I wanted a challenge, and I didn’t just want to do what they do and put teams together. I wanted to do what a coach is supposed to do. It’s teaching the girls to kick and readjusting foot placement and stuff like that and getting that team spirit.”

The winning has bonded the girls and excited the parents in a way that will have a postive effect on the program down the road.

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