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Local Sports

Local sports in the Panhandle are not just a game, they are a lifestyle. Our community eats, sleeps and breathes cheering on our local athletes.
News13 is On Your “Sidelines” bringing you more than the score.
News13’s Stephen Gunter is committed to giving you stories of the Panhandle’s top athletes, intriguing match-ups and unusual sports you may not even know exist.
sgunter@wmbb.com

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Ivory Unlocks All The Doors

BLOUNTSTOWN, Fla. - It’s a big week for Blountstown High School’s Arsenio Ivory. 

He graduated Thursday night, but on Monday night, he was awarded the key to the city.

“I don’t know what it opens,” Ivory said.  “It opens doors to my future.”

Ivory excels in the classroom with a 3.2 GPA, on the football field with three district championships, and in the weightroom.

He says he enjoys football the most, but makes a name for himself pumping the iron.

He is one of only 17 athletes to have won the state title in weightlifting for three straight years; the Triple Crown.

“I didn’t think this would happen to someone like me,” Ivory said.  “All I do is lift weights.”

There’s been one other person to receive the key to Blountstown other than Ivory, sprinter Justin Gatlin.  The man who shares the title for the world’s fastest human being.

“Whoa, ain’t this the wrong number?  You don’t want to talk to me do y’all?  I ain’t Justin Gatlin.” Ivory thought when he first learned that he would be given the key.

But like Gatlin, Ivory is off the great things.

He leaves next month to play football at FAMU.  But he’s not going on a football scholarship, rather a Bright Future’s Scholarship for excellance in academics.

“He’s dedicated,” Mayor of Blountstown Winston Deason said.  “He understands the word means and what it means to be dedicated to the principles of the classroom and his athletic ability.”

With so much athletic talent in this one small town, Blountstown is getting quite a bit of notoriety.

“When you go out of town and say ‘Blountstown’ people are like ‘whose Blountstown?,’” Ivory said.  “I know now, I see you on T.V.”

“We’re glad he’s from this little town in North Florida,” Deason said.  “We have more than one red light, and we got the state champ and we’re proud of him.”

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