Chipola Indians Ready for a 3rd Trip to Niceville

PANAMA CITY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) - The Chipola men are getting set to travel over to Niceville for the FCSAA Region 8 Tournament. Coach Donnie Tyndall and his Indians able to clinch the 1 seed in the tournament thanks to a 27-3 season record that also saw them win their 3rd straight Panhandle Conference.

Starting next Thursday they’ll have a chance to win their 3rd straight state championship and they’ll be doing it in a familiar place.

“We played over there once this season versus Northwest, and then we played in a tournament over there where we played a couple games as well. The last two years we’ve been very fortunate to win the state tournament, it’s been at Northwest both years so I feel like, I’m knocking on wood here, but we’ve had some good fortune over there the last couple seasons and you know if you’re not playing Northwest, it’s a beautiful arena, it’s a great place to play. But, if you play Northwest obviously you’re going to be at a disadvantage”, Coach Tyndall said.

The men going into the tournament just completely dominated their opponents all season long winning games by an average of 15 points.

They also averaged 80 points a game which led to just 3 loses and a perfect record at home and in neutral site games.

But while they’ve been cruising through the weeks, Coach Tyndall is a little thankful for the week and a half rest before round 1.

“Six to one, half dozen of the other, you’re kind of caught in between because you do feel like your team is in rhythm this time of year and you’ve played twice a week consistently for the past couple months. On the flip side, it’s a long season and so getting some rest and getting some guys that have had a couple bumps and bruises and scraps and different things an opportunity to get a couple days rest and get healthy is a good thing.”

Chipola will start out matched up with 8 seed Miami Dade. That game this coming Thursday at 6pm.

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