Local Family Wins Sandcastle Building Competition in Sandestin

What began as a work trip to the beach for the Driskell Family quickly turned into a prize-winning endeavor.

Mitchell Driskell said his family has had their eyes on a certain prize for five years, and Thursday they finally won it—the 2018 Mississippi State Bar sandcastle building championship.

Driskell, an Oxford attorney at Daniel, Coker, Horton and Bell, his wife Brooke and their two sons, Walsh and Wright, were attending the annual Mississippi Bar Association Convention in Sandestin, Florida when they entered the competition. 
“We’ve been participating for five years, since the boys were 3 years old,” Driskell said. “We thought we had a good chance to win, but we thought that last year and came in 5th place.”
Fifth place just didn’t sit well with the Driskells. Since the summer of 2017 they have been sharpening their sandcastle building skills.
“We watched YouTube videos of professional sandcastle builders and saw what worked and didn’t work,” he said. “The sand down here is very fine and soft. It’s great to walk on but for that same reason, that’s what makes building sandcastles challenging.”
The competitors had one hour to make their sand creations. Twenty minutes into building, the center part of the castle fell.
“When that happened we knew we had to continue to work as a team,” Mitchell said. “We were patient with each other, and we didn’t get discouraged.”
For winning, the family took home several sandcastle building tools, pool toys and a handmade piece of pottery.

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hottytoddy.com staff report