Sports Archive

Rachel Leggett drove into the lane and took a shot. It was slightly blocked, but she grabbed her own rebound and put it back in for another two points.

Leggett pumped her fist and embraced teammate Mickey Vollmer as they celebrated the moment early on in a preseason battle with Pine Forest Wednesday night.

Nearly a year has passed since Navarre’s boys soccer team has experienced the thrill of victory. It was Jan. 14, 2021, when the Raiders were last on the winning side of the scoreboard in a game.

A blanket quarantine followed, canceling the last two weeks of the regular season.

Jessica Farrer took off on a breakaway opportunity with a chance to put Navarre in front of Pace on the scoreboard. Then the defense closed in and robbed her of that chance.

Two minutes later, when Farrer was presented with another shot at scoring, she capitalized, and it proved to be the difference in a season-opening win over the Patriots.

No one needs to tell Rachel Leggett twice that the expectations are at a new level for the Navarre girls basketball team.

After winning a district championship for the first time since 2016 and making an historic run to the Elite Eight, the target that was starting to appear on the backs of the Raiders the last few years has now grown to the point where it’s hard to miss.

Navarre will be well-represented in the NCAA Division I women’s soccer tournament.

Three former Raiders are on teams playing in the postseason, with two squaring off against each other in the opening round as Emily Madril and Florida State will take on Hailey Bastian and South Alabama.

Four top 10 finishes highlighted Navarre’s performance at the Region 1-3A swim meet last Wednesday at the Morcom Aquatic Center in Tallahassee.

Leading the way was the girls 400 Freestyle Relay team of Jenna Cavanaugh, Grace Koch, Ava Parker and Claire Sczesny. The team finished ninth overall in a time of 3:57.16.

Emilia Collins was getting set for a bonus lift in the bench press Thursday afternoon when head coach Garrett Bagley called for her teammates to come over and watch Collins in action.

It wasn’t going to count in her final tally. The Navarre standout hit 265 for her final actual bench press.

Navarre’s football team went into last week with its playoff hopes intact.

But its dream of a postseason berth officially ended Sunday afternoon as the Raiders were not among the 32 teams selected for the 7A playoffs.

Overlooking the defense of the University of West Florida football team can be easy to do amid the fireworks that are consistently on display courtesy of the offense.

Yes, the offense still rolled up more than 500 yards and scored over 40 points in a Gulf South Conference battle against West Alabama Saturday afternoon, but it was the defense that headlined the fourth-ranked Argos’ 47-7 win at Tiger Stadium.

Silence filled the Navarre locker room late Friday night. Coaches and players tried to lift each other’s spirits in the wake of arguably the most difficult defeat of the season.

Losing hurts. Losing a rivalry game hurts even more.