Sports Archive

With the sun still shining bright on a hot and humid Saturday evening in late July, Pete Della Ratta stood on the turf of Blue Wahoos Stadium reminiscing with former teammates about their days with the Pensacola Pelicans.

Della Ratta, now the assistant principal at Holley-Navarre Middle School, spent a year of pro baseball as a player and manager for the independent league team.

Lee Jones was golfing one day with former teammate and friend Everette Alford when he asked him about the possibility of coaching football at Lighthouse Private Christian Academy.

Alford got Jones a meeting with then head coach Skyler Mayo, and the Navarre alum soon had himself his first high school coaching gig.

Navarre’s own Quentin Randolph has been rewarded for his success in his first season in the Indoor Football League.

Randolph has been named to the league’s all-rookie team after an impressive 2022 season with the Western Conference champion Northern Arizona Wranglers.

If a reminder was needed on how this season has gone for Navarre Xpress, look no further than the handful of athletes that qualified for nationals.

Kadesh Lott, Mason Baker, Caden Howard, Bryce Howard, Chance Howard, Payton Robinson, Bryce Wheeler and Diesel Hemingway, all made it.

The University of West Florida football team is picked to finish second in the Gulf South Conference preseason poll.

The Argos were crowned conference champions for the first time in program history a year ago, sharing the title with Valdosta State, the favorite to win the GSC title.

Terence Marshall jumped up and made a tough catch in the end zone during a 7-on-7 game with Escambia earlier this summer, and as he came down with the ball, he was knocked to the ground.

But the Raider wide receiver got up, the ball still in his hands, and brushed off the physical play as if it was no big deal.

Andrew Ottley isn’t a meteorologist, but it doesn’t take one to know that the weather on a hot and humid morning at the NYSA Soccer Complex is downright brutal.

Ottley is with several of his Navarre teammates going through a week of workouts on the field.

The Pensacola Blue Wahoos have added one of the Miami Marlins’ top prospects to its roster.

Nasim Nunez, promoted to Double-A Pensacola is No. 17 in the Marlins system and was a second-round pick in 2019.

Brady Hammel has never strayed too far from football.

In fact, he’s still involved in the sport he loves, working for Mike McCabe’s One on One Kicking, where he now helps train kickers.

Hailey Snider will find herself in a new position on the volleyball court this season. Accustomed to being a middle hitter, Snider is now taking over an outside hitter position.

One of the top hitters on the Navarre volleyball team, the move is one that is just fine for the rising senior.