Sports Archive

Nick Ducati prepared for his final lift in a dual meet against Choctaw Wednesday afternoon. His teammates stood around him, cheering loudly and shouting words of encouragement.

Ducati grabbed the bar and raised it up, his face turning a little red as he fought to keep the weights above his head and punctuate his day with a 270-pound lift.

Tyler Hymel said he came into this tennis season more confident in his ability to excel on the court and it’s showing.

He picked up his latest win Thursday, winning his first singles match 9-7 over Cole Armstrong, and he said the experience he gained over the summer is paying off.

Navarre head coach Jay Walls said earlier this week he’d like to see a smaller, more localized district for this area if reclassification does take place for football for the 2021-22 and 2022-23 school years.

Reclassification takes place every two years, and the last time it happened in 2019, Navarre was bumped up to 7A and placed in a district that included three Tallahassee schools.

Navarre’s tennis season is underway and the Raiders are hoping to make gradual improvements as the year rolls along.

The boys have just one senior in their top five in the lineup while there isn’t a senior on the team on the girls side.

I watched a lot of bad basketball four years ago during Abby Fogg’s first season as the head coach.

Don’t get me wrong. The Raiders competed hard that season. They just didn’t win very often. They won only seven times to be exact.

Riding the high of a win over area powerhouse Tate earlier in the week, Navarre’s baseball team was hoping to keep the momentum rolling Friday night against Gulf Breeze.

Instead, it turned out to be one of those nights where the hits, the pitches and the breaks didn’t go the Raiders’ way in a 10-1 loss to the rival Dolphins.

Until last week, Navarre’s flag football team didn’t have its entire roster together for a practice. Several of the girls were still playing basketball for a Raider squad that reached the Elite Eight.

Yet, Thursday afternoon at Bennett C. Russell Stadium, the Raiders looked like a well-oiled machine in a pair of preseason games against county rivals Pace and Gulf Breeze.

Rachel Hester fired a perfect pitch across the plate that left the Choctaw batter with no chance of making contact.

Hester pumped her fist, flashed a smile and turned to exchange high fives with her teammates after Navarre’s 5-0 win over the Indians Thursday night in Fort Walton Beach.

Rachel Leggett set a school record in the long jump and AJ Arno won the triple jump as Navarre competed in its first big meet of the season Saturday.

A week removed from wrapping up her high school basketball season, Leggett went out and crushed the previous record with a distance of 17-feet-6 1/4-inches at the Fort Walton Beach Viking Relays.

Teddi Atteberry needed a minute to realize the significance of the moment after her girls lacrosse team rolled over Fort Walton Beach 6-1 last Monday night.

That win, after all, marked the first in program history for the sport at Navarre.