Sports Archive

Five Navarre Raider football players are headed to the Subway All-Star Football Game Dec. 18 at Washington’s Sherman Robinson Stadium.

Jaden Rivera, Grady Kelly, Jaden Jones, Elijah Melendez and Preston Brewer have been selected to the game, which will kick off at 7 p.m. next Friday night.

It’s not as if I haven’t seen playoff losses before in football.

Navarre has been through its share of them in the five years I’ve covered the team.

Every memory is still vivid.

The Pensacola Blue Wahoos didn’t have a season, but they are ending the year with some recognition.

The local minor league team received the Bob Freitas Award, which is given to the Double-A organization of the year.

Maia Vacks has been on a mission lately. That didn’t change Tuesday night at the NYSA Soccer Complex as she recorded her second consecutive hat trick to help Navarre’s girls soccer team crush Milton 10-2.

Vacks has scored seven goals in the last four games and the Wayne State College signee was just glad to help propel the Raiders to their fourth victory of the season.

There was a point late in the third quarter when things got a little tight for Navarre in its season-opening game against Escambia Monday night.

Once ahead by double digits, the Raiders now led by just two late in the third quarter and managed to stay in front moving forward into the fourth as they hung on for a 53-47 over the Gators in Pensacola.

Navarre’s boys soccer team is currently 3-2 on the season and is under the direction of first-year head coach James Baccarini.

The Raiders have 20 players on this year’s roster.

Tommy Leggett was all but ignored by recruiters coming out of Navarre High. But that never stopped the former Raider football standout from believing in himself.

Four years later, Leggett is in a position most doubted he’d ever be in, standing tall as a captain and a starting safety for the Red Raiders.

Jada Thomas said she didn’t want to push herself too much in the first girls weightlifting meet of the season last Wednesday afternoon.

But being the competitor that she is, the senior attempted a few bonus lifts to test her strength.

Chants of Let’s Go Raiders boomed from the visitor’s section of Jack Foster Stadium.

Along the sideline, Navarre’s football players showed an extra bounce in their step, raising their helmets in the air in the final minutes of a 30-13 road win over Crestview.

Navarre’s girls soccer team split its two preseason matches last week at the NYSA Soccer Complex.

The Raiders knocked off rival Gulf Breeze 5-3 last Wednesday but lost 4-3 to West Florida Saturday.