Sports Archive

Jeremiah Chavis-Mhoon’s senior season was over in the blink of an eye.

In the first quarter of the first game, Navarre’s standout offensive lineman went down with an injury that ended his year.

Luke Losquadro and Alyssa Allen both were awarded MVP honors for their successful seasons on the Navarre swim team.

They were the high-point award winners as well, with Losquadro going all the way to state in the 50 and 100 freestyle events.

It began with losing Kobe Bryant. And that one stung. Losing all-time greats at a young age is never an easy pill to swallow.

That should have been enough for 2020. But it wasn’t. The year got reckless and just kept delivering punch after punch.

Zy Beckman and Nathan Green have been playing soccer together since third grade. Both seniors on the Navarre boys soccer team, their time on the same field won’t end after this year is over.

That’s because the two longtime friends have opted to continue on as teammates at the college level, committing to Belhaven University in Mississippi.

In a few weeks a long wait will come to an end. Navarre’s softball team will play games that matter again, something it hasn’t done since March when the season was cut short by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Three seniors will head up the charge. Rachel Hester, Jessica Oakley and Kaitlyn Wollenzien are the veterans of a young team ready to play the sport it loves again.

Navarre’s girls soccer team and Navarre’s girls basketball team are both ranked in the top five in their region in the 6A rankings posted on MaxPreps Jan. 1.

The girls soccer team is fifth within Region 1-6A and 16th overall in the state in its classification. The girls hoops team is third in its region and sits at 13th in the state in 6A.

Promise and potential dot the sports landscape in the area with the arrival of the new year.

Navarre’s girls basketball team has 10 wins to its credit, the most in the first half of the year since the 2015-16 campaign when the Raiders won a district title and advanced to the regional.

Hockey is back in Pensacola nine months after the season came to a halt.

It looks a little different. Only five of the 10 teams in the league are competing because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the season is starting more than a month late. But it beats the alternative of not being on the ice at all.

As Navarre’s softball team prepared to hit the field for a game against rival Gulf Breeze March 12, there was a feeling of uncertainty gripping the moment.

With the COVID-19 pandemic gaining steam, athletic activity was on the brink of shutting down.

LaMarcus Smith might have wondered at times what he had gotten himself into. Joining a college football team that didn’t win a game the previous year isn’t exactly ideal.

But Smith stayed the course at Ave Maria, an NAIA school in South Florida, and it paid off.