Sports Archive

Ryan Davenport clenched his fist and threw punches in the air after every point his Navarre Raiders scored as they mounted a memorable comeback against Fort Walton Beach in a District 2-6A semifinal Tuesday night.

Players on the bench jumped up and down, cheering on their teammates, their smiles growing wider as Navarre inched closer to victory. On the court, the Raiders hit hard, executed passes, serves and sets and played the kind of defense it needed to play to win in a pressure-packed moment.

Madison Dorsey started swimming because her older brother, Harrison, got involved in it. She was hooked after that.

“I would go to his meets and really liked it. I thought it would be a lot of fun to do it,” Dorsey said.

Branden Heinke had a rough go of it during his final year of cross-country and track at Navarre.

The shin splints? They were brutal. But he tried to push past the pain.

There is an empty space in the trophy case at Navarre that the Raider volleyball team hopes to fill this week.

The road to getting that done begins tonight when Navarre hosts Fort Walton Beach in a 6 p.m. District 2-6A semifinal.

Luke Morris pulled off his jersey as he crossed the finish line last Thursday afternoon. Sweaty and exhausted, Morris was pleased he pushed through another race on a warm October afternoon.

It’s been a challenging season for Morris, who missed the first few weeks of it battling injuries and COVID, but he’s back at it and hoping to wrap up his senior season on a high note.

Austin Reed has always owned the moment. Good or bad. 

Late Saturday night, the University of West Florida quarterback shouldered a lot of the blame for the Argos’ loss to West Georgia in a battle of Top 25 teams.

Perhaps it is only fitting that the University of West Florida’s first football game in nearly two years at Blue Wahoos Stadium is a battle of nationally ranked opponents.

The top-ranked Argos put their perfect record on the line today against No. 12 West Georgia in a Gulf South Conference showdown.

Needing a win to remain in the hunt for a playoff berth, Navarre responded to the challenge in front of it Friday night.

The Raiders built a big first-half lead, weathered a storm late and hung on for a 41-34 victory over Pace in a District 1-7A game that seemed destined to be easy at one point but turned into quite the battle between two county rivals.

The calendar says the regular season is still going on. But as far as the Navarre football team is concerned, the playoffs start now.

Sitting outside the top eight in the current 7A regional rankings, the Raiders are in a situation where every game matters even more if they hope to make the postseason in 2021.

Navarre has fallen out of the top eight in the latest set of 7A FHSAA regional rankings.

The Raiders’ standing in the rankings took a hit after a 30-7 loss to Mosley last week but they still have a shot to climb back up based on the remainder of their district schedule, which features three top eight teams in the region.