Things have changed a bit this week in the FHSAA Region 1-6A rankings.
Pace and Navarre have traded places in the girls rankings, with Pace going to fifth and Navarre now sixth.
If there is one thing Navarre’s boys basketball team has done this season it’s compete.
Of its eight losses through the first 18 games of the season, only four have been by double digits.
Madison Simmons knocked down a 3-pointer with a minute left in the first half of a showdown with Niceville Monday night, bringing the Raiders within seven and maintaining a glimmer of hope that an upset of the No. 4 team in 6A was possible.
Izzy Zach was a state qualifier for Navarre’s girls weightlifting team last season. But she only placed ninth.
Yet, it was during that first year of competitive weightlifting for Zach where she learned what it was going to take to succeed in the sport.
After head coach Garrett Bagley gave a pep talk to the team Friday night, Izzy Zach took a moment to say a few words to the team in the wake of a runner-up finish for the Raider girls weightlifting team at its own invitational.
She was certainly pleased about the two gold medals around her neck, one for winning her weight class (183) in Olympic, and the other for a victory in traditional.
D’Anthony Bell recalls a story his mom told him when he was a child. Bell was just starting out in school and was asked by a teacher what he wanted to be when he grew up.
“It’s actually a funny story. I had never watched football before. I think I was in Pre-K and I was asked what I wanted to be, and I said NFL player,” Bell said. “It turned out to be a dream come true.”
Ultimately, a goal five minutes into the second half of Navarre’s boys soccer game against Milton Thursday night was the difference between winning and losing.
And that goal was scored as a result of a gutsy play by the Raiders, who edged the Panthers 2-1 on senior night at Bennett C Russell Stadium.
Michael Carter’s third season in the NFL proved to be his most challenging.
He was used in a limited role by the New York Jets, and then the Jets waived him in early November.
Navarre’s girls soccer team came into Wednesday night’s battle with Pace feeling good about its latest surge of success and its place in the District 1-6A regional poll.
The Raiders stood atop it, unbeaten in eight of its last nine games, poised to seal the deal on the top seed for the district tournament.
