Reigning Gulf South Conference co-champion University of West Florida football is picked to finish in the preseason conference football poll this year.
The Argos received two first-place votes and 56 points in all in the poll, second only to GSC favorite Delta State, which earned six first-place votes and tallied 61 points. West Georgia checks in at No. 3 and got one first-place vote.
Austin Reed was on fire. Not literally, of course, but in sports terms.
He threw one touchdown pass. And then another. And another. And one more for good measure. Four in all to go along with a New Orleans Bowl-record 497 passing yards as he guided Western Kentucky to a 44-23 win over South Alabama on mid-December night in the Caesars Superdome.
Michael Sandle continues to play well for the Asheville Tourists in his third season as a pro while Matt Cronin remains out of action for the Rochester Red Wings. Both are alums of Navarre.
Sandle is batting .218 through 55 games for the Tourists, the High-A affiliate of the Houston Astros. He has racked up 44 hits and driven in 19 runs while scoring 22 runs.
From the gym to the football field. A few moments in between to catch his breath. That’s the kind of schedule Darius Cunningham Jr. is rolling with this summer.
Jelina Bly heads into the Team Florida Gym off Pace Boulevard in Pensacola for another night of working out.
A little over two years ago, Bly was helping the Raiders win another state championship while earning recognition as the top lifter in the state.
Katie Kauth loves that the University of West Florida is in the area and has a women’s soccer program she is quite familiar with.
The rising senior for the Navarre Raiders has been to games on the campus in Pensacola. Her brother attends school there.
It’s been a successful summer for the Navarre volleyball team. The Raiders went unbeaten at a tournament at UWF and have made big jumps from a skill standpoint as they put in work in preparation for the 2023 season.
Jake Eder could have unraveled as he walked his third straight batter to load up the bases on an early July evening at Blue Wahoos Stadium, putting himself in a position no pitcher wants to face.
This was only his third Double-A start of 2023, and an important one with it being his first at home since the elbow injury two years ago that derailed his career at the time.
Jack Helton played through the pain last fall. It wasn’t easy. A bone calcification had broken off and was embedded in his patellar tendon in his right knee.
“It happened the summer going into my sophomore season. When I walked, it scraped against it,” Helton said.
Taylor Jefferson is talking about her upcoming senior season in basketball when her coach, Abby Fogg, shouts from down the hallway that Jefferson is one to watch this year.
Known as a standout softball player at Navarre, Jefferson is in a spot now where she will be counted on to step up big for the Raiders on the court as well.
