I still remember when the University of West Florida football team practiced on a lonely field on campus and played all its home games at Blue Wahoos Stadium.

Rick Tribit will be the first athletic director in Soundside history.

Ryan Davenport announced Friday morning that he is stepping down as the head coach of the Navarre Raider volleyball team.


Davenport has been the coach of the Raiders since 2018.

Navarre’s football team opens the 2026 regular season at West Florida Tech on Aug. 21.


The Raiders will play a Kickoff Classic against Escambia the week before.

You could feel the excitement in the air, almost as if you could reach out and touch it, and there was plenty of joy among the Raiders as they grabbed a 3-0 lead over 2025 state runner-up Pace in the third inning of Thursday’s softball season opener.

Navarre’s baseball team has played a tough schedule to start the season and is still searching for its first win.


The Raiders (0-4) opened the season with a 6-1 loss to Choctaw before falling 3-1 to Crestview. They battled Niceville in a 12-10 loss on Monday before falling 6-2 to Escambia two days later.

Navarre’s boys lacrosse team has never started with three wins to open a season.


But 2026 is off to a record start as the Raiders are 3-0, scoring goals seemingly at will on their way to the early-season success.

Practice wraps up on a Wednesday morning at the East Milton Community Gym and Lighthouse Christian College’s Eddie Brown sticks around to get a few extra shots up.


It’s one of the reasons Brown has been so successful at the next level.

The University of West Florida broke ground on the Darrell Gooden Stadium project on Feb. 11.

Splitting private and public schools for postseason purposes has been a white-hot topic for a long time.