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.

Young softball players spend a hot summer morning working on their swing, their pitching technique and their ability to play defense in the field, among other skills.

The thing about it all is that the Raiders softball players headed up the instruction. And that was by design, according to coach Chelsi Kania.

Rain fell for a period of about 20 minutes on a Thursday afternoon in mid-July, but soon gave way to sunshine and humidity thick enough to cut with a knife.

Yet, the weather conditions didn’t put a damper on the experience Navarre’s football team got out of a unique 7-on-7 battle with Choctaw.