Runners Laura and Stephen Pifer met at the University of Colorado, where both competed for the Buffaloes. A few years later, the couple is married and raising sons Jameson, 5, and Vincent, 4, in Jacksonville, where Stephen is a technical representative and educator for Boulder, Colo.-based Newton Running. Laura is a stay-at-home mother and an Internet entrepreneur, marketing fashions made from repurposed materials from her web-based business, Trash to Couture (www.trashtocouture.com).

For area high school football fans, New Year’s Day was May 1.

That’s the first day Florida High School Athletics Association teams could practice.

Imagine if a game was played and the fans remained silent in the stands. For Navarre High School’s cheerleaders, that silence is not an option.

The biggest surprise that came out of the District 1-3A track meet two weeks ago may have been the emergence of Navarre High School triple-jump third-place finisher, Elijah Appel. The senior football star and sprinter came out of nowhere to become a medal winner and, last week, to become one of just two Raiders who qualified for the Class 3A state championship meet Friday, May 3, at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville.