Navarre’s girls and boys soccer teams are ranked in the top eight in the latest FHSAA 6A-Region 1 playoff rankings. The girls are in fifth fifth with an RPI of 11.786 but aren’t far off from moving into the top four. Fleming Island is just ahead of Navarre with an RPI of 11.795. Creekside (15.666), […]
Last October the NCAA took a big step forward, shifting away from its previous stance of not allowing student-athletes to make money off their name, image and likeness. Pushed to take action after the state of California passed its own bill to allow student-athletes to profit off their image and likeness starting in 2023 – […]
Abby Fogg calls a timeout with just over five minutes to play in the third quarter. Navarre has just seen its lead over Milton trimmed to 26-22 and Fogg wants to make sure her team doesn’t let another opportunity slip away. It’s already been a tough week for the Raiders. Navarre came into this showdown […]
Navarre’s boys basketball team notched its ninth win of the season Saturday, defeating Washington, 56-42 in Pensacola. It was the Raiders’ third game of the week, which included losses to Tate (74-55) and rival Gulf Breeze (73-62). Since Christmas Day, the Raiders have gone 4-3, and their season record at this point is 9-7. Nine games remain on the Raiders’ […]
Cat Baccarini finds herself in a position where she is coaching at the school that she once represented on the soccer field. Baccarini is in her first season as the junior varsity girls soccer coach at Navarre. But being a coach wasn’t something she had on her mind during her days as a player for […]
Navarre’s girls soccer team returned from the holiday break and notched a 5-1 win over Pace last Tuesday. The Raiders (9-4-2) closed the week with a trip to Tallahassee, beating Leon 1-0 Friday and forging a 1-1 tie with Lincoln Saturday. The first game back against Pace was a confidence booster for Navarre, according to […]
Kobe Banks set himself up in the perfect spot a few feet off the sideline and put his foot on the ball, sending it screaming toward the goal. The goaltender never had a chance to stop it. Banks’ cross shot from the right side of the field zipped past him and into the back of […]
Starting this spring, lacrosse will become a varsity sport for boys and girls at Navarre. Navarre would be the ninth school in the area with the sport, but just the second at the 2A level. Niceville is the other. Gulf Breeze, Pensacola, Pensacola Catholic, Washington, West Florida, Fort Walton Beach and Milton are the other […]
LSU and Clemson are playing for the national championship Monday night in New Orleans. Jayer Williamson and Irish Bill Hammel are as well. Williamson and Hammel are the last two standing in the battle for the Pigskin Picks crown, and the winner of the annual contest will be decided the same night a champion is […]
It wasn’t long before junior linebacker Bailey Huston was back in the weight room along with his teammates on the Navarre football team. Burned by the feeling of missing the playoffs, that disappointment has provided fuel to the fire of the Raiders’ motivation. It’s why they have hit the ground running in the offseason. “We […]
Practice on a field surrounded by trees. Scrimmages on campus and at Blue Wahoos Stadium. Workouts in the weight room. That was about the extent of what the University of West Florida football team did in its inaugural year. Former Navarre Raider Quentin Randolph and the fellow members of the original recruiting class weren’t sure […]
Omari Green had a chance to experience Division I football. He was on the scout team at Troy before finding a home last season at Southwestern Community College in California. A player who rushed for nearly 1,000 yards while at Navarre, including 797 as a senior, Green had limited opportunities to carry the ball for […]
Practice has ended and a big week is ahead for Navarre’s boys basketball team. A few players are still in the gym shooting around the Monday afternoon before school resumes, including senior Louis Carter. A little extra work never hurts, especially for a team in a much better place than it was a season ago. […]
They had a game plan in place Friday, and it was straight to the point. Don’t let 6-foot-5 Kyla Abraham dominate the game. Navarre accomplished that mission against the 6-foot-5 standout, but the Raiders weren’t expecting the Indians to be so effective shooting the ball from the outside. The Indians only made three shots from […]
Members of Navarre’s boys weightlifting team awaited the results of the state championship meet inside Arnold High School on an April afternoon. The Raiders knew they were assured of second place. But the hope was to be first. And they were. By the slimmest of margins, a single point to be exact, Navarre edged 27-time […]
Quentin Randolph was in the locker room late Saturday night being his usual full-of-energy self, partying like only he can in the wake of a big win. Wearing a black cowboy hat that seemed to fit the senior University of West Florida wide receiver just right, Randolph savored the opportunity to sing along to the […]
Brady Hammel missed out on the chance to kick in the final two games of his high school career at Navarre. And it hurt, especially after an undefeated regular season was followed up by a gut-wrenching playoff loss to Tate. Fast-forward four years and Hammel found himself in a different spot late in his senior […]
Gulf Breeze smothered Navarre’s girls soccer team 3-0 last Thursday at Bennett C. Russell Stadium. This is Navarre’s third consecutive loss, and it is now 7-4-1 on the year. Still, the Raiders are in the middle of a 19-day sabbatical between games, which is something positive for head coach Rob Simon. “We’re about two losses worse than I wanted to be, but […]
Hailey Neely nailed a jumper with 3:26 to play in Navarre’s showdown with Fort Walton Beach Dec. 17, cutting the Raider deficit to one and renewing hope that perhaps a victory was in the cards against one of the better teams in the area. But a few missed shots mixed in with a handful of […]
Not even the best writer in Hollywood could have scripted this ending. Not one in which the University of West Florida concludes its fourth season in program history with the NCAA Division II national championship. Yet, here in Texas on a chilly Saturday afternoon in late December, the dream became reality. The Argonauts completed a […]
When Pete Shinnick began recruiting for the start-up University of West Florida football program five years ago, all the head coach had was a vision to sell to players. No Pen Air Field. No Darrell Gooden Center. And no history to talk about. Just a vision of the potential this program could achieve if the […]
Navarre’s girls soccer team finds itself ranked in the top eight in the first FHSAA regional playoff poll of the season. The Raiders are fifth in Region 1-6A, sporting a 7-3-1 record and an RPI of 9.977. Lincoln is the top team in the region with an RPI of 16.545. Creekside (14.593), Niceville (11.653) and […]
Natalya Garza is in the weight room on a Monday morning in mid-December. Just a few days earlier, the senior helped the Raiders breeze through a tri-meet with Fort Walton Beach and Crestview. Navarre’s girls weightlifting team now has a month off before it returns to the grind as far as competition is concerned. But […]
One national and multiple state records fell Saturday at the Fortis Powerlifting Open in Mary Esther. Athletes from Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi competed in the squat, bench press, and deadlift disciplines, and a small crowd watched several state-level records toppled in each. A few records were broken multiple times by the same people during the three-discipline powerlifting competition. Roy Reynolds, 67 from Milton, smashed the previous age and weight division […]
Xayvion Thomas leaped up for the ball near midfield and came down with it, an interception in the books that generated new life for the East squad in the Subway All-Star Game Friday night at Blue Wahoos Stadium. The turnover led to a touchdown for the East, but in the end, it was the West […]
Natasha Elliott grabbed the rebound off a missed free throw by Mickey Vollmer and leaned into a defender in the paint with all her might. She was determined to score regardless of what it took. Elliott always plays hard, but this game was different. This was a showdown against Niceville, the thorn in Navarre’s side, […]
After a roaring start, Navarre’s boys basketball team dropped a pair of games last week, falling 44-40 to Niceville Tuesday before losing 77-62 to Tate. Navarre is now 4-2 overall and 0-1 in the district. Raider head coach Terry Posey continues to experiment with personnel. After a standout performance against Niceville, Posey inserted Tim Brewer […]
Quentin Randolph isn’t shy about reminding Anthony Johnson Jr. who had the upper hand when they were playing football at rival Santa Rosa County schools. Playing for Navarre, Randolph and the Raiders dominated Pace in 2014, winning 49-21. That was Randolph’s senior year. Johnson was a sophomore at the time for the Patriots. “Of course, […]
Navarre outshot Fort Walton Beach, but two first-half goals proved too much in a 2-1 loss. The Raiders fall to 7-3-1. The Vikings are 3-4. Maia Vacks sent a stinging liner into the top left corner just four minutes into the second half for Navarre’s only goal. Navarre continued the attack, but none of their six shots made […]
It started off well enough. Navarre jumped on top of rival Niceville 1-0 four minutes into this showdown last Monday night at Bennett C. Russell Stadium thanks to a goal from Jack Patching. The thought was perhaps this time the story would be different for the Raiders, that this would be their first win over […]