Navarre ended last football season ranked sixth in the final Associated Press poll of the regular season. The Raiders start this year in the others receiving votes category, picking up seven, the most of any team outside the top 10 in the 7A poll. The lone team from District 1-7A to start the year in […]
There will be no district title on the line and an automatic berth to the playoffs won’t be hanging in the balance Friday night when Navarre and Gulf Breeze square off in the Beach Bowl at Bennett C. Russell Stadium. A week 10 game the past four seasons, with the last three featuring a showdown […]
Marlon Courtney scrambled around in the pocket looking to turn nothing into something. With defenders closing in, he made a decision. Let the ball fly 35 yards and have all the faith in the world that someone wearing a Navarre uniform would catch it. Tyler England turned out to be that someone. In the end […]
Throughout the summer and now into the preseason practices, Navarre’s volleyball team has created a culture that seemingly has set the tone for success. Unified as a team, the Raiders are ready to take the next step forward and contend for the first district championship in program history. Navarre last finished as a runner-up in […]
Sam Antoine stood up after practice last Wednesday and talked to his University of West Florida teammates about the importance of jotting down notes in meetings. The work in those meeting rooms is just as important as the work put in on the field. “Coach (Steve) Saulnier showed us a video of Marshall Faulk when […]
Leadership in the pool isn’t something difficult to find for the Navarre swim team. The Raiders have only four seniors – Harrison Dorsey, Reese Vickery, Carson Whitley and Merete Conley — but most of the swimmers are returning from last season and ready to help lead the way for a successful season. Alyssa Allen is […]
Navarre’s cross-country teams finished their first meet of the new season Saturday at the Niceville Relays. The varsity squads fielded eight two-person teams – three for the girls and five for the boys – in a relay-style event at Northwest Florida State College. “It is ridiculously hot,” coach Katie Fein said. “I am very proud of these athletes. They have put in a lot of […]
Somewhere in the bay behind the stadium wall there are baseballs still floating around from the record-setting home run tear the Pensacola Blue Wahoos have been on this summer. They rewrote the record book Thursday night, crushing four in a 13-0 win over Chattanooga, pushing the season total to 111, five more than the 2018 […]
Tyler Rebber left the grind of athletics behind when he graduated from Navarre in 2017. He traded it for the grind of real life. He landed a job at the water company, working at the sewer plant, and was taking classes at Pensacola State College at night. Along the way, Rebber got stuck in the […]
Xayvion Thomas wasn’t happy about the way the scrimmage went earlier in the week for the defense. But under the lights Friday night at Bennett C. Russell Stadium, Thomas and his defensive teammates delivered with a better showing. They dominated during the two-hour scrimmage, including scoring a touchdown off a fumble and an interception. “We […]
Kileigh Whited is back on the campus of South Alabama University ready for soccer season after a summer of working hard. This summer, the former Navarre Raider played with Pensacola FC and set her sights on improvement. She helped the team win its first WPSL title since 2012. “I came back to play this summer […]
The gridiron was packed with non-stop action Friday as Navarre Youth Sports Association football teams clashed on the field at Bennett C. Russell Stadium. Five NYSA teams from 6-and-under up through the 14-and-under age divisions used Raider Night as preparation for the 2019 season. “It was a great night,” NYSA football commissioner Paul Villanova said. “It gives […]
Ivan De Jesus Jr. was drafted in the second round by the Los Angeles Dodgers. In 2005. That’s how long the 32-year-old infielder has been playing this game at the pro level. Recently promoted to the Rochester Red Wings, the Triple-A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins, he played in 21 games with the Pensacola Blue […]
Former NFL defensive tackle Fred Robbins is now part of the Lighthouse Private Christian Academy football staff. He will work as an assistant on the team and help with grant and fundraising efforts for the football stadium the school is building on its Gulf Breeze campus. The hope is to have a turf field. Robbins […]
Quentin Randolph wrote in an Instagram post earlier this summer about the darkness he encountered in his football life, darkness that seemed to envelop him. He was staring at an uncertain future in the game he is so passionate about. He had talks with his family as well as with one of his closest friends […]
Carter Brasell stands on the stage in the high school cafeteria and the music begins to play. He’s singing “Every Time We Touch,” a hit song by Cascada more than a decade ago. As the tempo of the music picks up, so does Brasell’s voice. He gets his teammates pumped up, raising his arms in […]
Peter King is spending his summer on an NFL training camp tour with NBC Sports. A three-time national sportswriter of the Year while at Sports Illustrated, King loves minor league baseball almost as much as he loves football. So, as his crew made its way from Jacksonville to New Orleans last week, King decided to […]
If the name Trevor Larnach sounds familiar, it’s because he’s the player from Oregon State who belted the go-ahead home run in Game 2 of the 2018 College World Series national championship series. He hit the two-run shot off former Navarre Raider Matt Cronin, the closer for Arkansas at the time and now with the […]
Navarre’s girls soccer team will be led by six seniors this year. They have been playing together for so long, they can finish each other’s sentences. Most have been playing together since they were 6 years old, and they play for the Gulf Coast Texans in the offseason. The Slaybaugh twins, Jade and Autumn, are […]
The Pullum YMCA Wahoos swim team finished its summer season Saturday at home in a dual meet with the Seastars swim team out of Pensacola. “The kids … finished well,” said head coach Mary Moorer. This meet included all four swimming disciplines – butterfly, backstroke, breaststroke and freestyle – and relays. In each heat of each age division, swimmers had barely exited the pool before receiving […]
Summer is in the rear-view mirror now for Navarre’s girls basketball team and the Raiders came out of it feeling good about what they’ve gained from it. “We feel very confident with how things went and had a chance to build team chemistry,” rising senior Hailey Neely said. “We see the court better as a […]
Elijah Melendez and a handful of his Navarre football teammates could have found something else to do on a Saturday rather than show up at a young boy’s birthday party. But when they learned there was a birthday party and none of 6-year-old Gavin Carter’s friends attended, they rose to the occasion much the way […]
Michael Carter now wears Carolina blue instead of the maroon, silver and black of the Navarre Raiders. But he still has home in his heart and he always will. It means the world to him to represent Navarre and the panhandle in general to the best of his ability. “I don’t want to be a […]
Branden Heinke comes walking onto the Navarre track late Thursday morning carrying a handful of medals. They serve as reminders of all he has accomplished this summer running AAU track with Golden Elite Track and Field Club out of Pensacola. Once upon a time the rising Raider junior couldn’t have imagined being this successful in […]
It’s lunchtime in the meeting room of the Navarre football fieldhouse. Culver’s is the food of choice for veteran Raider head coach Jay Walls. He’s finally sitting down to eat after a two-hour meeting with his staff on the final Thursday of the school year. In the seven seasons the football program has been under […]
Dawson Higginbotham found himself in a backup role last season. He’s expected to be a starter this year for an offensive line that should be one of the biggest in the area. “The atmosphere of playing varsity last year was great,” Higginbotham said. “It was a big step up. It definitely makes you work harder […]
Joe Cronin once hit a home run over the famed Green Monster at Fenway Park. It was his junior year at Boston College. The solo shot helped lead the Eagles to a 2-0 win over Massachusetts in the championship game of the Beanpot Tournament. For the lifelong Boston Red Sox fan and native of New […]
It is almost plausible that 110-octane fuel runs through Kyle Bryant’s veins. The 26-year-old driver and performance parts salesman carries a passion for the family pastime. Bryant’s been racing since the age of 5. As he got older, so did the size of the engines and cars. These days, he’s behind the wheel of vehicles more akin […]
Navarre’s Wahoos came through with 11 podium finishes, including a pair of relay victories, Saturday at the Summer League Championships in Pensacola. The 10-and-under girls medley relay swimmers finished in a time of 1:38.46 for their best finish of the day. The boys 10-and-under 100-yard freestyle relay swimmers clocked a time of 1:17.49 for top honors. […]
Navarre’s boys soccer team doesn’t get many opportunities to train in the summer. But the Raiders were on the Holley Navarre Middle School field – the only field available for use – last week for a five-day camp that featured a camp for younger players as well. “It’s a chance for us to raise a […]