Excited? Yes. Thrilled to finally have a trophy in their hands? The Jay Royals will say yes to that as well.
But satisfied? Not quite. Jay still has goals it wants to achieve after winning the District 1-1A crown for the first time in more than two decades Friday with a 65-45 win at home over rival Paxton at John Clarence Smith Gymnasium.
Two of the nation’s best high school softball players reside in Pace.
Patriot stars Jayden Heavener and Shelby McKenzie are both ranked in MaxPreps’ list of the top 20 players in the class of 2024.
Pace’s boys basketball team wasn’t going to go down without a fight in its District 1-6A semifinal matchup against top-seeded Gulf Breeze last Wednesday night.
The Patriots trailed by just one at the half and were only down seven going into the final quarter of play on the road against the Dolphins.
Milton’s run in the District 1-6A tournament ended after one round as the Panthers fell 55-33 to Crestview Tuesday night on the road.
The Panthers fell behind 17-11 after one and trailed 28-16 at the half as the Bulldogs controlled the momentum from start to finish.
Players on the Jay bench smiled, laughed and had fun as the final minutes evaporated in a regional final against Chipley Thursday night.
They were enjoying the moment, something their head coach, Jorey Diamond, has reminded them to do, especially in the postseason.
Head coach Kara Lay wasn’t quite sure how her players, mostly middle-school-aged, were going to respond to a 54-20 defeat at the hands of 1A Jay in early December, especially after the Lions had cruised past their first four opponents by 30 or more points.
It didn’t take long to get an answer.
It’s postseason time for several area teams.
The Pace girls soccer and girls basketball teams are both in their respective regionals while the Jay girls basketball team has earned a regional berth as well.
When Pace last played a baseball game, it was on the field of Hammond Stadium on an inside-of-the-oven like afternoon in Fort Myers.
The Patriots walked off the field that Saturday in late May as the state runner-up in 6A after their rally fell short in a 5-4 loss to Doral Academy.
The Pace Patriots and Jay Royals closed out their regular seasons against one another on Friday night. These two teams met less than a month ago, back on January 6th, when the Royals won 56-42.
This time though, the game would be played on Pace’s home floor, with a raucous student section and a desire to get even in the season series.
In a pressure-packed third quarter Friday night, a district title riding on the outcome, Aisley Shields had two great looks from beyond the arc that likely would have swung the momentum in Pace’s direction.
On the first attempt, the ball nearly rolled in before rolling out. The ball simply bounced off the rim on the second shot.
