Duane Raley was in the middle of an interview when his Jay players came up from behind and drenched him with cups of ice water.
The head coach reacted to the initial shock of the chill, raising his arms, taking off his hat and wiping water off his head. He then turned to his players and smiled, literally soaking up the joy of being the coach of a state champion.
It was a pretty good week for area athletes at the FHSAA state track meet.
Pace and Central both had athletes competing in their respective classifications and every athlete from both schools performed well. Most finished in the top 10.
The Milton Panthers had a tough 2023 season.
After finishing just 3-7, head coach Kelly Gillis is ready to move the program back in the right direction. That all begins in the spring, and it culminates in the annual Spring game.
Pace held the upper hand in its spring football game against Navarre Monday night at home.
The Patriots won the varsity half 17-7 on the strength of an offense and defense that rose to the occasion when it needed to.
Pace swim coach Amy Wolfenden passed away Sunday at the age of 50 while at a triathlon in Birmingham.
Wolfenden, a dean at Wallace Lake K-8 School, has been working in the Santa Rosa County School system since 2007 and has been coaching at Pace since 2013.
Jayden Heavener was in a jam in the top of the fourth inning of a Region 1-6A championship game Saturday night against Hagerty.
She hit one batter and walked another, and now, for the first time, the Huskies threatened to pull themselves back into the game. Heavener never got rattled.
Brady Godwin breathed a sigh of relief as he threw one last pitch and watched the ball fly through a sky lit by stadium lights and drop into the glove of Landon Golden in right field.
Players in the dugout on this Jay baseball team chanted ‘let’s go, let’s go’ and waited for it to be caught so they could spill out onto the field and celebrate a dream come true on a hot and humid evening in Fort Myers.
Grayson Shehan slid into home plate, flexed, put his emotion on display and ignited an eruption of cheers from his teammates in the dugout.
Here at Hammond Stadium in Fort Myers on a hot and humid Wednesday afternoon, the Royals were now up two runs in the seventh inning of a 1A state semifinal against second-ranked Lafayette.
Another no-hitter by Jayden Heavener. Another big day at the plate for Shelby McKenzie.
When those two are on, and the rest of the team plays at a high level as well, the Pace Patriots are a tough team to beat, especially in the postseason.
A big day for Jay is ahead as the Royals play in the 1A state final four Wednesday.
In the state semifinal round for the first time since 2010, Jay takes on Lafayette at Hammond Stadium in Fort Myers. Game time is 1 p.m. EST.
