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.
Eighteen wins and a chance to win a district championship. If you had told Jay head coach Jorey Diamond that would be reality for his Royals this season, well, he might have questioned your sanity.
“I probably would have told you, first of all, that you were crazy,” Diamond said. “To be where we are is a testament to how hard the kids have worked to be in a position to make the playoffs.”
The University of West Florida football team announced it signed 13 players on national signing day last Wednesday.
The group includes former Florida Gator commit Marcus Stokes, a four-star recruit out of Nease.
When Javier Valarezo knocked down his second 3-pointer of the game Wednesday night against Pensacola, cutting the Tiger lead to eight at Barbara Rose Gymnasium, the Milton Panthers started to believe that perhaps they could rally for a road win.
After a slow start, the Panthers were back in the game, but they couldn’t get the stops they needed defensively to flip the script in a 60-44 loss.
Autumn Boutwell just kept shooting. One 3-pointer after another. She made nine 3-pointers in all and helped propel Central’s girls basketball team to a 61-30 win over Laurel Hill in the opening round of the District 1-1A tournament Tuesday night at Paxton.
