Tristan Watson came out of the game with 56.8 seconds to go after picking up his fifth foul. He made his way to the end of the bench and crouched down on the floor.

One of his teammates came over and sat next to him, putting his hand on his back in an effort to console the senior, who was just starting to begin to face the gut-wrenching reality that this game, this special season, as well as a stellar high school career at Jay, were about to come to an end.

Lily Priddy got a little emotional talking about the end of her high school weightlifting career late Saturday night at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland.

Priddy had hoped to be crowned a 3A state champion in the 119-pound weight class at the end of a long day of competition.

When Pace last played a softball game that counted, it ended in heartbreak. The Patriots walked off the field stinging from a 1-0 extra-inning loss to Melbourne in the 6A state final four.

Most of those players are back, including Division I commits Jayden Heavener (LSU) and Shelby McKenzie (Florida State), and they are hungry.

Hallie Ueberroth mentioned one day before a practice that the defense has looked sharp, and that things would really get rolling for the Milton softball team if the offense started to click.

“Our defense has looked really good in practice, and once our offense catches up, and we get our hitting going, were going to be hard to beat,” Ueberroth said.

It took a little less than two minutes for Milton to score its first goal of the night in its lacrosse season opener against Fort Walton Beach last Wednesday night at Hurley Manning Field.

But over the next 45 or so minutes of play on a cool and windy evening, the Panthers had little trouble scoring, rolling to a 14-1 win over the Vikings.

The wait is over. The Pace Patriots are state champions in girls weightlifting for the first time in program history.

A runner-up a year ago, Pace has been on a mission since that day and saw the hours of hard work and dedication pay off with a 3A crown in the traditional competition Saturday night at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland.

A new era is underway for the Milton baseball program. Keith Little is the new head coach of the Panthers and brings a lot of experience to the table.

Not only has he coached at the high school level as an assistant, but he was the head coach at Pensacola State for six years.

Nick Stiles loves football. He also loves airplanes. It turns out two of the things he is most passionate about worked in his favor as he found a school that is going to allow him to pursue both.

The Pace offensive line signed a national letter of intent with NCAA Division II Missouri S&T earlier this month.

The L.E.A.D. Academy girls and boys basketball teams are East Region champions of the Panhandle Christian Conference.

Both teams defeated West Florida Baptist Academy Feb. 11 to win the titles, with the girls earning a 47-37 victory and the boys coming away with a  50-41 win.

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.