Three overtimes. That’s what Milton pushed eventual district champion Gulf Breeze to last season in the district tournament. The Panthers fell short of a win by a 72-67 score, and it was a tough loss to digest, according to Panther head coach Cameron Belden.

Defensive back De’Mareyae Givens hadn’t forgotten the pain of last season’s gut-wrenching ending to the season. The University of West Florida Argonauts lost to Newberry in their first ever home playoff game, which was played at Blue Wahoos Stadium. He and his teammates didn’t want history repeating itself.

Milton girls basketball coach head coach Keith Cone was optimistic following a 42-34 home loss to Navarre Friday night. Though disappointed his team could not muster enough energy to pull out the victory, he remains optimistic about his girls going forward.

Pace football players emerge from the locker room and head towards the two charter buses sitting in the parking lot behind the stadium just after 6:30 a.m. on a cloudy Friday morning. They are carrying pillows, their bags, and their hopes of a playoff victory over Buchholz later that night just outside of Gainesville.

Kara Lay is in her second season as the head coach of the L.E.A.D. Academy and she loves her team, which might lack experience but more than makes up for it with competitive fire. “If I told them the Orlando Magic were coming to play us, the girls would say are we going man or zone on defense,” Lay said.

Four Santa Rosa County girls basketball teams converged on the same court last week for a Tip-off tournament at Pace, giving coaches a chance to put their teams in live-action situations against an actual opponent. Jay rolled rolled past Pensacola Christian 51-21 in its game last Thursday while Pace crushed Pensacola Catholic 61-23. Milton and Central squared off at the end of the night and the Panthers edged the Jaguars 51-46.

Expectations are high for the L.E.A.D. Academy boys basketball team. But even those have limits. Especially after how well the Lions did a season ago, fashioning a 27-2 record.

Pace’s boys golf team completed its season Tuesday at Mission Inn Resort & Club in Howey-in-the-Hills in Lake County, Fla. The Patriots finished 14th as a team at the state tournament, carding a 328 in the one-day 18-hole event.

Milton started off its freshman football season on a high note. Perhaps too high of one. The Panthers, in their one quarter of preseason action back in August, scored really quick on offense and then scored again on a pick six.

Monday mornings this season always seemed to be enveloped in uncertainty for the Milton Panthers. “Every Monday it seemed to be something else,” first-year Panther head coach Kelly Gillis said. “Another injury. Another two injuries. The flu hit. A lot of the kids could have said we’re done with this. No one did that. I’ve been around a lot of teams that would have cashed it in. Our guys kept coming to work.”