Jay’s boys basketball team took a huge step forward last year. The Royals did lose in the district final but they were able to win a regional tourney game to help punctuate their 18-win campaign.

Now, with a new season on the horizon, Jay is ready to do more.

Lewayne Jones II laid his expectation for the season right out there on day one for Central’s girls basketball team

As the new head coach of the Jaguars, he was simple and to the point in regard to what he wants to see his team achieve this year.

Four games into the season, Milton’s girls soccer team has seen mixed results, but the one thing the Panthers know they can count on night in and night out is a will to battle.

“I’ve seen a lot of willingness to run through a brick wall if they had to,” Milton head coach Mary Murphy said. “If we don’t have the best touch on a ball, my goodness we are going to win the ball back. We’ve done a good job of that so far.”

Ben Clements wants to change the culture at Milton. That’s his focus in his first season as the head coach of the boys soccer program.

“I’m trying to grow the program,” Clements said. “It’s been looked over in the past. By the end of the season, we don’t want it looked over anymore. That is what we are trying to achieve.”

Milton had its chances late in the action against Navarre last Tuesday on a chilly evening at Hurley Manning Field.

Several shots were fired by the Panthers, but each time, the shot was either off the mark or stopped by the Raider goalkeeper.

“Hear me Roar” is playing as wrestlers inside the cafeteria at Milton High school work on various tactics during practice.

It’s fitting in the sense that the program here, which includes youth wrestlers all the way up to high school athletes, is eager to make some noise as it pushes to rise up from obscurity and catapult itself into the spotlight.

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.