We officially ended up preps coverage this past Wednesday with “The Prep Zone Sports Show,” which originated from locally owned Sonic Drive-In of Gainesville (NW 39th Avenue). It featured co-host Marty Pallman and guests Joshua Wilson of FloridaHSFootball.com and Newberry volleyball coach Hank Rone, who also serves as my “color commentator” for high school football on 106.9 FM “I am Country.”
The final episode was an end-of-year recap.
While we talked about over 20 high school sports moments from this past school year, I am narrowing my top moments to 10.
Having too many for my final list is a good problem to have. A shoutout to all who participated in high school sports. It was another great year, which made the task of editing my list very difficult.
For example, I left Buchholz football off my top 10. The fact that the Bobcats have made it to four straight semifinal appearances, but it didn’t make my top 10 moments, says more about what did happen in 2024-25.
It does not undervalue what the Bobcats (10-4) accomplished on the football field. They had a fantastic season.
A 31-7 deficit to Osceola (Kissimmee) was too much to overcome in a 41-35 loss at home in the state semifinals, but a state championship game appearance would have certainly stamped their spot in my top 10. It marked the fifth consecutive year that Buchholz and Hawthorne, which did make the top 10, have been practicing on Thanksgiving Day.
Like I said, it was difficult for me to drop them, but it did allow me to include two other Buchholz sports moments.
Buchholz football is just one example of those whom I put at No. 11 or higher.
Other examples include the Trenton baseball team advancing to its second straight final four, P.K. Yonge girls soccer’s sixth straight district title and another regional final appearance, which ended in penalty kicks, Williston girls and boys basketball advancing to the region final, and Oak Hall girls cheerleading winning its first state title in program history.
In some cases, there were so many great feats that I lumped them into one category to include them all in my top 10.
As the late Casey Kasem, who would have been 83 this Father’s Day, would say, “Now, on to the countdown.”
I am listing my top 10 in alphabetical order instead of chronologically because some things happened over several periods of time.
Bookend state titles highlighted the year, beginning with the Buchholz boys cross country team.
Buchholz boys cross country
The Bobcats won their first state title in boys cross country in 30 years.
The Buchholz boys won the Class 4A state title, their first since 1994, and after three consecutive state titles, the Lady Bobcats finished second at the Class 4A state meet.
The Bobcat teams flipped places from last year, when the girls team finished first and the boys earned second.
Buchholz baseball
It was another big year for the Buchholz baseball team, which finished as state runners-up for the second year in a row. The Bobcats rolled to their 21st straight win in early April, set a school record with 122 stolen bases, won 26 straight games at home, and finished with a program-best and state-best 33 victories under head coach Ron Brooks, who recently retired as baseball coach and athletics director.
Buchholz had a walk-off win against Tate (Cantonment) in the 6A-Region 1 Semifinals, but they were facing elimination in the regional final against Pace.
Down 1-0 in the best-of-three series, the Bobcats routed the Patriots, 11-2, to even the series, and then beat nationally ranked No. 20 Pace on the road, 5-4, in eight innings to advance back to Fort Myers.
Following a 3-0 win against Wharton (Tampa) in the state semifinals, the Bobcats (33-3) fell short of their first state title in program history with an 8-3 loss to nationally ranked St. Thomas Aquinas (Fort Lauderdale) on May 17, in the FHSAA Class 6A state championship game.
Branford athletics
Branford had a pair of state semifinal runs, including one state championship game appearance, so I grouped them together.
During volleyball season, the Bucs (27-4) defeated defending state champion Baker in the FHSAA Volleyball Class 1A state semifinals but lost to Liberty County (Bristol) in the state title game, finishing second in back-to-back seasons.
Branford softball advanced to its third straight state final four.
Last year, the Bucs lost to Trenton in extra innings in the Class 1A state championship game, but the Bucs had almost everyone returning in 2025.
In the FHSAA Rural state semifinals, Branford got off to a great start against Northview (Bratt). They scored five runs in the top of the first inning. However, the Bucs (21-7) allowed five runs in the bottom of the second inning and were denied their third straight state championship game appearance with a 14-6 loss.
GHS girls basketball
It was a special year for the Lady Hurricanes.
GHS (17-9) advanced to its first final four since 1987. However, the Class 5A state runners-up were denied their first state title in over a century (1921 and 1923) with a 56-49 loss to New Smyrna Beach in the FHSAA Class 5A state championship game.
It was the second state championship game appearance for GHS coach Jazlynd Rollins, who finished second in the voting for the Class 5A Coach of the Year, and her first as a coach. GHS had a dynamic duo in Division-I signees Jayden Terry (Louisiana Tech) and Jamison Cardwell (University of North Florida).
GHS Track & Field
Gainesville High’s Tayeshawn Rochelle was one of the best 400-meter hurdlers in the 3A division in 2024. However, a hamstring strain suffered at the regional meet kept him from competing in the state meet.
On May 10, the senior made the finals and made up a 5-meter deficit over the final 100 meters to defeat Miami Northwestern senior Makhi Fleming and win an individual state title with a personal best of 52.44 seconds, which was the seventh fastest run in the nation this year.
According to Mainstreet correspondent Ricky Quintana, Rochelle became the first athlete from an Alachua County school to win the 400-hurdle event since 1973.
Hawthorne football
No C.J. Ingram, no problem. Ingram announced before the season that he would forego his senior season on the gridiron to focus on basketball.
Despite the loss of the Class 1R Player of the Year, the Hornets (10-2) advanced to their 5th straight state championship game. Their title run came to an end with a one-score loss to Madison County in the FHSAA Rural state championship game.
The Hornets (10-2) finished as state runners-up for the third time in the last five years.
“I felt like we overachieved,” said Hawthorne football coach Cornelius Ingram. “We dealt with some injuries early on in the year, even going into the game we had some key injuries right away that kind of threw off some personnel stuff that we wanted to do, but I felt like we were in the game the whole entire time and that’s what it’s about.”
Hawthorne boys basketball
Again, no C.J. Ingram, no problem. Originally, the 2024 Florida Dairy Farmers Class 1A Player of the Year was supposed to play, but Ingram, who officially became a Gator in February, ended up playing basketball at Montverde Academy.
Despite the loss, the Hornets gained a valuable transfer (Chasion Wilson) and won their third state title in program history (1987, 2020, 2025).
The Hornets (20-3) certainly had no problem in either the state semifinals against Graceville, a 69-44 romp, and in the state championship game against Crossroad Academy (Quincy), an anticlimactic 59-38 victory.
In his 18 seasons as head coach, Greg Bowie has led the program to eight final four appearances.
Newberry football
One might question why Newberry football made the list and Buchholz football did not.
The Panthers won their first district title since winning the Class 2B state title in 2007. Newberry upset then No. 1 Bradford (Starke).
They also advanced to the region final, where they lost at eventual state champion, Cocoa.
But all of this might not have been possible without head coach Ed Johnson, who was fired but reinstated within a 24-hour time period back in March. After posting a 37-18 record in five seasons, Johnson led the Panthers to their fifth straight playoff appearance and a 10-3 record.
Newberry athletics
There were so many great moments for Newberry this year that I grouped the rest of them so I could include them among the top 10 of 2024-25.
The Newberry boys basketball team had a perfect regular season. The Panthers (24-1) won their first district title since 2004 but ended up losing at home to Florida High (Tallahassee) in the Class 3A regional semifinals.
The Newberry girls basketball team won its first district title in eight years (2017). The Lady Panthers had two 1,000-point scorers this past season in senior Sarah Beaulieu and junior Brandy Whitfield.
On Jan. 29, the Newberry boys soccer team and coach Jon Doles won their first district title since 2002, finishing the year with a postseason appearance and a 15-4-1 record, and in May the Newberry softball won their first district title in a quarter century (1999) along with a 20-win season for the Lady Panthers (20-6).
Trenton softball
The defending Class 1A state champion Trenton softball team was able to get back to the final four in 2025 for the new Rural division thanks to a 2-1 win at home against Williston in the FHSAA Rural Region 4 Final.
From there, the No. 4 seed Tigers (19-6) dominated, outscoring their two final four opponents, 20-3, to win their second straight state title.
Trenton defeated top seed Liberty County (Bristol), 9-2, in the state semifinals, followed by an 11-1 mercy run win in five innings against Northview in the title game.
We began the sports seasons with a state championship, and we ended 2025-26 with a state title.