It doesn’t seem so long ago that the Freshman Class at Navarre High started attending their school for the very first time…this was 1996. Each year as the school began to blossom they added a new class until the 1999-2000 school year….this would be their first graduating class.
The football program continued to grow and with the 1998-99 school year, they put their first varsity football team on the field of play; consisting of Juniors, Sophomores and Freshmen.
Coach Kenny Hughes was their first head football coach; he would only coach the 1998 season. Danny Williams would follow for the next three seasons after that. They were building the foundation for what today is considered a consistent and outstanding program.
Coach Larry Olson would come in for the 2002 season and in is fifth year would get the Raiders to the State Playoffs for the very first time in 2006 and then again in 2007. The Raider program had now arrived.
He was replaced by Coach Chad Lashley in 2008. The first two seasons were rough, but in year three, Coach Lashley gave the Raider program and their faithful their first taste of success in the Playoffs with wins over Niceville and Pine Forest, before bowing out to Tallahassee Lincoln in the Region Finals in a thrilling triple overtime loss.
Coach Lashley would coach one more season in 2011, before the program decided to go a new direction…Coach Jay Walls in 2012. Coach Walls went onto establish records at Navarre that had never been approached prior. A 12-win season in his first year, a Region Title and the Raiders first trip to the FHSAA State Final Four. He did it again in 2016.
Coach Walls moved on after the 2023 season to Bainbridge HS in Georgia. The results speak for themself….12 years, 102-33 overall record, 2 Region titles, 2 State Final Fours and 7 District titles.
With his departure, the program decided to hire within…Coach Garrett Bagley. Coach Bagley was an assistant coach for over 15 years at Navarre and had attained 7 State Titles as a head coach in Weightlifting (6 for the girls and 1 for the boys).
The first thing coaches will tell you, you have to have the talent on the field to be a successful program. The Raiders have had just that. Starting with QB Scott Couch (South Carolina), RB Frank Willis (AF Academy/Savannah State), OL John Simmons and OL Brandon Warren in the first few seasons. The talent level just continued to grow.
On to players like QB Austin Grimm, WR Chris Weaver, LB Joey Torres (Track & Field at South Alabama) & DB Mike Hagewood (Cumberlands). The program was getting healthy.
There has been so many talented players that have come through the Raider program over the last 26 years to where we have had three players reach the NFL ranks (Jordan Leggett, Michael Carter and Jordan Jefferson) and three players that have won National Titles in College Football (Sterling Lovelady, Jordan Leggett and Quentin Randolph).
The standard has been set high at Navarre!
Please go to the “Where are they now” section of my website to see where our Navarre Alum are currently playing today.