It was a strong start at the state track and field championships in Jacksonville for a host of area athletes.

The high school softball playoffs are off and running, with the area’s top teams all moving on.

The News4JAX girls lacrosse Super 6 will be published Monday through the end of the regular season. Records are through March 3 games.

Baker County, Baldwin, Episcopal, Providence, Ridgeview and University Christian all took care of business in the regional semifinals on Tuesday night to move into the regional finals.

The News4JAX girls lacrosse Super 6 will be published Monday through the end of the regular season. Records are through April 9 games.

Bolles' boys' lacrosse is making a return trip to the state semi-finals while Episcopals' girls have made the Final Four for the first time in program history.

Ten girls high school basketball teams from the area remain standing after the opening round of the state playoffs on Thursday night.

The News4JAX Super 6 girls basketball rankings will be published each Tuesday during the regular season with the exception of a break for the holidays. Records are through Dec. 6.

Episcopal guard Mark Flakus, one of the best shooters in the state, will join the Birds of Trey next season. The senior signed his national letter of intent Wednesday to attend UNF.

BK started the game at Episcopal with a monumental eight-minute-plus scoring drive and then rode an opportunistic and aggressive defense to a 35-14 victory Friday night in the News4Jax Game of the Week.

The News4Jax Super 6 high school volleyball poll will be published each Thursday during the regular season. Records are through Sept. 8 games.

Petros Kyprianou, who was Garret Scantling's coach at Georgia and served as the decathlon and heptathlon coach for the U.S. Olympic team, is joining the staff at the Episcopal School of Jacksonville as the director of sports performance, a rare position in high school athletics.

The night began with four area high school softball teams chasing berths in the state semifinals and ended with three of them headed there.

High school softball season is rolling on and six teams advanced in Tuesday night’s second round games, including a thriller between Episcopal and West Nassau.

The main focus of Jacksonville native and Assistant White House Press Secretary Kevin Munoz right now is the coronavirus vaccine.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – One of the fastest-growing high school sports in the country will be on full display this week. Lacrosse takes center stage at Episcopal beginning Thursday evening with the first two of eight games in the High School 9:12′s Rivalry on the River event. High school games were added to that schedule eventually, giving local programs a big stage to play on. “You’re right, this is all high school and all North Florida high school, whereas Moe’s was all teams from all around the state. AdIn the six-year period from 2013-18, the NFHS reported a substantial increase in high school lacrosse teams across the country.

When the season was paused, and eventually canceled due to COVID-19, our Super 6 looked like this — Ridgeview, Oakleaf, West Nassau, Episcopal, Bartram Trail and Atlantic Coast. Glance: The Knights are always a pick to land high in the Super 6 and they open 2021 in a familiar position. Ridgeview (1-1, Class 4A)Notable win: Atlantic Coast. Episcopal (1-0, Class 3A)Notable win: Atlantic Coast. Others: Baldwin (3-0, Class 3A; Clay (1-0, Class 4A); Creekside (1-2, Class 6A); First Coast (3-0, Class 6A); Fletcher (1-1, Class 6A); Keystone Heights (1-1, Class 3A); Mandarin (1-1, Class 7A); Middleburg (1-0, Class 5A); Paxon (2-1, Class 4A); Providence (0-1, Class 3A).

Marcus Wells is the new head football coach at Episcopal. He replaces Mark Brunell, who went to the Detroit Lions to serve as the quarterbacks coach. JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Marcus Wells fully understands the challenge in front of him. “From Day One, when I became the coordinator, Mark kind of tagged me as his associate head coach, and just had a lot of faith in me.”Brunell spent eight seasons as the head coach of the Eagles. And it’s a staff that’s dedicated to the school,” Wells said.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Episcopal moved quickly to fill its head football coaching position, promoting Marcus Wells to the top spot on Friday. Wells has been on staff with the Eagles for eight seasons, the past seven of those as the associated head coach and defensive coordinator. “Coach Wells is one of the key reasons for our team’s most recent success, highlighted by back-to-back playoff appearances and three playoff victories,” said Episcopal athletic director Andy Kidd. We are excited to welcome him as our Head Coach for the upcoming season.”AdWells is an Episcopal graduate, wrapping up his high school career there in 1990. Wells went to Cornell out of high school and later finished college at the University of Florida before moving in to the education field.

(1) Jackson (12-4, Class 3A)Notable wins: Bishop Snyder, Lee, North Florida Educational, Paxon, Potter’s House, Santa Fe Catholic, Victory Rock Prep, Westside. (3) Providence (17-3, Class 3A)Notable wins: Bolles, Carrollwood Day, Christ Church Episcopal (SC), Episcopal, Impact Christian, Ocala Forest, Orlando Evans, Ponte Vedra, Santa Fe, Seacoast Christian, Seffner Christian, Viera. They’ve got a very good Bishop Kenny team on the road Friday, followed by Episcopal (Tuesday) and rival Nease (Feb. 5). (4) Episcopal (16-4, Class 3A)Notable wins: Bishop Kenny, Bolles, Christ’s Church, Fletcher, New Smyrna Beach, Paxon, Seacoast Christian, West Nassau, Wolfson. Why they’re here: Episcopal’s nine-game winning streak came to an end in a tough 56-55 game to Bishop Kenny last Friday.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The News4Jax Super 6 boys basketball rankings will be published each Thursday during the regular season with the exception of a two-week break for the holidays. (2) Jackson (10-3, Class 3A)Notable wins: Bishop Snyder, Lee, North Florida Educational, Paxon, Potter’s House, Santa Fe Catholic, Westside. (4) Episcopal (16-3, Class 3A)Notable wins: Bishop Kenny, Bolles, Christ’s Church, Fletcher, New Smyrna Beach, Paxon, Seacoast Christian, West Nassau, Wolfson. They’ve got some tough local games ahead, with Bishop Kenny visiting Friday and Bolles coming over on Jan. 29. (6) Bolles (12-3, Class 4A)Notable wins: Atlantic Coast, Bishop Kenny, Fleming Island, Fletcher, Mandarin, Orange Park (twice), St. Joseph, West Nassau.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The News4Jax Super 6 boys basketball rankings will be published each Thursday during the regular season with the exception of a two-week break for the holidays. (NR) Providence (12-2, Class 3A)Notable wins: Carrollwood Day, Christ Church Episcopal (SC), Episcopal, Ocala Forest, Orlando Evans, Santa Fe, Seacoast Christian, Seffner Christian, Viera. Why they’re here: The Stallions jump from bubble team and to the top of Super 6 after a strong December showing where they went 8-1. They’ve got two big ones next week, a home game against Ponte Vedra on Jan. 12 and a clash at Bishop Snyder on Jan. 15. (3) Bishop Snyder (9-2, Class 3A)Notable wins: Bartram Trail, Bishop Kenny, Episcopal, Greater Atlanta Christian, Impact Christian, Mandarin, North Florida Educational, Potter’s House Christian, Sagemont.

NEPTUNE BEACH, Fla. – It’s Bolles and Lee for Fortegra High School 9:12 Invitational basketball tournament championship. The Generals (5-0) will face Bolles (6-0) in Saturday’s championship game, with Lee knocking off Episcopal 72-56 and Bolles edging West Nassau 72-68. The win sends Lee into Saturday’s championship against either Bolles or West Nassau. Bolles 72, West Nassau 68Bobby Crouch had a tournament-high 32 points and the Bulldogs held off a fast-charging Warriors squad to reach the Saturday championship game. Bartram Trail 52, Atlantic Coast 38Bartram Trail used a burst right before the break to top a cold-shooting Atlantic Coast team in the opening game of the Fortegra High School 9:12 Invitational basketball tournament on Friday.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The News4Jax Super 6 girls basketball rankings will be published each Wednesday during the regular season. (1) Bishop Kenny (8-1), Class 4ANotable wins: Bartram Trail, Episcopal, St. (5) Ribault (5-1, Class 4A)Notable wins: Bartram Trail, Legacy Early College, Mandarin. Why they’re here: Five wins in a row for the Trojans, with a 48-36 victory over Bartram Trail the lone game since our last Super 6. 3 Raines on Tuesday night and beat Providence last Thursday (44-34) to remain in this week’s Super 6.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Starting Thursday, some of our area’s best high school basketball players will begin to compete in the third annual Fortegra High School 9:12 Invitational presented by the CSI Companies. This year’s basketball tournament has a new venue -- Fletcher High -- and expanded broadcast coverage. “We are excited to start some new traditions with this year’s tournament, thanks to Tammie Talley and the staff at Fletcher, with a new venue,” said Alan Verlander, Founder and CEO of Airstream Ventures and High School 9:12. The game-day experience will be different this year at Fletcher, compared to the previous two years when the tournament was held at Episcopal School of Jacksonville. “Lee is a very tough team, Episcopal is a tough team, West Nassau is a tough team, I’m not sure that there is not a tough team in the tournament, so it’s going to be fun,” said Gilbert.

It’s the most familiar phrase of the high school sports fall season — the Bolles swimming teams are state champs. He also swam lead on both the winning 200 free relay team and winning 400 free relay team. The girls had only two state champs, the 400 and 200 free relay teams, both turning in automatic All-American times. Sasha Ramey was state runner-up in the 200 IM in 2:02.90. 400 free relay1.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. Summer camps and youth sports are back underway here in Florida. At the Bolles School, youth baseball camp is in full swing this week as kids are out on the baseball field and just happy to have some sports back. Down the road at Episcopal, its a youth football camp thats in motion. The coaches and counselors alike are enjoying this experience after being off the field for the past few months. What I love most about this is a lot of my high school players are the camp counselors, he said.

Joining us is Charles McWhite the Principal at Tiger Academy, Jewel Hardwick who is a former student and now a senior at Episcopal and Lynaria Henley who is currently a 5th grader at Tiger Academy.

JACKSONVILLE, FLA - Florida State football player Andrew Boselli got a nice surprise on Tuesday. Clements then informed Boselli that head coach Willie Taggart thought that he had earned a full scholarship. Boselli signed with the Seminoles in the Class of 2016 and redshirted his first season. Boselli (6-foot-5, 308 pounds) then went back to football, rejoining the program in spring and grinding himself back into shape. The son of Jaguars offensive tackle and NFL hall of fame finalist, Tony Boselli, Andrew is a redshirt junior with two seasons of eligibility remaining.