FloridaHSFootball.com is a Community Partner with the Jacksonville Jaguars Community Foundation and Jaguars PREP.
FORT WALTON BEACH, Fla. – The Jacksonville Jaguars, alongside the organization Jacksonville Jaguars Community Foundation and Jaguars PREP, concluded their Nike 11-On 7v7 tournament events and lineman challenges this week with an 8-team tournament involving teams from the Florida Panhandle for the first time.
With Choctawhatchee High School, under the direction of football head coach Frank Beasley, serving as the host of the event with Jaguars PREP, which brought an NFL-level event to the Panhandle that is an area that has not been truly served by any NFL team – until now.
It has been one of the missions of Adriel Rocha, Jacksonville Jaguars Vice President of Community Impact and Football Development, to further expand the reach of the Jaguars into the Florida Panhandle to give residents along with high school football and girls flag football teams a taste of well-established events that are already being held throughout the year in Jacksonville. That mission started to come to light through the Jaguars Panhandle Nike 11-On 7v7 Tournament.
The Panhandle Nike 11-On event, which included Bay (Panama City), Choctawhatchee, Escambia (Pensacola), Gulf Breeze, Milton, Mosley (Lynn Haven), Pensacola, and Pine Forest (Pensacola), allowed some of the well-known programs in the region to sharpen their skills with fall practices just less than two weeks away from commencing across the state.
The morning of the event started with pool play for the eight teams across two fields, which allowed the teams to get a feel for what to expect from the single elimination bracket that would determine the champion for the event. Escambia and Gulf Breeze went 3-0 in pool play to earn the top seeds for the single-elimination tournament.
In the single-elimination tournament, Escambia, Choctawhatchee, Gulf Breeze, and Bay emerged as the team teams into the final four, where Escambia defeated Choctawhatchee 19-18 to get into the championship game while Gulf Breeze had a little bit easier time with Bay with a 27-14 score to secure their spot in the championship game. Escambia had to fight against Gulf Breeze for the championship game, defeating the Dolphins 20-15 to win the 2023 Jaguars Nike 11-On 7v7 Tournament.
Escambia joins Trinity Christian (Jacksonville), Lowndes (Georgia), and Choctawhatchee Flag Football among the winners of the Jaguars’ Nike 11-On 7v7 Tournaments that were held late last month in Jacksonville. As such, the winners will receive pre-game recognition by the Jacksonville Jaguars at their Play Football Game on Saturday, August 26, at TIAA Bank Field when the Jaguars host the Miami Dolphins in their only home preseason game for the 2023 season.
All teams were treated to swag from the Jaguars and two Nike shirts for each athlete as part of participating in the event, while the Jaguars covered food, venue, referees, and athletic trainers for the entire event.
To learn more about Jaguars PREP, visit https://www.jaguars.com/community/prep/.
