Sports

Women’s tackle football is back in action Words by Tysen Romeo   Football is one of the biggest sports in America. You know, the game where two teams run up and down a field that is 120 yards long tackling each other, while they fight over possession of a brown leather ball shaped like almond.    The NFL is the wealthiest professional sports league in the United States. Yet, according to a survey done by Zippia, only 2.55% of football players are women while 97.45% of football players are men. Why are we letting men have all the fun?    …

JaxUSL kicks local soccer into gear Words by Shelton Hull   The men’s World Cup ended back in December, and the women’s tournament begins this July. Both events get plenty of airplay here in Northeast Florida, whose soccer scene has been steadily percolating since the 1970s. Whether you’re a hardcore fan, a casual fan or not even a fan at all, soccer has become almost unavoidable on social media and in public parks around the region. That trend is sure to only increase with the recent launch of the Jax USL soccer club, a new local startup aiming to score …

The Jags. That’s who.  Words by Carmen Macri   It didn’t look that way in the 2020-2021 season when the team finished 1-15, which was not only a personal worst for the Jaguars but also the worst record in the league, only to be followed up with a 3-14 record.  It didn’t look like that this season either when the team was in last place in their division. Yet, the Jags turned it around and clinched the AFC South with a record of 9-8 (thanks, in part, to the Tennessee Titans who lost their final seven games but who’s counting?). …

Jaguars cheerleaders do more than get fans hyped   Words By Ambar Ramirez   Their teal and white costumes glitter against the lush green grass, their movements graceful yet powerful like a jaguar. These women are so good at what they do, in fact, you might forget they are just people doing what they love. While the Jaguars football team deserves the praise for the W’s, it’s time to grab some pom-poms and cheer on the cheerleaders who make up The Roar, the Jaguars cheer squad.    The Roar cheer squad is full of empowering women, but they are more …

This article was previously published in Folio in February 2021 and has been updated to include additional resources. To the uninitiated, “pickleball” might sound like some weird appetizer your grandmother brings to family picnics. Or a gala for gherkin lovers. What it actually is, however, is a sport. And not just any sport but one of the fastest growing recreational sports in the U.S. with almost 4.8 million regular players, a 40% increase since 2019. So how is it that a game made up in the ‘60s by a couple of dads to entertain their bored kids become the biggest …

Words by Clayton Tinkle In June the University of North Florida announced extensive upgrades for the UNF Arena, including replacement of the original hardwood floor laid in 1993. The $2.1 million partnership with the Jacksonville-based CSI Companies is planned to cover seven years and will happen in conjunction with other athletic facility upgrades expected to break ground this summer. The most noticeable project will be the new UNF Arena floor, which will be known as CSI Companies Court upon completion. The floor will feature the CSI Companies logo and Atlantic Sun Conference logo, as well as new “SWOOP” graphics under …

Clayton Tinkle In March of 2022, the University of Florida hired the analytics-driven Todd Golden to fill their head coaching vacancy on the hardwood. The move was widely regarded as an upgrade by fans and alumni alike who had grown tired of Mike White and his lack of ability to get over the proverbial hump. White, who left the Gators in March for a job at the University of Georgia, was just “OK” in Gainesville … and sometimes that’s OK. Expectations are high in Gainesville, as they should be, right? The Gators, after all, have won two NCAA National Championships. …

Tiffany Nieves joins the River City Wrestling Con Tiffany Nieves drove four hours for this. Nieves is only about a dozen matches into her career in professional wrestling, a career that began less than a year ago, and she has already gotten used to the frantic pace at which the business operates. On this day, she had driven up from Orlando to shoot photos with Jacksonville’s own Toni Smailagic, the results of which you are looking at right now. She would then drive right back to Orlando for her final training session, but first we drove around for a half-hour …

Clayton Tinkle NFL Draft talk dominated the Bold City’s sports landscape for most of the spring with the Jacksonville Jaguars holding the much anticipated first overall pick. On April 11, that all changed as University of North Florida senior forward Jazz Bond swooped in to take over the headlines on the First Coast. Bond became the first player in the university’s history to be selected in the WNBA Draft when she was picked in the third round, 31st overall, by the Dallas Wings. Bond is no stranger to being first. After transferring from the University of South Florida, the redshirt …

How long have you been skating for? About 13 years. That’s like you learn to walk and push at the same time. Have you been competing the whole time, too? Oh, not really the whole time. My first bigger contest was in 2014/2015 at Exposure in Encinitas, California. That was pretty sick. I was nine or 10. And I got first place in the under 14. It was an all girls contest so it had a super cool vibe. How did you get involved with X-Games stuff? The first Olympic qualifier was a Dew Tour event in 2019. And that …