9 a.m. basketball? Bolles girls ring in season bright, early at Insider Exposure Classic

Isn't 9 a.m. on a school day a little early for basketball?

Not for the sharp-shooting girls of Bolles, who swarmed into the Davis Gym to open Jacksonville's basketball season bright and early with Monday's 64-39 win against Lakeland Kathleen in the Insider Exposure Thanksgiving Classic.

The Bulldogs also sent a message: This team can bury opponents fast. After Kathleen closed the gap to six points after halftime, Bolles swamped the Red Devils beneath a 3-point barrage from Abby Knauff (21 points), Ella Stakem (15 points) and Presley Norman (14 points) — 14 3s before lunch.

"We just started feeling it," Bolles coach Kelly Stevenson said. "They were falling in, and offensive rebounds were a huge thing, too, that we're working on. So proud of the girls."

Among the notable Bolles newcomers is an overseas transfer in 6-4 Terrell McCoy, a sophomore center from the Bahamas who competed last winter at the NBA Academy Women's Camp Latin America in Mexico alongside more than two dozen of the top prospects from the Caribbean and Mexico.

She's also competed in international basketball: In 2022, she averaged a double-double representing the Bahamas at the Centrobasket Under-15 Championship in Puerto Rico.

The three-day event not only brings together dozens of top high school teams across the nation across three sites (Bolles' San Jose campus, Bolles' Bartram campus and San Jose Prep), but marked the first official game in Florida for the 2023-24 Florida High School Athletic Association season.

Action continues until the afternoon before Thanksgiving, with notable Wednesday games including Jackson vs. Venice (11:15 a.m.), IMG vs. Legacy Early College of South Carolina (2:15 p.m.), Ponte Vedra vs. Camden County (2:15 p.m.), Bishop Kenny vs. Westminster Academy (3:30 p.m.) and Mainland vs. St. Thomas Aquinas (3:30 p.m.).

Boys basketball season preview: See top teams, players to watch for Northeast Florida

Road warrior Bears make football history

Bartram Trail now stands alone as king of the road.

Road warriors, and masters of the Panhandle, Bartram Trail became the first Northeast Florida football team ever to win consecutive Florida High School Athletic Association playoff games in the Central Standard Time zone.

The Bears, who had won 67-55 at Navarre in the opening round, ousted host Niceville 28-21 in Friday's second round to complete a two-week road swing with roughly 1,400 miles on the highway.

Several other Jacksonville-area teams — most recently Bolles in 2018 — have achieved back-to-back road wins in which one of the games came in Tallahassee or Monticello around the Big Bend. But no local team in 60 years of postseason football had crossed the time zone line in consecutive weeks and emerged victorious.

In another triumph for the surging ground game, Laython Biddle (192 yards rushing) and Riley Trujillo (114) led the Bears' 512-yard offensive charge in Navarre. Biddle boosted his season mark to 2,096 yards last week, and cleared the 4,000 mark for his career.

Meanwhile, another road warrior story — and another story of a dominant ground game in a pass-heavy age — continues at Mandarin.

Tiant Wyche (157 yards, two touchdowns) and Deshard Westcott (68 yards, one touchdown) ran wild in the Mustangs' 36-10 romp over No. 1 Lake Mary. The seniors stand out as Jacksonville's top ground combination: Wyche is up to 1,462 yards on the year, and Westcott has gained 915.

Mandarin becomes the first Gateway Conference team to win consecutive out-of-town road football playoffs since the Mustangs won it all in 2018, beating Winter Park and Wekiva along the way in the second and third Class 8A rounds. To extend their season, they'll have to continue the road run against Sanford Seminole and then a semifinal opponent, likely Coconut Creek Monarch or Palm Beach Central.

Palatka's Offord a double threat

Palatka's football season ended in the opening round of postseason, but quarterback Tommy Offord joined an exclusive club.

Offord finished his sophomore year in quadruple figures in both passing (1,042) and rushing (1,155) yards. He's the only Northeast Florida quarterback to accomplish that feat this season, although quarterbacks with still-active playoff teams could theoretically achieve those marks in postseason.

Bradford's Dae'Jon Shanks could hit 1,000 on the ground as early as Friday against Baker County, and Bartram Trail's Trujillo has a chance if the Bears continue to the final four and beyond.

Clark opens new era at Stingrays

Charlsea Clark already has championship experience from her years in charge of Bishop Kenny girls basketball. Now, at Atlantic Coast, she's adjusting to a new challenge, joining the short list of women coaching boys team sports in Jacksonville.

"Yeah, I could say it's going to be like any other game, but it's different," Clark said. "Boys basketball vs. girls basketball, there are some differences, but the excitement's there."

Clark started Bishop Kenny on its still-active girls hoops final four streak, going 112-52 in six years and reaching the state semis in 2019, 2020 and 2021. Since then, she's spent two years with the University of North Florida athletic department.

She's approaching the rebuilding process — Atlantic Coast went 5-18 last year and hasn't finished above .500 since 2018-19 — with patience.

"We've been using the phrase, 'Crock-Pot mentality,'" Clark said. "This thing's going to take some time."

As it turned out, the schedule set up Clark's first official game with the Stingrays against the most familiar of familiar opponents, Bishop Kenny.

"[Bishop Kenny] Coach [Jerry] Buckley has been a great mentor to me for a long time," she said during the preseason High School 9:12 Basketball Media Day. "So I wouldn't want our first game to be against anyone else."

Bally Sports, FHSAA in football TV deal

Can't make it to Tallahassee for next month's football finals? After a long wait, fans this December can just touch that dial — or, more realistically in 2023, their remote control.

The FHSAA announced a broadcast agreement with Bally Sports to televise all nine football championship games from Dec. 7-9, the first time in more than a decade that the finals will be available on live cable television.

Each football final will air on either Bally Sports Florida or Bally Sports Sun, in addition to live streaming through BallySports.com and the Bally Sports app.

The FHSAA has scheduled games for 10 a.m., 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. at Florida A&M's Bragg Memorial Stadium, but has not yet determined which classes will play on specific dates and times.

Sunshine Network regularly televised FHSAA championships during the 2000s, originally live and later on a tape-delay basis. However, state football finals in recent years have been limited to pay online streaming through Spectrum Cable.

Gulf Breeze halts Bears' soccer streak

Northeast Florida's longest active team sports undefeated streak is now history.

Mia Davis and Emma Fulford netted second-half goals and Gulf Breeze defeated Bartram Trail 2-1 in Saturday morning girls soccer played at Beachside, ending the Bears' unbeaten run at 27 games.

Bartram Trail, which went 22-0-1 on the road to the 2022-23 United Soccer Coaches national championship and won its first four games this season, hadn't lost since dropping the Region 1-7A semifinal 3-2 to Creekside on Feb. 11, 2022.

The area's longest all-time girls soccer winning streak belongs to St. Johns Country Day, which won every contest for 76 games between Jan. 6, 2015 to Dec. 7, 2018.

Coach moves at Ridgeview, Charlton County, Harvest

Only days after the regular season's end, football's coaching carousel already began spinning.

• Ridgeview head football coach Bryan Arnette announced that he is stepping away from the post after three seasons at the helm of the Clay County program.

In a social media post, Arnette said he made the decision for family reasons and plans to step away from coaching at present. He previously had coached track and field at Oakleaf, and had also served earlier as a Ridgeview football assistant.

Arnette coached the Panthers for three seasons, finishing 1-9 in each.

Ridgeview football has endured struggles for most of the last decade. Since 2013, Ridgeview has compiled a cumulative record of 32-79, with five one-win seasons, a winless season (2016) and a single FHSAA regional appearance in 2020.

• Charlton County athletic director Dusty Phillips announced on social media that the Southeast Georgia school is seeking a new head coach, after the five-year tenure of Russ Murray. Murray compiled a 22-31 record in Folkston, including an 8-3 record in 2022.

Charlton County finished 2-9 this season in Georgia's Class A Division-II, exiting in the first playoff round against Jenkins County.

• Harvest Community announced David Boylston as its new head coach Friday, in place of Nathaniel Whitehead. The Warriors have won three games in each of the last three seasons.

Boylston, a veteran of Georgia and South Carolina coaching, won a championship in 1998 while at St. Andrew's in Savannah, going 12-1 against a slate of South Carolina schools.

Bronston eyes Eagle's View challenge

A year after steering St. Johns Country Day to the final four, Yolanda Bronston is looking forward to a new challenge at Eagle's View girls basketball.

"I'm excited because we're young, we're hungry and they're winners," she said. "They act like winners already at such a young age."

Bronston takes over a Warriors team that went 5-10 in the 2022-23 season, and although she doesn't have a Florida Dairy Farmers Miss Basketball like 2022-23 winner Taliah Scott on this year's roster, the plan is taking shape.

She said the Warriors are working on fundamentals and teamwork now to lay the foundation. The early signs are promising: Sophomore Jayda Parker led the offense with 37 points and 16 rebounds Thursday against Trinity Christian.

"Give us a couple of years," Bronston said during preseason High School 9:12 Basketball Media Day events, "and this program's going to be making some noise."

Sharks start fast in wrestling

Basketball isn't the only sport starting this week.

Girls wrestling also takes to the mat for the first time, while boys wrestling is in the midst of preseason competition ahead of their Nov. 27 opening.

Preseason for girls opened last week. Ponte Vedra girls earned three top finishes at Saturday's Space Coast preseason meet in Cocoa, with Erin Rizzuto (115), Natalia Choquegonza (120) and Laken Wesseling (130) placing first in their events.

Around the area

Mandarin outside hitter Paola Aviles Morales signed with St. Johns River State College volleyball. … Ridgeview forward Nia Blocton signed with Florida Southern women's basketball. … Wolfson defender Natalie Hall signed with Montreat women's soccer. … Camden County senior Rickey Williams signed with Tennessee men's track, and Jordan de Jesus signed with the Ole Miss rifle team. …. West Nassau guard Seth Pettyjohn committed to Brevard football. … Bolles guard Ella Stakem committed to Belmont Abbey women's basketball. … St. Johns Country Day infielder Collin Briggs committed to Middle Georgia State baseball. … Coastal Carolina freshman libero Sydney Lewis, from Bartram Trail, was named second-team All-Sun Belt in volleyball. … Gardner-Webb outside hitter Jenna Otts, also from Bartram Trail, made the second-team and All-Freshman Big South lists in volleyball. … Former Bolles guard Richie Rosenblum scored a career-high 29 points for Wartburg men's basketball in a 89-76 loss to Northwestern (Minn.). … Matanzas freshman Henry Robinson Jr. scored 54 points in the Pirates' boys basketball preseason game against Yulee. … Columbia's Autumn Jones recorded one kill and two digs at the Florida All-Star Classic for volleyball. … Parker received a $75,000 grant from Dick's Sporting Goods for upgrades to the school's weight room and girls sports facilities.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Bolles girls high school basketball opens Insider Exposure tournament