{"id":184063,"date":"2026-03-09T12:20:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-09T12:20:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/184063\/"},"modified":"2026-03-09T12:20:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-09T12:20:07","slug":"2026-basketball-state-championships-classes-3a-7a-know-before-you-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/184063\/","title":{"rendered":"2026 Basketball State Championships Classes 3A-7A: Know Before You Go"},"content":{"rendered":"

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GAINESVILLE, Fla. \u2013\u00a0For the first time in fifty years, the best high school basketball teams across the state of Florida will journey to the Bold City of Jacksonville in hopes of claiming a high school basketball state championship. In partnership with both the\u00a0University of North Florida Athletics Department<\/a>\u00a0and the\u00a0Jacksonville Sports Foundation<\/a>, the 2026 Florida High School Basketball State Championships will continue though this week at\u00a0CSI Companies Court at UNF Arena<\/a>. This third week of action will consist of the remaining Classes 3A through 7A.
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\nBuilt within a final four style format, the championship title games will begin on Wednesday, March 11th with Class 3A, and will conclude for the event with Classes 6A & 7A on Saturday, March 14th. Each classification’s semifinal matchups will take place earlier in the week.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For this week\u2019s competing teams, there will be four returning state champions from last year. On the girls side, Winter Haven in Class 7A will be the only returning champion. The Blue Devils will head to Jacksonville seeking the school\u2019s seventh overall title. On the boys side, Calvary Christian Academy (Fort Lauderdale), winners of four overall championships, will seek their fifth. A possible rematch of last year\u2019s thrilling title game looms with The Villages if they can both pass their semifinal matchups on Monday. St. Thomas Aquinas (Fort Lauderdale), one of the state\u2019s most decorated athletic programs overall, will only be seeking their third ever boys basketball title if they do so again this year. Additionally, rising to a perennial power, Columbus (Miami) enters this week seeking their fifth straight title in the state\u2019s largest overall classification.<\/p>\n

Also interesting of note, just like the first two weeks of action, we will have multiple schools this week sending both their girls and boys programs to Jacksonville in search of a state title. In addition to Williston in the Rural Classification and Miami Country Day in Class 2A, both the Bishop Kenny (Jacksonville) Crusaders in Class 4A and St. Thomas Aquinas Raiders in Class 6A have qualified both squads to represent their school on the high school hardwood\u2019s biggest stage.<\/p>\n

General Admission tickets are currently on sale and available\u00a0via GoFan<\/a>\u00a0for an advanced purchase rate of $15.00 per day, and a day of price of $18.00.\u00a0For a complete event schedule, state series brackets, as well as additional event information, please see below or visit the\u00a0girls<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0boys<\/a>\u00a0basketball sport page(s).

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\"1580\"
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\nClass 3A-7A State Championship Game Schedule*<\/p>\n

Wednesday, March 11
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\n\tGirls Class 3A State Championship,\u00a05:30 p.m.
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\n\t\tDefending champion: Cardinal Mooney (Sarasota)
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\n\tBoys Class 3A State Championship,\u00a08 p.m.
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\n\t\tDefending champion: Calvary Christian Academy (Fort Lauderdale)\u00a0
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Thursday, March 12<\/p>\n


\n\tGirls Class 4A State Championship,\u00a05:30 p.m.
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\n\t\tDefending champion: Palm Bay (Melbourne)
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\n\tBoys Class 4A State Championship,\u00a08 p.m.
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\n\t\tDefending champion: Stranahan (Fort Lauderdale)
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Friday, March 13<\/p>\n


\n\tGirls Class 5A State Championship,\u00a05:30 p.m.
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\n\t\tDefending champion: New Smyrna Beach
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\n\tBoys Class 5A State Championship,\u00a08 p.m.
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\n\t\tDefending champion: Blanche Ely (Pompano Beach)
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Saturday, March 14<\/p>\n


\n\tBoys Class 6A State Championship,\u00a012:00 p.m.
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\n\t\tDefending champion: St. Thomas Aquinas (Fort Lauderdale)
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\n\tGirls Class 6A State Championship,\u00a02:30 p.m.
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\n\t\tDefending champion: Bloomingdale (Valrico)
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\n\tBoys Class 7A State Championship,\u00a05 p.m.
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\n\t\tDefending champion: Columbus (Miami)
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\n\tGirls Class 7A State Championship,\u00a07:30 p.m.
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\n\t\tDefending champion: Winter Haven
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*For a complete schedule, including all the semifinal matchups taking place, please visit the\u00a0Girls<\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Boys<\/a>\u00a0Basketball brackets page.<\/p>\n

Know Before You Go:

\nWhere:\u00a0CSI Companies Court at UNF Arena<\/a>\u00a0(University of North Florida in Jacksonville)

\nWhen: Monday, March 9th\u00a0– Saturday, March 14th\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0

\nHost:\u00a0University of North Florida Athletics<\/a>

\nBrackets & Championship Schedule:\u00a0
\n \n<\/p>\n

Facility Information:\u00a0\u00a0Spectator Information<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Clear Bag Policy<\/a>
\nAdmission: $15 per day if purchased in advance, and\u00a0$18\u00a0if purchased day of\u00a0via GoFan<\/a>
\nParking:\u00a0fee\u00a0included in the cost of admission\u00a0(Parking in Lot 18<\/a>)
\nOfficial Merchandise:\u00a0Team IP<\/a>
\nLodging:\u00a0click here<\/a>
\nLive Webcasts:\u00a0NFHS Network<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0
\n \n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Story Links GAINESVILLE, Fla. \u2013\u00a0For the first time in fifty years, the best high school basketball…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":184064,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29],"class_list":["post-184063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=184063"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/184063\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/184064"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=184063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=184063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=184063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}