Raines Vikings football team home as state champions after their dramatic 23-22 victory over Miami Northwestern<\/a>, avenging last year\u2019s championship loss to the same team.<\/p>\n\u201cWe changed a lot of things and how we operated just for that moment,\u201d Vikings head coach Donovan Masline said. \u201cThe kids were locked in, no playing. They were hunting, they were together, they believed in each other, they believed in the coaching, and it showed last night.\u201d<\/p>\n
The victory resonated deeply across Jacksonville\u2019s Northside community, representing more than just a win on the scoreboard.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt means everything. This is Black excellence, the pride of the Northside,\u201d Masline said. \u201cWe went down there to represent for Duval, and we came back and we did it well.\u201d<\/p>\n
The celebration highlighted the deep connection between the team and its community. Former Raines football player Isaiah Stallings explained the tradition: \u201cIt goes way back to our parents, grandparents. If you ever went to Raines… It\u2019s the same thing with the Jaguars. We\u2019re here whether we\u2019re up, down, left, right.\u201d<\/p>\n
For the players, the victory marked the culmination of a year-long mission. \u201cWe waited all year for this,\u201d said defensive end Troy Butler, whose personal story of perseverance touched many. Butler, who lost his mother two years ago, channels his emotions in his play. \u201cI take all the anger I can out on the field,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
His grandmother, Lisa Robinson, who took on guardianship after his mother\u2019s passing, praised his character: \u201cHe\u2019s a beautiful kid. He takes care of his siblings. He works hard, and I\u2019m just so proud of him.\u201d<\/p>\n
The future remains bright for the Vikings, with key players like Butler returning next season. For graduating seniors like Shareef Jackson, who left the championship game with a broken foot, the victory provided the perfect finale.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the best way to ever go out,\u201d Jackson said, noting that his brother won a state title with Raines in 2017. \u201cIt\u2019s a blessing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The team\u2019s linebacker, Johdeem Jones, emphasized the broader impact of their achievement: \u201cIt means a lot. It just shows that through hard work and dedication, we can accomplish anything as long as we stick together and continue to fight on.\u201d<\/p>\n
As fireworks lit up the evening sky, Stallings shouted, \u201cWe\u2019re the standard, we\u2019re the mecca!\u201d A fitting celebration for a team that turned last year\u2019s disappointment into this year\u2019s triumph.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2025 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2013 From the band to the bleachers, students, parents, alumni, and neighbors packed into a pep…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":84674,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1039,116,118,117,33973,37947,110],"class_list":{"0":"post-84673","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-duval-county","9":"tag-jacksonville","10":"tag-jacksonville-headlines","11":"tag-jacksonville-news","12":"tag-raines","13":"tag-raines-vikings","14":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84673","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=84673"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84673\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/84674"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=84673"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=84673"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=84673"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}