FHSAA releases 2026 football reclassifications – Here’s who WON and LOST on the Emerald Coast:

2A 

District 1-2A 

• Destin moves to its first-ever district after jumping through all of the required hoops to have a sanctioned football team over the last couple of years. They played as an independent team the previous year and went 1-9. 
• Freeport remains in 1-2A after a punishing season that saw them lose to all 1-2A opponents, including Walton, Catholic, and South Walton twice by a combined margin of 151 points. The Bulldogs went 5-5 on the season, with wins over three rural teams, a 1A team, and a 2A team. 

• Pensacola Catholic will remain in the 2A classification to run into the buzzsaw that is The Bolles School in the Playoffs again. Catholic’s only losses on the year were to 6A Pace and 2A Bolles in the playoffs. Catholic was able to play all of the opponents they will play in their new district, including Destin. The combined result was three wins by a margin of 127-24. 

• Walton also remains in 2A for the next two years. The Braves muscled out a gritty 4-7 campaign in 2025, including a 63-13 playoff loss to Bolles. Head Coach Jay Lindsey will be in his second year. 

3A 

District 1-3A 

This district will almost double in size, thanks to South Walton moving up from 2A and Pine Forest dropping from 4A. 

• The Bay Tornadoes surprised most people last year with a high-octane offense and rather stout defense. They were able to take it to Mosley and get the win last year, which surprised most people on the Emerald Coast (including us). Bay dropped a game they should have won against Godby in the second round of the playoffs and took a loss in the regular season to rural juggernaut Madison County, finishing 9-2 on the year. 

• Pensacola’s tattered Tigers will take the field against opponents in District 3A after taking a beating in 2025. In the last five years, the Tigers have gone 9-42. Gone are the glory days when the Tigers went 12-1 and lost to St. Augustine in the playoff semifinals. 

• Pine Forest will drop down a classification after an exceedingly average year. The greater Pensacola area school snuck into the playoffs with just three wins (honestly, a decent argument for fewer playoff teams) and was soundly defeated by Jacksonville-area E.D. White 41-20. 

• South Walton moves up a classification, and it may give them a better chance to go deeper into the playoffs. Where in 2A, SoWal had to compete with the likes of Pensacola Catholic and Bolles to make the turn and head south to the final four, they now need to beat Palatka, Raines, and Bishop Kelley. I like this team to win the 1-3A district in their first year out of the gate. 

• West Florida Tech was another team that may have done better last year. But that’s bygones, and the team will need to regroup against a strong field this year. 

4A

District 1-4A 

• Choctaw will headline this district after a final four run that saw them lose to American Heritage at home. While some amazing Division I committed ballplayers will exit stage right from the roster, the team’s offensive and defensive schemers have proven they can replace talent. Look for them to own this district and have everyone else compete for second place. 

• Escambia stays in this classification for another two years. The Gators, at least in the last five years, have remained near the cusp of goodness and are always on the line for making the playoffs. At least they look better than their geographical rivals, Pensacola. 

• Speaking of geographical rivals, Fort Walton Beach remains in 4A for another two years. But this coming year, just as in 2025, they may avoid the bottom of the barrel. Gulf Breeze enters this classification and Washington remains to give the Vikings an honest-to-goodness chance to end up in the middle of the pack after all the games are played. 

• • Can’t say much more about Gulf Breeze this year than… yikes. The Dolphins turned in abysmal numbers on both sides of the ball. Add in the fact that Soundside high school opens up in between GB and Navarre this year, and you can expect the talent base for all three schools to suffer. 

• Milton drops down a classification after a dream season that saw them end up with a year-over-year win differential of 17. Coach Ronnie Douglas oversaw a tectonic mental shift and some zonkers personnel decisions that ABSOLUTELY paid off (I mean, putting a Florida four-star tight end commit at quarterback for most of the season and basically running an offense while you have a Southern Miss-committed wideout on the field). Expect them to win every game in this district except Choctaw – and to stencil their name on an at-large playoff spot in 2026. 

• Washington was Collin’s pick to win this District last year – and they fell a little flat despite their obvious talent on the field. The Pensacola-area school has two years to win this district. 

District 2-4A

• We could do this in alphabetical order, but the reason anyone cares about this region on the Emerald Coast is that Mosley is in it. Tommy Joe Whiddon’s team won their 5A district, which included Mosley and Niceville, and declared the Dolphins’ rivalry with the Eagles dead (on account of how many years in a row they’ve won).
• Arnold stays in 4A – and rests on their laurels that include the fact that they made the playoffs over a Fort Walton Beach team that defeated them and put them in the cellar of their district last year (the algorithm works in mysterious ways). 
• Leon is also a team in this district. They were 3-7, with wins coming against two rural teams and 2A Marianna, which will head back down to rural this year. I weep for them when they have to play Mosley.
• Lincoln moves down to 4A with Mosley this year. Despite a lackluster regular season, they took Mosley to the wire this year in a 33-30 playoff loss.  Expect more postseason pluck from this scrappy team. 

• Rickards is also a team. That’s the sentence. Fine, I’ll expand. They were 3-7, but also second place in the district that included Choctaw, Fort Walton Beach, and Arnold last year, because Fort Walton and Arnold were really bad. Their deep postseason run dreams were summarily crushed in the first round of the playoffs against an excellent Columbia team that thrashed them 35-0. 

5A

District 1-5A

• • Crestview will feel like a smaller shark in a swimming pool of bigger sharks, thanks to reclassification. In addition to taking on Pace and a downtrodden Navarre squad this coming year, they will have to stack up against an out-for-blood Niceville team and a defensive-minded Tate squad. But, hey, that’s what makes football exciting. No one wants to watch a blowout. Plenty of returning talent on this Hub City squad to make this team competitive against the field in 2026. 

• Navarre has had a couple of down seasons, including this past one, where they went 1-9. Add in the fact that some of the talent that would naturally go out for the team will head to Soundside, and you’ve got plenty to worry about if you are the head ball coach. The Raiders did show signs of brilliance last year, but they will need to be way more consistent if they want to avoid the bottom of this district in 2026. 

• The Niceville Eagles could argue that a lot of things didn’t go their way last year. New coach coming in late, four games decided by less than a touchdown that didn’t go in their favor. But their backfield has a year of experience under its belt and looked pretty good while earning its spurs. Some defensive talent graduated along with D-I commits Max Roché and Robert Oliver, but Niceville can happily rely on a stable of young talent at the receiver positions. Expect them to put up a decent fight, as they now stand, against a dominant Pace team. 
• I don’t know how to tell my Niceville audience this, so Pace is the runaway favorite to win this district in 2026. Sure, they have graduated five-star talent on the offensive line, but they still have a complement of elite running backs in Mikael Williams and Tagg Strickenberger, as well as the ability to throw the ball. The defense is also quite underrated. 
• Tate also drops from 6A to 5A in the shuffle that followed the football meetings at the FHSAA this fall. Tate took a tough 3-0 loss to Milton this year, but it nevertheless showed their defensive prowess. They also fell 10-0 to a Dr. Joaquin Garcia team in the FIT final game. They are brutal competition to beat for a team like Niceville, which will look to avoid finishing in the middle of the pack. 

6A

The panhandle doesn’t have any 6A teams for the next two years.