JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Neighbors, friends, and devoted fans lined the streets of Northwest Jacksonville on Saturday morning, transforming the community into a place of pride and excitement for a very special celebration for the championship-winning Raines High School football team. <\/p>\n
The parade, which kicked off at Lonnie C. Miller Park and concluded at Raines High School, saw residents cheering from the sidewalks as the Vikings faithful marked the program\u2019s triumphant fourth state title, their first since 2018. <\/p>\n
The celebratory atmosphere was infectious. The marching band provided spirited music, leading the way for players who waved to supporters. For the athletes, the outpouring of community support was the perfect capstone to a season of dedication. <\/p>\n
>>> STREAM ACTION NEWS JAX LIVE <\/b><\/a><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s just amazing, you know,\u201d said player Knowledge Lewis. <\/p>\n \u201cAll the work we put in in spring, summer, to fall camp, it\u2019s just a lot that we put into work. Just to see the reward is amazing,\u201d said Lewis. <\/p>\n Player Zion Vrodnax echoed the sentiment, expressing gratitude for the turnout. \u201cI\u2019m very happy that people came out to support us. We waited a long time for this, too.\u201d <\/p>\n The parade was a tribute to the Vikings\u2019 dramatic 23-22 victory over Miami Northwestern earlier this month, a nail-biter that secured the Class 3A state championship. <\/p>\n [DOWNLOAD: <\/b>Free Action News Jax app for alerts as news breaks<\/b><\/a>]<\/b><\/p>\n Head Coach Donovan Masline beamed with pride, reflecting on his team\u2019s commitment. <\/p>\n \u201cYou know, this is something that we always work for,\u201d Masline said. <\/p>\n \u201cWe always train our guys for 15 games. Like, if you\u2019re not trying to work for 15 games, you don\u2019t even need to be playing high school football. And just to see the commitment, the dedication to each other, to the program, and for them to come out on top this year, it means everything,\u201d said Masline. <\/p>\n [SIGN UP: <\/b>Action News Jax Daily Headlines Newsletter<\/b><\/a>]<\/b><\/p>\n The victory brings a state football title back to Duval County after seven years. But even amidst the current celebration, the Vikings are already looking to the future. <\/p>\n \u201cIt feels great,\u201d proclaimed player Diangelo Thompson, \u201cI feel like we\u2019re going to go back-to-back.\u201d <\/b><\/p>\n Click here<\/b><\/a> to download the free Action News Jax news and weather apps, <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to download the Action News Jax Now app for your smart TV and <\/b>click here<\/b><\/a> to stream Action News Jax live.<\/b><\/p>\n Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Neighbors, friends, and devoted fans lined the streets of Northwest Jacksonville on Saturday morning, transforming…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":460604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[7320,5229,7323,3188,723,7324,7310,7327,7325,210288,210289,192750,7326,67,586,132,5230,68,2969,7322,7321],"class_list":{"0":"post-460603","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-action-news-jax","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-cbs47","11":"tag-fl","12":"tag-florida","13":"tag-fox30","14":"tag-jacksonville","15":"tag-jacksonville-fl","16":"tag-northeast-florida","17":"tag-raines-high-school","18":"tag-raines-state-championship","19":"tag-raines-vikings","20":"tag-southeast-georgia","21":"tag-united-states","22":"tag-united-states-of-america","23":"tag-unitedstates","24":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","25":"tag-us","26":"tag-usa","27":"tag-wfox","28":"tag-wjax"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115753483368080249","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460603","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=460603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/460603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/460604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=460603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=460603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=460603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}