Samantha Vance is executive director of the Jacksonville Sports Foundation. The foundation announced that the FHSAA boys and girls basketball tournament will be held in Jacksonville on the campus of the University of North Florida. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today
Published on September 17, 2025 at 3:18 pm
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Florida’s premier girls basketball program has a chance to add a jewel to their crown in their hometown.
The Florida High School Athletic Association announced Wednesday that it will bring the high school basketball championships to Jacksonville for the first time in 50 years.
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Ribualt has won a state-record 12 FHSAA girls basketball championships. But, none of those triumphs were here.
Over the course of two weeks in February and March, UNF Arena will host 48 high school basketball games. The FHSAA Rural Division championships will be held Feb. 24 to 27. The FHSAA’s seven other championships will take place between March 5 and 14.
Lakeland has hosted the state basketball tournament for the last 30 seasons. The Jacksonville agreement is for the next three seasons.
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FHSAA Executive Director Craig Damon says the association has sought to hold its state championships at college facilities in order to provide a distinct opportunity for students.
UNF has hosted the FHSAA track and field championships in 13 out of the last 15 years. Damon says the university’s embrace of the FHSAA, combined with its facilities, helped bring the basketball tournament here.
“(I’m) thinking about the 99% of our student-athletes who don’t get a chance to play after high school. Their career is done after the high school level,” Damon says.
“For those kids that don’t get an opportunity to step on that court, that’s something they will remember for the rest of their life. It’s a lifetime memory that will last with them and their family that they can share. Having the opportunity to provide that type of arena for our student-athletes was something that we just had to do.”
The last FHSAA tournament
The Jacksonville Coliseum hosted the FHSAA boys basketball championships between 1969 and 1976. The state first held its girls basketball championships in 1976 — Fletcher High won the Class 4A title that year — however, those were held at Stetson University in DeLand.
Visit Jacksonville was among the entities that recruited the FHSAA basketball championships. Its chief operating officer, Sarina Wiechens, personally understands the value of hosting a state championship.
Wiechens’ daughter, Ainsley, won two state championships as a soccer player at Bartram Trail High School earlier this decade.
“It is really the pinnacle of things for your kids who have played sports,” Wiechens says. “As a parent who has invested all this money and time in club athletics, to see them get to the stage is amazing. It’s one of the best things I’ve done to watch my kids play three years in a row at the state cup.”
The FHSAA basketball championships will take place during a three-week stretch that tourism officials and Jacksonville Sports Foundation Executive Director Samantha Vance say will be a local sports smorgasbord.
The ASUN Conference will hold its men’s and women’s basketball tournament in early March Downtown at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena. The Players Championship tees off in Ponte Vedra Beach on March 12.
“We were deemed the most boring city in the country, but that’s not true,” Vance says. “When we get to February and March, and all these things are here, people are going to think again about Jacksonville. The economic development, growth and impact for that time and that season of winter in Jacksonville is going to be tremendous. And we’re ready.”
Local organizers may be ready. The only question is whether someone can lift the trophy at home.
The season does not start until November, but there are early season storylines that may be answered in Jacksonville this spring.
- Will the girls programs from Bolles, Providence and North Florida Educational Institute top last year’s run to the state final with the trophy they truly want?
- Will Miami Christopher Columbus win its fifth straight boys title, to equal Arlington Country Day’s state record?
- Will Jackson’s boys basketball program win its first state title in 33 years — after coming agonizingly close in 2024 and 2025?
If the Tigers do make it to the semifinals for the seventh time in the last eight seasons, Tammie Talley is one person who will be in attendance. The Duval County Public Schools athletic director has a decades-long reputation for being Team Duval.
“Obviously with us hosting, it’s amazing to be a part of,” Talley says. “To have a DCPS school there would be phenomenal. It would bring excitement that would take us over the edge to win the whole thing.”
