sports

Florida State University’s head football coach, Mike Norvell, has tested positive for the coronavirus.

Norvell announced his test results in a press release Saturday. He says the results stem from a test he took Friday, after receiving two negative results from tests he had taken earlier in the week.

The Tampa Bay Lightning and Tampa Bay Rays each took steps forward in their attempts to secure championships in their coronavirus-shortened seasons.

The Lightning reached their third Stanley Cup Final in team history Thursday night with a 2-1 overtime victory against the New York Islanders in Game 6 of the Eastern Conference final in Edmonton.

Also on Thursday, the Rays clinched an American League playoff berth during a doubleheader sweep of the Baltimore Orioles.

Anthony Cirelli scored in overtime to send the Lightning past the Islanders.

A day after the Tampa Bay Buccaneers announced they would play their first two games in Raymond James Stadium without spectators, Gov. Ron DeSantis urged the team to allow fans to attend.

“If the Bucs had fans, I would try to go to the first home game. I would,” DeSantis said during a Thursday roundtable in St. Petersburg about bars and breweries. “I am not going to go if other fans are not allowed.”

Tampa Bay Buccaneer fans hoping to see quarterback Tom Brady at Raymond James Stadium will have to wait until at least Oct. 18.

The team announced Wednesday that they will play their first two home games - Sept. 20 versus the Carolina Panthers and Oct. 4 against the Los Angeles Chargers - without fans in the stands.

That means the first game Bucs fans will be allowed to attend - COVID-19 conditions permitting - would be when the Green Bay Packers and quarterback Aaron Rodgers come to town in the sixth week of the season.

Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday continued to pitch the return of college and high-school sports as a safer environment for student-athletes amid the coronavirus pandemic.

As the Florida High School Athletic Association looks into pushing the start of fall sports to the end of November, Gov. Ron DeSantis is urging schools to play on.

DeSantis says just as he believes parents should have options when it comes to sending their kids back to the classroom, he thinks parents should choices when it comes to sending kids back to the athletic field.

The statewide high school athletic association decided Thursday to postpone the start of the fall sports by one month, until Aug. 24, after initially voting to proceed as normal despite the recommendations of its own medical advisory board which said it was unsafe due to rising cases of coronavirus across Florida.

The move came after several greater Tampa Bay counties decided on their own to postpone football practice and other sports for a few weeks.

The Washington Redskins on Monday announced the NFL franchise was retiring the team's controversial nickname following a review process that started several weeks ago.

"As part of this process, we want to keep our sponsors, fans and community apprised of our thinking as we go forward," the football team said in a statement. "Today, we are announcing we will be retiring the Redskins name and logo upon completion of this review."

Fifteen-year-old softball player Riley Diedrick wanted nothing more than to race alongside her friends.