Over the five seasons before this year, the Fort Walton Beach High School boys lacrosse team won a total of 11 games. During two of those seasons, they didn’t win at all, going a combined 0-23 in 2022-23 and 2023-24. The program, founded roughly eight years ago, was at a crossroads, and there were real questions about whether enough interest existed to keep it going.

• On Thursday night, the Vikings will host West Florida in the first home district tournament playoff game in program history. The 6 p.m. faceoff is the latest milestone in a turnaround that head coach Frank Graziano and his staff have built almost from scratch.

“At one time this was a program that they were seriously looking at wondering if there really was an interest,” Graziano said. “And the players were the ones that said yes. They said ‘we’re here’ and we’re going to take this field and we’re going to go for a win.”

Graziano took over ahead of the 2024-25 season and immediately saw results. The Vikings went 2-9 that year, breaking a two-year winless drought. The first win, he said, felt like the team had won the Super Bowl.

This season, Fort Walton Beach has gone 5-8 overall and 5-1 in district play, finishing second in the district standings and earning the right to host a district playoff game. It is the most successful season in program history.

The five wins may look modest on paper, but context matters. Fort Walton Beach does not have a feeder program. Unlike Niceville, Navarre, Gulf Breeze and South Walton, there are no local club teams developing young players before they reach high school. Most freshmen who join the Vikings have never picked up a lacrosse stick.

• “A lot of these other teams that are really good in the local area have been playing together for eight, nine years,” Graziano said. “And my guys have been playing together for nine weeks.”

To close that gap, Graziano and his coaching staff — assistants Mitch Rose, Brent MacDonald, Jayda Oleson and John Randall — introduced summer practices, a preseason scrimmage and a fall tournament that drew teams from across the region and as far as Louisiana. The goal was twofold: develop the players already in the program and show prospective athletes that off-season lacrosse had a home at Fort Walton Beach.

It worked. 

The roster grew to 35 players this season, and for the first time, the coaching staff had to make cuts.

“It was one of those programs where they were barely able to get enough players,” Graziano said. “To last year where we had 35, to this year where we had to actually make cuts, which has never happened.”

The roster is a cross-section of the school. Graziano said his players range from band members to football players, with 11 seniors and 24 underclassmen spanning ninth through 11th grade. Among them are two sophomores — Taelyn Couillou and Bellah Downs — who are believed to be the only female players on a boys lacrosse team in the area.

When the girls lacrosse team dissolved after last season due to low numbers, Couillou and Downs had a choice: transfer to Niceville, which has a girls team, or try out for the boys squad. They tried out and made the roster ahead of some of the boys who competed for the same spots.

The transition from girls lacrosse to boys lacrosse is significant. On the boys side, players wear full pads and helmets. Girls lacrosse features different rules, with less protective equipment and an emphasis on stick checks rather than body contact. Couillou and Downs made that adjustment and have held their own against players who outweigh them considerably.

• “They handle themselves like they’re just one of the boys out there,” Graziano said. “Catching, passing, they’re doing everything that the boys are doing and sometimes even better.”

Graziano said when either player checks into a game, the parent section erupts. Both are planning to return next year, giving the program two more seasons of a roster combination that no other team in the area can claim.

On the field, the Vikings have been led offensively by senior Ronnie Osuna, who tops the team with 22 goals, nine assists and 31 total points. Sophomore Trey Macdonald leads the team with 18 assists and 23 total points, while senior Logan Bentley — who wears No. 22, a jersey number traditionally given to a team’s top player in the sport — has 17 goals and 21 points.

Sophomore Troy Webster has added 10 goals and seven assists, and junior Cairo Kendrick ranks second on the team in assists per game. On the defensive side, junior Jaydon Gaines leads the Vikings with 23 takeaways and 33 ground balls, followed by senior captain Caden Bell with 10 takeaways and 21 ground balls. Senior goalkeeper Tyler Gibson has recorded 83 saves.

Three of the team’s eight losses came by a single goal: a 7-6 loss to Milton on Feb. 11, a 5-4 loss at Milton on March 3 that went to overtime, and a 10-9 loss at Booker T. Washington on March 23. Flip those results and the Vikings would be 8-5.

“Even the opposing teams were saying that we aren’t the team of the past for Fort Walton Beach,” Graziano said. “We used to be one of those teams that they felt was an easy win. Now they’re actually hesitant because they know that we’re there to compete.”

Graziano credited the program’s foundation to coach Duke Pope, who originally established the team and now helps out with South Walton. Graziano said he invited Pope to attend Thursday’s district playoff game.

• “If it wasn’t for him, we wouldn’t be where we’re at,” Graziano said.

Looking ahead, the Vikings have their eyes on more than just Thursday. Graziano said multiple players have already been contacted by college coaches about playing at the next level. Lacrosse is one of the fastest-growing college sports alongside girls flag football, and Graziano said programs are actively searching for athletes willing to learn.

“They don’t have to be the best player on the field,” Graziano said. “They just have to be a coachable player that is willing to learn a new system and have the basic abilities to play lacrosse.”

That reality has opened a door for Fort Walton Beach players who, because the program lacks a long history, are still mastering the fundamentals. Graziano said the focus on basics has actually worked in their favor with college recruiters, who see coachable athletes with room to grow.

For now, the message to the team is simple.

“This is your time. This is your moment,” Graziano said. “We win, we move on. We lose, we’re done. Especially for our seniors..this is their last time stepping on our field as a Fort Walton Beach lacrosse player. So make the most of it.”

A win Thursday would send the Vikings to South Walton on Friday for a second-round district matchup — another first for a program that not long ago couldn’t field a victory.