Special moment at North Sand Mountain tonight as NSM senior manager Creed Peters, who was born with Muscular Dystrophy, dresses out and scores NSM’s first basket. “He is a true Bison, a good teammate, dependable,” said NSM head coach Cole Hicks.
- Video courtesy of Candace Hicks.
I’m feel extremely sad for spring sports athletes, especially the seniors. Good luck in all your future endeavors. Thank you for all the fun memories and good times you provided me while I covered your teams and games.
“You start talking about Auburn, she’ll get all teary-eyed.”
🗣
@AUCoachFlo
on freshman
@annierhughes99
2019 Alabama Miss🏀 will start at 3️⃣ for
@AuburnWBB
in season opener Wednesday vs. Wofford (6 pm - home):
“I thought she was going to jump out of her shoes when we told her.”
Pisgah’s
@annierhughes99
scored 12 points and was the North team’s MVP in the North-South All-Star Game. Hughes, an Auburn commit, helped the North All-Stars defeat the South 66-57. (Photos courtesy of Whitney Smith)
Carey Ellison has now coached the Pisgah girls basketball program to a state championship in four different decades.
He’s led the Eagles to six state titles during this 24-year tenure.
Class 6A Boys Basketball
Northwest Regional finals:
Scottsboro 48
Clay-Chalkville 41
Final
Scottsboro (25-4) advances to play Spanish Fort in the Class 6A State Semifinals on Monday (11:30 a.m.) at UAB.
Prep Basketball: Cole Hicks picked up his 100th career head-coaching win with NSM’s 107-57 victory tonight over Marion County (Tenn.). Hicks is in his fourth season at his alma mater after serving as head coach at North Jackson for three seasons.
Class 6A Boys Basketball
Northwest Regional semifinals:
Scottsboro 69
No. 7 Pinson Valley 67
Final/OT
Scottsboro (24-4) advances to the Northwest Regional final on Wednesday, Feb. 24 (11:30 a.m.) at Wallace State Community College in Hanceville.
Pisgah senior and Lipscomb signee Molly Heard recorded a quadruple-double in the Class 2A No. 1-ranked Pisgah varsity girls basketball team’s 77-51 win at Scottsboro. Heard totaled 29 points, 12 rebounds, 10 assists and 10 blocked shots. She also had five steals.
The legendary Shawn Peek scouting Woodville and Ider tonight. Retired in Alabama, Peek now coaches basketball and football at South Pittsburg High School in Tennessee.
Final: The Scottsboro
@shsladycats
defeat Arab 70-48 to win the Class 5A Girls Basketball Northeast Regional Championship. Scottsboro wins its first regional championship and advances to the 5A Final Four in Birmingham for the first time in school history.
Pisgah’s Annie Hughes, an Auburn signee and the 2019 Class 3A State Tournament MVP, has been selected to play in the Alabama-Mississippi Girls Basketball All-Star Game (March 15). Pisgah head coach Carey Ellison will serve as Alabama’s administrative coach.
Former Pisgah & Jacksonville State baseball pitcher Matthew Darwin passed away today. Darwin helped Pisgah go to the state semifinals in baseball and basketball as a senior in 2004. He played in two basketball Final Fours & had a TD catch in a 2002 state semifinal football game.
NSM senior Russ Marr eclipsed the 2,000 career point mark in tonight’s 100-45 Jackson County Tourney semifinal win over Woodville.
Marr (2,008 pts.) became NSM’s all-time leading scorer in Monday’s game w/ Buckhorn. He passed Jamie Pruett (1,988 points) on NSM’s scoring list.
Emily Garner is the Scottsboro varsity girls basketball program’s new leader in career 3-pointers with 186. She set the school record, which was previously held by Katie Kirkland (184), while hitting four 3s in Monday’s Northeast Regional semifinal win over Southside.
Pisgah’s Annie Hughes and Coach Carey Ellison were part of the Alabama All-Star Team’s 101-82 win over thee Mississippi All-Stars. Hughes totaled 10 points, eight rebounds and two blocked shots.
Jeremiah Haynes is NSM’s new varsity girls basketball head coach, replacing the retiring Tracy Vest. Haynes is a Sylvania alum and the son of Glenn Haynes, a longtime local basketball coach in the area. Haynes was a varsity boys assistant coach at Scottsboro last season.
BREAKING: Carey Ellison, the eight-time state champion Pisgah varsity girls basketball coach, will now also be the Pisgah varsity boys basketball head coach and will coach both PHS varsity teams starting this coming season. He's been the PHS girls coach since 1996-97.
Pisgah sophomore Molly Heard has been named the Alabama Sports Writers Association Class 3A Girls Basketball Player of the Year.
Skyline senior Bailee Usrey was a finalist for Class 1A Girls Player of the Year, which went to Decatur Heritage’s Katie Jones.
Class 2A Girls Basketball
State Championship Game
Pisgah 74
St. Luke’s 54
Final
No. 1-ranked Pisgah (33-3) defeats No. 9 St. Luke’s to win the Class 2A state championship. It’s Pisgah’s 10th state title and AHSAA record-tying fifth consecutive state championship.
Bubba Smith (left) talks with son Blaine after Bubba’s Woodville boys basketball team defeated Blaine’s Ider Hornets 58-46. It was the first meeting between the father-son coaching duo.
Class 2A Boys Basketball
State Championship Game
Section 77
Mars Hill Bible 61
Final
No. 3-ranked Section (28-9) defeats Mars Hill Bible to win the Class 2A state championship, its first state title since the 2002-03 season and third all-time.
This is a rendering for the proposed on-campus Northeast Alabama Community College softball stadium that was included in NACC's softball announcement news release. The field would be turf.
Northeast Alabama Community College has requested approval to build an on-campus softball stadium and start a softball program, NACC president Dr. David Campbell said in an interview with WWIC Radio 1050 AM. Campbell said a target date for the first NACC softball game is 2024.
Pisgah’s Annie Hughes and Skyline’s Dawson Wynn were the 2019 Jackson County Tournament Varsity Girls and Varsity Boys divisions MVPs.
Hughes, an Auburn signee, also surpassed the 2,500 career point total during Saturday’s championship game win.
The Pisgah varsity girls basketball team defeated Holly Pond 59-32 tonight in the Holly Pond Thanksgiving Classic. It was the 600th career win for Pisgah head coach Carey Ellison.
Woodville head football coach Tyler Vann has been hired as the new head coach at Sylvania. Vann, an NSM alum, led Woodville to a 5-6 record, including its first winning record in region play (4-2), and a playoff berth in his one season at WHS.
On this day in 2009, former Tennessee head coach/current Ole Miss head coach Lane Kiffin watched Paint Rock Valley edge North Jackson 52-51 in a Jackson County Boys Basketball Tournament quarterfinal game at Skyline High School. Kiffin was there recruiting NJ’s Tana Patrick.
Former Pisgah standout and 2019 Alabama Miss Basketball Annie Hughes started and recorded 10 points (4-of-5 shooting, 1-of-1 3-ptrs, 1-1 FTs), a team-high four assists, two rebounds and two steals over 30 minutes of play in her Auburn debut, an 84-82 win over Wofford.
The No. 5-ranked
@shsladycats
defeat Mortimer Jordan 65-32 in the 5A girls Northeast Sub-regionals. Scottsboro (27-3) plays Alexandria in the Northeast Regional at Jacksonville State. That’s also a new school-record for wins for Scottsboro.
NSM’s Russ Marr scored 95 points in two games (both wins) against Sylvania this season. After scoring a school-record 62 in the first meeting, he scored 33 in the second meeting on Monday.
Skyline alum Craig McGill, the varsity girls head basketball coach at New Hope, leads New Hope to the Class 4A Northeast Regional championship and a berth in next week’s state tournament.
Class 2A Girls Basketball
Northeast Regional finals:
#2
Pisgah 72
#1
Spring Garden 65
Final/OT
Pisgah (23-6) advances to play the Southwest Regional Champion in the Class 2A Final Four on Wednesday at 2 p.m. at the Birmingham Crossplex’s Bill Harris Arena.
Varsity boys basketball:
NSM 104
Sylvania 99
Russ Marr scored a school record 62 points for NSM, including 43 points in the second half and 24 in the fourth quarter. The junior made 15 2-point shots, six 3s and 14-of-19 from the foul line.
Former Scottsboro wrestling coach Wayne McNutt recognized at the AHSAA Wrestling Championships for his induction into the Alabama Chapter of the National Wresling Hall of Fame.
Skyline’s Collin Lockard and Bailee Usrey, pictured with Skyline coaches T.J Perry and Ronnie McCarver, signed this morning to play college basketball at Shorter University in Rome, Georgia.
Class 1A Girls Basketball State Tournament semifinals:
Skyline 58
St. Luke’s 36
Final
No. 3 Skyline plays No. 4 Phillips in the Class 1A state championship game Thursday at 4 p.m.
High School Basketball
Class 6A Boys Area 15 Tournament championship game:
1) Scottsboro 64
2) Buckhorn 62
Scottsboro (22-4) will host the Area 16 runner-up in a 6A Northwest Sub-regional game on Tuesday.
Skyline varsity girls basketball coach Ronnie McCarver picks up his 800th career victory in Skyline’s 64-34 win over Section. McCarver is now 800-312 with two state titles (2003 1A boys at Secton and 2021 1A girls at Skyline) in 30 seasons at PRV, Woodville, Section and Skyline.
North Sand Mountain wins the Class 1A-2A Boys State Golf Championship. NSM bests defending state champ Donoho by 15 strokes. It’s the first team state championship in any sport in school history.
From just a thought to
@SECNetwork
WOW‼️Unbelievable! Thankful for all those that have made
@Shooting2Change
a success over the past 8 years! S2C has given opportunities to those that likely would not have had them without it. Worth it all!
@MartySmithESPN
@JMorr_AT
Today, Skyline girls basketball head coach Ronnie McCarver could become only the third coach to win both an AHSAA girls and boys basketball state title. He led Section’s boys to the 2003 1A state title. He’s led five teams to the state finals in a career that features 778 wins.
Former NSM, NJ and Pisgah head football coach Shawn Peek got his first win as Chattooga (Ga.) head coach last night. His staff includes former Pisgah and Scottsboro head coach Freddie Tidmore, former Scottsboro assistant Jo Reed Brumley and former NJ assistant Barry Shrader.
The three games Jackson County basketball teams have played in the state tourney thus far were like home games. Kudos to Scottsboro, Skyline and Pisgah fans for making the trip to B’ham and filling the stands (as best permitted b/c of COVID restrictions) to support their teams.
Per Jackson County Sentinel news reporter Hunter Jones, Scottsboro City Council president Pudge Bailey has announced during Monday’s meeting that Chick-fil-A is officially coming to Scottsboro.
NSM senior guard Luke Maples was recognized today prior to NSM’s game with Dade County (Ga.) for scoring 1,000 points in his career. He was presented a certificate by NSM head coach Cole Hicks.
Section swimmer Maggie Ella Robbins has won state championships in the Class 1A-5A Girls 50-yard Freestyle and 100-yard Butterfly during the AHSAA State Swim Championships.
Baseball: North Jackson’s Brandon Poole hit three home runs — one shy of a state single-game record — in last night’s 13-7 win at South Pittsburg (Tenn.). Poole also had a three-run double, a walk, five runs scored and seven RBIs.
Popular Ider principal Cyrus Frost, who died unexpectedly this week, was a Pisgah alum. Today some of his students, the Ider girls cross country team, won his alma mater’s annual invitational meet. Ider runners had Frost’s initials written on their arms.
Pisgah Cross Country Invitational:
- Pisgah placed second in the 1A-4A varsity girls race, 8 points back of Ider, whose Makinley Traylor was top individual finisher (21:24.16) Section’s Jennifer Vega finished third (23:41.94).
- Pisgah finished fourth in 1A-4A varsity boys race.
Albertville defensive coordinator Luke Pruitt has been hired as Pisgah’s new head football coach. Pruitt is the son of current Albertville/longtime Plainview coach Dale Pruitt and brother of University of Tennessee head coach Jeremy Pruitt.
Skyline’s Gracie Stucky (seated center) has signed to play college basketball at Snead State Community College. Stucky was the Class 1A Girls Basketball Player of the Year and the 1A State Tournament MVP, helping lead Skyline to a state championship and a program-record 30 wins.
High School Boys Basketball:
1A No. 2 Skyline 62
6A No. 10 Buckhorn 61
Final/OT
Jaylon Clements hit the game-winning free throw with 6 seconds remaining for Skyline.
North Jackson defeats Pisgah 7-1 to win its first Jackson County Softball Tournament championship. It’s the first time since the fast pitch softball county tournament began in 2006 that a team other than Pisgah has won the county championship.
Class 2A Boys Basketball
Northeast Regional championship
Section 55
Midfield 52
Final
No. 3 Section (26-9) defeats No. 1 and defending state champion Midfield to advance to the Class 2A State Tournament.
North Jackson senior forward Sarah Morgan went over the 1,000-point mark for her high school basketball career during tonight’s 72-42 win over Richard Hardy. (Photo courtesy of NJ coach Tony Brown).
2020 ASWA High School Girls Basketball All-State Teams:
Class 3A
First team
Molly Heard, Pisgah
Third team
Chloe Womack, Pisgah
Coach of the Year
Carey Ellison, Pisgah
Class 1A
First team
Bailee Usrey, Skyline