Sports

ARLEY - The Meek Tigers had been preparing all week to face the Berry Wildcats Friday, Sept. 20, for homecoming. Even though it was a close game, Berry handed Meek the defeat 36-30.
Homecoming was held before the game started. Madison Smith, Class of 2023 and daughter of Shawn Smith and Amy Perdock, was crowned junior princess and was escorted by her father. Her flower girl was Maddie Robison, daughter of Blake and Hollie Robison. Smith was crowned by last year’s recipient, Belle Cleghorn.

LYNN - The Brilliant Tigers came to Lynn Friday night and turned the Bears' homecoming into a nailbiter, keeping all the fans on the edge of their seats right up until the end of the game, when Lynn pulled it off 19-12.
Lynn opted to receive the opening kick-off, setting up shop on their own 40.  After a gain of 5 by J.T. Linley, Griffin Lynn converted on third down with a 13-yard run, moving the chains to the Brilliant 43-yard line.  Carson Legg kept the drive going, getting a first down at the 32-yard line three plays later.  

DOUBLE SPRINGS - The  Winston County Lady Yellow Jackets and Addison’s Lady Bulldogs went head-to-head in a hard played match Tuesday, Sept. 17.
The hosting Lady Jackets took an eight to nothing lead in the first set, but the AHS Lady Bulldogs clawed their way back and won the set 25-22. The Lady Bulldogs did not look back in the next two sets, winning 25-11 and 25-15.
Leading stats for the Lady Jackets include:
Mackenzie Blackwood, 12 kills, 8 digs;
Elle Donaldson, 12 digs;
Ella Moore, 4 kills, 4 blocks.
Stats for Addison include:

ADDISON - The Addison Bulldogs used a strong second half to capture their first region win of the season with a 26-6 victory over Sheffield High School on Friday night. The win for the hosting Bulldogs was crucial after dropping their first regional contest of the year 16-10 to Red Bay a week earlier.
The game opened with a scoreless first quarter, but a solo score from Addison half way through the second frame gave them a 6-0 lead they would carry into the half. The Dawgs' score came at the 6:13 mark of the quarter when Weston Smith crossed the line from four-yards out.

SULLIGENT  - Missed opportunities and turnovers told the big story Friday night, Sept. 20, as to why the Sulligent Blue Devils put the stinger to the Winston County Yellow Jackets 18-6.
The Jackets were entering the matchup 2-2 on the season, knowing they were going to face a good football team, on their opponent’s home turf.
Mistakes, including turnovers, however, spelled trouble for the Jackets, after the Blue Devils charged out of the gate and took the opening kickoff.

DOUBLE SPRINGS - The Winston County Lady Yellow Jackets got off to a slow start, losing their first set to Carbon Hill 25-16, Monday, Sept. 16.
WCHS fired up their engines in the next two sets to win the match 25-18 and 16-14.
The Lady Jackets hosted a tri-match with Carbon Hill and Curry, losing to the Curry Yellow Jackets.
In the Carbon Hill match, leading stats for the Lady Jackets were:
Mackenzie Blackwood, 10 kills and 6 digs;
Makayla Lindsey, 5 kills, 2 blocks;
Jassmine Ergle, 6 blocks, 2 kills;
Ella Moore, 5 blocks, 2 kills;

ADDISON - The Addison Lady Bulldogs put the hammer down, destroying Meek and Sulligent  in three straight sets for each match. Scores for the Meek match were: 25-6, 25-10 and 25-16.
The Lady Dawgs defeated Sulligent 25-9, 25-10 and 25-11 on Thursday, Sept. 19.
Bulldog stats for Meek and Sulligent combined were: Savannah Manley, 19 kills, 2 digs, 5 blocks, 4 aces;
Callie Crider, 12 kills, 11 digs, 2 blocks, 3 aces;
Addisyn Smothers, 15 kills, 5 digs, 2 blocks, 3 aces;
Sunny Snoddy, 9 kills, 3 digs, 1 block, 2 aces;

HALEYVILLE - The Haleyville High School fishing team placed well in the Wilson Lake tournament held Saturday, Sept. 7.
Matthew Baugus and Nash Collum finished seventh and the brother and sister team of Will and Maegan McCullar came in 16th out of 80 plus boats.
HHS finished as a whole fourth out of 21 schools. Team adviser John McCullar commented, “Our team performed pretty well for the tournament.”
The next tournament will be Nov. 16, at Wheeler Lake.

The Alabama Sports Writers Association high school football rankings with first-place votes, win-loss record and total poll points:

CLASS 7A

DOUBLE SPRINGS - It was an unlucky Friday the 13th for the Winston County Yellow Jackets, and homecoming also coincided with the full moon. Instead of the purring expected out of the Tarrant Wildcats, they let out a ferocious yowl and trampled the Jackets 26-6.
As the game began with Tarrant in possession, the Jackets nearly intercepted the ball, but the Wildcats held on. However, the Jackets’ defense forced the first punt on the night for Tarrant.

HALEYVILLE - The Haleyville High School Lions (2-2-0, 1-1) battled from a 21-10 deficit at halftime to 28-28 as the clock ended regulation play Friday night against the Northside Rams (3-1-0, 2-0) in region play.
Due to a penalty on the play that ran the clock out, Haleyville’s Jacob Lolley kicked a tremendous 49-yard field goal attempt that was on the mark, but  fell just a couple of yards short.
The game went into overtime with HHS putting points on the board first, on a Kane Gravitt-Tucker touchdown and Lolley adding the PAT.

RED BAY   - The score may have been low, but the emotions were high, what was predicted as a gritty hard fought game that ended in a nailbiter, as the Addison Bulldogs were defeated by the Red Bay Tigers 16-10.
The Bulldogs never gave up, having opportunities to outscore their opponent, but their drive pressing deep to the Tiger 10 late in the game was no match for swarming Red Bay defenders.
The clock was the Bulldogs’ final enemy, as the final seconds ticked away, ending the drive and the hope for victory.

By Allen Dunavant
Correspondent
HUBBERTVILLE -Hubbertville welcomed the Meek Tigers to Wiley Hollingsworth Stadium on Friday night, with hopes of bouncing back from last week’s loss.
The Lions wasted little time, being  first on the scoreboard with 8:29 remaining in the opening quarter.
The Lions were  successful with a touchdown and PAT in their next series and they were up 14-0.

LYNN - The Lynn Bears put up a tremendous defensive effort against one of their toughest regional opponents, Pickens County, Sept. 13, but the Tornadoes were too strong in the second half, blowing the home team away 42-6.

By Kathy Barber
DANVILLE - Week two of Haleyville High School cross country took the Lions to the Chickasaw Trails Invitational in Danville.
The boys finished 15th out of 37 teams and the girls finished 12th out of 25 teams.
Lewis Barber and Kaytee Beth Boyles were the top finishers for the Lions. The runners faced 92ºF temperature, with 90 percent  humidity. It was HOT!

BRILLIANT - The Lynn Lady Bears took a match in three straight sets over the Brilliant Lady Tigers on Tuesday, Sept. 10.  Scores were 25-22, 25-23 and 25-23. The match was held at BHS.
Submitted stats for the Lady Bears include: kills, Ella Brown, 8; Lexi Adamson, 10; service aces: Kendra Hannah 5. No stats were available for BHS.

HALEYVILLE - The 4A Haleyville Lady Lions defeated the 5A Russellville Lady Tigers in two straight sets Thursday, Sept. 13, while losing a close match to the 6A ranked Muscle Shoals Lady Trojans in the tri-match. HHS won 25-14 and 26-24 over Russellville and lost 25-17 and 25-16 to the Lady Trojans.
Stats for the Lady Lions in their match against Russellville include:
Kaylee Riddle: 4 kills, 3 digs;
Ashton McCullar, 2 aces, 3 kills, 8 digs;
Laura Lunsford: 2 aces, 3 kills, 8 assists, 2 digs;
Madison Caine: 7 kills, 4 digs;

ADDISON - The Bulldogs of Addison displayed their honed skills Friday night, Sept. 6, with a win over their arch rival-  Winston County High Yellow Jackets, 36 - 14. It was a gritty, field-stomping and romping game.
Addison received the ball at the start, while Winston held their ground, forcing Addison to punt on fourth down. As quick as a flash, the ball was recovered by Addison, though it was short- lived, with the Yellow Jackets recovering a fumble. However, the Jackets were penalty plagued, and even with two complete passes, they were forced to punt.

BESSEMER - The Haleyville High School Lions (2-1-0, 1-0-0) had two touchdowns called back due to penalties Friday night, but held on to a 7-0 lead for a region win against Oak Grove (0-3-0).
The Lions’ only counted touchdown came late in the first quarter. An Oak Grove punt rolled to the HHS 3-yard-line. Quarterback Eli Musso took the snap and laid the ball into the arms of a wide-open Christian Chambers in the flats. Chambers went 97 yards for the touchdown, with Jacob Lolley splitting the uprights for the extra point.

GUIN - Marion County forced a fumble that was recovered by the Red Raiders' Jameson Webb as time expired against Lynn at the 2-yard line to capture the 20-18 Red Raider victory.
The win propelled Marion County to 3-0 overall and 1-0 in Class 1A, Region 6 while Lynn dropped to 1-1 overall and 0-1 in Region 6.
"We've got to learn to finish," Marion County head coach Kyle Williams said following the contest. "We had a couple of opportunities to put the game away and came up short.

ARLEY  - The Meek Tigers were no match for the quickness of the South Lamar Stallions, which rode their way to a 62-0 shutout of the Tigers at beautiful Tiger stadium Friday night, Sept. 6.
Meek Head Coach David Norwood commended South Lamar on having a good football team. “They have a lot of speed,” Norwood said. “I’ll watch the film tomorrow, and we’ll make corrections.”
Turnovers were not in the Tigers’ favor.  “The turnover early certainly didn’t help any,” Norwood stated. “That was the first play of the ball game, the first play from scrimmage.”

ARLEY - The Meek Lady Tigers took the match  in five sets Thursday, Sept. 5, over the Winston County Lady Yellow Jackets.
Meek won the first set 25-15, with WCHS taking the second 29-27. Meek returned the victory in the third set 25-16 and Winston County won the fourth 25-22. It came down to the final fifth set, with Meek winning 15-7.
Stats for the Lady Tigers include: Abby Phillips, 14 kills, 13 digs, 5 aces, 3 blocks;
Madison Smith, 10 kills, 6 blocks;
Hannah Taylor, 9 kills, 8 digs, 3 aces, 1 block;
Sunnie Manning, 6 kills; 12 digs;

HALEYVILLE - The Haleyville Running Lions opened their season Saturday, Aug. 31, at McFarland Park in Florence at the Brooks Lions Cross Country Invitational.
This is a very young team with only two female seniors and no male seniors. What is considered a rebuilding year, did not stop the Lions from putting up some impressive numbers.
Haleyville’s Top 5 boys finished in 12th, 24th, 39th, 43rd and 79th place out of 187 runners for a fifth place team finish.

HALEYVILLE - It was a good night of volleyball for spectators as the 2A state runners-up Winston County Lady Yellow Jackets battled against the 4A Haleyville Lady Lions in volleyball Tuesday, Aug. 27, in the HHS gymnasium.
The Lady Lions took a commanding win in the first set 25-13, but the Lady Jackets took the next three in close action 25-21, 25-23 and 25-22.
Stats for Haleyville include: Kaitlyn Burleson, 2 kills and 9 digs;
Kaylee Riddle, 2 aces, 1 kill, 10 digs and 10 assists;
Ashton McCullar, 1 ace, 5 kills, 2 assists and 10 digs;

FLORENCE - The Haleyville Lions (1-1-0) traveled to the Central High School (0-2-0) in Florence Friday night, bringing home a 33-16 victory.
Haleyville scored on the opening possession of the game. Quarterback Eli Musso and the offense started with good field position at the HHS 49.   Christian Chambers took the first hand-off for a five yard gain, where Musso moved the chains on a keeper to the CHS 36.

DOUBLE SPRINGS - What a difference a year makes.
After losing in the last second to Meek last year, the Winston County Yellow Jackets took the victory over the Tigers Friday, Aug. 30, at Malcolm Blake Stadium in a hard-fought county battle.
Before the game started, the Jacket Club - a new program at Double Springs Elementary School - was introduced on the field. Members get to attend home games for free, attend pep rallies and will get a meal with the players at some future point.

LYNN - The Lynn Bears used a stout defensive effort to secure a season opening 26-14 win over Phillips High School.
Lynn put up the first score of the night and wouldn't trail for the remainder of the contest. Lynn found pay dirt on their second drive of the night, after fielding a punt on their own 25, the Bears went to work on a 12-play drive that was capped by an 8-yard scamper from Brandon Hill run around the right side. The two-point try was no good, leaving the score at 6-0 with just over four minutes left in the opening quarter.

ADDISON - The 2A reigning volleyball champions, the Addison Lady Bulldogs, took down 4A Danville,  in action Thursday, Aug. 29, at AHS. Danville is currently ranked #6.
The match went 3 to 1 sets, with AHS winning the first set 25-22. Danville took the second one 25-18, and the Lady Bulldogs taking the final two 25-23 and 26-24. The Lady Bulldogs have been without Savannah Manley in the middle due to a knee injury. She returned to play Thursday night, contributing to Addison’s win.
Stats for the Addison Lady Bulldogs include: Addisyn Smothers, 7 digs, 1 ace, 4 kills;

ADDISON - No stingers were seen from the Curry Yellow Jackets as the Addison Bulldogs stomped their way to victory in a 37-0 shutout Friday, Aug. 23, at A.G. Hicks Stadium.
At the end of the first quarter, the score was still zero for both teams, but everything clicked for Addison during the second quarter where they blazed a scorching hot trail to the end zone for 27 points. The first touchdown came with 11:04 remaining in the first half with a drive up to the one-yard line taken over by Grant Rice for the touchdown.  Eli Howse added the point after,making the score 7-0.

HALEYVILLE - The Winfield Pirates took the opening season win against Haleyville Friday night, 19-13.
The score was tied 13-13, when the Pirates scored with 3:36 left in the game on a completion from quarterback Joseph Estes to Joseph Cox. The PAT was blocked, one of two on the night for the Lions.

HACKLEBURG - Hackleburg suffered a 44-16 loss to Class 2A Winston County on Friday, Aug. 23, at Ray Stadium in Hackleburg.
The Panthers trailed 14-8 at halftime before the Yellow Jackets outscored Hackleburg 30-8 in the second half.
The Yellow Jackets struck first with William Owens scoring from four yards out. A failed 2-point try gave Winston County a 6-0 advantage with 4:57 left in the first quarter.

ARLEY   - The Eagles had Tigers for prey in the season opener of the Meek Tigers and Cold Springs Eagles which shut out the home team 25-0 in their season opener on Thursday, Aug. 22, at beautiful Tiger Stadium.
The home team had a strong first quarter, dominating control of the ball and making bigger plays, but penalties and other mistakes kept them in negative yardage, as the Eagles took opportunity.
“Just drive killers,” Tiger Head Coach David Norwood stated after the game. “Penalty here, bad snap there, throwing an interception, drive killers.”

CARBON HILL - The Haleyville Lady Lions began their 2019 volleyball season, traveling to Carbon Hill High School.
The Lady Lions played tough against the Lady Bulldogs, but fell three straight in action.
Stats for the Haleyville Lions include:
Ashton McCullar, 9 kills, 1 block assist, 3 digs;
Madison Caine, 3 kills, 3 blocks, 1 block assist, 9 digs;
Kaitlyn Burleson, 1 ace, 4 kills, 5 digs;
Adyson Robertson, 1 ace, 3 kills, 1 block, 6 digs;
Audrey Sibley, 4 kills, 1 block assist, 1 assist;
Samara Pratt, 1 block, 1 block assist;

Mackenzie Blackwood and Elle Donaldson from Winston County High School and Savannah Manley from Addison High School have been named to Al.com's seniors watch list this season in volleyball. The AHS Lady Bulldogs will be vying for yet another state championship, while Winston County will be looking to take the top spot after ending the season as runners-up in the state title game last year.

Haleyville head baseball coach Todd McNutt was named Coach of the Year, with the following athletes were named to the Alabamian's 2019 All-Star baseball team:

Addison - Jesse Brock, sophomore, 2B/P; Gage Gilliland, senior, SS; Hayden Lee, senior, P/1st; Brett Smith, junior, 3B/P; Luke Waldrep, junior, P;

Haleyville - Blake Bennett, senior, P/OF; Brantson Lambert, junior, P; John Miller Lawson, sophomore, DH/UT; Ben Lowman, senior, P/3B; Scott McAlpine, senior, SS/P; John Whiteside, junior, P;

HALEYVILLE  - The Mark Forester Foundation presented $1,000 to Haleyville Elementary School, for having the most participants in  9th annual  Mark Forester Race, which was held in May on the campus of Haleyville City Schools.

Not only did staff from the elementary school participate in the race but they also manned a cooling station across from Barry’s Carpet, where they gave out water, Gatorade and snacks to race participants.

MONTGOMERY – Seven individuals were recognized at the AHSAA’s 23rd  annual AHSAA Championship Coaches’ Awards Banquet as recipients of the prestigious “Making A Difference” Award as the 2019 AHSAA Summer Conference concluded at the Montgomery Renaissance Hotel and Convention Center.

MONTGOMERY – The Alabama High School Athletic Association Central Board of Control approved returning a record $2 million to its member schools under its Revenue Sharing Plan and also voted to waive school membership dues once again – an immediate savings of approximately $84,000 for member schools.

Lynn High School softball head coach Jessy Woods has been named the Alabamian's Coach of the Year. All-Star members include:

Addison - Macey Butler, Anna Grace Luker and Destiny Walker

Haleyville - Ana Aaron, Hailie Moody and Lauran Wilcoxson

Lynn - Ashley Aldridge, Hannah Alsup, Breanna Barton and Sadie Tittle

Meek - Bailee Fincher, Emma Fincher and Autumn Peek

Phillips - Lexie Dishner and Amber Markham

Winston County - Katelyn Bullock, Elle Donaldson, Jassmine Ergle and Makayla Lindsey.