By Staff
As 2006 fades into the history books, here are some of my end-of-the-year awards.
Best moment: The Class 3A state championship won by the T.R. Miller Tigers track team. They were the only local team that reached the pinnacle of success.
Best superman impersonation: While on the topic of track, keep it within the family. Tigers senior Antonio Gomez won four events at the state track meet with victories in the long jump, triple jump, 110 meter high hurdles and 300 meter intermediate hurdles. Gomez set a state record in the 300 hurdles race. All this came from an athlete who came back from anterior cruciate ligament surgery just over a year earlier.
Best coaching job: W.S. Neal volleyball coach Britney Shelly. Shelly was hired to coach a sport she had never played just days before practice was set to begin. The Lady Blue Eagles responded to their rookie skipper with a 9-9 record. The nine wins set a school record and the record was the first non-losing season in school history.
Best comeback (tie): It's hard to separate W.S. Neal's 42-35 win over T.R. Miller and T.R. Miller's 28-23 win over Thomasville during the past football season. W.S. Neal fought back from a 21-0 halftime deficit and T.R. Miller overcame a 23-14 deficit in the last three minutes. I'm also including the 16-15 win by the W.S. Neal baseball team over Flomaton where the Blue Eagles overcame a 15-8 deficit with eight runs in their final at-bat and a 20-19 win by the W.S. Neal softball team over McKenzie. The Lady Blue Eagles trailed 15-0 in that game and were one out away from a three-inning mercy rule loss.
Best individual milestone: T.R. Miller Lady Tigers basketball player Joy McCorvey ventured into territory where only two previous Lady Tigers had entered as well as few players in state history when she scored her 2,000th career point.
Best coaching milestone: T.R. Miller Tigers football coach Jamie Riggs and baseball coach Jim Hart both won their 200th games in their respective sport at the school. Riggs won his 200th game at the school when the Tigers downed Monroe County, while Hart got his 200th T.R. Miller win against Jay, Fla.
Best three for the price of one: The Jefferson Davis Community College Warhawks baseball team pulled off a rare tripleheader sweep at Central Alabama. The Warhawks got their first win when they captured the completion of a suspended game and then swept both ends of the regularly scheduled doubleheader.
Best hitting streak: JDCC softball infielder Lakyn Newton's nine straight hits. The streak is believed to be a school record.
Most unlikely winning streak: The T.R. Miller volleyball team slid through the first half of its season with a 5-9 record when it suddenly caught fire and set a school record 11-game winning streak.
Best clutch play: W.S. Neal's Justin Smith dragged the T.R. Miller defense nearly 10 yards into the end zone when he hauled in a 30-yard touchdown pass on fourth down with eight seconds left to lift the Blue Eagles to their first win over T.R. Miller in 10 years.
Best accomplishment with no reward: T.R. Miller tennis player Karl Kast won the sectional tournament number six singles championship. The Spanish Fort player that Kast beat for that championship &#8220advanced to the state tournament,” while Kast had to stay home. The Alabama High School Association takes the top two teams from each sectional to state. Spanish Fort finished in the top two, while T.R. Miller did not.
Best win to end losing streak: The JDCC volleyball team snapped a 26-game losing streak when they defeated North Lake, Tx. Unfortunately it was the only win JDCC got all season. Perhaps even more unfortunate was that win was followed up by another 26-game losing streak.