South Alabama Sports

    By JIMMY WIGFIELD Leroy principal Gerald Pace didn’t have to talk to anyone about being the school’s new head football coach after Jason Massey left for the Clarke County job, not even Chan Lowe, whose job interview came in 2023, when he led the Bears to a second straight Class 1A state championship as an interim coach. Lowe was officially approved as Leroy’s permanent coach and athletic director Thursday evening by the Washington County Board of Education. It…

      LEROY — Three days after Tabitha Baggett’s death, the scoreboard at Baggett Field was dark and mute but there was no need to wish it could speak of all the things that happened underneath it through the years. No, the only score that mattered that Sunday was kept by the 32 former and current players who had spontaneously gathered there to rejoice and grieve the woman they called Coach B. One player in particular felt Baggett’s pull…

    A column by Jimmy Wigfield God filled out his starting lineup for Thursday and in one of the boxes He wrote, “No. 5, T. Baggett. Position: Heaven.” By the time Chan Lowe learned of Tabitha Baggett’s departure while sitting in an airplane on a tarmac in Atlanta, Baggett had already triumphantly circled the bases and had flown home ahead of him. When Baggett reluctantly retired a year before her death from cancer complications, Lowe took over as Leroy’s…

      By JIMMY WIGFIELD Tabitha Baggett taught her Leroy softball players more than how to successfully handle the nuances of the sport. Even as her life ebbed away on Thursday, it was obvious she had long ago lit an eternal flame that will be carried for generations by the thousands of people who love and admire her. “She has always been the strongest person I know and has taught me to be the woman I am today,” former…

    By JIMMY WIGFIELD SARALAND — Such is life in Saraland that the Spartans can lose one of the state’s all-time greatest quarterbacks and not be concerned that they are about to fall into a ditch full of cottonmouths. K.J. Lacey has gone to Texas’ Forty Acres after three years. Jamison Roberts is now master of The Land with just two starts. Won’t the ground shift? “We’re doing the same things,” Saraland coach Jeff Kelly declared. “The way we…

    By JIMMY WIGFIELD Jackson’s E.J. Crowell, who is considered the nation’s top running back in the class of 2026, will reveal his college choice on June 26 at a commitment party, he announced on social media. The five-star prospect dramatically moved up the timing of his commitment, which was originally planned for Dec. 31. Crowell said his final six schools are Alabama, Florida State, Texas, Georgia, Auburn and Florida. Crowell will reveal his choice on June 26 at…

      By JIMMY WIGFIELD OXFORD — Saraland softball coach Donna Sunnycalb felt her team had been dismissed as a state championship contender from the beginning of the season, so clutching the Red Map after losing to Helena 5-3 in Friday’s Class 6A finals shouldn’t have been a massive disappointment. Yet, the tearful, No. 4-ranked Spartans lingered in left field — as if they couldn’t believe the game and their season was over — long after the last flyout…

            By JIMMY WIGFIELD SEMMES — The meaning of Mary G. Montgomery’s 34-21 win over defending Class 4A state champion Jackson Thursday night to conclude spring practice is open to interpretation. The Vikings obviously have better depth, so was the final score misleading? The starters vs. starters first half was basically a draw as MGM narrowly won 21-14 on a 14-yard touchdown pass from Shondell Harris to D.J. Broughton with 29 seconds left in the…

    ____________________ If the bill is pushed again in 2026, the Legislature should snuff it out faster than a marijuana blunt at a police roadblock. ____________________       It is a damning indictment of the Alabama Legislature that it refuses to let us vote on a state lottery, which will help public schools, yet wastes time pushing through a bill that would do little to ensure fairness in athletic competition, which it should not be involved in anyway.…

  By JIMMY WIGFIELD Coal Battle won’t race in the Preakness on May 17, partly to protect the horse and partly to make some money in races he has a better chance of winning, owner Robbie Norman said Wednesday. “We’re not going to the Preakness,” said Norman, who also owns a chain of grocery stores, including Super Foods in Thomasville. After Coal Battle finished 11th in last week’s Kentucky Derby, Norman said he would consider the Preakness — the second…