South Alabama Sports

    By EDUARDO MAGAÑA Clarke County High School football coach Rob Carter was arrested Friday afternoon in Niceville, Fla., after being placed on administrative leave earlier this week, according to the Clarke County Sheriff’s Department. Carter is being investigated for having an improper relationship with a student, according to two sources with knowledge of the situation. Carter was taken into custody by the Niceville Police Department on warrants issued by the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency. He is currently being…

By ARTHUR L. MACK Baker defensive coordinator Eric Scott, who directed one of Class 7A’s best defenses in 2024, was promoted to head coach Friday, the school announced. Baker athletic director Daniel Kertis said Scott, who has served as an assistant coach for the last four years, was named as head coach, succeeding Juan Johnson, who left after one season to take the James Clemens job. “I’m deeply honored for this opportunity,” said Scott, who as the Hornets’ defensive coordinator…

    By JIMMY WIGFIELD MONTGOMERY — When Fairhope’s Jackson Gulley wasn’t bending the rim with one of his six dunks, Jackson Robertson was tickling it with three-pointers Wednesday to put Daphne in a predicament it couldn’t overcome. Gulley scored 23 points, including 10 in the fourth period, and Robertson added 15, including a pair in the second period to wedge open a close game, and the No. 5-ranked Pirates went on to beat the Trojans 71-57 and win the…

    By JIMMY WIGFIELD MONTGOMERY — Top-ranked Park Crossing went on an 18-6 run in the third period to take control of the game and went on to defeat McGill-Toolen 61-38 Wednesday in the Class 6A South Regional girls final at Garrett Coliseum. The Yellow Jackets (23-6) — who came into the game with a 14-game winning streak — stayed close for a half, trailing just 19-18 at intermission, but couldn’t overcome the Thunderbirds’ advantages in points off turnovers…

  By JIMMY WIGFIELD MONTGOMERY — McGill-Toolen’s Ethan Stokes remembered his first basket of Wednesday’s regional final against Park Crossing with astonishment. “I went up and I got hit,” he said, “and I was like shocked. They knocked me to the ground and I was like, ‘Wow, this is going to really be more physical than I expected it to be.’” Stokes and the Yellow Jackets gave as good as they got — and a little more — to return…

        By JIMMY WIGFIELD MONTGOMERY — Just when it seemed Jackson was being dragged into a minefield and a slow tempo it doesn’t like, Roderick Hamilton airlifted the Aggies out of early trouble Tuesday night and sent them back to Birmingham to pursue a second straight state championship. Hamilton made four 3-pointers from the corner pocket in the second period after Jackson had fallen behind by eight points and went on to score 18 points to lead…

      By JIMMY WIGFIELD MONTGOMERY — When Lee Riley first met with his players after he took the job as Vigor’s coach last summer, his players belabored last year’s loss in the state championship game. “When I first got the job, that was the first thing they were talking about,” he said. “How they felt last year, how they don’t want to feel that feeling again. And it showed tonight on the court they don’t want to feel…

    By JIMMY WIGFIELD MONTGOMERY — When Vigor’s Sealediah Brown stroked a perfect three-pointer from the right wing on the first shot of the game, she and 6-foot-4 center Jamonica Chambers felt that it was going to be a prosperous day for the Wolves. With Brown airing up five 3-pointers and drawing defenders away from Chambers, both finished with 17 points and Vigor contorted UMS-Wright’s defense outside-in for a 56-46 victory Tuesday in the Class 5A South Regional girls…

      By JIMMY WIGFIELD MONTGOMERY — T.R. Miller made sure that Mobile Christian found no refuge on the court from its tenacious defense, long a hallmark of a girls program with four state championships. That collection of Blue Maps could grow to five next week. The No. 4-ranked Tigers held the Leopards to only five made field goals in a 41-26 win Tuesday in the Class 3A South Regional finals at Garrett Coliseum. Miller (22-1) will take a…

        By JIMMY WIGFIELD MONTGOMERY — McIntosh girls coach Shaynae Barnes-Dixon turned out to be an accurate soothsayer and if she keeps it up, the Demons might win their first state championship since 2012. Barnes-Dixon was Leroy’s coach last year when her daughter, Chauncey Dixon, was injured in the Class 1A South Regional final at Garrett Coliseum. When the 6-foot-2 center crumpled to the court with a torn ACL — her cries of anguish echoing hauntingly through…