Signing Day. State Champs. Senior Recitals. Awards Day.

Hey sportsfans! 

Last Wednesday was signing day at Altamont. What a cool day for these accomplished athletes. I remember that day well in February 1986. (Gosh, I am old.) Being a 2A school, it's not every year the school gets to celebrate its senior athletes for their sports achievements. This year, Shadi Awad and Tommy Thetford both signed with their respective new schools. Shadi will be playing soccer at Washington University in St. Louis. Tommy will be swimming at Washington & Lee University. Congrats to both guys! Well earned and deserved.   

Last weekend Mack's Springs soccer squad made it to the 1-4A State Finals against The Randolph School in Huntsville. Having lost in two recent years in the Final Four, Springs was looking to finally bring home a title. The ISS boys' last State Title was in 2008. This past Friday Springs knocked off Montgomery Academy, 4-0, which set up a final against Randolph at Randolph's home field. Springs had beaten Randolph 5-2 earlier in the season. Springs was ranked #28 in the maxprep national polls heading into the title game.

Fighting heavy winds in the first half, Reeves Duggan got ISS on the scoreboard when he knocked home a goal with a beautiful left footer. The Randolph goalie had no chance. This set the tone for the rest of the game. Springs kept peppering the goal with several more attempts throughout the game. In the second half, Reeves found the back of the net one more time as Springs held off Randolph, 2-1 to win the title. Congrats to Springs (24-2) and Mack for the winning the state title (and for his first yellow card of the year).  What an awesome way to conclude a high school sports career.

This past Sunday evening Sid danced in "Come Meet This Dancing Feet ... on Broadway," her last dance recital with Backstage Dance Centre recital at the BJCC Theater. A bittersweet day. Sid danced beautifully in several numbers. Thanks to all the family and friends who came to this show (and the many, many shows in the past thirteen years), and to MBW for the great photos. Below are the links to some of Sid's dance numbers. 

 "Overture / 42nd Street Medley" from Broadway show 42nd Street.

Get Ready / Dancing In The Streets from Motown The Musical.

"Do Your Own Thing" from Bring It On The Musical.

The Class of 2014 in their finest at Senior Skip Day.

(photo unknown)

Monday night was Sid's Senior Voice Recital. What a fun concert. Here is a link to one of her songs:

"Many The Miles" by Sara Bareilles.

Tuesday was Awards Day at Altamont. Sid was recognized with two fine arts awards. The first was the 2014 Speech Arts Book Award from the Speech Arts Club of Birmingham. The other was the highest honor a student may receive from Altamont's Fine Arts Department, The Gainey Arts and Humanities Award. This award is given to that student who has distinguished themselves in music, art, photography, writing and theatre. Way to go, Siddy G!

Em's summer travel lax team is getting going now. This team will be comprised of girls very serious about their craft, many of whom desire to play in college. The girls on the squad are from several teams across the metro area. Will be a fun team to watch this summer. The team is called Birmingham Lacrosse United ("BLU"). Coach Dave Klemetz is the team's coach. He is Oak Mountain Blue's HC who recently had some very nice compliments for Em about her play against his team (6 goals) this past season. She will learn tons from Dave.

Graduation and lots of parties next week! Summer lacrosse begins this week. First tourney is at the end of the month. Anyone hiring? STK needs and J-O-B!  Barons are finally winning again. One more formal for Sid. With Mack at ISS. I am better at yoga than UD. Just ask the yogerts. 

Have a great week, everyone!
The Sports Guy

Mother Nature calls a T.O. Epic soccer. Lax Championship. Family wedding.

Hey sportsfans!

This past week Mother Nature decided it was her turn to play ball. She put the soccer and lacrosse playoffs on hold for a few days while she wreaked havoc across the southeast. This kept James Spann and Co. very busy. Unfortunately, this time of year we see way too many tornadoes and bad storms that destroy communities and take lives. Our thoughts and prayers to those families hit hardest.

Finally during Wednesday night She let up enough for the Lady Spartans to take on Vestavia in the first round of the lax playoffs. Two weeks prior, MB defeated Vestavia pretty easily, 14-5. This game was not much different. Eight different Lady Spartans scored in the 17-7 win. Em contributed two scores and two assists. Olivia scored five goals. With a stellar record of  12-1, MB moved on to round two Friday night against Huntsville.

Thursday found us at Comer Field for Round 3 of the year against Springs in soccer. This time is was in the second round of the 1-4A playoffs.  In the earlier games this year, Altamont took care of business both times, 2-0 and 3-1. This game proved to be no different. The Lady Knights pulled off a rare feat of beating the same team three times in one season. Aarthi and Meredith provided the scoring in the 2-0 victory.  The win put the Lady Knights (11-7-1) in the semi-finals of the 1-4A playoffs in Tuscaloosa against Holy Spirit Catholic.

Friday's semi-final lax game looked to be a thriller. Huntsville in 3rd place, having lost only to OMB and MB this season, were looking for an upset to get to the Finals. For the opening minutes it looked like their game plan of tough defense was working. While the Lady Spartans kept peppering the goal, the visitor's hot goalie was a brick wall. She stopped 6-8 shots cold. Not be to deterred, the Green and Gold kept pressing and eventually controlled the ball during the first half for a 2-1 score at the break.

As they have in the past several games, early in the second half the Lady Spartans took control of the game. They blitzed Huntsville for five straight goals in less than ten minutes to open the second half. Leading 12-4 with eight minutes remaining Coach Hunter pulled the starters to give everyone some playing time. The 13-9 win put the Lady Spartans at 13-1 on the season and headed to the State Finals against OM Blue. Emily scored twice and assisted on three goals.

The Knights versus the Titans. For the Saturday semi-finals soccer playoff game in Tuscaloosa, the Lady Knights were looking forward to playing Holy Spirit. A month ago these teams played with Holy Spirit (14-2-2) coming out the winner 2-0. That game was played without three of the Lady Knights starters. The winner Saturday got to move on to the Final Four in Huntsville next weekend.

Altamont got on the board first with a beautiful pass from Aarthi to Meredith for the first score. Six minutes later the Titans got on the board to tie the score at 1. For the next 55 minutes the two teams battled it out to the end of regulation. Farley, Emily Taylor, Abby, Caroline, and the rest of the starters played their hearts out. Goalie, Katie, played her very best game. She had numerous exceptional stops and deflections. Our Emily played in both halves for total of about 30 minutes. She had several nice touches during the game.

Tied 1-1 at the end of regulation, the teams played two 5 minute overtime periods with no scores. After 100 minutes of regulation and overtime play, the teams then moved onto a shootout. Unfortunately the Titans had a little more firepower in their kicks and outscored the Lady Knights to take a 5-4 victory. The loss concluded a very nice season for the Lady Knights at 11–8-1. This current team had no seniors so next year they should be a top four contending team for the 1-4A crown. Looks to be a fun season.

No rest for the weary! Sunday afternoon at Spain Park High School was the girls state lacrosse championship game. The top two teams, Mountain Brook and Oak Mountain Blue, squared off  in a highly anticipated game. These two teams have battled it out all year from the top spot. OMB has held the #1 seed for the past several weeks by tiny percentage points. They split the regular season games and both finished the season at 13-1. What a great crowd! Hundreds of fans for both teams battling the heat and direct sun.

This was to be OMB's day. Although Lucy put MB on the scoreboard first, OMB roared back with a very strong first half. Playing a with a very hot goalie and efficient passing to get sores, OMB built a 9-2 lead at the half. MB could not get on track due to many dropped passes and some porous defense that lead to scores for OMB. Olivia was face guarded and double-teamed most of the game to limit her scoring, but none of our others scorers could fill the void.  MB made it interesting in the second half, but this game was never really in doubt. OMB took the game and the State title in a 12-6 victory. MB ends their season in second place with a stellar 13-2 record. Thank you to all our friends and family who came out to cheer on Emily and the Lady Spartans during this very fun season.

Em concludes an outstanding varsity season with 30 goals and 36 assists in 15 games. She started at attack and played some minutes as a middie. With several starters graduating this year, #3 might be moving positions next year. She looks to improve her game at camps and summer travel ball. 

Did you receive the invitation? If not, the family is pleased to report of a wedding! The letters Q and U were married this past week. Ellis was the beautiful U bride. She wore her grandmother Marlene's wedding gown. Eli aka Q was the groom. Not sure where they are registered though. Please hold all gifts. Given their arguments concerning snacks and differences in playground friends, I am not sure this union will last beyond show and tell this Thursday. For now though we wish them well! 

Believe it or not, Altamont varsity basketball tryouts are this week. A few new faces look to add be added to the team for next season. Em's summer lacrosse team gets cranked up later this week. This travel team will be comprised of select players from across the metro area. Sid's dance and voice recitals are the weekend. She has six days of class remaining before finals and graduation. Wow!

Have a great week, everyone!
The Sports Guy