By Staff
Fans, athletes and parents assembled last week to honor the athletes of Hartselle High School's spring sports teams.
Approximately 200 attended the Hartselle High Spring Sports Banquet to honor the athletes of baseball, softball, golf, track, soccer and tennis.
Coach Jack Napier handed out the golf awards, naming Megan Wimberley as Most Improved, Megan Boudreaux as the academic award winner with a grade average of 4.0 and Stacy Wallace as the girls' team Most Valuable Player. Wallace also was named to the All-Area Honorable Mention team.
On the boys's squad Martin Agnew shot the team's low round of the year with a 75. Agnew also claimed the team academic award and MVP honors. Dustin Birch and Simon Ellis shared Most Improved Golfer honors for the boys' squad.
Robert Turney and Hunter Roberts followed Agnew with low rounds of 76.
Moving on to soccer, coach Kristi Liverett and volunteer assistant Darrell Harris handed out the boys' awards.
The team highest grade point average award went to Nimesh Patel, who also was named one of the team's Most Improved. Sharing the Most Improved award with Patel was Damon McClellan.
McClellan also shared Best Midfield Player and Permanent Team Captain honors along with teammate Rand Harris.
Sharing Most Improved Player honors with Patel was David Hostios.
On defense, Stephen Powell and Jonathan "Mo" Mosteller shared the Super Stopper Award for their play in goal, while Drew Colee and Joseph Ashley were named the team' Best Defensive Players.
On offense David Drane earned the Most Goals Scored honor.
On a lighter note, Harris handed the award for "Best Do" out to Richie Nagel and honored Mary Kennedy as the "Voice of Hartselle Tigers Soccer."
For the soccer girls, coaches Jenny McFee and Belinda McCravy distributed the awards.
Cari Beth Penn was the most decorated team member claiming the Academic Award, the Most Dependable Award and was named one of four permanent team captains.
Joining Penn as team captains were Shelly Fisher, Christina Kilborn and Michaelle Ledlow.
Kilborn captured the Offensive MVP award and Ledlow was the Defensive MVP.
The Team Spirit Award went to Jamie Blackman.
Margaret Ann Prator distributed the awards for the boys and girls tennis squads.
Senior Ashley Perry won the top three girls' award as team captain, MVP and Academic Award winner. Ashley Orr won the team leadership award.
The boys' squad won the sectional tournament and advanced to the state competition before finishing their season.
Senior Derek Calvert was a double-award winner, named permanent Team Captain and earning the squad academic award.
Senior Britt White also doubled up as the team's Most Valuable Player and the second permanent Team Captain.
For the Hartselle track team, Coach Tim Miller honored Nikita Stover, Chris Holcomb and Katie Wiley for their state qualifying performances. Stover won the 5A state championship in the high jump with a leap of 6 feet, 6 inches.
Wiley won the team academic award.
Coaches William Booth, Chris Heaps, Jerry Childers and Shane Alexander presented the honors for the baseball team.
Despite a 39-8 season record, Coach Booth admitted to being disappointed his team did not get to compete in the state tournament, but he took solace by pointing out that the Tigers defeated the eventual state champions in four of five meetings during the year.
Andrew Bush, Hamp Tanksley and Whit Cooper were named permanent team captains.
The team pitching awards were shared by Josh Markham, Joey Watson and Tyler Eddy.
Drew Yates earned the team Golden Glove award for his consistency in making the play when needed.
Tanksley added the team Hustle Award to his cache, while senior Nic Tankersley was named the team's Most Improved player.
Chris Walters took home the team Academic Award, named by Coach Booth as the most important honor handed out.
Blake Heym was named as the team's Most Valuable Offensive Player.
Highlighting the baseball portion of the ceremonies was the presentation of a resolution from both houses of the Alabama state legislature honoring Coach Booth for his milestone 500th win.
Departing softball Coach Garry Pressley finished off the team portion of the evening along with assistant coaches Robin Hodges and Kathy Cheatham.
Pressley described his 5A state champion squad as "a true team. These girls pull for each other.
"They were fun to coach." The Lady Tigers finished with a school record 50-7 season mark, of which 27 were shutouts.
Hodges, who coached the Lady Tiger pitchers, presented the top pitching award to two players. Sophomore Sabrina Roberts set a new school record for wins by a pitcher with a 21-1 mark this season.
Making up the other half of the pair was senior Lindsay McClanahan, the 2002 5A State Tournament MVP. McClanahan was the winning pitcher in both 2000 and 2002 and finished her career as Hartselle's all-time winningest pitcher with a career mark of 57 wins.
Regan Sandlin won the team Defensive Award for her play at short stop.
On offense senior Anna Corum shared the team Hitting Award with Jessica Lyle. Corum had a .395 batting average and tied the team record for most homeruns in a season with 10. Lyle batted .376.
Senior Ashley Jackson was named the team's Most Improved Player, while fellow senior Rachel McAbee won the team Hustle Award and was named the team's academic leader with a 3.995 grade point average.
The senior trio of McClanahan, Corum and McAbee were named permanent team captains and Corum took home the honor of team MVP.
The presentation of several Hartselle Athletic Booster Club scholarships completed the evening.
Cari Beth Penn was named the HHS Student Athlete of the Year by Community Bank President Dwight Griffin.
Rachel McAbee won the Booster Club scholarship. Will Summerford was the recipient of the J.P. Cain Scholarship.
Anna Corum won the Bob Gilchrist Scholarship, while Katie Wiley received the Keith Wiggins Scholarship.
Nic Watkins was named the Kelly Littrell Scholarship winner, while cheerleader Maggie Hendrix received the Kay Puckett Scholarship.
The Lizzie Reed Penn Scholarship went to Cari Beth Penn and the Doug Sherrod Highest Grade Point Average Award and the Anthony Ward Scholarship went to senior baseball player Chris Walters.