Baldwin County student-athletes had an impact all over the Alabama High School Athletic Association’s North-South All-Star competitions last week in Montgomery.

Two representatives took home South MVP honors including Daphne’s Vic Moten on the softball diamond and Spanish Fort’s Ethan Spuler on the soccer pitch.

A pair of Bayside Academy Admirals double dipped and competed in two sports where Misty Kate Smith was a soccer and volleyball All-Star and Luke Ferguson played both golf and soccer. Another Bayside Academy representative, Annie Midyett, as well as Bayshore Christian’s Caden Phillippi recorded second-place finishes on their All-Star cross country teams.

To close action on Thursday, Spanish Fort’s Taylor Ishmael was one of three South All-Stars with double-digit kills through an intense five-set volleyball match. 

Spuler scores equalizer, MVP honors

Nearing halftime and needing an opportunity, the South All-Stars benefitted from Spanish Fort’s Spuler who found the back of the net to make the score 1-1 at intermission. The North opened the scoring in the fourth minute but the rising senior Toro registered an unassisted goal to even the score at 35:34.

Although the South All-Stars led in the shot category 19-14, the North squad added three goals in the second half to move their all-time lead in the series to 16-4-1. The North girls’ team also won earlier that day by an identical 4-1 score and improved to 19-3-1 in the series that started in 1998.

Ishmael one of three in double digits

More explosive action was saved for the final day of competition where Thursday’s volleyball match needed all five sets before the North All-Stars prevailed by a 23-25, 26-24, 25-23, 23-25, 15-9 margin.

Spanish Fort’s Ishmael helped the South squad take the opening set with half of her 10 kills on the day. She teamed up with McGill-Toolen’s Paris McQuirter and Montgomery Academy’s Elle McBride to lead the charge and all finished with five kills in the set. McBride totaled 12 for the match to earn MVP honors and Ishmael tied with Saraland’s Hannah Pearce for a team second-best.

Lina Ramos from St. Michael Catholic supplied 3 kills to the offensive effort and Smith from Bayside Academy finished with 2 kills and 1 dig.

Midyett, Phillippi help lead South runners

A trio of local runners kicked off competition on Tuesday at the cross country course but it was not quite enough to prevent a North All-Star sweep.

Midyett from Bayside Academy hit the finish line at 20:05.31 for seventh overall and second on the South squad with Libby Tierce from Orange Beach not far behind in 16th overall at 25:07.45.

Phillippi, the defending Class 3A state champion, registered a time of 16:16.27 to finish fifth overall and second on his squad.

The North squad prevailed with team scores of 17-35 in the girls’ competition and 20-41 in the boys’ race to improve the overall lead in the series to 5-2.

Royal pulls down 4 rebounds

Gulf Shores’ first girls’ basketball All-Star since 2021, Keyona Royal represented the Dolphins with 3 points, 4 rebounds between 2 offensive and 2 defensive, 2 steals, 1 assist and 1 block.

The North All-Stars recorded an 87-46 victory to improve to a 24-3 lead in the all-time series.

Ferguson battles on the links

The North All-Stars secured a narrow victory in the boys’ golf competition with a 39-33 final score from Monday’s match play.

Ferguson from Bayside Academy was paired with Walter Hensley from St. Paul’s Episcopal to battle the North All-Star pair of AJ Bradford from Athens Bible and Cove McHugh from Westbrook Christian. Bradford and McHugh earned MVP honors for the 11-7 win they notched.

Beall, singles tennis matches rained out

Singles matches were washed out but before the rain dampened the parade, Bayside Academy’s Montgomery Beall and John Alford from Montgomery Academy teamed up to defeat Kyle McEwen from Oxford and James Giles from Ramsay by a 6-0, 6-1 margin.

However, weather washed away the remaining six singles matches and no winner was declared in either tennis division to leave the North’s lead in the all-time series at 4-0 in the girls’ competition and 3-1 on the boys’ side.