BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The classification changed. The result did not. McGill-Toolen volleyball won its fifth consecutive state championship Wednesday, sweeping Briarwood Christian 3-0 at Bill Harris Arena to claim the first Alabama High School Athletic Association (AHSAA) Private Class AA title ever awarded.
The Mobile school’s team, known as the Dirty Dozen, did not drop a set in any of its three matches at the state tournament. It beat Briarwood 25-17, 25-21 and 25-18 in the final to close a 44-2 season in which it never lost to an Alabama opponent.
The Yellow Jackets had won the previous four Class 7A championships. When the AHSAA separated public and private schools for championship play this year, McGill-Toolen moved into the new Private Class AA bracket. Head coach Kate Wood said the program decided early that the change would not alter how it worked.
“We said it would not change our standard,” Wood said after the match. “Not change the way we train, the way we show up.”
McGill-Toolen volleyball makes history in new private classification
The win carried significance beyond the program’s own streak. Wednesday’s championship was the first state title decided in a private school classification in any sport in AHSAA history. The association announced in February that it would split public and private schools in championship competition, and volleyball, as a fall sport, was among the first to crown champions under the new format.
Wood made clear she believed her team had proven it was the best in the state regardless of the bracket it played in.
“You watched it throughout the entire state tournament, right? It wasn’t just enough to win. It was emphatic,” Wood said. “We are the best, and we are going to win, and we are not going to apologize for being great. I am really proud of what this team accomplished.”
McGill-Toolen’s only two losses this season came out of state, one against a Florida state champion and one against a Tennessee state champion. Against Alabama teams, the Dirty Dozen went 80-4 in sets, dropping only four all season.
Wood said she built the schedule to make sure her team faced the strongest competition available, including public schools that are no longer in its postseason path.
“I scheduled every single team that I possibly could,” she said. “Two of them played before us in the 6A. If I’m guessing right, two more will probably play in the state final tomorrow in 5A, and we’ve competed against all of them. I have immense pride for what this program just did.”
Road to the title
The Dirty Dozen opened the state tournament Tuesday with a 3-0 win over Randolph in the first round. In the semifinals, McGill-Toolen swept fellow Mobile school Faith Academy, which had advanced with a 3-2 first-round win over St. John Paul II.
Briarwood reached the final by sweeping two more Mobile-area teams. The Lions beat UMS-Wright 3-0 in the first round, then defeated St. Paul’s 3-0 in the semifinals. St. Paul’s had reached the semifinals by outlasting Madison Academy 3-2.
That meant four of the eight teams in the Private Class AA field came from Mobile, a reflection of the depth of private school volleyball in the area. McGill-Toolen, St. Paul’s, Faith Academy and UMS-Wright all qualified for Birmingham through the South Super Regional in Montgomery, where McGill-Toolen swept St. Paul’s for the regional crown.
In the final, McGill-Toolen took the first set 25-17, won a tighter second set 25-21 and closed out the match 25-18 in the third.
Alice Wood named MVP
Senior setter Alice Wood, a Kansas State commit and the daughter of the head coach, was named the Private Class AA tournament’s Most Valuable Player. She finished the final with 38 assists, two service aces and two digs.
She said the change in classification did nothing to diminish what the team accomplished.
“When I post on Instagram later, I am going to say I am a four-time state champion,” she said. “Split, no split, and we are walking off state champions and the best team in the state.”
For Kate Wood, the title carried personal weight as well. She said she felt it during Mass on the morning of the match.
“It has been an honor,” the coach said. “We were in mass this morning, and my heart was really heavy. I told this to her and another senior. My heart got real heavy, and I just could feel God telling me, ‘No, rejoice, rejoice, because you have this opportunity with your daughter.’ There’s a lot of coaches who coach and they coach their kids, and they would never get to experience something like she and I have.”
Alice Wood said she would not have wanted to play for anyone else.
“Knowing that I got to accomplish this with my mother as my coach, but then like my biggest cheerleader, and making me better, I wouldn’t want it any other way, honestly,” she said. “The fact that we just did that, but then also being a part of her program and her legacy has really been the biggest honor. I think I’ve learned the most life lessons being in this program and what she’s taught me as a coach and as a mom.”
Balanced attack in the final
McGill-Toolen spread its offense across several hitters. Emmy Beech led the team with 11 kills and added four digs. Shelton and Marley Foster each finished with 10 kills, and Shelton also had nine digs and a service ace. Foster added two blocks.
Genevieve Peck anchored the back row with 18 digs and also served two aces. Makayla Johnson contributed seven kills, seven digs and three blocks.
Alice Wood, Beech, Foster and Shelton were all named to the all-tournament team.
Beech, a senior, said the team never eased up, no matter the opponent.
“There was never a point where we took our foot off the gas. We knew that we were going to hold ourselves to the standard that the program is no matter who we are playing,” she said. “I’m so immensely proud of our team and just everything that we came in and did. It made every single late night tournament and every early morning that we got up right after one, just working with these girls… I’m so proud and so happy that we did this.”
The ‘internal scoreboard’
Wood credited the team’s focus to a habit the players built themselves: tracking their own performance regardless of what the actual score said.
“They have an internal scoreboard, often that they’ve created. The internal scoreboard is a lot about their serving efficiency, their passer rating, and their attacking efficiency by position,” Wood said. “It doesn’t matter if the score is 15-2: is your internal scoreboard correct? Are we doing it correctly? Because that scoreboard will take care of itself.”
Wood acknowledged that the split was difficult for her program to accept at first.
“It’s definitely been an unusual year,” she said. “When they split off, that was a hard pill for us to swallow as a program.”
She recalled a conversation with an administrator at a regular-season tournament who asked how she kept her players motivated while winning so easily.
“I was like, ‘It’s really not hard,'” Wood said. “They get in the gym every day. Just like all coaches say, they work really hard, but they want the opportunity to prove it. They want to step on the floor and be relentless.”
Alice Wood said the team deliberately kept its approach the same as in past seasons.
“We didn’t lose to a single Alabama team. Split or no split, we’re the best team in the state,” she said. “Walking off the court, I have so much gratitude for the program, because we could have taken the easy route of ‘Well you might win, but let’s practice less. Let’s work out later.’ But no, we were the exact same, and the process was the exact same. Knowing that we got the same outcome, it speaks to how productive our process is.”
Briarwood proud of runner-up finish
Briarwood Christian, from the Birmingham area, finished with one of the best records in its program’s history and entered the tournament ranked No. 2 in Private Class AA. Coach Chris Camper said the Lions did not drop a set to a private school all season except against McGill-Toolen, and that Briarwood was the only private school to take a set from the Dirty Dozen this year.
Camper said the public-private split threw his program and others “a curveball,” making scheduling and travel more difficult.
“We have to do a better job of finding competitive matches, but still playing private schools,” Camper said. “It’s very difficult. So that was different. Getting to the finals, I’m very proud of the girls for doing what they’ve done, executing at a high level.”
He said his team played well but could not match McGill-Toolen’s level on the day.
“I said, ‘Y’all have lost, but we didn’t play bad.’ We actually played pretty well, but they executed at an incredible level today. They were really, really good, which we anticipated,” Camper said. “We knew we had to play close to a perfect game, and we were not able to do that.”
Camper praised seniors Peyton Gibbons and Julie Roberts for their leadership. Roberts led Briarwood with 15 kills. Noelle Sullentrop had 27 assists and nine digs, Lily Nelson had 14 digs and Helen Morrison added seven kills and seven digs.
“As a team, we really wanted to win so bad that we set ourselves to such a high standard,” Roberts said. “We’ve gotten better for the past three years, but we’ve gotten to this point this year, so I think it’s obviously working.”
Mobile Christian falls in Private Class A final
A second Mobile school played for a title Wednesday. Mobile Christian, which won the previous two Class 3A state championships, lost to Montgomery Academy 3-0 (25-8, 25-10, 25-14) in the first Private Class A final. The Leopards finished 22-13 after playing a demanding schedule, while Montgomery Academy finished 32-9.
Mobile Christian reached the final with a 3-1 win over Faith Christian in the first round and a 3-1 win over Prattville Christian in the semifinals. Bayside Academy, the other Baldwin-Mobile entry in the bracket, was eliminated in a 3-2 first-round loss to Mars Hill Bible.
“In a way, this was an outcome that we wanted,” Mobile Christian’s Kensley Shanahan said. “We knew in the beginning that nobody thought we should be here, that we were the underdogs, and I think we proved to all of them that Mobile Christian wasn’t just ‘that team’ but a legacy.”
Shanahan had eight digs, Hadley Kelly had 10 kills and a block and Emmy Moody had 13 assists. All three were named to the all-tournament team, which was led by Montgomery Academy’s Morgan Springer, the tournament MVP.
Leopards coach Mallory Boyington said the season was defined by perseverance after the program graduated eight players from last year’s team.
“The word I think of for the girls this year is perseverance,” Boyington said. “We graduated eight girls last year and we definitely had some challenges and struggles as well. They persevered, adapted and fought to get to the finals.”
What’s next for local teams
Two more Baldwin County teams play for state titles Thursday at Bill Harris Arena. Spanish Fort, seeking a third straight state championship after winning the last two in Class 6A, faces Jasper in the Class 5A final at 10 a.m. Orange Beach meets defending champion Guntersville in the Class 4A final at noon.
- Private Class AA champion: McGill-Toolen (44-2), def. Briarwood Christian 25-17, 25-21, 25-18
- Private Class AA MVP: Alice Wood, McGill-Toolen
- Private Class A champion: Montgomery Academy (32-9), def. Mobile Christian 25-8, 25-10, 25-14
- Thursday, 10 a.m.: Class 5A final, Spanish Fort vs. Jasper
- Thursday, noon: Class 4A final, Orange Beach vs. Guntersville
