BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Mobile Christian’s bid for a third straight state volleyball championship ended Wednesday against a Montgomery Academy team led by a first-year head coach. The Eagles swept the Leopards 25-8, 25-10, 25-14 at Bill Harris Arena to win the first Single-A Private volleyball title in Alabama High School Athletic Association (AHSAA) history.
The championship was also the first trophy handed out in Class Single-A Private in any sport. This season marks the first year the AHSAA has separated public and private schools for state championship play, and volleyball was one of the first sports to finish under the new structure.
Montgomery Academy finished the season 32-9. Mobile Christian, which won the Class 3A title last season, closed its year at 22-13.
A first-year coach wins the Single-A Private volleyball crown
Jada Coleman finished her debut season as a varsity head coach holding the Blue Map, the trophy awarded to AHSAA state champions. Coleman had previously coached many of the Eagles’ players at the middle school level.
She said the team set a state title as its goal from the start of the season and then asked itself what it would take to get there.
“It’s outstanding,” Coleman said. “We have such good senior leadership. At the beginning of the season, this was our goal. We told them, ‘What do we have to do to actually make this a goal?’ Every team in the state has the same goal of winning a state championship, so what sets us apart?”
Her answer was the players’ willingness to do extra work.
“I think that the girls were just so willing to put in all the extra work. Everyone wanted to come early; everyone was watching film. I never had to beg their girls to watch film. They were always ahead of their game, and we were always preparing for our opponent,” Coleman said. “The girls just really bought into what we wanted to do as a program, and that’s what led us to a state championship.”
Seniors credit Coleman’s steady approach
Senior Bennett Britt said Coleman struck a balance between directing the team and allowing the seniors to take ownership of it. Britt said Coleman’s own success as a player helped.
“She has a lot of state championship experience as well, so she knows what it takes to win state because she won it multiple times in her high school,” Britt said. “Every single practice before we’d be like, ‘Did this practice look like we are going to win a state championship?’ Her posing that question to us and asking it to us every single day allowed us to make those steps.”
Morgan Springer, the tournament’s Most Valuable Player, described Coleman as a constant presence.
“She was just steady. We talked through a few coaches, and when she got there, I mean, we obviously knew her because she was our middle school coach. But it’s different coaching middle school than varsity, so we got to see a totally different side of her, and she just really pushed us every single day,” Springer said. “She was just always there, always knowing that this was the end goal.”
EG Hines said the Eagles focused on themselves rather than on their opponents during the postseason.
“Every game, we don’t look at the name on the other side of the court because that doesn’t affect how we’re going to play. What affects us is our mindset and how we practice, how we are going to play in the game,” Hines said. “We knew we had all the skill we needed; we have everything we needed. We just trusted in ourselves and each other and Coach C, and we knew that we needed to do what needed to be done.”
Springer earns MVP honors
Springer finished the final with 11 kills and seven service aces. Montgomery Academy’s serving put steady pressure on Mobile Christian throughout the match, with Hines and Lizzie Campbell adding three aces apiece.
Rehmat Sidhu ran the offense with a match-high 24 assists and added 13 digs. Hines had eight kills, Campbell had nine digs and Britt contributed six kills.
The Eagles reached the final with wins over Donoho in the first round and Mars Hill Bible in the semifinals. Mars Hill had eliminated Baldwin County’s Bayside Academy 3-2 in the first round.
The title is the ninth state volleyball championship in Montgomery Academy history. The Eagles’ previous title came in 2023, when they competed in Class 5A.
Mobile Christian’s young team reached the final
For Mobile Christian, the trip to the championship match was its own accomplishment. The Leopards graduated eight seniors from last season’s Class 3A championship team and entered the year with a younger, less experienced roster in a brand-new classification.
Mobile Christian beat Faith Christian 3-1 in the first round and Prattville Christian 3-1 in the semifinals to reach the final. The Leopards had finished fourth at the South Super Regional in Montgomery, falling to Bayside Academy in the third-place match, before turning things around in Birmingham.
Coach Mallory Boyington said perseverance defined the season.
“We had a younger, more inexperienced team coming in, and there were a lot of people that questioned how are they going to perform, what are they going to do, and we definitely had some challenges,” Boyington said. “There were some struggles throughout the season, as our record shows, but those girls learned, they persevered, they adapted, and they fought to get to the finals.”
She said she told her players after the match not to let the loss overshadow their run.
“That’s what I was just telling these girls back in the back: still be proud, don’t hang your head, because there’s a lot of teams that would give anything to be in your shoes right now,” she said.
A turnaround after super regionals
Boyington said the Leopards struggled at the super regional, which left the team frustrated. But she said the group looked different once it arrived in Birmingham.
“We arrived on Monday, did our walkthrough, and to watch them go from Thursday to Monday in just a matter of three or four days, and the turnaround, it seemed like a brand new team,” Boyington said. “They were mixing up how they were riding up here, so it was not the same group every time. Every time we got in the van, it was a new group switching up with each other, and it was so cohesive with the collaboration and being so inclusive. That’s probably been my favorite part is watching them grow this year.”
Senior Hadley Kelly said the team overcame early divisions after so many veterans graduated.
“Our team didn’t start like the team that y’all saw out there. There was so much division; there was a lot of split because, as seniors, we had been playing with the seniors before us for years. I played elementary volleyball with them. I’d known them forever, and then just having to mesh with a whole entire new team is so beyond difficult,” Kelly said. “Watching us change, that was so admirable, was amazing to go through. That’s just something that I’m going to miss for forever.”
Kensley Shanahan said the Leopards embraced the underdog role.
“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 said.
Leopards’ stat leaders
Kelly led Mobile Christian with 10 kills and added a block. Emmy Moody had 13 assists, Shanahan had a team-high eight digs and Ella Finney served two aces. Kelly, Moody and Shanahan were named to the all-tournament team.
A big day for Mobile private schools
Mobile Christian’s loss came on a day when another Mobile school made history. Earlier Wednesday, McGill-Toolen swept Briarwood Christian 25-17, 25-21, 25-18 to win the first Private Class AA championship and its fifth consecutive state title. That match was the first state championship ever decided in a private school classification in any AHSAA sport.
The state tournament concludes Thursday with four public school finals at Bill Harris Arena, including two featuring Baldwin County teams.
- Single-A Private final: Montgomery Academy def. Mobile Christian 25-8, 25-10, 25-14
- MVP: Morgan Springer, Montgomery Academy (11 kills, 7 aces)
- Final records: Montgomery Academy 32-9; Mobile Christian 22-13
- Thursday, 10 a.m.: Class 5A final, Spanish Fort vs. Jasper
- Thursday, noon: Class 4A final, Orange Beach vs. Guntersville
- Thursday, 2 p.m.: Class 3A final, Plainview vs. Central-Florence
- Thursday, 4 p.m.: Class 2A final, Carbon Hill vs. G.W. Long
