Top Wiregrass sports stories of 2008

The year in sports for the Wiregrass was marked by tragedy and triumphs.

The death of Dale County football coach Todd Horne in an automobile accident before the start of the season shocked the community and Midland City high school.

With longtime assistant Wesley Locke taking over the duties, Dale County pulled together and opened up the season at home with an emotional victory over G.W. Long. Before the game, Horne was remembered as the thousands in attendance paid tribute to the fallen coach.

The 2008 Wiregrass sports year also saw Dothan native Gabe Gross reach the World Series as a player for the Tampa Bay Rays. Gross, a former Northview and Auburn star, was traded from Milwaukee to Tampa Bay in April and became a part-time starter in the outfield for the team that was the surprise story in baseball. The Rays won the American League pennant before falling to Philadelphia in the World Series.

In other notable sports stories for the year:

- Dothan named replacements for three major coaching positions: head football, boys basketball and baseball.
Kelvis White replaced Jim Scible as the head football coach following Scible’s resignation following the 2007 season. After basketball coach Terry Goodson returned to coach at his alma mater of Ariton, Bill Porter Jr. left Headland to become the Tigers’ new head coach. And longtime baseball coach Dirk Williams was replaced by Matthew McDonald, who had been an assistant at Russell County.
- Glenn Northcutt, a former Houston Academy standout, was named All-SEC in golf for Auburn University as a junior. Spencer Pybus, a former Northview football player, made the SEC All-Freshman team as an Auburn linebacker.
- Daleville native Brian Gay won his first PGA Tour tournament in the Mayakoba Golf Classic in Playa Del Carmen, Mexico. Gay, 36, shot a final round 69 to win by two strokes.
- Ollie Schniederjans of Powder Springs, Ga., was crowned as the 59th Annual Press Thornton Future Masters champion after beating Blayne Barber in an amazing seven-hole playoff that will go down as one of the most exciting finishes in the history of the junior golf tournament.
- There were a number of championship performances in the Wiregrass. Pike Liberal Arts won the AISA Class AAA state football title by beating Fort Dale Academy 20-17 at Movie Gallery Veterans Stadium in Troy. It was the first ever football championship for the private school in Troy. The Eufaula girls basketball team won the Class 5A state title. Providence Christian cross country runner Gabe Mitchell won the 800 meter and 3200 meter races in the Class 1A state meet at Troy. Northside Methodist Academy’s baseball team earned its third straight Alabama Christian Education Athletic Association state title. Dothan High track and field athletes Jerrica McGriff and Jermaine Potter won individual state titles in May at Gulf Shores. McGriff won the Class 6A girls 300-meter hurdles and Potter the boys 6A 110-meter hurdles. Dothan National Blue won the state Dixie Youth ‘O’ Zone state championship in Enterprise by beating Troy American, 8-3. The team advanced to the World Series in Pascagoula, Miss.
- The ScreenTech Baseball Classic, which had been held for eight years in Dothan at Northcutt Field, announced it would not be hosting the event in 2009. Host-school Troy, Wake Forest, Kennesaw Sate and Penn State competed in the three-day, round-robin tournament in 2008.
- The Troy football team won the Sun Belt Conference championship outright for the first time after sharing the title the past two seasons, and played Southern Miss in the New Orleans Bowl.
- Barbour County won its first ever Dothan Progress/Dothan Eagle/Southern Star Holiday Prep Classic championship after beating county rival Eufaula in the championship game at the Ozark Civic Center. It marked Eufaula’s first loss of the year, and avenged Barbour County’s only two losses — both to Eufaula earlier this season. Houston County won the Downtown Dothan Hoops Classic for the second time in the three years of the tournament at the Dothan Civic Center. The Lions beat Dothan in the title game.