By Adam Robinson
Sports Editor

Ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, Happy New Year. Those are the words that soon will be shouted (or have already been shouted depending on when you received your Saturday paper) at downtown Brewton’s Blueberry Drop and other places as we will say goodbye to the year of 2010 and usher in 2011.
The sports year of 2010 here in the Brewton area saw many great things. There were several athletes signed scholarships during the year, games won, games lost, championships won, and other moments to remember.
As for team championships, there was a handful.
We had tournament championships, Little League and Babe Ruth district championships and others. T.R. Miller’s boys and girls track teams brought home the only two state championships for the area this season as the boys won their second in a row and the girls, their first ever. T.R. Miller’s girls cross country team earned their third straight state runner-up.
Individual athletes on these teams won state titles as well as Bob Elliott and Jeremy Nicholson winning individual state titles from W.S. Neal’s track teams.
As for team records for the year, I counted how team’s seasons that were only played within the year of 2010 and teams so far this season.
For T.R. Miller, I have them going a combined 99-44-1 with the best record going to the softball team with a 23-5 record.
For W.S. Neal, I have them going 32-100 with the best record to the baseball team at 13-13.
These records included the B-team, girls and varsity basketball records as of Wednesday from this year, volleyball and football, baseball, softball, and girls and boys tennis from 2010.
For JDCC, the Warhawks are 44-90 with the best record going to the basketball team right now at 3-6. Overall, the Warhawk volleyball team went 2-22 while baseball went 16-30 and softball went 23-32.
As we ring in the new year of 2011, I looked through stories from the year of 2010 and came up with some end-of-the-year awards.
While many things happened over the course of the 365, I am sure there are some I have overlooked and I apologize, but here is what I found:

Best comeback
I had a hard time trying to decide a winner for this category. Until I remembered a Little League all-star game from this summer, T.R. Miller’s football team had this one sealed up with their Hail Mary win over Washington County. Because that game needs to be a winner in one category, I made a different one for it. The winner of the best comeback for 2010 goes to the Escambia County 9- and 10-year-old baseball team.
Down 8-2 heading into the top of the sixth and final inning, Escambia County scored six runs with two outs to tie the game and four in extra innings to down Opp 12-9 in Brewton.
The win put Escambia County in the championship game Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Brewton against Opp.

Best ending to a game
In the final seconds in a key region game against No. 6 Washington County, T.R. Miller scored on a 45-yard Hail Mary as time expired and added a two-point conversion to stun Washington County and claim a 36-35 win.
With less than 20 seconds to go and trailing 35-28, T.R. Miller Tiger quarterback Wil Riggs scrambled around in the backfield and threw the ball to the end zone, where Jaren Jackson plucked the ball from 5 yards out and bulled his way into the end zone as time expired.
As the Tigers went for a two-point conversion, Jamaal Spears ran the ball around left end and was hit at the goal line. He fell in to give the Tigers a 36-35 heart-stopping win.

Best comeback despite losing
In another T.R. Miller and Escambia County classic to start the season, the Blue Devils edged out the Tigers of Brewton in overtime with a 35-34 win.
Trailing 27-19 with 2:08 left in the game, the Tigers used a 47-yard pass from senior quarterback Wil Riggs to Conner Denton down the Tiger sideline to setup the Tigers at the Atmore 8-yard line.
The Tigers used two plays to score on a Riggs sneak and a two-point conversion tied the game a 27-27 with 49.2 seconds left and force the game into overtime.
Atmore won the toss and deferred to go on defense to give T.R. Miller the ball first.
Two plays later, Anthony Herbert scored his fourth touchdown of the night to put T.R. Miller on top 34-27 after Kevin Davis’ kick. Escambia County then used three plays to get to the Tiger 1-yard line where quarterback Ricco Stallworth scored to cut the lead to 34-33 T.R. Miller.
Escambia County first year head coach Mark Heaton chose to go for a two-point conversion and the win and Stallworth snaked his way and dove over the goal line for the win 35-34.

Best basketball game so far
The number two was a key number for the W.S. Neal Eagles at home against Excel as they played a two overtime game against the Panthers to win 60-53 for their second straight win of the season.
In the first overtime period, W.S. Neal built a 46-42 lead with 2:16 left in the period but Excel would take a 47-46 lead with 1:06 left and a 49-46 lead with 38 seconds left.
From there, W.S. Neal cut the lead to 49-48 with 30 seconds left and after Excel took a 50-48 lead with 22 seconds left, Dalton Evans made two free throws for the Eagles to tie the game at 50-50 and force a second overtime.
In the second period, W.S. Neal would outscore the Panthers 10-3 in the period to get the win by seven.

Best individual milestone
T.R. Miller running back Anthony Herbert earned himself the Alabama Sports Writers Association Offensive Player of the Week after he rushed for 340 yards and four touchdowns on 17 carries in a 48-35 win over Montgomery Catholic. His touchdowns came on runs of 79, 86, 14 and 3 yards as the school picked up its 605th win.

Best team milestone
After three unsuccessful tries at getting their 600th win, the T.R. Miller Tigers got the milestone win over Excel at home 64-7.
The win was also the team’s first of the 2010 season as they improved to 1-2 overall and to 1-1 in region play.
T.R. Miller is the first team in the state of Alabama, regardless of classification, to accomplish the feat of 600 wins.

Best coaching milestone
Struggling to stay in the game in the first half, T.R. Miller (4-2, 3-1) recovered at the break and came out to put up 20 unanswered points en route to a thrilling 34-26 region victory over Clarke County on the road. The win for the Tigers gave TRM head coach Jamie Riggs his 250th overall coaching victory.

Best streak
The T.R. Miller Lady Tiger volleyball team claimed their sixth straight Escambia County tournament championship this year in Flomaton.

History maker
Also, for the Lady Tiger volleyball team, they advanced to the state Elite 8 tournament for the first time in school history this season.

Undefeated x2
The Brewton Middle School football team capped of their second straight back-to-back undefeated season under head coach Gerald McAnally.

Did that just happen moment
The Brewton Little League 11- and 12-year-old All Star team got a shock this season.
After falling to Opp in Opp in the championship game Wednesday, July 7, the team learned that Opp had played an ineligible player in the district tournament.
Opp went on to win the tournament, but Brewton was named champion and was set to begin state tournament play in Sylacauga almost two weeks exactly after their last game with no practices.

Best one-two punch
The T.R. Miller Tiger baseball team used the combination of stellar pitching from Kevin Davis and a two-run homerun by Caleb McAnally in the Escambia County Tournament in Brewton to down W.S. Neal 2-0.
The win for the Tigers improved them to 2-0 in the tournament and overall this season while dropping W.S. Neal to 1-1 in the tournament and to 3-2 overall.
Davis struck out 17 Eagles and allowed only one hit in the complete game seven innings. McAnally hit his second homerun in as many games for the Tigers to score the games only runs with a two-run homerun in the bottom of the fifth inning.
Davis allowed no runs, one hit, struck out 17, walked five and hit two in the win in his first high school start.

Scariest moment
The W.S. Neal Eagle baseball pitcher Gary McGraw was hit in the face with a line drive in a game against Flomaton.
McGraw was injured in the top of the fourth inning. McGraw went 3 2/3 inning allowing one hit, striking out four, walked seven and allowed three runs, two earned.
The one hit McGraw gave up, as he had a no-hitter prior to the incident, was a hit that came back and hit him in the head sending him to the hospital.
I hope everyone had a great 2010 and I hope your 2011 is an even better one. Until we meet again here or out in the world of sports, God bless.