Downey named recipient of Bradford Leadership Award
Prattville High School senior Grace Downey was named the winner of the Willis Bradford Christian Leadership Award on Monday. (Contributed)
By TIM GAYLE
PRATTVILLE -- Her season cut short by a knee injury, Prattville High senior Grace Downey had surgery on her knee on Monday morning, then spent the evening attending the 37th annual Prattville YMCA-FCA Christian Leadership Banquet at the First United Methodist Church.
After helping her soccer team to the state semifinals in 2022 and the basketball team to the state semifinals in March, she thought her accomplishments ended with her injury in Alabaster three weeks ago. All that changed on Monday night when she was named the 2023 recipient of the Willis Bradford Christian Leadership Award.
“This is up there,” Downey said. “I’m not mad at all about this knee surgery. I know it’s God’s plan. Last year, I went to the Final Four for soccer and I scored the only goal. We had a great time up there. Then I went to state for track and long jump. I’ve never done track before. Then, this year, I got to fill in that last sport and go with my basketball team (to the state tournament). I’m just really grateful for the opportunity.”
Downey became the 11th Lion honored with the award since its inception in 1991 and the fifth in the last seven years. She also became the second consecutive Prattville soccer star selected for the award, following in the footsteps of 2022 winner Ava Cardona.
“It really just sums up my entire experience with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes at my school,” Downey said. “It’s really full circle from being a ninth grader, just showing up at the meetings and being new to all of it, to being the one leading it and enjoying other kids to show up.”
Downey, the daughter of Deborah and David Downey, entered the banquet hall in a wheelchair through a side door just after the start of the program, needing extra room for her extended right leg. She had surgery to repair the anterior cruciate ligament and her meniscus in her right knee, making her collegiate soccer career a little less certain after the injury.
“I was (going to play), until this tear,” said Downey, who plans to attend the University of Alabama at Huntsville and major in engineering. “I’m going to work for it. I don’t know if that’s in the plans right now. It might have been God telling me to refocus on other things, but that was the idea we had.”
The event was initiated in 1987 as a way of honoring Autauga County’s senior student-athletes, but soon evolved into an award named for Bradford, the first director of the Prattville YMCA. The Willis Bradford Christian Leadership Award was first presented to Marbury’s Jonathon Seamon in 1991 (there have been dual winners twice) and aims to promote the mission of the FCA and the YMCA to impact young people for Jesus Christ and to honor the student-athletes of Autauga County high schools that have demonstrated Christian leadership in their school and community.
Each school selects a nominee for the Bradford Award and on Monday officials unveiled the Horace Powell Scholarship, which is presented to each of the six nominees for the Willis Bradford Christian Leadership Award.
Powell was a 1951 graduate of Billingsley and a former head football coach at Autauga County High in 1965-68 who promoted sports in the county throughout his life, including his time as a founding member of the YMCA Board of Management from 1963 until he passed away in 2022.
In addition to Downey, the Horace Powell Scholarship recipients were:
• Tyrus Sellers of Autuga Academy, a three-sport participant for the Generals who plays football, basketball and baseball. Sellers is the son of Shawn and Kristen Sellers.
• Jamarcus Golson of Autaugaville, a member of the Eagles’ football team and the son of Julia Palmer.
• Shidaisha Harris of Billingsley, who plays basketball and volleyball for the Bears. She is the daughter of Latasha Kent.
• Dalyce Sanders of Marbury, who plays basketball and tennis for the Bulldogs. She is the daughter of Vanessa Sanders.
• Hannah Jones of Prattville Christian Academy, who won state championships this year in both volleyball and girls’ basketball and will attend Memphis on a volleyball scholarship. She is the daughter of Lenord and Paloma Jones.
The featured speaker was FCA area representative Steven Clark, a former punter at Auburn University. Clark told the story of Noah and his ark, challenging the athletes to follow God’s word despite what that may look like to others in a world that challenges Christian ideals.
“There are a lot of awards you young leaders are going to be up for, a lot of them academic, a lot of them athletic, but these are the ones that matter the most,” Clark said. “I want you to know that you are building your boat and if you guys really want to build a boat well -- and God has called you to do it -- you’re going to be looking a little crazy. It’s going to be kind of funny to everyone around you but it ain’t going to be funny when the storms come.”
For the third consecutive year, the event presented the Otis Reeves Outstanding Coaches Award. The initial award went in 2021 to the retiring Reeves, who had spearheaded the first 34 banquets and had coached most of the sports provided by the Prattville YMCA over his 49-year coaching career.
Prattville Christian boys’ and girls’ basketball coach Jason Roberson received the award in 2022 and on Monday Reeves presented the award to Joe Reynolds, the coach of the Prattville High swim team, the city of Prattville head swim coach and the Prattville YMCA head swim coach.
The T.O. McDowell Christian Leadership Award was presented to Stanhope Elmore’s Olivia Raife, a lifelong gymnast at the Prattville YMCA who is attending Southeast Missouri State to compete in collegiate gymnastics. The award was initiated in 2008 to recognize an athlete who has displayed servant leadership through the YMCA and community activities.
For the 16th year, schools selected up to five student-athletes for the YMCA-FCA Christian Leadership Circle. The selections included:
Autauga Academy -- Bailee Lightsey, William Moseley, Evan Peak, Audrey Teaster and Cody Tornow.
Autaugaville High School – Kenneth Brown, Princess Hardy, Shelbie Johnson, Simya Kent and Keidrich Phillips.
Billingsley High School – Megan Chandler, Alana Jones, Landon Jones, Amber Johnson and Eli Manning.
Marbury High School – Callie Carter, Summer Hicks, Addyson Jarman, Ava Rhodes and Elizabeth Woodfin.
Prattville High School -- John Tripp Berch, Hope Easley, Rylan Hart, Halle Sheppard and Samantha Stauter.
Prattville Christian Academy – Cooper Osborne, Carson Roberson, Avery Rogers, Madison Trailkill and Sarah Williams.