FCA Alex Wilcox Memorial Softball Tournament opens today at Lagoon

By TIM GAYLE 

After missing two years, the Fellowship of Christian Athletes will hold the second FCA Alex Wilcox Memorial Softball Tournament at Lagoon Park this weekend in honor of the former Brantley High standout who passed away from ovarian cancer.

Twenty-one teams, primarily from south and central Alabama, will participate in the tournament, which includes pool play on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning before advancing to bracket play on Saturday afternoon.

The tournament also includes an FCA dinner on Friday night.

Prattville coach Brian Pittman, who participated in the first tournament in 2019 as the Brewbaker Tech coach, said the tournament is one of the highlights of any softball season because of “the group behind it, the FCA, and on top of that, the fact that it is in memory of Alex Wilcox and what the FCA is doing to help support cancer,” he said. “That makes it a little more special than some of the other tournaments.”

Wilcox competed in the state tournament, which was held annually at the time at Lagoon Park, even after she was diagnosed with ovarian cancer before her junior season in 2016. She was signed by then-Mississippi State coach Vann Steudeman and played for the Bulldogs as a true freshman in 2018, alternating between chemotherapy treatments and playing. 

She passed away in June, 2018 and FCA director John Gibbons planned a tournament at Lagoon Park the following spring as a complement to the annual FCA Jason Armstrong Memorial Baseball Tournament and as a way of both honoring Wilcox’s legacy as well as fighting ovarian cancer.

“It’s a great opportunity for us to realize all the gifts that we’ve been given as players and coaches to play the game we love,” Brew Tech coach Chris Steiner said. “I think it is a good opportunity for everybody to give back and realize there are a lot of people out there that don’t have the opportunity to do what we’re doing and we don’t need to take the little things for granted.

“I think it’s a good cause. We’re playing Brantley and she played at Brantley so that’s big for us. Vann’s a part of it, the FCA is a part of it. We’ve always tried to honor her memory whether we played at Mississippi State (when Steiner was coaching at Alabama State) or now being a part of this. It’s a really good opportunity for our kids to realize how precious life is and how precious it is to get to do what we do every day.”

The first tournament featured G.W. Long beating Gardendale in the championship game, while the second was canceled by the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and the third was rained out in 2021. 

“Obviously, we’re excited to play in it,” Alabama Christian Academy coach Lauren Veach said. “We play Catholic and Central. We’ll get (Central) again so we’ll play them three times this season and Catholic is a big rival, so it’s always fun to play them. But it’s exciting to honor Alex Wilcox’s memory.”

ACA will hold its own Ovarian Cancer Awareness game at home against Opelika on April 12.

The top two teams from each of the six pools will advance to Gold Bracket play on Saturday, with the remaining teams competing in the Silver Bracket. Favorites in the tournament include the larger schools such as Austin, Spanish Fort, Central-Phenix City, Prattville and Saraland but as G.W. Long proved in 2019, any team that reaches Gold Bracket play has a chance. 

“Our pool has Saraland, who is a very solid team, and then we get Charles Henderson, where Coach (Khadija Neely) does a great job with them as well, so it’ll be a very tough challenge for us,” Pittman said. “But I like our chances, the way we’ve been playing lately.”

After playing in tournaments in Greenville, Wetumpka and Gulf Shores, Veach just likes the idea of playing a tournament in Montgomery.

“We always like to play at Lagoon,” she said. “We do pretty well there. It’s nice to be able to sleep in your own bed and have your family and friends there.” 

FCA Alex Wilcox Memorial Softball Tournament 

Friday-Saturday Schedule (Round Robin)

Lagoon Park Softball Complex

FRIDAY

Saraland vs. Prattville, 2 p.m.

Brantley vs. Brew Tech, 2 p.m.

Catholic vs. Central-PC, 2 p.m.

Luverne vs. Andalusia, 2 p.m.

Valley vs. Beauregard, 2 p.m.

Highland Home vs. Opp, 2 p.m.

Charles Henderson vs. Jemison, 3:30 p.m.

Brew Tech vs. Spring Garden, 3:30 p.m.

Alabama Christian vs. Central-PC, 3:30 p.m.

Andalusia vs. Tuscaloosa County, 3:30 p.m.

Marbury vs. Spanish Fort, 3:30 p.m.

Austin vs. Greenville, 3:30 p.m.

SATURDAY

Jemison vs. Saraland, 9 a.m.

Brantley vs. Spring Garden, 9 a.m.

Catholic vs. ACA, 9 a.m.

Tuscaloosa County vs. Luverne, 9 a.m.

Beauregard vs. Marbury, 9 a.m.

Greenville vs. Highland Home, 9 a.m.

Prattville vs. Charles Henderson, 10:30 a.m.

Spanish Fort vs. Valley, 10:30 a.m.

Opp vs. Austin, 10:30 a.m.

Gold bracket quarterfinals, noon, 1:30 p.m., 3 p.m.

Silver bracket quarterfinals, noon, 1:30 p.m., 3 p.m.

Silver bracket finals, 4:30 p.m.

Gold bracket semifinals, 4:30 p.m.

Gold bracket finals, 6 p.m.