An All-American Homecoming

September 21, 2023 by Kathryn Bartlett

Camberwell Girls Grammar School students on Carlisle Field with STJ football players and cheerleaders.

Last week, Saint James School welcomed 37 students and five chaperones from Melbourne, Australia to attend our annual Homecoming festivities. Camberwell Girls Grammar School is an independent girls school founded in 1920. The group is participating in a visit to the American Southeast, including a 5-day NASA Space Camp experience, tour of Montgomery’s Civil Rights museums and memorials, and a visit to Universal Studios. During their time in Montgomery, they wanted a first-hand look at how their American peers spend a Friday night- what better time to experience a Southern high school football game?

Camberwell Girls Grammar School students on Carlisle Field after the 2023 Homecoming game.

In addition to witnessing the Trojans’ 49-14 win over Greensboro, the group enjoyed listening to the marching band, watching the cheerleaders and Trojanettes perform, and seeing the crowning of the STJ Homecoming Queen, Reilly Taylor. They even got a shout-out during halftime and had a chance to take photos on the field after the game. Of course, no visit is complete without commemorative t-shirts. Thank you for visiting Saint James, Chamberwell! Next time, we will come to visit you in Melbourne! #wearesaintjamesschool

Camberwell Girls Grammar School students and chaperones wearing STJ t-shirts.

Dr. McLemore and Camberwell students in the stands at Carlisle Field.

Saint James Equestrian Team- Riding to the Top

January 31, 2023 by Kathryn Bartlett

by: Elley Goff, 8th grade

Elley Goff at the IEA competition in Birmingham, AL.

The Saint James Equestrian team competed in an IEA (Interscholastic Equestrian Association) competition in Birmingham, Alabama. The team was a proud co-host of this show. The high school and middle school teams gave forth their best effort at the last team show of the season! The riders were super proud of themselves. A huge shout-out to the middle school team for winning reserve champion! Maggie Harris, Lizzy Scarpate, Charlie Jenkins, Callie Sellers, and Elley Goff are the Saint James riders for the JV team. The hard work of these incredible riders helped Saint James rise to the top! Congratulations to the whole team! #wearesaintjamesschool

Middle School Equestrian riders: Elley Goff, Lizzy Scarpate, andMaggie Harris.

Dig It! 2021 Trojans Volleyball

October 06, 2021 by Kathryn Bartlett

by: Rachel Rice, senior

The varsity volleyball season is in its peak right now! Saint James’s varsity team is number one in their area and will be hosting the area game at home. The Saint James volleyball team has made it to state many times and most recently won state in 2017. Because of this success, the varsity team is competing in the 6A area, as oppose to our normal 4A classification. Volleyball is a fall sport with practices starting in early July and goes until mid-October. Competitions begin in August and can continue into late October depending on how far the team advances in the state playoffs. Volleyball is a game that depends on teamwork and communication to succeed. In a game, there are 6 players on the court at once, and they usually have a setter and a libero. The libero is the main defensive player who wears a different colored jersey. The setter is the player who propels the second ball in a play and sets it to the front row hitters to try to get a point off their hit. Junior varsity games are played to the best of 2 out of 3 sets. Sets consist of 25 points and the JV teams have to win 2 sets to win the game. In varsity, games are played to the best of 3 out of 5 sets. This means that they have to win 3 sets to win the game.

I started playing volleyball in 8th grade and have played every school and club season every year since. I started playing it because I loved watching college volleyball on tv and had friends who played at school. The sport has taught me a lot about teamwork, competition, and communication. It has made a positive impact in my life and has given me many new friendships with teammates from other schools. I am so thankful for the leadership of our coach, Karen Lee, and for all of the time she dedicates to not only helping us grow as athletes, but as students and members of our community. I can’t wait to see what the rest of the season holds. Go Trojans!

The Hilinski’s Hope Foundation- Mental Health Advocacy for Athletes

October 05, 2021 by Kathryn Bartlett

The Hilinski’s Hope Foundation (H3H) was founded in 2018 by Mark and Kym Hilinski to honor the life of their son Tyler, who died by suicide in January of that year. At the time, Tyler was playing quarterback at Washington State and was leading a seemingly storybook life and never showed any signs of depression or struggle. The more Mark and Kym looked into the death of their son, the more they wondered what could have been done to prevent it. However, rather than find a “why” it happened, their work (spreading awareness and advocating for the mental health of student athletes) became a their reason to move forward.

Thanks to our sponsor, The Hughston Clinic, last night Saint James School was honored to have Mark and Kym to campus to share their story with our student athletes and parents. October 2-9 is College Football Mental Health Week. Over sixty colleges and universities nationwide will participate in breaking down stigma and offering quality resources to provide mental health support for student athletes.

College Football Mental Health Week coincides with Mental Illness Awareness Week, October 3-9, culminating on World Mental Health Day on October 10. Saint James School is committed to the overall health and wellbeing of our students and we are incredibly thankful to Mark and Kym for sharing the story of Tyler and bringing Hillinski’s Hope to our school. https://www.hilinskishope.org/

#WeAreSaintJamesSchool

Spring Athletics: Tennis

April 26, 2021 by Kathryn Bartlett

by: Kate Rees, junior

by: Kate Rees, junior

Tennis season at Saint James starts in late January and runs through April. We have a JV and Varsity Girls team and a Boy’s Varsity Team. The Varsity Girls’ coach is Geoff Warning at Lagoon Park. The Varsity Boys’ coach is Ben Bradshaw at O’Conner. Tryouts are typically held in November. I am on the Girls’ Varsity tennis team here at Saint James. I enjoy playing tennis and having the opportunity to represent STJ on an athletic team is a unique honor. I also enjoy getting to know my teammates. We have players in grades 7th-12th! The team bonds over the season and makes countless memories. Sometimes we reminisce over past events or matches, and we make new ones with new members. The friendships made are special. It is a privilege to have a group working together towards the same goal to push and motivate one another. We wish each other happy birthdays, congratulate each other on other accomplishments, and reach out when someone is sick or injured. We practice after school Monday through Friday during our season. In late January, preseason practice begins and the first match is early February. Once we have our first match, we hit the ground running! We have matches through April and wrap up with Sectionals to qualify for State. Most matches are played in town, but we enjoy traveling for out of town matches. One match consists of three doubles lines and six singles lines. Five wins are needed to win a match. Saint James has had both Boys and Girls State Champions in tennis. The Varsity Girls Team won the State Championship in 2019. Our daily practices include warmup, drills, scrimmages, conditioning, and serves. During matches, players cheer for teammates on adjacent court. Whether you are having a hard match or made a good shot, it is uplifting to have your peers encourage you!

Last week, we had both the girls and boys varsity teams compete in the 4A Sectional Tournament at Lagoon Park in Montgomery. We had a fantastic end to the season, with senior Bailey Anderson taking home a 4A-5A AHSAA state championship for singles line 6. Congratulations, Trojans!

Spring Athletics: Softball

April 12, 2021 by Kathryn Bartlett

by: Morgan Parish, junior

This Softball season at Saint James has been running very smoothly. Last year our season ended early due to COVID and we now have the motivation to make up for our lost season. For most of the girls on the team we’ve been playing for a long time together. This year we have five seniors that will be graduating. Most of the seniors have been playing on the varsity team since 7th or 8th grade. They have been able to watch the program grow and see younger girls becoming more interested in the sport. For the past few years the softball program at Saint James has been building; however, with the help of our Coach, Mr. Mark Hall, we have been able to start to compete with bigger schools. As of April 6th the team is ranked 8 in the state for 4A. This is a big accomplishment for the team, but also the school. The softball team has played in multiple tournaments, being recognized by the media. During Spring Break they traveled to Pensacola, Florida for an Alabama vs. Florida tournament. While the state Alabama fell short in the tournament, the Trojans came out on top representing Saint James in a great way. They won all 3 of their games that were played, but were unable to play the final game due to rain. With the undefeated winning streak they had they were most likely to win the last game. The best thing about the softball team is that most of the players play sports with each other for the whole year. This allows the team to build bonds that help with communication and leadership. The Saint James softball team has a very high chance of making it to Gulf Shores to play in the regional tournament, but must keep the same pace. So far this season they have had a winning record and hope to continue having one.

2021 STJ Cheer tryouts

March 19, 2021 by Kathryn Bartlett

by: Anna Colson, junior

With this year being a lot different, cheer has had to adapt to changes and has not been normal since last year. We’ve worn masks to games, limited our student sections, modified pep rallies, and overall had to adjust many events to plan and prepare for. On the other hand, things seem to be slowly turning and corner and getting back to normal. We had normal cheer tryouts! It was refreshing to get to be in the gym with girls from grades 6-11 to try out to be a leader for school spirit next year.

We had a great turn out of girls with fifteen trying out for middle school, seven for junior varsity, and twenty two for varsity. We had UCA staff come in as well as the seniors who are about to graduate to help prepare us for tryouts. We learned a fun dance, a cheer, and a chant to do the day of tryouts. Unfortunately, we had a weather day so we did not get as much time as we usually get, but the UCA staff and seniors did a really good job at preparing us for tryout day. Tryouts are the beginning of a new cheer season which is very exciting. It’s the beginning of preparing for camp that we missed last year, but get to go to this year. It is also the beginning of planning 2021 Friday night football games as well as brainstorming different ways for our students to be more involved in school spirit and how we as a cheer squad can help Saint James achieve the best school spirit in Montgomery. It is truly exciting to see a sneak peek of what next school year will be like for the Saint James community in terms of school spirit.

The 2021-22 STJ Cheerleader selection will be announced Friday, March 18.

Queens of the Court

January 15, 2020 by Kathryn Bartlett

By Izabella Hernandez, STJ junior

It’s January and that means tennis tryouts! This week, the girls will tryout for JV and varsity tennis at Lagoon Park with coach Geoff Waring. Coach Waring says he is thrilled for the new season. Last year’s varsity team was mostly made up of graduating seniors, so this year is a fresh start for the team. They will be focusing more on skill development as they prepare for competition. The season will last until April, ending with sectionals and the statewide tournament. We’re wishing our girls good luck and go Trojans!

#WeAreSaintJamesSchool