MORE THAN ONE: Six seniors lead St. James to first girls soccer title in school history

The Brightwells, Coach Charlie and Katie, led St. James to the Class 1A-3A championship in Huntsville. (File Photo)

By TIM GAYLE

As St. James motored toward a state championship in girls’ soccer, Katie Brightwell was the face of the program, an all-star soccer player who established a new state record in career goals scored.

But it was the Trojans’ defense that made the team almost unbeatable, featuring three of the six seniors that returned from last year’s loss to Westminster-Oak Mountain in the finals with a determination to finish the mission this year.

“In order to get back to the final four and to correct what we didn’t get right the first time, we had to be better in the midfield,” St. James coach Charlie Brightwell said. “Giving up seven goals in 19 matches …. that was kind of a talking point all year. We were good enough to keep teams from scoring on us. And we needed to take that as a pride thing and make that a focus where as long as we could score one or two goals a game, we were going to win.

“We had six returning seniors -- seven total, but one was new this year. We lost a few kids from last year … so we were a new group. We started out in a new system. We were in a 4-3-3 last year. We went to a 3-5-2 this year to get back into two up top and pairing up as opposed to spreading out. And we went to a three-back (on defense) because we were blessed to have three very athletic kids who could play in the back -- the twins, Hope and Hannah McCain, and KK Corley.

“Then we played the two holding mids in front of them, Sana Shuford, a five-year starter, and Reagan King. They were both tremendous.”

The Trojans’ only loss this season was a 2-1 setback to Capital City Conference rival Montgomery Academy. Between Montgomery Academy, St. James and Trinity, a Capital City Conference team has played in the 1A-3A girls’ finals (or its predecessor, the 1A-4A finals) in 11 of the past 13 championships, winning nine.

“The soccer in Montgomery is more on the private school side,” Brightwell said. “When you go to Birmingham, you get a few private schools but it’s more the big public schools. In Huntsville, the better schools are the 6A and 7A schools. We run into a lot of teams here and out of the south where the strength is in the smaller schools. Each year, we play against these local teams and we’ve challenged each other for the last decade.”

The Trojans’ 17-game schedule included 15 different opponents, 12 of which earned postseason berths in the playoffs. St. James registered shutouts in its final eight games, including a 23-0 scoring advantage in the playoffs. 

St. James started its playoff run with a 4-0 win over Prattville Christian Academy. The Trojans had defeated the Panthers in a mercy rule game earlier in the season, but struggled in the first round of the playoffs.  

“They did some things we weren’t expecting, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise,” Brightwell said, “because it made us go back and evaluate a few things and fix a few things that we may not have noticed otherwise. One of those was our spacing in the midfield and the backs. Once we got that straightened out, (the midfielders) pretty much won every 50-50 that came their way.

The defense was so dominant at times that senior goalkeeper Katie Irving spent long stretches between shots on goal.

“Our back line, our two holding mids, our goal keeper were extremely strong throughout the year,” Brightwell said, “and that’s what set us up to be a very dangerous team because we’re a handful to deal with on the attacking side as well.”

In Huntsville, the Trojans scored a 7-0 win over St. Luke’s Episcopal in the semifinals. Katie Brightwell scored five goals and added an assist on a Natalie Barton goal. Hailey Vance had a pair of assists, one to Brightwell and one to Barton, and Shuford assisted on another Brightwell goal.

Two days later, the Trojans won their first state championship in girls’ soccer with a 3-0 win over Donoho. Brightwell assisted on a Molly Phillips’ goal for a 1-0 lead and Mary Grace Hixon assisted on goals by Brightwell and KK Corley for a 3-0 win.  

Brightwell finished her prep career with 259 goals, which ranks in the top five nationally, and finished the season with 71 goals, which ranks seventh in state history.

After two consecutive trips to the state finals, St. James’ soccer program will be elevated to Class 4A by Competitive Balance Factor in 2024-26 and will have several large holes to fill, not the least of which is replacing Katie Brightwell.

“We still have the same goals in front of us next year,” Brightwell said. “It’ll be a big rebuilding year, we know that. We worked on a lot of (replacing Katie Brightwell) this year for that reason. Katie scored a lot of the goals, 71 out of the 108. Next year, we’ll be a little bit more like we were in the past, a little more creative as a team. We won’t be as reliant on one player.”