By DAVE DOMESCIK | Staff Writer

PELHAM – The Pelham Board of Education celebrated Panther Pride at a recent meeting, recognizing student achievements across Pelham City Schools for the month of March.

“We celebrated student leaders, impressive individual achievements, statewide awards in culinary and broadcast competitions, outstanding honors in choir, visual arts and band and lots more,” read a statement from Pelham City Schools’ Facebook page.

PCS had various winners in the Shelby County Cookoff, with students winning first place in the beef, dairy and poultry categories. Students also won second place in the dairy dessert and beef categories.

Bryleigh Brown, a student at Pelham Park Middle School, won first place in the beef category, and her dish earned a spot in the State Beef Cookoff which will take place in April.

Addison Muir, a student at PHS, won a trove of individual honors at the Alabama State Twirling Championships. She was a winner in Pageant of Alabama, won first place in Open and State Strut, first place in the Pageant of America’s No Drop Solo, second place in Open Solo and fourth place in Open and State 2 Baton.

In athletics, Pelham Park Middle School student Sipho Mashego was a first-place seed at the Shelby County Varsity Tennis Tournament. PHS junior Tee King was also honored for her achievements on the basketball court, being named First-Team All-State for Class 6A Girls Basketball.

The meeting also honored the winners of the Miss PHS Pageant, which was held at the Pelham High School auditorium on Saturday, March 1. Deonn McGee won Miss PHS, while Nyla Dickens was first runner-up. Emma Grace Morgan won Jr. Miss PHS, while Maggie Alvis was first runner-up for that awards.

Morgan also won Miss Photogenic, while Angelia Hines won the People’s Choice Award. Brenna Vickery won Best Interview, London Collins won Miss Congeniality and Robert Flores won Best Escort, rounding out the awards. On the men’s side, Prince May was crowned the 2025 Mr. PHS.

On the academic side, Cal Messer and Baker Fanklin, two PHS students, were chosen to represent the school at the Capstone Leadership Academy. The academy gives 10th graders opportunities to build knowledge, apply newly acquired skills and foster relationships with peers from across Alabama.

In the arts, Anthony Garcia Flores and Innaya Shafique, both from PHS, won awards at the Visual Arts Achievement Program. Flores won first place in the New Media category, while Shafique was an honorable mention in the Painting category.

Elementary school students from Pelham Oaks and Pelham Ridge had the opportunity to participate in the Engaging Elementary Engineers Competition in March. Students tackled hands-on engineering challenges with an “Off to the Races” theme. Pelham Ridge won second place in the Dash’s Pit Crew Challenge and was also the Overall Flag Winner at the event.

Emily Wester, a track and field athlete at PHS, was also honored for making it to the New Balance Nationals Indoor Meet, held Saturday, March 15 in Boston. The event is an 800-meter run featuring top athletes from across the country.

Pelham Park Middle School and PHS’s choir ensembles earned superior ratings at the State Choral Performance, and the PHS Culinary Competition Team won first place at the Alabama ProStart Invitational Culinary Competition.

The culinary team prepared three dishes in a one-hour competition timeframe, competing against teams from across the state. With the win, the team will now compete against schools from across the country in a national competition in Baltimore in May.

Rounding out the accolades, students in Pelham Park Middle School’s band received excellent ratings in the music performance assessment from the Alabama Bandmasters Association. Finally, broadcast students from the PHS Productions team recently attended the Alabama Scholastic Press Association State Convention on the campus of the University of Alabama, winning big at the event.

PHS Productions earned several first, second and third place individual awards in categories such as broadcast news, sports reporting, podcasting and yearbook design. Furthermore, the overall broadcast of Panther Playback and the PHS Pinnacle Yearbook also received Superior Ratings, while two PHS broadcast news segments qualified for the state competition in Mobile.

For more information on the Pelham Board of Education, visit Pelhamcityschools.org/about_us/board_of_education.