By Sydney Jackson

Lots going on at Bayside these past few weeks! Athletics are thriving, academics are progressing, and students are getting more and more involved in their community!

Bayside boys cross country team recently won the state championship.

Stewart Shoemaker (fifth), Dennis Dowd (ninth), Will Dorriety (10th), and Gill Walton (14th) earned All-State honors. J.D. Hammond also finished 17th, capping off the race. All of these boys worked very hard to achieve this. John Stassen, Zachary Huey, Robert Colville and Nicholas Norman all had great races as well and greatly contributed to this team.

The Bayside girls cross country team also did exceptionally well, placing second in the state. Celeste Sullivan ran away from the field early to win the individual state title, running a fantastic time of 19:47 and leading the Lady Admirals to a runner-up trophy.

Izzy Harrison and Charlotte Gill also earned All-State honors with Crawford Hodgson and Courtney Payne rounding out our scoring five.

Bailey Wilson, Sarah Citrin, Hannah Stone, Alexa Bode and Sarah Shankle ran extremely well, contributing to another great cross country season at Bayside Academy.

As the 2007 football season ends, former Admiral athletes recently came together for a sports reunion. The Bayside Academy Athletic Hall of Fame Banquet was held Nov. 17 at Rock Creek Golf Club in Fairhope. The Class of 2007 is Peter Kittrell, ’85; Murray McPherson Douglas, ’86; Keely Waggoner McGee, ’91; Joseph Oliver Weller, ’95; and Charles W. Miller, honorary.

The second grade recently went on a trip to Dauphin Island Sea Lab and Estuary. These great educational experiences complement Bayside’s science classes.

The annual Fine Arts at Bayside holiday cards contest is over and the Christmas cards are on sale soon! Students submitted their idea of a great holiday card and the results will be ready to sell Nov. 26 in sets of 12 (one from each grade, first through 12th). They will only cost $12 per set and can be picked up from the main building or the upper school offices on Bayside’s campus.

Megan McCory, Sarah Nobles and Morgan Miller represented Bayside at the annual Veterans Day Celebration at Battleship Park in Mobile.

These girls and representatives from every fourth-grade class from the Mobile and Baldwin counties were in a flag parade, then went on to write essays about their day’s activities. In addition to that, they wrote about their ideas on American Veterans. The fourth grade has had many different lessons on American Veterans.

Fourth-grade teacher Mrs. Kalaris shared her experiences living on an army post in West Germany in the early 1980s. Bayside also had a student assembly to honor our veterans. Among our special guests were soldiers from the National Guard stationed in Mobile.

Bayside students involved in Santa-America — a year-round program where volunteers dressed as Santa Claus visit terminally ill children — went to Elf Training in the Media Center on Monday. These students are Hope Barnard, Keifer Gingles, Elizabeth Gravlee, Dorothy Griffith, TJ Julian, Michael Latady, Maret Miller, Alex Phipps, Michael Stinebaugh, Christina Tarwater, Anna Todd, Ethan Lentz, Lach Huey, Ian Sheilds, Jessica McAlpine, Hillary Donnell, Mary Chatherine Mosteller, Alexa Bode, Win McBride, Wilson Delany, Corey Dean and Ashlee Drinkard. These students are contributing to a great cause on the Gulf Coast and should be congratulated.