National Merit Finalists announced

The National Merit Scholarship Corporation this month announced the 2022 National Merit Finalists, including many students from across the Over the Mountain area.

Established in 1955, the National Merit Scholarship Corporation’s mission is to recognize and honor academically talented students of the United States. NMSC accomplishes its mission by conducting nationwide academic scholarship programs. High school juniors entered the 2022 competition by taking the 2020 Preliminary SAT/ National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test.

Since its founding, NMSC has recognized more than 3.4 million students and provided about 451,000 scholarships worth more than $1.8 billion.

Over the Mountain students named as finalists were:

Alabama School of Fine Arts: Mohammed Alzoubi, Trisha Bheemanathini, Tobias Guo, James Shi.

Altamont School: Audrey Williams, Alan Alderson, Jeffrey Youngson.

Homewood High School: Kate Gillum.

Hoover High School: Christopher Cheng, Kenneth Curlings, Shayaan Essani, Carys Gonzalez, Olurotimi Kukoyi, Sreekiran Nataraj, Adnan Porbanderwala, Samuel Temple, Sarah Xin, Jeffrey Yuan.

Mountain Brook High School: Julianne Abenoja, Caroline Allen, Jelks Cabaniss, Ivy Cobbs, Cory Fan, Amy Beth Hudson, Kate Ryan, Luke Turner, Amelia Tynes.

Spain Park High School: Michael Wolkow, Riley Luthin, Joseph Mudano.

Vestavia Hills High School: Maria Deng, Ranee Brady, Margaret Patton, Christina Sorochinsky, Catherine Kramer, Katelynn Holt, Savan Patel, Jonathan Wilson, Ethan Wylie, John Ham, Brian Chen, Frank Qiang, John Paul Pierre.

Alan Alderson

ALTAMONT HOMEWOOD

Audrey Williams Jeffrey Youngson Kate Gillum

MOUNTAIN BROOK

From left, front: Amy Beth Hudson, Ivy Cobbs, Kate Ryan, Julianne Abenoja, Amelia Tynes and Caroline Allen. Back: Jelks Cabaniss, Cory Fan and Luke Turner.

VESTAVIA HILLS From left, front: Maria Deng, Ranee Brady, Margaret Patton, Christina Sorochinsky, Catherine Kramer, Katelynn Holt and Savan Patel. Back: Jonathan Wilson, Ethan Wylie, John Ham, Brian Chen, Frank Qiang and John Paul Pierre.

SPAIN PARK

Riley Luthin Joseph Mudano Michael Wolkow

HOOVER

Christopher Cheng Kenneth Curlings Shayaan Essani Carys Gonzalez

Olurotimi Kukoyi Sreekiran Nataraj Adnan Porbanderwala Samuel Temple

Kyle Oliveira was sitting at the dinner table in early March when seemingly out of the blue his dad, Kaliffa Oliveira, asked him how he would feel about taking a trip to Brazil.

Kyle Oliveira’s immediate reaction was he had school and spring break was still a couple of weeks away, but of course he would like to go to Brazil, where Kaliffa Oliveira was born and still has relatives, including his mother.

Kaliffa Oliveira explained that it wasn’t a trip just to see relatives, but for Kyle Oliveira to compete in the Brazilian Wrestling Nationals at the request of Brazil’s national team.

“I was shocked,” said Kyle Oliveira, a 16-yearold sophomore wrestler at Spain Park High School. “It was very short notice, but I said sure.”

Kaliffa Oliveira said he had reached out to the Brazilian national team because of his daughter Yasmine Oliveira, who also wrestled for Spain Park. A senior this year, she won the 147-pound title during the 2022 Girls State Tournament and finished the season undefeated with a 21-0 record.

“Since she’s going to college to wrestle, I thought it would be good for her to compete for Brazil,” said Kaliffa Oliveira, who owns Gracie Barra Alabama gyms in Pelham and in Greystone and teaches Brazilian jiu-jitsu, judo and Muay Thai kickboxing.

“I had completed the registration for her and they asked me about Kyle,’ he added. “It was just three days’ notice. I got an email that they could get him in and I went online to check on airline tickets. They were cheaper than normal, so I booked a flight that day.”

Kyle Oliveira and his dad flew to Brazil the third week of March and it turned into a worthwhile trip. Despite being out-weighed by 40 to 45 pounds, the 6-foot-2, 190-pound Kyle Oliveira won double gold, capturing championships in both freestyle and Greco-Roman wrestling while going undefeated in seven matches.

“It was a really big deal,” Kyle Oliveira said. “They gave me the opportunity and I was able to take advantage of it.

“I just relied on my technique and fast movement, and I got great coaching from Shad Rissler and Matt Morey while training at Warrior Wrestling Club.”

Of course, Kaliffa Oliveira was ecstatic.

“I was on the Brazilian national judo team, so it’s been a dream for my kids to compete for Brazil,” Kaliffa Oliveira said. “I’m very proud.”

Kyle Oliveira’s performance came in front of one very interested spectator, his grandmother.

“I hadn’t seen her in four years,” Kaliffa Oliveira said of his mother, “so it was great to see her. It was her first time watching her grandson compete, so it was very special.”

The double gold means Kyle Oliveira will represent the Brazilian National Cadet team (U17) in the United World Wrestling Pan-American Championships June 24-26 in Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Kyle Oliveira posted a 25-14 record with 17 pins in the 195-pound weight class for Spain Park during the 2021-2022 season. He will leave in early June to train for the Pan-Am championships.

“It would be amazing if I could win,” Kyle Oliveira said. “I’ll have an opportunity for colleges to notice me and it would give me a great amount of recognition. I want to compete at the world level, in the Olympics and World Games.”

SPORTS ‘Really Big Deal’

Spain Park’s Kyle Oliveira Earns Spot to Wrestle for Brazil in Pan-American Championships

courtesy

Kyle Oliveira, left with his father Kaliffa.

Daughter Headed to Brazil

Yasmine Oliveira is headed to Brazil on April 28 and will compete on May 1, trying to earn a spot on the Brazilian U20 women’s wrestling team for the United World Wrestling PanAmerican Junior Championships July 8-10 in Oaxtepec, Mexico.

“It’s going to be pretty tough for her to make the team,” Kaliffa Oliveira said. “They have a couple of girls who compete internationally. Yasmine will have her hands full, but I think she can make it.”

Kyle Oliveira will be rooting heartily for his sister.

“It would be so cool if she made the team,” Kyle Oliveira said. “We train together. She’s a pretty good partner.”

John Callen Remembered as a Tennis Guy Who Tried to Make Tennis a Better Sport

By Solomon CrenShaw Jr.

John Callen, the Birmingham native who humbly picked up tennis after picking up wayward tennis balls and then went on to a 33-year term leading the Southern Section of the United States Tennis Association, passed away April 3. He was 69.

The USTA Southern executive director and chief operating officer battled cancer for more than a year. His wife, Frances, and their daughters were at his side at his home in Johns Creek, Georgia.

On the Talking Tennis Southern Style podcast in December, Callen told host Sam Crenshaw about playing in the woods behind Birmingham’s Highland Racquet Club and collecting tennis balls that had been hit over the fence.

“I took them up to the tennis pro (and) thought I would get some money for them,” Callen said of his offer to teaching pro Wade Herren. “He said, ‘I’ll give you one free lesson and a month of play here at the public tennis center in Birmingham.’ That’s how I got started.”

Callen built on those lessons and became one of the best players to come out of metro Birmingham. Mountain Brook native Pat DuPré, who went on to have a career as a professional player, remembers Callen first as a rival player before the two became friends.

“At first we were competitors and then later we basically became friends,” DuPré said. “As young tennis players, we faced each other on the other side of the net numerous times. I can remember as a kid, he actually was one of the few players you could consider a potential competitor of mine when I was young. There weren’t many around, but he was one of them.”

Callen became an outstanding junior tennis player. He won state junior titles before ultimately taking his talents to the tennis team at Georgia Tech.

Beyond his college days, Callen was doubles partners with Randy Stephens of Macon, Georgia, for 40 years. He said an oft-made point regarding Callen is that he seemed to know everything but never came off as a know-it-all.

Stephens said he liked to run important decisions by his doubles partner, having thoroughly researched the matter and narrowing his choices to A or B.

“John would wait, 30 seconds or so, think about it, and he’d say, ‘Randy, have you considered C?’” recounted Stephens, himself a former USTA Southern president and CEO. “He was such an innovative, unique thinker that he thought of things that weren’t obvious to everyone else.

“And when he proposed something, he … would always say, ‘Have you considered?’” he said. “Have you considered came up over and over and over from people’s (social media) comments of him offering advice in a very nonthreatening way.”

DuPré recalled Callen’s mother being a heavily involved volunteer in what was then the Alabama Tennis Association, the governing body of tennis in the state. He “got that bug from his mom,” he said of Callen’s decadeslong role leading USTA Southern, whose membership is a quarter of all of the USTA nationally.

“He was just a tennis guy,” DuPré said. “All he ever did was try to make tennis a better sport. His whole life was that way. His mom was the same way. Tennis was in his blood and all he ever wanted to do was make tennis a better deal.”

Jerrie Ciza Burns is executive director of USTA Alabama, formerly the Alabama Tennis Association. She remembers Callen as someone who never had bad things to say about anyone.

John Callen

‘The One That Calmed Everybody Down’

“Even when we were in our meetings and things would get crazy, he was always the one that calmed everybody down,” she said. “He’s just that type of person. Everybody loved John.”

Mobile’s Jeff Gray is a former president of USTA Alabama. He said Callen’s gift to everyone was that he was the smartest person in the room, while also being the most humble and the most unassuming.

“His gift to everybody that had to deal with him was, if there was some dilemma and you had trouble figuring out what to do, he always had a solution that made sense,” Gray said. “He always had a solution.”

Callen was dedicated to volunteerism in the Southern Section. He was a founder of the Georgia Tennis Hall of Fame, founding member of the Georgia Tennis Patrons Foundation and founding member of Atlanta Lawn Tennis Association Foundation. He also served as Georgia Tennis Association president from 1982 to ‘83.

Callen also was elected to ALTA’s board of trustees and the board of directors of the Georgia Professional Tennis Association. He coached winning Georgia Junior Davis Cup teams and served as USTA Southern vice president along with being a member of numerous USTA committees.

Callen was a member of four halls of fame: the Southern Tennis Hall of Fame (inducted in 2013), the Alabama Tennis Foundation Hall of Fame (2000), the Georgia Tennis Foundation Hall of Fame (2004) and the Georgia Professional Tennis Association Hall of Fame. He was also an honorary member of the Georgia Professional Tennis Association

Since his hiring to lead USTA Southern, the section’s membership has risen to a high of more than 187,000, representing 25% of the national membership. During that time, the section has been at the forefront of growing grassroots tennis, including fostering USTA League expansion and Junior Team Tennis formation and growth, and hosting an array of junior and adult tournaments in the section’s nine states.

EMMA KATE

From page 32 go out and make putts. It can be nervous, but I just go through my routine and do what I have to do.”

The Drive, Chip and Putt Nationals are conducted as a partnership between the Masters Tournament, the PGA of America and the USGA. It is part of a nationwide youth development program open to boys and girls ages 7 to 15.

Local qualifying began last May at 326 sites throughout all 50 states. The top three scorers in the local qualifiers advanced to subregional qualifiers, with the two top participants in each moving on to regional competition for berths in the National Finals at the home of the Masters.

On the Monday after the competition, Emma Kate got a chance to watch some of the professionals who were going to be competing in the Masters.

“I got the signatures of a lot of pro golfers,” she said excitedly. “It was fun to see them in person and watch them practice and see them on No. 16, skipping the ball across the water.”

Looking for Challenges

Emma Kate has been playing golf since she was 7, when her dad introduced her to the sport. She regularly plays at Pine Tree Country Club in Irondale, her home course, and her coach is Liz Mattioli at Greystone Golf and Country Club.

“It gives me challenges that I like to overcome,” Emma Kate said. “And it’s fun playing with friends.”

Her lowest score is a 36 over nine holes and she has a 13 handicap. Before her third-place finish in the Drive, Chip and Putt Nationals, she said, her biggest achievement was shooting par on nine holes during the Birmingham Golf Association tournament and her most memorable moment was winning the putt medal at Bent Brook, her favorite place to play, in the local qualifying.

She won the chip medal in the subregional at RTJ Capitol Hill in Prattville and the chip and putt medals in the regional qualifying at The Bears Club in Jupiter, Florida.

Emma Kate also competes in the PGA Junior League. She will be playing in a juniors event during the Regions Tradition senior tournament in May at Greystone.

Emma Kate also plays soccer, but golf is clearly her favorite sport. She hopes to one day play in high school and college.

“I would like that,” she said. “It’s my dominant sport.”

From page 32 Mountain to a scoreless tie early in the season.

The Patriots have a talented, experienced and fun-loving team. They have eight returning starters from their 2021 team and several seniors who have grown up playing together, including Crim, center back Lilly Lowery, center back Caroline Crimi, left back Mary Ellen Petrella, center midfielder Maddie Massie and left wing Rika Kellen.

“I feel like we have been playing together our entire lives,” Crim said. “We’ve got great team chemistry. We’re really close and we play for each other.”

Lowery and Crimi were freshman defenders on Homewood’s 2019 championship team.

Lowery, Crimi and Crim will play soccer in college, at South Alabama, Berry College and Oglethorpe University, respectively.

Homewood has two other seniors, right wing Selah LeDuc and forward Catherine Owen.

The Patriots also have a few veteran juniors, including right back Sunny Ferren, left wing Grace Studinka and forward Mary Siena McBride, one of two daughters of head coach Sean McBride on the team. The other is sophomore center-mid Annie McBride.

“I think we have a team filled with great personalities,” Sean McBride said. “They jelled quickly this season and they all have worked so hard. It’s a collective thing.

“They have so much fun getting ready to play, playing music and doing silly dances. They’re a great bunch of kids.”

Homewood was scheduled to play Chelsea Tuesday on the road in its final area game, then close the regular season Thursday with a home game against Hewitt-Trussville.

The postseason begins on April 28 with the first round of sub-state. McBride believes his team will have a chance to erase last year’s disappointment.

“We’ve got to stay humble and stay focused,” he said. “The first thing we have to do is outwork our opponent and keep our feet on the ground. Every game presents challenges, but we have a pretty focused group.”

Journal photo by Jordan Wald

Rika Kellen is one of eight returning starters from Homewood’s 2021 team.

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ELITE SOCCER TRYOUTS & CAMPS

HVS PRE-TRYOUT CAMP Boys & Girls: Ages 2011-2004 Dates: May 12-13

HVS TEAM TRYOUTS Boys & Girls: Ages 2011-2004 Dates: May 14-15

ALL DATES OPEN TO ALL PLAYERS FROM ANY CLUB!

John Callen remembered as a tennis guy who tried to make tennis a better sport Page 30

Spain Park’s Kyle Oliveira earns spot to wrestle for Brazil in Pan-American Championships Page 30

SPORTS

Thursday, April 21, 2022 ❖ OVER THE MOUNTAIN JOURNAL

IN SYNC

Close-Knit Homewood Girls Soccer Hopes Team Chemistry Produces a State Title

Emma Kate Rice was one of 10 golfers who competed in the 10-11 girls division. She finished third and had the time of her young life.

Homewood is ranked No. 1 in Class 6A in the Alabama Coaches’ Poll and No. 2 in the Super Poll behind Class 7A No. 1 Oak Mountain (17-1-1). Junior forward Mary Siena McBride, above, in last week’s 6-0 victory against Chelsea at Waldrop Stadium.

By RuBin E. GRant

The Homewood girls soccer team has been on a mission this season.

After narrowly missing out on the school’s second state title in 2021, the Patriots are highly motivated to hoist the championship trophy this spring.

The Patriots played regulation and two overtimes before falling 2-1 in a shootout (5-4) to St. Paul’s Episcopal in the Alabama High School Athletic Association Class 6A championship game last year.

“We know what it feels like to lose in the state championship game and we don’t want to feel that way again,” senior goalkeeper Katie Crim said. “We didn’t have our best game in the state championship game last year, so play.”

The hard work and togetherness is paying dividends. Homewood is ranked No. 1 in Class 6A in the Alabama Coaches’ Poll and No. 2 in the Super Poll behind Class 7A No. 1 Oak Mountain (17-1-1).

The Patriots entered this week — the final week of the regular season — with a 14-2-1 overall record. They also were 5-0 in Class 6A, Area 9, following a 6-0 victory against Chelsea last Friday at Waldrop Stadium.

Homewood’s only losses have been against Class 7A teams, 2-1 to Thompson and 1-0 to Oak Mountain. Homewood also battled Oak

‘We know what it feels like to lose in the state championship game and we don’t want to feel that way again.’

HOMEWOOD SENIOR GOALKEEPER KATIE CRIM

MASTER Accomplishment

Mountain Brook Youngster Finishes Third in Drive, Chip and Putt Nationals at Augusta

By RuBin E. GRant

Emma Kate Rice might be only 11 years old, but she already knows her way around a golf course.

During Masters Week, she got a chance to compete at the prestigious Augusta National Golf Club in the Drive, Chip and Putt National Finals on April 3.

A field of 40 boys and 40 girls competed in eight age divisions. Emma Kate was one of 10 golfers Emma Kate also who competed in the 10-11 girls competes in the division. She finished third and had the time of her young life. PGA Junior League.

“It was really fun,” said Emma She will be playing Kate, a fifth grader at Brookwood Forest Elementary in Mountain in a juniors event Brook. “Getting out there was real- during the Regions ly great. Being able to come in Tradition senior third was exciting. I was proud of myself.” tournament in May

And so were her parents, Chris at Greystone.and Allison Rice.

“She did something really great,” Allison Rice said. “It was an amazing accomplishment at such a young age, and she came within two inches of winning the whole thing.”

“We’re very proud,” Chris Rice said. “She shocked us overcoming such a big challenge with a number of people in the crowd.”

The “big challenge” came during the putting competition. Emma Kate was in last place after the drive and chip, but she jumped in the standings when she sank a 30-foot putt.

“I was really excited, the most excited I’ve ever been,” she said.

Emma Kate loves putting more than anything else on the course.

“Putting comes natural for me,” she said. “It’s not easy, but it’s fun to See EMMA KATE, page 30