Tragedy on the field

Friday night’s American football season opener left a family, school and community devastated after Morgan Academy quarterback Caden Tellier suffered a head injury and died Saturday, AL.com’s Ben Thomas reports.

Morgan Academy is in Selma. Details of the injury have not yet been released, but principal Dr. Bryan Oliver said Tellier was airlifted to UAB after a tackle resulted in a serious brain injury.

Saturday afternoon, his family released a statement on social media: “Our boy, Caden Tellier, met Jesus face to face. We appreciate all of your prayers and pray for them for the difficult days ahead.”

Caden Tellier was only 16 years old.

Church of the Highlands

The largest church in Alabama is making a permanent home in Daphne, AL.com’s Margaret Kates reports for The Birmingham News’ daily digital edition.

Church of the Highlands paid $4.6 million for 27 acres on Highway 181. Construction on the new campus is expected to begin next spring and be completed in the summer of 2026.

The church has been holding local Sunday services since 2018, with some 900 people attending services at the Daphne Civic Center.

Church of the Highlands has more than 20 locations in Alabama and Georgia.

The enemy of the pine tree

The southern pine beetle is having quite a summer. The Alabama Forestry Commission has issued a warning about the bad bug after nearly 5,000 “problem areas” were identified across the state, reports Lawrence Specker of AL.com.

The “problem areas” have an average of 191 dead trees each. This amounts to what the AFC is calling a pine beetle epidemic, the worst we’ve had in 23 years. The counties with the most spots identified so far are Bibb, Calhoun, Choctaw, Clay Colbert, Coosa, Franklin, Lamar, Lawrence, Marion, Perry, Randolph, Talladega and Winston. The AFC announcement said the worst outbreaks include a portion of Bankhead National Forest and the Oakmulgee District of the Talladega National Forest.

Pine beetles usually colonize a damaged or otherwise infested pine tree, lay eggs and tunnel under the bark, often killing it. The U.S. Forest Service said the 1999-2002 outbreak cost the timber industry more than $1 billion.

And back then we still used paper.

Control can be achieved by clearing the affected areas and burning the felled pines.

Portal conversation

The transfer portal has led to some colorful quotes in sports stories over the past week, reports Nick Kelly of AL.com.

A big one was when Chuck Martin, who coaches The Other Miami (the one in Ohio), accused Alabama of illegally recruiting a place kicker. Lou Groza Award winner Graham Nicholson transferred from The Other Miami to the Tide after the spring.

Martin: “Alabama stole our kicker. They illegally recruited our kicker and stole it from us, and that’s a fact. We pretend it’s not true. We live in this la-la world, like, ‘Hey, let’s not talk…’ I don’t know why. Everybody knows what’s going on.”

Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer was asked to respond. Here’s what he did: “I don’t know anything about that, I guess, that comment. He went into the portal and we contacted him, so that’s how it goes, right? We did everything we had to do.”

And over the weekend, ESPN’s Nick Saban, who some may remember as coach of the Tide, had this to say about people from other schools looking for players when he left the program: “When I retired, there were people camping out in Tuscaloosa trying to get players into the portal. If they wanted to see if someone was manipulating, they should have done a little investigation there.”

More Alabama News

Born on this date

In 1916, “mob queen” Virginia Hill van Lipscomb. She is most associated with Bugsy Siegel and has been portrayed in films by Dyan Cannon and Annette Bening.

In 1959, retired astronaut Kay Hire from Mobile set out.

Quiz Answers

Here are the answers and results from Friday’s news quiz:

What unofficial weather phenomenon has much of Alabama experienced this week?

• False fall 67.1%
• Blue moon cold 19.1%
• Late summer 11.0%
• False spring 2.9%

Keith Urban recently gave a free pop-up concert in the parking lot of which venues?

• Buc-ee’s 94.2%
• Wawa value 4.6%
• Stuckeys 0.6%
• Wesley’s booby trap 0.6%

Carnival Cruise Lines recently announced its first-ever cruise from Mobile, ending in the city.

• Seattle 75.1%
• Rio de Janeiro 16.2%
• Myrtle Beach 5.2%
• Cape Cod 3.5%

The Flora-Bama Lounge on the Gulf Coast on the Florida-Alabama border recently celebrated the anniversary of its founding. How long has it been around?

• 60 years 69.4%
• 40 years 20.2%
• 80 years 6.9%
• 100 years 3.5%

The mayor and city council of this Alabama city have been at odds for years. Meetings have led to tension, insults, and even a punch-up. A recent attempt to indict the mayor for withholding city information failed, and a lawsuit is underway to oust him.

Which city am I talking about?

• Tarrant 90.2%
• Fort Payne 4.0%
• East Aboga 3.5%
• Ozark-2.3%

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