By Sarah Turner, Sports editor 


In his final season as a Falcon in the spring of 2025, Adiel Melendez was one of the most dominant pitchers in the Gulf South Conference. He posted an ERA of 2.38 in 98.1 innings pitched, going 10-5 as a starter and being named first-team All-GSC and All-Region.  


And in July, Melendez became the 10th Falcon to sign as a free agent to a Major League Baseball team after inking a contract with the Atlanta Braves. 


But Melendez’s journey was far from easy. I...

By SARAH TURNER | Special to the Reporter 
DOUBLE SPRINGS – The Vincent Yellow Jackets’ season came to an end on Friday, Nov. 15 after a 25-20 loss against the Winston County Yellow Jackets.
“It hurts to lose,” Vincent coach Lucas Weatherford said. “I wanted to go a little bit further and make history for the school, but I can’t deny what the boys did.”
Undefeated Winston County had its stadium filled to the brim in order to watch the team take on Vincent.
Vincent entered the game with a 9-2 rec...

By Sarah Turner, Sports editor 


It’s gameday in Central Alabama, a feeling like no other for student-athletes across the country. 


Donning purple and gold, the Falcons will take to the court to compete for their university at the highest level. 


But it can be disheartening for Montevallo’s athletes to look around Central State Bank Arena and only see 300 faces in an arena built for 2,000.  


More than 500 student-athletes call Montevallo home, but most teams won’t even have that many...

By Sarah Turner, Sports editor 


Bright candlelight filled Central State Bank Arena as Falcon athletes gathered on Feb. 13 to honor the memory of Barrett Dempsey, who was a member of the University’s wrestling team. 


Dempsey, a freshman from Byhalia, Miss. passed away in a car accident on Feb. 11. Athletic Director Mark Richard broke the news to the team the following day. 


Maddie Taylor, a senior on UM’s softball team, presented the idea to the Student Athlete Advisory Committee, and as...

By Sarah Turner, Sports editor 


It’s 5 a.m. on a Monday morning. Nobody else on campus is awake, but members of the University of Montevallo’s men’s and women’s cross country teams’ alarms have all just gone off. Six, seven, sometimes eight or more miles on deck for the day, all finished before 8 a.m. classes start, six days a week, all semester long.  


This lifestyle is something graduate student Joseph Pitard has lived for six years now at UM. But Pitard said running has been a part of h...

Highlighting Montevallo women's soccer's extremely successful and historic season

By Sarah Turner, Sports editor 


With the summer departure of Montevallo’s first-ever strength and conditioning coach, Brad Bowen, the University’s athletic department had to work fast. Who would replace someone who had made an impact on so many UM athletes’ lives? It turned out they didn’t have to look very far.  


Blake Klotz was just 34 miles up the road, working as the Assistant Director of Athletic Performance for the University of Alabama-Birmingham’s women’s basketball team. He had sp...