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Spring Creek Charter Academy (SCCA) head softball coach Anna Barber has been selected as the Positive Athlete’s “Most Positive” girl’s coach in the 2023-2024 Southwest Georgia class. 

Barber displayed characteristics such as having “an optimistic attitude,” “servant leadership” and “a heart for others” among other things.

Barber said she knew she had been nominated for the recognition, but wasn’t expecting to win.

“Honestly, I started crying,” Barber said, referencing when she found out she won. “Education is hard, and it was a really hard day, and you question a lot of times, just, where you need to be. It was like a sign, like a reminder of who I am to my softball girls, and just a really good reminder that I am their coach and their coach for a reason… It was a blessing, for sure, to get it on the day that I got it.”

Barber is the head coach for the Stallions’ softball team, which she led starting four years ago. SCCA was founded in 2019, and the school has slowly grown its campus and student offerings in the time since.

“We’re having to build everything from scratch and our softball program was one of the first programs that started up here,” said Marcus Singletary, SCCA’s baseball and football coach. “She’s gone from a group of girls that not many had played, to a group of girls that can compete that are going into a region next year. She’s way ahead of the other sports here.”

Singletary described Barber as “one of the most positive people” he’s been around.

“All the girls love her,” Singletary said. “Not only is she a great coach, just overall she’s a great educator and we’re lucky to have her.”

Barber said she couldn’t do what she does alone, and that her team displays the same qualities she was chosen for.

“The group of girls that we started with, they really are the most uplifting and positive group I’ve ever seen,” Barber said. “They definitely make it easier”

Barber is also a physical education at SCCA. Stallions’ Athletic Director Tim Spooner said he has been witness to Barber’s commitment to her athletes and students.

“She cares about her students,” Spooner said. “She gets to know each of them by name, first of all, and then she gets to know them as a person. There’s been lots of times where she’s talking with students and trying to help them solve problems and work things out that they’ve got going on.”

Spooner described Barber as someone who you “definitely want on your team.”  

“She’s confident, she’s bright,” Spooner said. “She’s willing to do anything we need to do and jumps right in.”

 

The following is information from a Positive Athletes press release 

ATLANTA, GA (April 24, 2024) – For the tenth consecutive year, the Positive Athlete organization has named their Regional Award Winners for the Southwest GA Region, where Student-Athletes representing 24 different boys’ and girls’ high school sports, two coaches, and Brooks County High School have been selected as the “Most Positive” in their categories. Positive Athlete’s Southwest GA Region consists of schools located in the following counties: Baker, Ben Hill, Berrien, Brooks, Calhoun, Clay, Colquitt, Cook, Decatur, Dougherty, Early, Echols, Grady, Irwin, Lanier, Lee, Lowndes, Miller, Mitchell, Quitman, Randolph, Seminole, Terrell, Thomas, Tift, Turner & Worth. In total, 24 different public and private high schools were represented amongst the winners for this year’s awards cycle. 

This year, over 6,800 nominations from coaches, principals, athletic directors, teachers, and parents were submitted for the Positive Athlete program state-wide, representing over 420 public and private high schools. Former Forest Park High School, University of Georgia and Pittsburgh Steelers star, Hines Ward, and local businessman Scott Pederson created Positive Athlete as a movement for more positivity in youth sports. In addition to excellence on the field, each nominated Positive Athlete was required to show characteristics such as an optimistic attitude, teammate encouragement, servant leadership, heart for others, ability to admit imperfections, giving 100 percent all the time, and realizing the team as more important than the individual. 

In addition to recognizing the athletes and coaches, Brooks County High School in Quitman was honored as the Most Positive High School in the region after an impressive number of quality nominations. 

All of these award winners will be recognized on campus at their local high schools, and now have a chance to win a state-wide award in their sport category, which will be announced in early May. The 2024 Georgia Positive Athlete Awards will be held in early June, and will be a night in which all scholarship winners and state-wide award winners are recognized.

Positive Athlete, INC. is an organization based in Georgia that seeks to promote the benefits of positivity to young athletes around the country through awards, scholarships and special opportunities. Positive Athlete Georgia has awarded regional winners of Positive Athlete awards around the State of GA for the past 10 years, in which over $350,000 in scholarships have been awarded. Positive Athlete also has an awards program in Western Pennsylvania.