Youth basketball: Cold Springs' Myrex competes in AAU 12U national championship

By Brandon Shields

When players in the girls basketball program at Cold Springs High School say they will play the best they can find anywhere, they apparently mean it.

Abby Myrex proved that point this week as she played with the Southern Starz 12U AAU basketball team based in Huntsville in the national championship tournament in Rochester, Minn.

The Southern Starz were one of 62 teams who made it to the national championship. They first competed in pool play, and the top two teams from 15 different pools moved on to play for the championship, while the other 32 teams competed in the classic bracket, which is a double-elimination tournament.

The Southern Starz were in the classic bracket and finished in fourth place after winning one of two games Friday.

Myrex said she is having a lot of fun in the tournament with the rest of the team against good competition.

“We are having a good time here, and we’re playing really well right now,” Myrex said. “We have nine girls on the team, and everybody is really good.

“There is not one or two players the rest are depending on to do all the scoring. Anybody can score at anytime.”

Myrex, who will be in eighth grade this year at Cold Springs, got involved in the Southern Starz organization after her older sister, Georgia, started playing with the older team.

The team’s coach, Doug Bush, invited the younger sister to join the 12U team, and she splits her time between the Southern Starz and the Cullman Storm, which is based out of Cullman County.

Abby Myrex said she and the rest of the team, which mostly comes from Huntsville with a couple from Lawrence County and one from Tennessee, are enjoying the weather in Minnesota. Although she said it is similar to the weather in Alabama on some days.

“Some days it’s chilly, and then some days it’s pretty warm,” Myrex said. “The one thing they don’t have up here is the humidity that is in Alabama.”

The team has gotten to take in the sights in Minnesota. They traveled an hour-and-a-half from Rochester to Minneapolis and went to the Mall of America with three stories packed with 600 stores and an amusement park before getting to sit court-side at a WNBA game.

The Southern Starz finished with a record of 5-4 while playing teams from South Dakota, Missouri, Virginia, New York and other places.

One of their losses was to the defending champion Missouri Valley Eclipse, by a score of 45-30. Their 45 points was the lowest point total they have been held to in two years.

“Most of the games have been within five or 10 points,” Myrex said. “There are a lot of good teams here, and every game is a tough game.”

The Southern Starz started their day Friday with a win over the Michigan Shock by a score of 42-35.

However, their day and tournament ended when they played the Dayton (Ohio) Superstars and fell 37-29.

“This was a good experience and it was different basketball than what I was used to,” Myrex said. “It was a lot faster than what I am used to.

“It was almost like college.”

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