19-year-old Auburn student crowned Miss Hoover 2023

A 19-year-old Auburn University student from Citronelle was crowned Miss Hoover 2023 at the Hoover Library Theatre Sunday night.

Mary-Coker Green, a sophomore who is studying agriculture business and economics, was chosen from among 12 contestants. She won a $5,000 college scholarship and a chance to compete in the Miss Alabama 2023 competition next summer.

Meanwhile, 16-year-old Karrington Channell, a senior at Thompson High School in Alabaster, was crowned Miss Hoover’s Outstanding Teen for 2023. She was among eight contestants and won a $1,000 scholarship and will compete to become Miss Alabama’s Outstanding Teen for 2023 in March.

Both the Miss Hoover and Miss Hoover’s Outstanding Teen competitions are “open” competitions, meaning the contestants do not have to live in Hoover. They can live anywhere in Alabama.

Green, however, did formerly live in Hoover when she was in grades 3-8 and placed first runner-up in Miss Hoover’s Outstanding Teen competition seven years ago.

“It’s kind of cool to be able to come back seven years later and win Miss Hoover,” Green said. “I’m excited to be back where I grew up for a portion of my life.”

Green said she hopes to attend law school and study agriculture law and policy. She grew up on a cut flower farm, while her father’s father had a fish farm, and her mother’s father was a cattle farmer, she said.

She potentially could follow in their footsteps, but if not, she also might try to represent farmers with governments, she said.

Green also won the talent portion of the Miss Hoover 2023 competition Sunday night, playing Charlie Daniels’ “The Devil Went Down to Georgia” on the fiddle.

Green shared with the audience how she went through a tremendous change last year after surviving a head-on collision that claimed the life of the man that hit her. The experience threw her “into a world of trauma and PTSD,” she said.

Since then, she has founded an organization to try to change how people view mental illness, partnered with national organizations on the issue and written a children’s book in an effort to give people hope in the midst of trauma, she said.

After the car accident, as she was finishing her freshman year on her own, she realized the things she had been choosing to tell herself were extremely unhealthy, she said.

“I looked in the mirror and told myself I wasn’t pretty enough, I wasn’t good enough,” she said.

Competing in competitions sponsored by Miss Alabama helped her realize she was enough, she said.

“I learned that the best thing you can do to maintain a healthy mental and emotional lifestyle is seeing yourself in a healthy manner,” Green said. “It makes a world of difference, and I’m excited to continue on this path, sharing with other people what I’ve found through what I’ve done.”

The first runner-up for Miss Hoover 2023 was Emma Terry, a junior at the University of Alabama at Birmingham studying accounting and finance. The second runner-up was Emma Walters, a senior at Briarwood Christian High School, and the third runner-up was Ibby Dickson,  a senior at the University of Alabama studying news media and political science.

MISS HOOVER’S OUTSTANDING TEEN

Channell, the new Miss Hoover’s Outstanding Teen, performed a tap dance medley to Billie Holiday’s “Swing, Brother, Swing” and Ella Fitzgerald’s “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing).”

Channell shared how she has gotten involved with an organization called Dancers Against Cancer. When she was 7 years old, one of her grandmothers was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, she said.

“Her favorite thing to do when she was going through chemo treatments was to watch her grandchildren dance, so from a young age, I’ve always known I wanted to be an advocate for dancers who may have been affected by this disease or have it themselves,” Channell said.

The first runner-up for Miss Hoover’s Outstanding Teen 2023 was Grier Feldman, a freshman at Oak Mountain High School, while the second runner-up was Charlee Reid, a freshman at Helena High School.

Feldman also won the talent portion of the teen competition with a Latin/jazz dance and baton twirling performance to “Man of La Mancha.”

RISING STARS

Four girls ages 7-12 also were chosen to go with Green and Channell to their state competitions. The “Rising Stars” going with Green to the Miss Alabama competition will be Izzie Waldron and Josie Hicks, while the Rising Stars going with Channell to the Miss Alabama’s Outstanding Teen competition will be Taytum Teague and Anna Clare Huddleston.

The emcee for the 2023 Miss Hoover and Miss Hoover’s Outstanding Teen competitions was Lindsay Fincher, who was just crowned the new Miss Alabama 2022 in July. Hailey Adams, Miss Alabama’s Outstanding Teen 2022, also was present.

Judges for the Miss Hoover 2023 competition were: Traycee Chancellor, a recruiter and trainer for potential foster and adoptive parents for the Chilton County Department of Human Resources; Ashley Gann, chief meteorologist for CBS 42 (and Mrs. Alabama International 2017); Candy Landrum, a retired educator and administrator in public and private schools and colleges; Tanya Suzette Pettway, a dancer and former TV reporter and producer; and Verlindsey Brown Stewart, a stewardship coordinator at Alabama A&M University.

Judges for the Miss Hoover’s Outstanding Teen competition were: Melissa Foster, a musician in the Alabama Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame; Burt Helton, a former school administrator in the Florence area; Lori Patterson, CEO of the YMCA of Chilton County; Tiara Pennington, a student at the University of Alabama School of Law (and Miss Alabama 2019 and 2020);  and Pamela Roberts, director of the Miss Shelby County scholarship program.