With the 2024 southern show choir season having been wrapped up for a few weekends, it is time for this year's final set of show choir rankings for the southern circuit. In true show choir fashion, two extra voters were added to the finals voting panel in order to include a more thorough set of results. This set of placements reflects what the panel thought of the middle mixed division.
1st) Vestavia Hills “Singers” (2 first-place votes)
(Vestavia Hills High School Choral Department)
Making a late-season move in our middle division rankings, Vestavia Hills finishes as the top group in their division after going undefeated in their division and earning a third and fourth overall placement in both finals they competed in. Vestavia Hills also beat groups such as Tift County’s mixed group, Homewood’s womens group, Petal’s womens group, and Jackson Prep. With these results, Vestavia Hills edged out Northeast Jones for the top overall spot by a razor-thin margin.
2nd) Northeast Jones “Gold Horizons” (5 first-place votes)
(Northeast Jones Gold Horizons)
As previously mentioned, it was only by a razor-thin margin that Northeast Jones fell to the second overall spot in our middle division rankings after holding the first overall spot virtually all season. Don’t let this fool you, as Northeast Jones very well held serve in their own dominant season where they won numerous division titles and finished with two second-place overall finishes and a lone third overall placement. They also beat groups such as Northwest Rankin’s mixed group, Petal’s womens group, and NWR’s womens group.
3rd) South Jones “Company”
(South Jones Show Choir)
While having just two divisional top-placements in the four competitions they attended, South Jones finished the season with 3 consecutive 4th overall placements in 3 consecutive competitions. The lone event where they did not make finals was an absolutely stacked Petal Show Choir Invitational. They beat groups this year such as Madison Central’s mixed group, Petal’s treble group, and Oak Grove’s mixed group.
4th) Spain Park “Rhapsody In Blue”
After a year at Enterprise, Martez Tidwell took over at Spain Park for the departing Jim Schaeffer. Rhapsody in Blue notched an impressive season that saw them always place in the top three of the middle mixed division, including in an out-of-state contest at Biloxi. A finals appearance (fourth overall) and two Best Soloist awards at Auburn highlighted Spain Park's season.
5th) Albertville “CenterStage!”
For a group of its reputation, Albertville went pretty incognito this year. Longtime choreographer Mike Weaver was replaced with the duo of Kyle Aiden and Grace Pacheco. After competing five times last year, a quick spurt of three weekends in February was all the show choir scene saw of CS this year. A division sweep at Homewood in middle mixed was probably the best showing for Albertville in 2024.
6th) Homewood “Continuum”
Despite being comprised of exclusively freshmen, Continuum continues to mix it up with the best middle mixed choirs in the south. They came out swinging early, snagging a division win at Tallassee in January. While the group was done competing by February 10, the future of Homewood show choir continues to look strong.
7th) Briarwood “Radica”
Putting aside the disputed merits of a fire alarm-interrupted show at Auburn, Radica had a very successful season. For the second year in a row, Briarwood made the trip up to Nashville and won the Donelson Christian Academy competition, which is only open to groups with 35 or less performers. They were also division winners at Opelika and went to FAME Show Choir America.
8th) Hoover “Paradigm”
It's easy to forget about Hoover because of its early season. Paradigm performed on five straight weekends January through February, although only three of those were competitions. At Albertville, the group made finals and finished third. Should he return, next year will mark director John Kincaid's tenth year with the group.
9th) Sumrall “Legacy”
In the tenth season of direction under Jeffrey Coulter, Legacy was another small school fighting the big dogs in the middle mixed division. Sumrall was third overall at West Jones, beating South Jones in the process. Additionally, they routinely beat the group directly below them in the rankings, Pearl River Central.
10th) Pearl River Central “Central Attraction”
2024 was a season of change for PRC, as Hannah Morris took over for Haley Lambert and consolidated the show choir program down to one group. The new Central Attraction was still an unknown quantity pretty well into the season, as they only competed once before February 24. PRC was second overall at Oak Grove, scoring better than all of the small mixed groups there.
11th) Jasper “Phoenix”
Jasper started the season looking like a very real contender in the middle mixed division, taking choreography off Homewood Continuum at Tallassee. Phoenix also notched a finals appearance at Albertville and was third in division at Homewood, but it wasn't enough to push them further up the rankings with so many good groups.
12th) Appling County “Applause”
Armed with the longtime pairing of director Karen Davis and choreographer Damon Brown, Appling County winds up as the top Georgia group on this list. A division win at Tift County was the best placement the group achieved on the year, although they did claim thirds in division at both Tallassee and Enterprise.
13th) Rome “Grand Finale”
Rome was everywhere this year, competing in four states across five competition and placing everywhere from first in division to not in the placings at all. It was hard to get an accurate pulse on Grand Finale's season, where they also occasionally competed in small mixed.
14th) Bradley Central “Vocal Motion”
A pair of Tennessee schools round out the rankings. Bradley Central, located outside of Chattanooga in Cleveland, debuted on February 17 at Homewood. While that outing was a fourth in middle mixed, they closed the season with a second overall at Donelson Christian (to Briarwood) and a third overall at Hamilton (outside of Cincinnati in Ohio).
15th) Donelson Christian Academy “Legacy”
DCA had a rough go of it in the south this year. Legacy competed at Albertville and Jasper, but didn't make finals either time. A third place in middle mixed at Albertville and a third in small mixed at Warren Central in Indianapolis were highlights of DCA's season.
Receiving Votes: Pike Road "Prestige", Lakeside "Soundsation"
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