ALL-STAR SPORTS WEEK: Barton duo looks to lead South to a rare victory
St. James star Natalie Barton hopes to lead the South basketball team to a rare win in Tuesday’s game at the Cramton Bowl Multiplex. (File Photo)
By TIM GAYLE
The Alabama All-Stars Sports Week games are a showcase for the state’s top talent, but the girls’ basketball game at the Multiplex on Tuesday doesn’t offer any unique all-star challenges for St. James senior Natalie Barton.
“She doesn’t have to show anything,” said her mother and coach, Katie Barton. “She’s already shown that she’s one of the best players in Alabama. She’s a first team all-state player, she’s a finalist for player of the year two years in a row so when we step out on that all-star court, there’s nothing special that needs to be done.
“On an all-star team, you’re playing with a lot of other great players, but Nat has had the privilege of doing that at the high school level. She’s used to playing with great players so there’s nothing overly special that you have to do in an all-star game besides be you.”
The South all-star team includes a pair of friends, former Prattville Christian and current Auburn High guard Kayden Carr along with former Catholic and current Stanhope Elmore guard Heaven Bailey, but Natalie Barton actually knows more players from the North squad, having teamed up in travel ball with Albertville guard Mylie Butler, Deshler guard Reece Davis, Good Hope guard Hannah Burks, Plainview guard Sawyer Kate Hulgan, Russellville guard Ella Copeland, Scottsboro guard Izzy Nelson and West Point forward Laklin Shadix.
“I’m going to be playing with a bunch of good players and the North team has a bunch of good players,” Natalie Barton said, “so it really means a lot. We’re going to be representing the South well. It’ll be a good game.”
The upcoming season will be the sixth for the leading scorer on the 2026 Class 3A state championship team, but it will be her first appearance as an all-star. Despite knowing few of her South teammates, Natalie Barton has no designs on taking the floor with any particular players.
“I’m just excited to be playing with all the girls,” she said. “I don’t have one in particular. I don’t know all of them that well, so I’m kind of excited to be playing with each and every one of them.
“We’re just going to go out and be competitive and have fun. It’s like what we talked about during the season, we’re going to enjoy all the moments. These are extra moments I get with my mom and extra moments I get with all of the South girls and the North girls, too.”
Katie Barton, an assistant coach for the Alabama-Mississippi All Star Game in 2023, will be coaching her first Alabama All-Stars Sports Week game as the head coach.
“I’ve been coaching in the AHSAA for 25 years, so to be recognized as an all-star coach in this game and to represent the south part of the state means a lot to me,” Katie Barton said. “I texted (the players) these are the first moments of their senior year so let’s go out and grab all those moments and make the best of it and represent the South the way it would make us proud to do.”
And while she has served as her daughter’s coach the past five years, it’s the first time the duo will work together in an all-star setting.
“For me to be able to experience that with Natalie is something fun,” Katie Barton said. “I think I need to take a step back and enjoy those moments a little bit more. Of course, she’s my daughter but when you’re in that coaching mode, it just doesn’t connect the same way. So sometimes I think I need to do a better job of stepping back and realizing that as a mom, I’m getting this opportunity with my daughter, not just as a coach coaching different high school girls.
“It’s special. I’m proud of her and the work she has put in and how steady she’s been over the years.
Her daughter, meanwhile, is grateful for the opportunity to team up with her coach in an all-star game.
“I’m really glad she’s the coach,” Natalie Barton said. “I know her standards and we’re going to play to the standard we play at.”
That standard has helped Natalie Barton to third place on the school’s all-time scoring list with 2,011 points, ranking behind only Leslie Claybrook (2,668 points in 1989) and former teammate Ava Card (2,272 in 2024). Barton needs 657 points to become the school’s career leader in points, but she also has 828 rebounds and more than 660 assists, an elite mix in statistical accomplishments for a point guard.
“I coach a lot of really good, passionate players,” Katie Barton said, “so when you’re playing with other like-minded players, the difference in you getting those rebounds is just a dog mentality. To think she could finish her career as the leading scorer in school history or second and finish with more than 1,000 career rebounds and close to 1,000 career assists, for me as a coach, that’s really fulfilling.”
And as far as any personal goals for the all-star game, Natalie Barton sounds a lot like a coach as she previews Tuesday’s game.
“I’m just going to go out and play my brand of basketball in this game,” she said. “I’m not really worried about the scoring because if you worry about the scoring then you’re going to press and it’s not going to be good.
“I’m really competitive so I’m going to go out and compete and give it my all.”
The South has won just four times in the 28-game history of the all-star series.
“That’s the goal, to win the game,” Natalie Barton said. “We’re going to go out and compete and give it our best effort but our goal is to win the game at the end of the day.”
30th ALABAMA ALL-STARS SPORTS WEEK
Monday
Golf, Arrowhead Country Club, 9 a.m.
Baseball (DH), DABOS Park, 4 p.m.
Tuesday
Cross Country, Gateway Park, 8 a.m.
Tennis, Lagoon Park Tennis Complex 5 p.m.
Girls Basketball, Multiplex at Cramton Bowl, 5 p.m.
Boys Basketball, Multiplex at Cramton Bowl, 6:45 p.m.
Wednesday
Softball (DH), Lagoon Park Field 6, 4 p.m.
Girls Soccer, Emory Folmar YMCA Soccer Complex, 5 p.m.
Boys Soccer, Emory Folmar YMCA Soccer Complex 7 p.m.
Thursday
Volleyball, Multiplex at Cramton Bowl 2 p.m.