Tuscaloosa Daily: Senior Night For Tide Gymnastics And More

Good Morning Tuscaloosa!

In today's Daily, we have coverage of Alabama gymnastics' hard-fought loss at home on Senior Night to the top-ranked Florida Gators, while also providing some insights into what I'm keeping on my mind as the week winds down.

First, today's weather:

Partly sunny, becoming increasingly sunny throughout the day. Tuscaloosa residents can expect a high near 62 and a low around 36.

Here are the top 5 stories today in Tuscaloosa

1. Alabama gymnastics saw memorable performances but came up short Friday night in an emotional home loss to the undefeated, No.1-ranked Florida Gators at Coleman Coliseum. (Katie Windham, Bama Central).

2. Tuscaloosa City Schools announced plans to continue with its current Monday through Thursday schedule of in-person classes for the rest of the 2020-21 school year. (Tuscaloosa News)

3. Sweetee P’s Cafe, a new soul food eatery in Brookwood, held a grand opening this week at its location across the street from the Brookwood Police and Fire Department. (WVUA 23)

4. Starkville, Mississippi-based Camgian Microsystems is relocating its Tuscaloosa operations from The Edge business incubator to a space in downtown Tuscaloosa in the Regions Bank building, which was recently purchased by the Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama. (Emily Enfinger, Tuscaloosa News)

5. Crimson Tide football coach Nick Saban has hired Dave Huxtable as an analyst, who previously worked as a defensive coordinator at North Carolina State, along with coordinator stints at Pittsburgh, UCF, North Carolina and Georgia Tech. (Matt Zenitz, AL.com).

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Weekend Notebook

- DCH Health System said on Friday it will now allow up to two visitors per patient, which comes with a new temporary visitation policy to reflect Gov. Kay Ivey's updated emergency order. The new policy went into effect at 12:01 a.m. Saturday. The three-hospital system posted a coronavirus inpatient total of 20 on Friday, a new low in the downward trend on the ground in Tuscaloosa.

- My longtime friend, surrogate big brother and Birmingham Patch colleague Michael Seale wrote a great piece after an interview with Birmingham Barons General Manager Jonathan Nelson. Read it here.

- A big congratulations to the No. 16 Stillman Tigers men's basketball team (16-3), who received a No. 1 seed on Thursday for the NAIA Men's Basketball Tournament's opening round in Montgomery. The Tigers have a first round bye and will play the winner of Georgetown (Kentucky) and Keiser (Florida) on March 13.

- The Northport Planning & Zoning Commission will once again hear a request on Tuesday for a proposed townhome development on Hunter Creek Road. The master plan approval request was met with vocal opposition in January and ultimately passed on with an unfavorable recommendation to the City Council, failing to gain traction in its original form. Click here for the meeting's agenda.

- Tangentially related, the aforementioned Northport P&Z regular meeting will take place on the same night, in the same location (Northport Civic Center), as the public forum held in the adjoining room for the access road from Highway 43 to the new Northport intermediate school. Click here for my coverage if you didn't in our lead story today, but you can be sure I'll be bouncing room to room Tuesday night.

ALSO: 5 Things To Do In Tuscaloosa This Weekend

THIS PATCH WAS ...

- Asked to become a new member of the Chamber of Commerce of West Alabama's marketing committee. I'm beyond excited to help our city and region in any way I can.

- Asked to speak at the March 31 meeting of the YMCA Men's Club to discuss the role Tuscaloosa Patch plays in the local media ecosystem. If your group or organization wants to know more about our vision for unbiased, independent community news, feel free to shoot me an email at ryan.phillips@patch.com.

About me: I grew up in Tuscaloosa and graduated from the University of Alabama's community journalism master's program. Before founding Tuscaloosa Patch, I developed my skills at the Starkville Daily News, Weather.com, Associated Press, the Birmingham Business Journal and the Anniston Star. You can find me at public meetings, events in the local arts community and wherever live music is played!