Albany News Bracket Challenge Champion

By David H. Waller

We have a winner. After weeks of games and hours of pretending to understand college basketball, The Albany News Bracket Challenge has officially crowned a champion: Shelby Coffee.

Shelby came out swinging with a strong bracket—boldly picking three of the four No. 1 seeds to reach the Final Four. A true visionary. Of course, it just so happens that this was the first time since 2008 that all four No. 1 seeds actually did make it to the Final Four, but we’re not here to nitpick. Luck? Strategy? 

Now, her fourth pick—Iowa State—was a choice. An interesting choice. But let’s not dwell on that too long. After all, she did correctly pick Florida to reach the championship game. Her chosen overall winner, Duke, chose not to participate in the last few minutes of their game against Houston, collapsing in dramatic fashion and handing the win to the Cougars.

Well, the title game wrapped up with Florida crowned as champions—and so was Shelby.

Now, before we get too carried away with congratulations, let’s be upfront like we mentioned early on: there were four total brackets submitted. All four were from people with the last name Coffee. But hey, a win is a win, and Shelby gets a free year subscription to The Albany News. That’s what we in the business call a high-stakes prize.

This win is far more impressive than her husband J.D.’s recent honor of being named Project Manager of the Year. If you missed that story, feel free to flip back to the March 13 edition of The Albany News—or just stop by the Coffee house, where J.D. has probably already clipped it out, framed it and put it on the mantle. Shelby, you can do the same with this article. 

But this is Shelby’s time to shine. And if you know Shelby, you know she’s a very quiet, humble person who definitely does not enjoy attention (she is going to love this story). So it’s safe to assume she’ll be talking about this for the next six to eight months, minimum. Probably through the next March Madness.

Congrats to Shelby, the undisputed champion of bracketology in Shackelford County and  the Coffee household. Until next year and hopefully a lot more submissions (cough…cough… Austin Sherwood.)