By Rubin E. Grant
Brigid Meadow is a total boy mom to her three athletic sons. “I showed up to their games, drove them to practices when I could, and traveled all summer for events,” she says. But Meadow was also a very successful soccer coach, and during high school soccer season, sometimes Meadow’s intense focus on her Vestavia Hills girls team meant her family had to ride shotgun. “I was usually distracted at home and up late at night during soccer season.”
Meadow explains her intensity by saying when she does something she’s all in. “My focus is on my girls,” she says. “They are my family. I love my team so much that sometimes I haven’t given the type of love and care I needed to my boys. I have not given them my best. I’ve been giving it to other kids. I told them I might not always be here for you, but I love you. They say, ‘We understand. We get it.’”
But now, after 21 seasons as the Rebels’ girls’ soccer coach Meadow, 49, will be there for her boys. She informed her players after they had secured the 2025 Class 7A state championship in May.
The title was the sixth Vestavia Hills won with Meadow at the helm. She compiled a 407-86 career record with 39 ties. “Vestavia has been so amazing to me,” Meadow says. “I couldn’t have picked a better place to live. I built a strong program, so it is one of the hardest decisions I’ve had to make. But now I can be all in on giving my family the attention they need.”
That means showing up for her younger two sons’ sporting events. Bruce just graduated and is headed to the University of Southern Mississippi to play baseball, and Jack is in middle school and plays soccer, football and wrestles. Her oldest son, Bryce Littleton, was a three-sport athlete at Vestavia Hills before going on to play football at UAB. He now runs a landscaping business.
“With Bruce going to Southern Miss, I want to be there to support him whenever he gets on the mound,” Meadow says. “And I’ll get the chance to watch my youngest play soccer, football and wrestle.”
Meadow was a star athlete in the 1990s in soccer and basketball, first at Berry High School (now Hoover) and also in college at Wofford. She was the first women’s soccer representative in the Wofford Hall of Fame.
Meadow waited until after the season to tell her players she was retiring because she didn’t want this season to be about her. “I wanted the focus to be on the team and making them better,” Meadow says.
Even when she won her 400th game on April 4 against Oak Mountain, she tried to shun the spotlight. “I heard the fans cheering and then the players dumped water on me,” Meadow says “I was mad. I said, ‘What are you doing?’ My assistant told me I had just won my 400th game.”
After she cooled down, Meadow said, “Praise God for all my girls this year and all years prior for being willing to do more, to be asked to give even more, and then to give more. What a shared accomplishment to be a part of!”
The Rebels finished this season with a 21-2-4 record, defeating defending champion Auburn 3-1 in the Class 7A championship game.
In the postgame huddle, Meadow finally told her team she was stepping down. “I was trying to find the right time to tell them,” she says. “I didn’t want the season to be about me, but to be about them. I got a little choked up, and they were a little teary-eyed, but I am so happy we had this season together, and I got to tell them during such a happy moment.”
Senior Betsy Whitson, Class 7A MVP of the state tournament, said she had heard rumors that Meadow was retiring. “Hearing her say it was sad,” Whitson says. “I’m glad I got to spend all four of my years with her. I am thankful for what she’s done. The program wouldn’t be where it is without her.”
Meadow will remain at Vestavia Hills as a strength and conditioning coach, and her assistant coach Alex Carroll has been promoted as the Rebels’ head coach.
Carroll played under Meadow and is a 2014 graduate of Vestavia Hills. She also played soccer at Wofford and has been an assistant coach with the Rebels soccer and basketball programs for the past seven years. “The girls like her,” Meadow says. “I think she’ll do a good job.”
