Introducing Your 2026 Miss Coastal Alabama, Tabatha Weaver

For the first time in school history, Miss Coastal Alabama will represent the college in 2026 as a student from its Thomasville campus. Eighteen-year-old Tabatha Weaver is also the first to wear the crown as an enrollee in the school’s Career Tech Department.

“We are very proud of Tabatha,” said Thomasville Campus Director Marcus Gordon. “She did what we constantly encourage all our students to do: take advantage of every opportunity.

“She took the initiative to enter the pageant, competed and won! She did not let it slip by. She has a great attitude and she will be an excellent representative for Coastal Alabama Community College.”

Weaver assumes the 2026 title from 2025 Miss Coastal Alabama Anna Grace Frase and, like Frase, will receive a full tuition scholarship to Coastal Alabama Community College for three semesters, and a housing stipend. Miss Coastal Alabama is official preliminary for the Miss America Organization. 

Pageantry is well-trod ground for Weaver, who first competed in third grade and has only lost one pageant in which she entered. While she also enjoys connecting with her fellow competitors, and the opportunity to perform under stressful circumstances — she had only four days to prepare for the Miss Coastal competition — Weaver said pageants deliver a character trait that’s very important for a young woman moving into her next stage of life.

“Confidence is everything, and mine has really grown through pageantry,” she said. “(Even when I lose), knowing I've done the best I could do, to the best to my ability, lets me still walk away with my head held high.”

Weaver said she’s proud to be representing Coastal Alabama Community College over the next year, as the Citronelle native's limited time at the school has already given her a lot of hope for the future. In Thomasville, she studies Industrial Production Technology, following in the footsteps of her cousin, who’s in the exact same pathway.

“Growing up in a small community, family is everything and I knew I couldn’t be too far away from mine,” Weaver said. “Coastal’s program was 100 percent what I wanted to do. They had everything I needed to be able to accomplish what I wanted to do, and it just made my decision a whole lot easier.”

A big believer in the Golden Rule of treating others as you would like to be treated, Weaver said she’s found a lot of kindred spirits among the faculty, staff and student body in Thomasville.

“At the end of the day, everybody wants to have somebody stand beside them, support them, somebody to be there for them,” she said. “And going to Coastal turned out to be literally the best thing ever, and you can just feel the love and the support.

“They actually feel like you're part of their real family.”