POWERGRAMS

32 32 "There's no comparison," manager Lamarsha Cochran quickly adds. Shoffit and her husband, Brad, bought Superior Pecans seven years ago. In 2015, they moved the seasonal business from its residential district headquarters that had opened in 1934 to the current retail shop they operate in the historic downtown. What once was a store that sold only raw pecans has become a wide- ranging operation that goes far beyond selling the "superior" homegrown nuts for $3.50 per pound in the shell. Shoffit has added a Rooster Brand coffee bar with gourmet drinks brewed by the cup, as well as an ice cream and milkshake shop. Superior customers can sit at five tables alongside replica wooden barn doors that open to a huge photographed scene from a pecan grove, similar to the one the Shoffits awaken to each day at their house next to a 125-tree orchard. "We're loaded with pecans this year," says Shoffit, who's from New Hampshire and met her husband in Boston. "Every time he comes home he's working in the orchard. That's where he is right now." The new store is in a vintage building that previously had worn carpeting over particle board covering the antique yellow pine boards. It took 10 days to pull it all up and begin restoring the original flooring. The rest of the large open structure with columns down the middle showcases a wide variety of items ranging from paintings by local artists to candles to old-timey toys. The kitchen chef produces fresh- baked goods, including pecan pies, cookies and flavored pecans. Eufaula's only authorized shipping center for FedEx, Superior sends out gift baskets, tins and wooden boxes of jams, jellies, pretzels, coffee and nuts to online buyers coast to coast. Three to nine employees, depending on the season, specialize in filling orders for wedding favors and corporate gifts. The biggest sales of the year are during the Christmas season when the best-seller, by far, is Superior Pecan's "handstacks," a unique product that is shipped around the world. During the last few months of each year, several retirees sit around tables in the back of the store and begin stacking pecan halves one by one in plastic containers, starting on the bottom inside and layering the pecans round and round until each 2-pound or 3-pound arrangement is completed and the top sealed. It takes a veteran stacker about one hour to finish a smaller tub that sells for $44.95. "They're one of a kind," says Shofitt. "You won't find them anywhere else in the world." Athletics excellence When the whistle blows to begin a sporting competition, Eufaula High School athletes expect to be on top at game's end. The winning attitude is even more pronounced when it comes to football, as the Tigers sport a 64 percent all-time winning record, three state championships and a runner-up finish, 16 area titles, 148 all-state players and six who have played in the NFL. "It's great to be a Tiger," says Principal Steve Hawkins. "It's really, really interesting the talent this town can turn out." The Class of 2007, for instance, included Courtney Upshaw, who won two national championships with the Alabama Crimson Tide, Super Bowl XLVII with the Baltimore Ravens, and nearly won another last year with the Atlanta Falcons. He made about $6.5 million his first four years in the pros and has signed a two-year extension with Atlanta for $9 million. Terran Condray led Eufaula to the 2008 basketball state championship (the latest of five girls' and four boys' Tiger titles) before playing for Baylor, where she was part of the Bears' 40-0 national championship team in 2012. Her cousin, Gwen Jackson, was an All-American player for Eufaula before starring for the national runner-up University of Tennessee Volunteers in 2003 on her way to the WNBA. Upshaw played at Eufaula with Jerrel Jernigan, of the Class of 2006, who went on to star at Troy University before winning Super Bowl XLVI with the New York Giants, playing in the CFL and returning last year to help coach his alma mater Tigers. Dave Watson was a star offensive guard in the 1950s for the Tigers before playing at Georgia Tech and then two seasons with the Boston Patriots. Allen Trammell was a standout safety for Eufaula before playing baseball and football at the University of Florida and then for the Houston Oilers in 1966. Walter Reeves played tight end for the Tigers of Eufaula and Auburn before eight seasons in the NFL, ending in 1996. Cornerback Daryon Brutley went on to Southern Miss and Northern Iowa, then played for the Buffalo Bills, Philadelphia Eagles and eight Arena Football League teams before retiring in 2011. Les Snead was an all-state football player for Eufaula, played at Troy, Superior Pecans employees prepare gourmet nuts, at top, while owner Shoffit stacks the finished product. Pecan handstacks are shipped around the world. Upshaw parlayed athletics at Eufaula High School into multimillion-dollar pro career. Snead is general manager of the Los Angeles Rams.

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