By Lee Davis
There will be a Class 7A state champion football team in 2015.
It just won’t be the Hoover Buccaneers. The new trophy holder may be living a short ways down the road.
Hoover’s bid for a fourth consecutive crown ended Nov. 20, when cross-town rival Spain Park upended the Bucs 7-6 in the semi-finals. The Jaguars move on to meet McGill-Toolen of Mobile at the University of Alabama’s Bryant-Denny Stadium on Dec. 2 to battle for the Class 7A crown.
The Bucs didn’t relinquish their crown without a battle. They led 6-0 late in the game, thanks to a pair of field goals by Barret Pickering. Spain Park took the lead when quarterback Joey Beatty overcame heavy pressure to complete a nine-yard touchdown strike to Parker Kelly with 2:33 remaining on the clock. Crosby Gray’s extra point gave the hosts a one-point advantage.
“The play didn’t really work out as it was drawn up,” Beatty said. “One of their guys was really coming in hard. I threw the ball to Parker and had faith that he would come down with it, and he did.”
Kelly said the playbook called for him to perform two roles. “It was a trick play,” he said. “I was supposed to block and then go downfield. When Joey went to the left everyone went with him. The defender tipped the ball and I was able to catch it.”
Spain Park held off one last Hoover charge. Buc quarterback Chris Vacarella completed a 31-yard pass to Shedrick Jackson at the Jaguar 27-yard line. Four seconds remained on the clock. Hoover couldn’t get the kicking team on the field for Pickering to attempt a game-winning field goal as time ran out.
The loss was a bitter pill for the Buccaneer Nation to swallow. Pickering’s previous two field goals had been from 43 and 37 yards, respectively, so a third attempt from 44 yards would have seemed makeable. But it didn’t happen.
“This hurts,” Hoover coach Josh Niblett said. “It’s supposed to hurt. At Hoover, we are all about winning championships so when we fall short, it’s disappointing. But we’ll be back.”
If history is an indicator, Niblett is correct. This year’s Class 7A championship game will be only the second big-school title clash that the Bucs haven’t played in since the 2000 season, when their incredible run of dominance began. In the other season when Hoover missed the championship game, 2007, Spain Park fell to Prattville 14-0 for the state title.
Now the moment belongs to Spain Park. “What we’ve done really hasn’t sunk in yet. It’s kind of surreal,” Beatty said. “I was always very confident in our offense and our defense,” Beatty said. “We believed we could beat Hoover, and we could also win the state championship. This is a dream come true, and it came through hard work.”
The Jags will have a week to settle down before meeting McGill for the championship.
“Our players have been steady and focused all year,” Spain Park coach Shawn Raney said. “They know that we still have one more game before our goal has been reached. Nobody has worked any harder than our guys.”
For Spain Park fans, the football program’s ascent toward the mountain top has been especially sweet. For most years following the school’s establishment in 2001, the Jaguars labored in Hoover’s shadow, losing their first game to the Bucs by a margin of 61-7.
The program had the normal ups and downs along the way, but by its second decade it had become a perennial top 10 and playoff contender. But nobody could have guessed Spain Park’s rapid rise from a rollercoaster 6-4 season last year to a 12-1 mark and reaching the state finals in 2015.
“We’re not little brother anymore,” Beatty said. “Spain Park has made its own way. I think the program has grown up.”
Beatty grew up in a small suburb of Houston, Texas, before moving with his family to Hoover and entering the ninth grade. Having played the quarterback position since the third grade, he has a strong sense of the importance of football in both states.
“Football is big in Alabama, but it’s even bigger in Texas,” Beatty said. “In Texas, it’s hard to go a whole day without someone wanting to talk about it.”
Maybe so, but for now plenty of people want to spend the day talking about Spain Park football.
