The reputation of Over the Mountain boys’ basketball is in some ways similar to the reputation of men’s basketball in the Southeastern Conference: No matter how strong the caliber of play, it will always – in some people’s minds – be overshadowed by the image of football.
It’s an unfair rap, but understandable, especially the way that this area has ruled high school football over the past decades. But a closer look shows that basketball isn’t so far behind.
Remember last season? A Vestavia Hills team with an overall losing record got hot in tournament play and reached the Class 6A Final Four. And that was after Homewood, Mountain Brook and Spain Park all spent a considerable amount of time ranked in the state’s top 10.
The previous year, the Patriots reached the Class 6A finals. In 2008-09, a Jordan Swing-led Vestavia team earned the state championship after struggling through a near-disastrous late season slump.
Of course, this little summary of the last few years of basketball in the area doesn’t include John Carroll Catholic’s great run of championships in the Ronald Steele era.
There are a lot of reasons why area basketball programs are successful – strong support systems, good athletes and supportive parents, among other things – but another big plus is the high quality of coaches.
Veteran coaches such as Vestavia’s George Hatchett, Homewood’s Tim Shepler and John Carroll Catholic’s Larry Harbin have literally seen everything in their long years at courtside. Additionally, there are up-and-coming young coaches, including Mountain Brook’s Bucky McMillian and Spain Park’s Neal Barker.
Another reason is the continuing trend toward specialization that has characterized most high school sports in the last 20 years. There was a time not long ago when the majority of basketball players on most high school teams also played football. They began practicing basketball virtually the day after football season ended.
In today’s environment, there are fewer dual-sport athletes. It’s not unusual for a typical basketball player to work on his chosen sport 12 months out of the year, including participation in camps and on travel league teams.
Of course, there’s another reason for the rise of basketball’s profile in Alabama and elsewhere over the past decades: It’s the saturation of college basketball on television, particularly on ESPN from December until March.
I’m old enough to remember when basketball fans were lucky to find one college game a week on television. Now, you can find a basketball game on a cable broadcast virtually 24 hours a day, seven days a week from Thanksgiving until April. The plethora of televised basketball has become literally a never-ending recruiting, marketing and advertising campaign for the sport at all levels.
The influence of television may be a mixed bag, according to Homewood’s Shepler.
“The exposure of TV is great for the college game, but it’s a net negative at our level,” he said. “Kids want to do the things that get the college players on SportsCenter. You don’t get on SportsCenter for executing fundamentals.”
Ironically, maybe the best thing Over the Mountain basketball has going for it is the strength of area football. Undoubtedly, the success of the autumn sport sets a high bar for all the others – and that’s a good thing.
Winning, as is the case with everything else, is contagious. If a school’s football team does well, then people expect the basketball team to do well. And if the basketball team wins, then the baseball team is expected to do well – and so it goes.
Of course, we haven’t even touched on the strength of girls’ basketball in the area. Hoover has had one of the state’s top programs for decades, while Vestavia, Mountain Brook and others have produced consistent winners.
The common denominator again is great athletes, solid coaching and strong support systems. And a school’s tradition of being successful in other sports doesn’t hurt either.
The 2011-12 season might be a special one for area basketball as Hoover looks capable of making a championship run in both boys’ and girls’ brackets. Even if they both succeed in bringing home state titles, some people will still insist on calling Hoover a football school.
But really, is that such a bad thing after all? As goes football, other sports follow right behind. And that is definitely a good thing.
