By Solomon Crenshaw Jr.
Garrett Morris, an original member of the Saturday Night Live cast, had a recurring bit in which he portrayed Chico Escuela, a fictitious former all-star baseball player from the Dominican Republic.
Chico’s signature phrase was, “Baseball been berry, berry good to me.”
The same could be said of Mountain Brook High School football and the Spartans’ move from Class 7A to Class 6A. Being in Class 6A has been “berry, berry good” to Mountain Brook since it moved to Class 6A in 2020.
Coach Chris Yeager’s teams reached back-to-back Class 6A semifinals in 2020 and 2021 before earning the red state runner-up trophy as a finalist in 2022.
Mountain Brook began its latest playoff by routing visiting Buckhorn 35-14 last Thursday at Spartan Stadium. Mountain Brook led 28-0 at intermission en route to victory.
Yeager said underclassmen have played key roles in helping his team overcome the loss of veterans sidelined by injuries.
“We’ve had some injuries and we’ve got a lot of young guys that are playing now,” Yeager said, adding that sophomores are no longer sophomores at this time of year. “They’re juniors. In order to make a deep run, No. 1, your young players are going to have to grow up and provide depth and provide quality playing time now.”
Wide receiver Clark Sanderson has been hurt and Mountain Brook’s two starting guards are hurt. The team had five sophomores and two juniors in on offense at the very end of the game and, Yeager said, they were functioning well.
“I think the ingredients are there,” he said. “The ingredients are there. We’ve just got to bring it all together.”
A poorly kept secret of Mountain Brook’s success has been the durability of running back Cole Gamble.
“Golly Bob, I just can’t believe how that guy just keeps on and on and on and on, carrying this football team,” Yeager said.
“I don’t know how he does it,” quarterback John Cooper added. “Just carrying the ball (nearly) every play. He’s a tough dude.”
Gamble had 24 carries for 183 yards and three rushing touchdowns and added a fourth TD on an 80-yard pass from Cooper.
Gamble admitted that he did get tired early in the season.
“I feel like I get in better shape as the season goes on,” Gamble said. “I feel like I’m in pretty good shape right now.”
Cooper completed six of 15 passes for 198 yards and two touchdowns. He also had seven carries for 47 yards.
“John Cooper made some good decisions,” Yeager said, “and (senior receiver) Hudson Young stepped in and made some quality plays.”
While it seems nitpicky to find fault in a 21-point victory, Cooper acknowledged that the Spartans could have played better against Buckhorn.
“We kind of got too over ourselves and we didn’t finish well,” he said. “From dropped balls to penalties, (there are things) we’ve just got to work on.”
Yeager said his defense came out with a very strong start against Buckhorn. He said the two second-half Bucks scores could have been the result of human nature.
“A lot of times you’re sitting there trying to protect a lead,” Yeager said. “You get the mentality or frame of mind that we’re trying to protect the lead. It should never be that but it’s just hard to keep people from having that.
“We tell them to just fight their guts out to the very end, until the clock shows zeroes across the board. I think sometimes it’s human nature to protect a lead, but you should never do that.”
Mountain Brook (8-3) will visit top-ranked Clay-Chalkville (10-0) Friday in the second round. The Cougars rolled to a 49-6 victory over Cullman (5-6) in the first round.
Cooper believes this Mountain Brook team has what it takes to make another deep playoff run.
“We’ve got a lot of fight in us,” Cooper said. “We’ve just got to keep on fighting, finish games and just play as hard as we can. We can make it as far as we want to, I believe.”
Gamble agreed.
“I don’t see why not,” Gamble said. “We’re just taking it a week at a time. We’re going to have a tough opponent (this) week. I’m excited for it. We’re just taking it week by week.”
