By Lee Davis Even if the organizers of the Alabama High School Athletic Association’s basketball finals had drawn it on a blackboard, they couldn’t have envisioned a more ideal Class 7A girls championship game than pitting Spain Park against its crosstown rival Hoover.“Playing for a state championship is always special, but playing Hoover makes it much more so,” said … [Read more...]
Homewood Holds off Trojans to Claim Class 6A Title
By Lee Davis The Homewood girls basketball team had a unique problem in the 2016-17 season. With virtually every starter back from a squad that had reached the Class 6A finals the past two seasons, few were concerned about how many games the Lady Patriots would win. The real concern was which game they might lose. Even Homewood coach Kevin Tubbs put his team’s unusual … [Read more...]
The Simple Way: For Decades, Godfarb Taught Kids at Camp a No-Frills Style of Soccer
By June Mathews For 31 summers, from 1986 through 2016, Preston Goldfarb went to soccer camp. Not only did he go to camp, he daily directed, showed up hours early to prepare for, and taught at camp. But he had a reason – a very good one, in his opinion – that made it all worthwhile. “I wanted to expose children to what I thought was the correct way to play the game, the way … [Read more...]
Humility, Clarity, Courage: aTeam Ministries to Receive Leadership Vestavia Hills’ Community Leadership Award
By Emily Williams Andy and Jan Thrower received news on Jan. 6, 2009, that no parent wants to hear. Their son Anderson had been diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Their struggles seeing their son through cancer treatment, along with raising their daughter, led the Throwers to an opportunity to help other families navigate the maze of pediatric cancer. As a result, … [Read more...]
For Love and Money: Red Diamond Classic Contributes to Community
By Lee Davis Bill Bowron really wasn’t thinking of sponsoring one of America’s top youth tournaments when he first became interested in soccer a little more than two decades ago. The motive was much simpler. “My son was a very active little boy and we wanted to find a team sport in which he could channel all that energy,” said Bowron, the chairman, CEO and president of Red … [Read more...]