By Rubin E. Grant When Spain Park coach Shawn Raney looks over his 2019 football team, he sees a bunch of sophomores on offense and several seniors on defense. But what he doesn’t see is players with experience. “We’re going to be real young,” Raney said. “We started six sophomores on offense in our spring game against Jackson-Olin. On defense, we have a lot of seniors, but … [Read more...]

By Rubin E. Grant As he embarks on his 42nd season as Vestavia Hills’ head football coach, Buddy Anderson is not about to change anything. “We’ll do what we’ve always done,” Anderson said. “We’ll throw it when we want to and we’ll run with it.” And on defense, the Rebels will attack. “I think we have a strong unit on defense,” Anderson said. “We have six returning starters … [Read more...]

By Rubin E. Grant From the moment Chip Lindsey laid eyes on Nick Mullens, he knew Mullens had the makings of a special athlete. “When I first met Nick, he was 170 pounds and 6-foot, but the first thing I noticed is he was extremely smart and extremely competitive,” Lindsey said. “I could tell he was going to be a good player.” Lindsey was in his first season as Spain Park’s … [Read more...]

By Rubin E. Grant Cynthia Padgett didn’t have any desire to become a head coach. With her husband, Scott, being the men’s head basketball coach at Samford University and three teenage athletes at home, Padgett was content being an assistant coach for the Homewood High School girls volleyball team. But when Krimson Revis, who led the Patriots to the Class 6A North Super … [Read more...]

By Rubin E. Grant Eric Eshleman rarely had a moment to himself during the final week of July. That’s because of the flood of congratulatory messages Eshleman, the director of golf at the Country Club of Birmingham, received after news broke that he is the recipient of the 2019 PGA Golf Professional of the Year Award.  The award is the highest annual honor given to a PGA … [Read more...]