By Rubin E. Grant Perhaps no one on the Hoover girls basketball team took the Lady Bucs’ narrow 47-44 loss to Spain Park in the 2020 Class 7A championship game harder than Reniya Kelly. This season, Kelly wanted to make sure Hoover wouldn’t have another disheartening end to their season. The sophomore guard and team co-captain played like someone on a mission throughout the … [Read more...]

By Rubin E. Grant Cam Crawford wanted to play basketball so badly when he was a small boy that his mom fudged on his age so he could. “I was 3 years old and the league in Trussville said you had to be 4 to be able to play. So when my mom registered me, she said I was 4,” Crawford said with a laugh while recalling the story. Thus began a journey that culminated this season … [Read more...]

By Rubin E. Grant Krystle Johnson just can’t stop watching the girls Class 7A state championship basketball game. That’s because it’s a thing of beauty for the Hoover coach. Two days after guiding the Lady Bucs to a 61-37 victory over Hewitt-Trussville last Wednesday at UAB’s Bartow Arena in the 99th AHSAA State Basketball Championships, Johnson was watching a replay of the … [Read more...]

By Rubin E. Grant A day after Oak Mountain won its first ever boys basketball state championship, senior forward Noah Young was still processing what the Eagles had accomplished. “It’s still unbelievable,” Young said. “I am still trying to grasp my feelings. It’s a goal we set at the beginning of the season and the journey we took to get there was incredible.” The Eagles … [Read more...]

By Rubin E. Grant From the moment he took over as Mountain Brook’s boys basketball coach last summer, Tyler Davis told anybody who would listen that his team’s goal was not to win a state championship. Sure, the Spartans won five state championships under his predecessor, Bucky McMillan, between 2013 and 2019, becoming the dominant basketball program among large schools in … [Read more...]