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...]

Sean McBride earned his 300th victory as a head soccer coach at Homewood when the Patriots’ girls varsity team shut out Briarwood 5-0 on Feb. 26.McBride has been a soccer coach at Homewood High School since 2001, when he took over the boys varsity program. He won five state championships with the boys’ team (2003, 2005, 2006, 2014 and 2018) and in 2020 took over as … [Read more...]

By Rubin E. Grant Finally! Spain Park softball coach Urse Hawkins finally got to celebrate her milestone 900th career victory. The triumphant moment came Friday when senior pitcher Annabelle Widra tossed a shutout in the Jaguars’ 5-0 victory over Oxford in the Leeds Greenwave Classic. Hawkins, in her 25th season coaching, took the milestone victory in stride. “It just … [Read more...]