By Loyd McIntosh photos by Jordan Wald
The girls varsity basketball season tips off in early November, with all three Over The Mountain teams coming off successful 2024-2025 campaigns. However, two teams—Vestavia Hills and Homewood—will break in new coaches this season, while Mountain Brook regroups after a historic AHSAA Final Four run. Here’s what basketball fans can expect this season.
Mountain Brook
Mountain Brook is coming off a historic Final Four run in 2024-2025 and looks to capitalize on that momentum this season. The Spartans return seven players from last year’s squad, including two of the team’s leading scorers. Overall, the roster includes two seniors, two juniors, three sophomores and a talented group of five freshmen with loads of potential. Although the team skews young, head coach Sara Price is optimistic about the Spartans’ prospects in 2025-2026.
“I think we’re pretty balanced. I think we’re going to be competitive as long as we do the little things to help us improve and get better,” Price says. “It’s a gritty team, and they’re hungry. We do have a lot of room to grow, but Mountain Brook is a unique place. The youth are hungry, and when they’re ready to be a part of our program, we love to have them.”
Price says everyone on the team is expected to develop leadership skills, but the Spartans’ core leadership group centers around senior Clarkie Wilkinson, junior Maddie Walter and sophomore Avery Davis. In addition to their basketball ability, Price says they bring a level of competitiveness and accountability that elevates everyone around them.
“I think those three have the voice of the team and the competitiveness that drives us,” Price says. “The great thing about our team, and what we preach and coach, is that it has to be team-led. They all do a great job of holding one another accountable and helping each other.” She adds, “We don’t really hang our hat on just one voice. It’s got to be everybody helping the person next to them to get to our goals and where we want to be.”
Mountain Brook opens the season at Mortimer Jordan on Saturday, November 8, at 4:30 p.m.
Vestavia Hills
Vestavia Hills girls will be in rebuilding mode in 2025-2026, after losing seven seniors and head coach J.D. Smelser, who accepted an assistant coaching position with the Homewood boys team in April.
Former Pelham head coach Crosby Morrison takes over after the Rebels who went 29-4 overall were upset by Albertville in the first round of the AHSAA playoffs. Morrison says the mindset going into this season is not dwelling on the past and charting their own course.
“The motto we’re taking into this season is to not compare ourselves to the teams that came before you. You’re going to leave your own legacy,” Morrison says. “We’re not out to settle a score, we’re not out for revenge. This group coming in, I think, wants to leave their own stamp on Vestavia girls basketball.”
Despite seven seniors graduating from the 2024-2025 squad, the current roster has six seniors returning, along with two juniors, four sophomores and two freshmen. Key players include senior Marley Cowan, a volleyball standout who will impact both ends of the floor, and Caroline Leydon, who does the gritty work that doesn’t appear on the stat sheet. Other contributors include junior sharpshooter Olivia Hunsberger and junior post player Evie Black.
Morrison says this group hasn’t played a lot of minutes, but they understand the responsibility of wearing a Vestavia Hills uniform. “These kids have played with each other since rec and middle school. They’ve grown up playing for each other and their community,” she says. “I think it speaks to how hard they practice and how they play.”
Morrison continues, “Unfortunately, I had the experience of playing Vestavia when I was at Pelham, and that’s the thing that was always on the scouting report. They play so hard, gritty and tough as nails.”
Vestavia Hills opens the season at Helena on Thursday, November 6.
Homewood
Homewood will be in transition as Jason Harlow begins his first season as head coach after leading Chelsea to its first-ever AHSAA championship game appearance in 2025.
Harlow is eager to build upon a 2024-2025 campaign in which the Patriots went 22-11, were 6A Area 9 champs and advanced to the AHSAA second round. Although this group skews very young, Harlow, who only arrived on campus in May, believes this team has loads of potential. With 24 girls on the roster, 75 percent are underclassmen, including one seventh grader.
While Homewood may take their lumps at times due to their tough schedule, Harlow says the players’ youth and inexperience are making it easier to instill his coaching philosophy. “This is probably going to be the youngest team I’ve ever coached,” he says. “There are going to be times this year, depending on lineups, where the average age of the kids on the floor is going to be less than 15, so that’s tough with some of the schools on our schedule. The good news is they’re really talented kids that have all kinds of upsides and are extremely coachable.”
The Patriots return four seniors and a couple of juniors to help balance the younger players, including senior Lane Crow, a long, athletic forward with leadership qualities, who has committed to play college basketball for Emory University in Atlanta. Other key players include seniors Vivy Mooney and Chloe Warren and juniors Hailey Jennings and multisport athlete Ava Warren, who is back after missing last season. “Ava is back in the mix with basketball, and we’re super excited about that,” says Harlow.
Senior Ellis McCool is currently recovering from an injury but will provide leadership and support on the bench.
Homewood opens the 2025-2026 season at home, hosting Pinson Valley on Thursday, November 6, at 5:30 p.m.
