Hatchett’s Rebels should be better, but area is tough

Buddy Anderson has been the face of Vestavia Hills High football. Being head coach for 37 seasons will do that.

Compared to Buddy, George Hatchett’s the new kid on the block. He’s only been the boys basketball coach at Vestavia for 34 seasons.

But seriously, Hatchett is as synonymous with Rebels basketball as Anderson is to Rebels football. 

The continuity in both programs is much of the reason for success on the gridiron and the hardwood. And just like Rebels football is perceived to be a certain style of play year in and year out, so is Rebs roundball.

Hatchett preaches patience, discipline and teamwork. Fundamental, old-school basketball.

It’s worked pretty well. State championships in 1992 and 2009, and closing in on 600 wins. It’s landed him in the Alabama High School Sports Hall of Fame. 

Last season was atypical. The Rebels went 10-18. 

“It’s always a disappointment went you’re less than .500 or don’t get your 20 wins,” Hatchett said. “ But we’ve got great kids here at Vestavia. They play hard and represent the school well. I could have an awful lot of fun and a awful lot of satisfaction out of 10 wins sometimes.”

Still, it’s not as much fun as he hopes to have this season. The Rebels have three starters back, junior William Macoy and senior Joseph Evans who started almost all season, and junior William Snell, who also started some. Hatchett believes they’ve improved in the offseason and must have for the Rebels to have a winning season.

“We’ve got several other kids who played some minutes,” the coach said. “Sam Wiggins played a lot of minutes last year and is probably going to end up starting for us at point guard.”

With a couple of sophomore starters from last year and some other returning underclassmen who played a bit, Hatchett believes experience alone will make them better. But the Rebels are in Class 7A, Area 6, which has two-time state champ Mountain Brook, a loaded Spain Park team and a solid Hewitt-Trussville squad.

“We’d like to win every game. Realistically, nobody’s going to do that. We’re going to compartmentalize this stuff and play one game at a time. Make that game that goal right there, that time period. In our area, it’s going to be difficult for anybody to run the table. Mountain Brook, Spain Park, Hewitt-Trussville all have very good players, they’re well coached. But at the same time, I expect our kids to compete and if the ball bounces the right way for us, you never know, it might be our night.”

Hatchett thinks his team’s strength is going to be shooting the basketball. “We’re not going to be overly big. We’re going to play four guards and I think they can all shoot. And we have five seniors who are all pretty good players, not great players, but pretty good.”

Hatchett’s basketball philosophy has always been to get the best shot possible. He emphasizes his belief to his players that just because you’re open doesn’t necessarily make it a good shot.

“When we’ve had really good teams, our post players have shot 65 percent and our perimeter players have shot 49 percent. If we can get around those numbers, we’d win 20 ballgames. But I never have been excited about just running down there and shooting it if you’re open. And that’s difficult sometimes if maybe you don’t hold the same philosophy I do.” 

But because of the longevity of his tenure, by the time a player gets to the varsity, he knows what Rebels basketball is all about.

“It’s not a surprise (to them),” Hatchett chuckled. “That’s one of the good things about Vestavia. We have really good people as JV and freshman coaches and at the middle school level. The coaches we’ve hired have bought in to what we’ve been trying to do as far as the program is concerned, doing the right thing for the kids and giving them the best chance possible to succeed.”