Photo by Sam Chandler.
Vestavia Hills’ Tony Shaw (50) fights for possession during a Class 7A, Area 6 match between Vestavia Hills and Mountain Brook on Feb. 28 at Vestavia Hills High School. Shaw is one of the Rebels’ top scoring threats.
Leo Harlan has a formula for success.
It consists of four elements: talent, application under pressure, emotional flexibility and luck.
Yes, luck.
Harlan, the head boys soccer coach at Vestavia Hills High School, believes in it. He’s been around the sport long enough to know that a game’s outcome can hinge upon the trajectory of a bouncing ball or the blow of a referee’s whistle.
Luck takes on special importance for teams like Harlan’s.
His Rebels, ranked No. 1 in Class 7A at the start of the season, entered the spring with title aspirations.
“The main goal is always a state championship, so anything less than that, we’re not going to be satisfied,” Harlan said. “We don’t have any expectation, but we do believe we have a good enough team to win the whole thing.”
Vestavia Hills came close in 2018.
It nudged past Mountain Brook 1-0 in the state semifinal before falling to Auburn 2-1 in the final. The Rebels significantly outshot their opponent but had little luck finding the back of the net.
They last won state in 2014.
“We’re trying to bounce back from last year since we got to the finals but came up a little bit short,” said Logan Romp, a senior striker. “We want to recreate that and go one step further.”
So far, so good.
The Rebels went 7-2 to begin the season and outscored their first nine opponents by 20 goals. They also won the Cane Cup tournament near Mobile by notching four victories in a span of 24 hours.
In the tournament final, they turned a one-goal deficit into a 5-1 runaway win over Montgomery Academy.
“There, we were able to sort of play well under pressure,” Harlan said.
The Rebels didn’t necessarily wilt in their two losses, either. They dropped a pair of tight 1-0 decisions to Dalton (Georgia) and Mountain Brook.
Dalton opened the season ranked No. 1 in the country by USA Today. Mountain Brook, meanwhile, is a bona fide contender in this year’s 7A title hunt.
“We’ll rebound from this, and we’ll be back,” said Ryan Early, a senior center back, after his team’s loss to the Spartans. “We’re a great team, and we’ve just got to figure things out.”
Part of that process will entail the continued development of team chemistry. Vestavia Hills graduated the majority of its starters from last year’s squad, making way for a new cast of players.
Romp and Tony Shaw, a junior midfielder, help lead the attack, while Early and goalkeeper Johnny Williams anchor the back.
The team is still forging its collective bond and identity.
“That was something I think it took us a while to figure out, until the end of the season last year,” Early said. “We’re trying to fix that and make it earlier this year, so we can really enjoy our season.”
Harlan said he has been impressed with his team’s work ethic. The Rebels have not allowed the monotony of daily practices to affect their effort or energy.
Their intensity has carried overto matches.
“We battle,” Romp said. “We go up for every single game like it’s a state championship, and we know if we don’t, we’re not going to win.”
Vestavia Hills hopes to find itself in the actual state championship game later this spring. It already possesses a formula for success.
Now, it just needs to find a little luck.
“Last year our individual goals, we got some, but it didn’t achieve the final goal,” Shaw said, “so I think winning state is our only goal this year.”
