Photo by Sarah Finnegan.
Vestavia Hill's Emma Smith (35) is one of the two eighth-graders (along with her twin sister, Ally) who started this year for the Lady Rebels.
Success at the highest level is a product of many factors
A professional baseball franchise does not experience prolonged success without a deep farm system. For example, in the 1990s the Atlanta Braves built a deep minor league pipeline that continually fed prospects with potential into the big leagues to supplement the already-present star power.
In the same fashion, a high school athletic program does not typically create its success by only focusing on the surface. Most programs that are able to build a winning culture have recreation programs that work to develop student-athletes long before they reach high school.
“At first, they just get kids excited about playing and teaching them the basic skills of the game,” Vestavia Hills High School girls varsity basketball coach Laura Casey said. “Without that, you’re starting from scratch in the seventh and eighth grade, which doesn’t usually bode well for the high school level.”
Having that depth is what has Casey so excited about the future of the Lady Rebels program. In the 2017-18 season, the Lady Rebels won six of their first seven games, knocking off teams like Helena, Pelham and Hueytown.
However, the team was unable to sustain that hot start and lost its final 12 games on the way to a 9-19 overall mark.
“Getting out to the start we had, I think we had a little bit higher expectations,” said Casey, who just completed her eighth season as head coach. “Certainly, there have been some growing pains, but we return nine of 11 [players next year], so we’re looking forward to [the future].”
By the end of the season, the Lady Rebels starting lineup consisted of two eighth-graders: Ally and Emma Smith, a freshman: Josie Edwards and two sophomores: Anna Wood and Arden Plugge.
Casey said while she expected some of the growing pains with a largely inexperienced team, those kids provided a glimpse into what the future may hold for the program.
Over the last eight years, the Vestavia Hills Youth Girls Basketball recreational league — which offers opportunities for kids from the kindergarten level through sixth grade — has grown rapidly.
Across four age groups, the league most recently enrolled 213 kids and formed 30 teams. Casey credited board president Patrick Osborne and the rest of the VHYGB board for doing a great job, especially in recent years.
“We’ve had great leadership at the rec level,” Casey said.
Casey said most of the girls that have come through the varsity program now have risen through the recreation and middle school programs.
Having that background, the Lady Rebels high school program makes sure to reinvest some of its time at the lower levels.
“That’s a neat thing about our community,” Casey said, “we’re so supportive of each other and what we do. Even having our kids involved in the rec league is important. We have kids who will go help at a practice every now and then, and a lot of them ref games on Saturday. I think that part’s important.”
If kids fall in love with the game of basketball at a young age, that will only brighten an already hopeful future for the high school program.
“There are kids who’ve been to our summer camps and played for our rec league who play for us now,” Casey said. “That part of it is neat for me, that we see those little kids come to our games, that they’re wearing their jerseys in public and they’re proud of that.”
