🏈 What’s Going On In Alabaster? A recruiting pipeline?

[SnakeFan]

i just noticed we have several players on the roster from Alabaster and a couple more on the recruitment list. Living in the Orlando area, I don't see the changes going on in the state. just curious...

 

[rammerjammer]

Alabaster pulled out of the county about 5 years ago and started their own city school system. They spent lemedy million dollars on a new school and it is a site to behold. Along with that, the city has grown by leaps and bounds the last 10 years. Larger population, tax income base, etc....they have the money to spend on a good coach/staff etc. They aren't quite up to Hoover level, but they are really close.

 

[Destiny's Child]

The Hoover vs Thompson game drew more people than the Egg bowl

 

[bama alum]

Alabaster pulled out of the county about 5 years ago and started their own city school system. They spent lemedy million dollars on a new school and it is a site to behold. Along with that, the city has grown by leaps and bounds the last 10 years. Larger population, tax income base, etc....they have the money to spend on a good coach/staff etc. They aren't quite up to Hoover level, but they are really close.

That is mostly true, except we think we are at Hoover's level. Hoover doesn't own us in athletics any more.

You guys do not need to skim by the name Amari Kight. This kid is one of the main reasons why Lia was so successful. Great kid too!

 

[It Takes Eleven]

The Hoover vs Thompson game drew more people than the Egg bowl

Better talent.

 

[It Takes Eleven]

Alabaster pulled out of the county about 5 years ago and started their own city school system. They spent lemedy million dollars on a new school and it is a site to behold. Along with that, the city has grown by leaps and bounds the last 10 years. Larger population, tax income base, etc....they have the money to spend on a good coach/staff etc. They aren't quite up to Hoover level, but they are really close.

I spent some time in Alabaster back in the day. I was pre-med for a few years at Montevallo and worked all four years of college there at Shelby Medical Center as an orderly, usually in ER or OR. We used to get a good bit of business from the tail end of Simmsville Road near 31, pool halls and "Cohill Pop Stand" in Dapper (or Damper) Bottom - never saw it in writing. Our trauma area was one room with four gurneys cordoned off by curtains. One night we get a stab wound, put him in on gurney one, and about 45 minutes later we get a pool cue victim, gurney two. We were a little late realizing they had been dance partners that evening, and they started back at it.

Alabaster was a big town for me, but Pelham was in the money at the time, brand new school with that nice rubberized basketball court. I remember playing at the County Basketball tourney there, Arthur Johnson was doing 360's like he was on a trampoline. Pelham football boosters had enough cash to hire Billy Tohill, the old Texas Christian coach, as their head coach. My Dad had a job at the school putting in retaining walls during the summer and I was carrying blocks for him. Tohill toddles up with his fake leg, started up a conversation, recognized my name and offered to put me up in an apartment if I'd play for him. No thanks, he had a little more than a little crazy in him.

 

[PurlJam]

i just noticed we have several players on the roster from Alabaster and a couple more on the recruitment list. Living in the Orlando area, I don't see the changes going on in the state. just curious...

I remember when Alabaster was just the Alabama Power complex and the Shelby county airport off exit 234 with a population of around 200 folks. It has grown a wee bit through the years. ... population of just over 31K now.

 

[bama alum]

I remember when Alabaster was just the Alabama Power complex and the Shelby county airport off exit 234 with a population of around 200 folks. It has grown a wee bit through the years. ... population of just over 31K now.

I moved here in '97. The population has nearly, if not, doubled. The road situation and traffic isn't as horrible as it is in Helena (next door neighbor), but it's bad enough. The last time THS won a state championship in football was back in the late 70s/early 80s (something like that). THS was a 4A school then. Now it's a bursting 7A school.

 

[TUSKtimes]

Thompson is back. And with all the new growth, I think they will sustain their new found success. Facilities are marvelous and necessary to be a growing power.

If you build it they will come.

 

[PurlJam]

I moved here in '97. The population has nearly, if not, doubled. The road situation and traffic isn't as horrible as it is in Helena (next door neighbor), but it's bad enough. The last time THS won a state championship in football was back in the late 70s/early 80s (something like that). THS was a 4A school then. Now it's a bursting 7A school.

Ricky Seale was an assistant coach my first 2 years @ Cordova, He became the HC at Thompson around '88 or '89 and stayed 16 or 17 years.

 

[JoshB]

The Hoover vs Thompson game drew more people than the Egg bowl

Which one? I was at the first one and it didn't look even close to full. Too damn cold and rainy that night.

 

[JoshB]

Thompson is back. And with all the new growth, I think they will sustain their new found success. Facilities are marvelous and necessary to be a growing power.

If you build it they will come.

That indoor facility is nuts. All of these teams getting indoor facilities has the folks in Enterprise freaking out trying to get the school board to approve one.

 

[bama alum]

^^ That stadium is the old Larry Simmons Stadium. This is the current Warrior Stadium. The field house (background) rivals that of Samford.



@PurlJam Ricky Seale is a good guy!

 

[planomateo]

You guys have gone Texas on high school football, except the high schools are twice as expensive.

 

[Destiny's Child]

I spent some time in Alabaster back in the day. I was pre-med for a few years at Montevallo and worked all four years of college there at Shelby Medical Center as an orderly, usually in ER or OR. We used to get a good bit of business from the tail end of Simmsville Road near 31, pool halls and "Cohill Pop Stand" in Dapper (or Damper) Bottom - never saw it in writing. Our trauma area was one room with four gurneys cordoned off by curtains. One night we get a stab wound, put him in on gurney one, and about 45 minutes later we get a pool cue victim, gurney two. We were a little late realizing they had been dance partners that evening, and they started back at it.

Alabaster was a big town for me, but Pelham was in the money at the time, brand new school with that nice rubberized basketball court. I remember playing at the County Basketball tourney there, Arthur Johnson was doing 360's like he was on a trampoline. Pelham football boosters had enough cash to hire Billy Tohill, the old Texas Christian coach, as their head coach. My Dad had a job at the school putting in retaining walls during the summer and I was carrying blocks for him. Tohill toddles up with his fake leg, started up a conversation, recognized my name and offered to put me up in an apartment if I'd play for him. No thanks, he had a little more than a little crazy in him.

Awesome, I have had coach Tohill threaten to shove his wooden leg up my butt on multiple occasions. I moved to Pelham in 1978 and was there when Helena was one neighborhood and had a huge “projects”.
Thompson was everything from Montevallo to Calera. A bunch of farm land land mixed with government housing.
There was no spainnpark, oak mountain and Berry high school (aka Hoover) was just Hoover and didn’t even include Riverchase. Helena, Pelham, Riverchase, most of Chelsea, 119 and Valleydale all the way to almost Leeds went to Pelham. We had a a good coach and still sucked at football. We we ok at basketball but awesome at Volleyball and soccer.

To see what has happened to Helena,Thompson and for that matter Chelsea, oak mountain and Spain Park is hard to believe.

Once the galleria moved in Hoover being Hoover was always a forgone conclusion.

 

[JoshB]

You guys have gone Texas on high school football, except the high schools are twice as expensive.

Something like seven or eight high school coaches making 100K or more.

 

[It Takes Eleven]

Awesome, I have had coach Tohill threaten to shove his wooden leg up my butt on multiple occasions. I moved to Pelham in 1978 and was there when Helena was one neighborhood and had a huge “projects”.
Thompson was everything from Montevallo to Calera. A bunch of farm land land mixed with government housing.
There was no spainnpark, oak mountain and Berry high school (aka Hoover) was just Hoover and didn’t even include Riverchase. Helena, Pelham, Riverchase, most of Chelsea, 119 and Valleydale all the way to almost Leeds went to Pelham. We had a a good coach and still sucked at football. We we ok at basketball but awesome at Volleyball and soccer.

To see what has happened to Helena,Thompson and for that matter Chelsea, oak mountain and Spain Park is hard to believe.

Once the galleria moved in Hoover being Hoover was always a forgone conclusion.

When I graduated from Chelsea in 1983, the Chelsea school district included everything it has now, plus over half of what would become Oak Mountain's area: up 280, over the mountain to the Jeffco line at the Cahaba River bridge, and then a great deal of 119 and Valleydale area heading back toward Pelham. The Perrin boys (Perrin & Sons store is right across from the New Lloyd's) lived right there and went to Chelsea.

Out of that entire area, we graduated a class of 50 that year. That's how much north Shelby has grown over the last 30 years.

We were the last country school heading toward town and, other than St. Clair County HS, everyone we played was south or east of us. Our bitter rivals were Vincent and Shelby County HS in Columbiana. Ten years before I started high school at Chelsea, it was still a junior high school feeding to Vincent and Columbiana, again a testament to how sparse the 280 corridor was at that time. They were both a good bit larger than us, and given our size we no longer play either school.

RTR,

Tim

 

[bama alum]

When I graduated from Chelsea in 1983, the Chelsea school district included everything it has now, plus over half of what would become Oak Mountain's area: up 280, over the mountain to the Jeffco line at the Cahaba River bridge, and then a great deal of 119 and Valleydale area heading back toward Pelham. The Perrin boys (Perrin & Sons store is right across from the New Lloyd's) lived right there and went to Chelsea.

Out of that entire area, we graduated a class of 50 that year. That's how much north Shelby has grown over the last 30 years.

We were the last country school heading toward town and, other than St. Clair County HS, everyone we played was south or east of us. Our bitter rivals were Vincent and Shelby County HS in Columbiana. Ten years before I started high school at Chelsea, it was still a junior high school feeding to Vincent and Columbiana, again a testament to how sparse the 280 corridor was at that time. They were both a good bit larger than us, and given our size we no longer play either school.

RTR,

Tim

WOW! That was a long time ago. Chelsea's on the verge of going 7A pretty soon.

 

[It Takes Eleven]

WOW! That was a long time ago. Chelsea's on the verge of going 7A pretty soon.

Yeah, as Birmingham was growing in the early 1900's, there was no way to Birmingham over the mountain from Chelsea. You either went west through Bessemer or East through Leeds. There is a plaque commemorating the pass over the mountain on State Hwy 25 from Vandiver to Leeds. Then they added a pig trail over the mountain which was the forerunner to Highway 91, which was itself the forerunner to 280. Chelsea/Sterrett/Vandiver and such was an isolated pocket of ridges and valleys that got a late start in its development. I have a 1939 State Highway Map (a reprint from the University's map center) that shows Highway 91 instead of 280. I believe the work through The Narrows (at least the stone wall work) was done during the Great Depression as a WPA project.