Todd Lester
Homewood G Brinley Cassell (2) during a Class 6A Northeast Regional semifinal game between Homewood and Hazel Green on Friday, Feb. 14, 2020, at Pete Mathews Coliseum in Jacksonville.
The game occurred over nine months ago, but it appears as if a sour taste remains in the mouths of those associated with the Homewood High School girls basketball team.
As brilliant as the season was — the Lady Patriots won 25 games and an area championship in Kevin Tubbs’ first season back on the sidelines — it ended just as badly.
After a one-year absence, Homewood returned to the Class 6A Northeast Regional tournament, where the Lady Patriots have experienced plenty of success over the last several years. But in February, Homewood was embarrassed, losing to Hazel Green 64-20 in a game that was never close.
“I despise the fact our season ended the way it ended,” Tubbs said. “The wheels just came off.”
The Lady Patriots know there is much to be proud of from the 2019-20 season. A 25-4 record is nothing to scoff at, and Hazel Green went on to win its third straight state championship last season. But that final loss is serving as motivation for this year.
In a normal year, there would have been tryouts in the spring and a dozen or so games in the summer to help the program move on from that game. But nothing has been normal this year, and COVID-19 wiped all of those things out.
But Tubbs is ready to get started, returning nearly all of the core from last year’s successful squad.
“We’re pretty excited,” he said. “Our schedule is a lot tougher with teams that are playoff teams.”
The biggest loss for the Lady Patriots was Kassidy Schnoer, a forward who returned to basketball last winter after taking her junior year off. Schnoer was a sensation, averaging 13 points and eight rebounds per game and providing the team with leadership and stability.
Tubbs knows there’s no replacing a presence like Schnoer’s, which took a great deal of pressure off other players. He expects the replacing of her production to come from a team effort, with the likes of Brinley Cassell and Anna Grace Gibbons being asked to score more.
Cassell and Gibbons are two of the team’s five seniors, along with Alex Hershbine, Anna Harbin and Kate Gann. Junior Caidyn Cannon was also a critical piece to last year’s team and is set up to have a stellar season as well.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Homewood has three seniors Tubbs expects to contribute right away. Mira McCool is 6-foot-2 and will give the Lady Patriots a significant presence in the paint. Susie Whitsett will see time as the backup point guard, and Kayla Warren is an athletic forward only scratching the surface of her potential.
Katelyn Pope and Ava Pepper will also help out the Lady Patriots this season.
All the down time this spring and summer gave Tubbs plenty of time — perhaps too much time — to dissect everything that went wrong in that Hazel Green contest. He said the Lady Patriots have adjusted a few things defensively and plan to open up the offense a little bit more, since last season it focused primarily on getting the ball into Schnoer’s hands.
The Lady Patriots play in Class 6A, Area 9, with the likes of Mountain Brook, Chelsea and Briarwood. Tubbs expects a competitive area with no clear favorite, but he has reason to believe his team has a chance to emerge atop the standings.
“Don’t underestimate us,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of talent and a lot of girls that were not happy with how things ended last year.”
