Scott Butler
Homewood Boys Basketball
Homewood’s Kaleb Carson (3) in a sub-regional playoff game against Mountain Brook on Feb. 7 at Homewood High School.
The Homewood High School boys basketball team enters the 2025-26 season looking to build on a promising first year under head coach Elijah Garrison and a late-season surge that earned the Patriots an area championship.
Homewood finished 19-11 overall and 4-2 in area play last season, winning six straight games to capture the area title before falling to Mountain Brook in the sub-regional round.
Now in his second season at the helm, Garrison is continuing the legacy left by longtime head coach Tim Shepler, who retired after nearly 700 wins and a state championship during a 30-year run leading the Patriots.
“The tradition here is important,” Garrison said. “This is a top-10 job across the state. The administration cares a lot about what I want in terms of this program. I am only the fifth coach ever here, which is insane, but because Coach Shepler was here for 30 years. You don’t win that many games and a state championship if you’re a bad coach.”
Homewood returns a senior-laden, guard-heavy roster that plans to play fast and capitalize on chemistry built over years of competition together.
“We have nine seniors that have played a lot of basketball together,” Garrison said. “They know each other really well, the good and the bad of each other’s games. They can self-scout and know what each other brings to the game. It’s encouraging to see.”
Among those seniors is Kaleb Carson, who also starred as the Patriots’ quarterback on the football field. With Homewood football in the midst of a deep playoff run, Carson and several others, including Hayes DeCoudres, David Walden, Kam Foster and Quincy McGhee, missed part of November as they finished things on the gridiron.
Carson acknowledged the challenge of transitioning from football to basketball shape.
“Way different,” Carson said with a laugh when asked about the difference between being in game shape for the two sports.
Other key returners include Daniel Vinson, a third-year varsity guard, Drew Vail, who returns healthy after battling injuries the past two seasons, and Drew Susce, a sharpshooter who knocked down more than 70 three-pointers last year.
In the frontcourt, DeCoudres, Jace Harden and James Kellen are expected to anchor a smaller but versatile rotation.
“We’re going to play a high-possession game to try and combat not getting rebounds,” Garrison said. “Everybody on the court will be able to make a shot. Opposing teams won’t be able to help on somebody else because we can make threes.”
Homewood will hit the most important games of the year in January with area games against Minor, Parker and Jackson-Olin. The regular season concludes Feb. 2 with a home matchup versus Hoover.
“The way our season ended last year, I thought we needed to be more ready for that type of game,” Garrison said. “I took the approach of, ‘Let’s go play the hardest teams we can.’ We might take some licks across the season, but we’re going to be ready come February.”
