Photo by Erin Nelson.
Homewood’s Canon Armstead (12) shoots a layup guarded by Calera’s Jayden Robinson (22) in a game against the Eagles at Homewood High School on Monday, Nov. 28.
The Homewood High School boys basketball team hovered around the .500 mark for much of the season’s first month.
With a young squad, the performance was a bit uneven: brilliant at times, frustrating at others.
But by the middle of December, the Patriots appeared to catch fire, ripping off eight wins in nine games. That stretch included wins over the likes of Guntersville, Briarwood and Hartselle, as well as three area wins.
The only loss in that time was to a powerful Vestavia Hills team in the final of the Metro Tournament.
Homewood head coach Tim Shepler said he expected this sort of start to the season and is glad to see his players fight through the early adversity.
“Experience tells me these are the pains of growing with a young team,” he said.
Shepler said his team is full of players who possess high character and a willingness to stick with the plan, even when it’s not easy. That allowed the Patriots to use some of those early struggles as learning opportunities.
One thing that makes this iteration of Homewood basketball unique is that there is no go-to scorer on the team, at least not up to this point. As of mid-January, eight players had led the team in scoring in at least one game.
Carter Vail, Will Pope, Canon Armstead, Jake Stephens, David Stone, Kiran McCool, Jeremiah Gary and Latham Binkley have all led the Patriots in scoring. That is a rarity, and also acts as a double-edged sword.
On one hand, it makes the Patriots tough to prepare for. Opponents cannot choose to shut down one player with hopes of disrupting the team’s rhythm. But on the other hand, the question of who Homewood can rely on in key situations to score doesn’t always have an easy answer.
“They bought into the idea that it can be somebody else every night,” Shepler said. “Don’t think you have to be the guy and don’t think you can’t be the guy. Let’s just go out there and play.”
Anyone that has watched Homewood play over the season knows Shepler prioritizes the defensive end of the court. He believes his unit has bought into a defense-first mentality.
“Our focus is always if we guard first, the offense will take care of itself,” he said.
Shepler also commended the team’s five seniors for taking on a “humble attitude.”
“They’ve said whatever it takes, and that’s important to support our younger guys,” Shepler said.
As of press time, Homewood was unbeaten through the first half of area play, as the Patriots compete against Parker, Minor and Jackson-Olin. The Patriots host Carver-Birmingham on Feb. 2 to wrap up the regular season, with postseason play set to begin the following week.
“We’d love to host the area [tournament], but we’ve got to take it one game at a time. Our seniors have done a good job of steadying. They’ve been bought into what we’re doing,” Shepler said.
Should the Patriots advance past the area tournament, the Class 6A sub-regional round would precede the Northeast Regional tournament at Jacksonville State in mid-February.
