0213 Homewood Middle School Basketball
Front row: Kalia Cunningham (22), Taylor Turner (34), Kassidy Crawford, Ava Touchstone (44), Caroline Smith (25). Back row: Lia Roberson (3), Sakeria Hollis, Tori Webb (40), YaMiah Hill, Coach Christi Martin.
One year ago, Homewood Middle School’s girls’ basketball team finished its season with a grand total of one win. But everything changed when Christi Martin became the head coach.
By season’s end this year, the young Homewood team had not only exceeded last year’s win total but ended up in the winning column more times than they lost. The girls finished with an 11-8 mark, which ranks as one of the Patriots’ best records in recent history.
Martin, who has over a decade of coaching experience, took over a program full of seventh graders who had to compete against teams in an eighth-grade level. To be specific, six of the nine players on the school’s eighth grade squad are in seventh grade.
“We’re a year behind,” Martin said. “We started out rough because we’re starting young kids who have never played before versus kids who’ve played for two years.”
The 2012-13 season came with a disappointing start. The Patriots dropped three contests to start the campaign. As the season progressed, the girls improved.
“They started getting the hang of the competition,” Martin said. “Once they got a few wins under their belts they started getting more confident.”
Eventually, they were beating the likes of area rivals Pizitz, Liberty Park and Mountain Brook. The home victory over Mountain Brook on Jan. 10 capped a five-game win streak.
“I’m not sure they knew how significant the wins over the Vestavia schools were because they’re just learning the rivalries,” Martin said. “They got Mountain Brook. They realized that we’ve got something very special when Mountain Brook came to our place and we beat them on our home court.”
Homewood’s success carried right on into the Metro Tournament. With no prior tournament experience, the girls finished fourth out of 11 teams to end their historic season.
“Not one player on my team had even been to the tournament,” Martin said. “We had no experience or leaders and we finished fourth. It was awesome.”
Martin credits much of her team’s success to the mentality of the girls when they began to realize their potential both on and off the court.
“They came up at 6:30 a.m. every Friday while everyone else was sleeping in,” she said. “The kids just really started buying in to the program and what we demanded of them. Once they started buying in, they started taking care of their business in the classroom and on the court.”
As the wins kept coming, the team’s determination grew.
“I can’t say enough about how hard they worked,” Martin said. “This group of girls is so internally competitive that they can’t stand to lose. I tell them all the time that attitude is contagious. If you start to win, you’re going to get confidence to move forward.”
With so many returning players, Martin expects her program to contend for the Metro title next year. In addition, the Homewood basketball program has a plan in place to begin introducing younger players to the program and basic basketball skills.
“Next month, we’re going to start getting our sixth graders in here,” Martin said. “If that grows, we want to open it to fifth and maybe fourth graders. The sixth graders that are willing to put their time in in the spring are going to be ready in seventh grade. We’ll just keep filtering. When you get the wins under your belt and get the excitement out there for girls’ basketball it’s going to get the ball rolling that Homewood Middle School girls’ basketball is going to be relevant again.”
Front row: Kalia Cunningham (22), Taylor Turner (34), Kassidy Crawford, Ava Touchstone (44), Caroline Smith (25). Back row: Lia Roberson (3), Sakeria Hollis, Tori Webb (40), YaMiah Hill, Coach Christi Martin.
