Chase named coach of the year

Mike Chase did not coach this past basketball season differently than any of the previous ones in his 21-year coaching career. He put his team through early-morning workouts and practices and coached hard like he always does.

But this year, he exited the season with the Alabama Sports Writers Association’s Class 7A girls coach of the year award, the first time in his successful career that he has won the award.

This year’s Spain Park High School girls basketball team advanced to the state championship game for the first time in school history. It was the third time in the state final for Chase, as he made two previous trips to that stage during his 10-year career at Clay-Chalkville before coming to Spain Park, where he just completed his eighth season.

“Everything just kind of came together,” Chase said. “(The award) is based off of the successes that the team had.”

The Lady Jags finished the season with a 21-12 record, including a couple of heart-stopping wins en route to the state championship game, where Sarah Ashlee Barker’s 3-pointer at the end of regulation sent the game to overtime in a game that Hoover would eventually win in the all-Hoover City Schools Class 7A final.

Spain Park played well for much of the regular season, before hitting a lull toward the end and sleepwalking through the Area 6 tournament. But wild wins over Gadsden City in the regional semifinal and McGill-Toolen in the state semifinal gave the Lady Jags their best season ever.

Chase credits all associated with the program for the thrilling end to the season.

“This year, I felt like my team and their parents and the administrators and everybody just kind of bought into what we were selling and then we had some great results,” Chase said.

The Lady Jags have a chance to repeat that success again next season, with much of the roster returning and departing just one senior in Monique Speigner.