Spain Park hungry for run at state championship
Spain Park junior guard Jamal Johnson hasn’t forgotten the fluke play that abruptly ended his sophomore season and unexpectedly dashed the Jags’ hopes of competing for the inaugural Class 7A state title.
In the opening round of the 7A, Area 6 tournament facing a sub-.500 Vestavia Hills team, the Jags, who were missing star sophomore center Austin Wiley due to a stomach illness, experienced a stinging defeat when Rebels guard Spencer Haynes converted an improbable four-point play with just over three seconds remaining in regulation, draining a second-chance, turnaround 3-pointer and ensuing free throw.
For Spain Park, which had just earned the No. 2 ranking in the Alabama Sports Writers Association poll prior to the tournament, a season on the brink turned instantly into disappointment.
“We’ve been thinking about that play ever since it happened, and it just motivates us to work harder and just never be in that opportunity again,” Johnson said, “and just become a better basketball team, love on each other and just work harder every day.”
As an immensely talented player and emerging leader on a Jags’ squad with a new, although familiar, head coach in former boys and girls lead assistant Donnie Quinn, Johnson enters the 2015-2016 season ready to help carry Spain Park far past the first round of the area tournament.
“We just have to come out every game focused, like everybody wants to beat us,” Johnson said, “and we’ve just got to have the mindset to work hard and always not take anybody for granted and just come out with full intensity against every opponent.”
Committed to bringing an intense focus to each game, a lesson learned through the heartbreaking area defeat, Johnson’s season approach directly mirrors that of his head coach.
At the Birmingham metro-area high school media days Nov. 4, Quinn made it resoundingly clear that the key to Spain Park’s success will be its ability to give maximal effort and attention to each team it faces.
“We try to take one, you know you hate to say it, one game at a time, but really that’s all you can do,” Quinn said, “because if you start looking ahead, you’re definitely going to trip over somebody and then lose a game somewhere.”
Although they lost only six contests last season, the Jags look fully capable of lowering that number even more this winter, especially if Johnson can improve on his sophomore statistics.
An ASWA All-State Second Team selection, the 6-foot-4 Johnson, son of former Alabama standout and NBA veteran Buck Johnson, posted 17.3 points and 6.7 rebounds per game in 2014-15.
Add in Wiley, who recently committed to Auburn, along with senior Justin Brown, and the Jags boast a trio that will be difficult to contain.
To reach its peak, however, Quinn knows his team will need to depend on more than just three players.
Competing in a perpetually tough area against fellow title contenders Hoover and Mountain Brook, which regularly have the personnel to limit opposing stars, Quinn’s emphasis is on developing a solid supporting cast.
“For us to be able to win each game that we play, we’re going to have to find a way of bridging that gap between high talent and just regular, good high school players,” Quinn said, “but it’s the good high school players that are going to make us win.”
Despite being limited by a preseason groin injury that sidelined him for nearly two months, Johnson, currently ranked the No. 51 recruit in the Class of 2017 by Rivals.com, made leaps of progress that should help foster that concept.
Unable to fully physically participate, Johnson viewed the injury’s silver lining, shifting his attention to maturing as a team leader on and off the court while building tighter relationships with his teammates.
Now healthy and eager to dive into the season, he is prepared to set the tone, bringing his team closer together as it begins its collective quest to the top, one day at a time.
“I think that’s what I’m most excited about,” Johnson said, “getting everybody to work together and reaching for our potential.”