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Photo by Savannah Schmidt
Chelsea's Haley Trotter (23) shoots the ball in a warmup during the Homewood vs Chelsea basketball game at Homewood High School.
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Photo courtesy of Briarwood Basketball
Briarwood's Drew Mears is the all-time leading scorer in program history. Photo courtesy of Briarwood Basketball.
Haley Trotter and Drew Mears have long been two of the top high school basketball players in the area. Each recently achieved new milestones to add to resumes that are already illustrious.
Trotter, a senior at Chelsea High School, recently eclipsed 1,000 career rebounds in the Lady Hornets' win over Neshoba Central (Miss.) on Monday. The win was Chelsea's eighth straight and Trotter posted 33 points on top of her six rebounds. Trotter is within reach of the school record for rebounds as well, as the Lady Hornets enter the home stretch.
She is already the program's all-time leading scorer and could potentially become the winningest varsity player in program history.
Trotter was an all-state selection last year by the Alabama Sports Writers Association. She was named an all-regional team player for the third straight year, and played in the AHSAA North-South All-Star Game over the summer as well.
Trotter and Mears were both Starnes Media All-South Metro first-team selections for the 2023-24 campaign.
Mears recently became the Briarwood all-time leading scorer. Mears went over the 1,000-point mark against Indian Springs on Nov. 11 and broke the program mark — previously held by Jason Laatsch at 1,404 points — in a win over Shelby County on Jan. 16. The junior averaged 23.6 points per game last season and has put together another terrific season so far in 2024-25.
Briarwood and Chelsea's boys and girls teams are set to finish up the regular season next week ahead of the area tournaments, which kick off postseason play.
