Photo by Sam Chandler.
Hoover High School senior Sydney Steely has earned All-State honors in cross-country the past five years. She leads a Buccaneer girls team searching for its first state title in program history.
Devon Hind’s dream is simple. Before he retires as Hoover High School’s head cross-country coach at some future juncture, he wants his girls team to win a state title.
It’s never been done.
Despite their dominance in track and field – they’ve won 11 of 12 state indoor and outdoor championships since 2012 — the Buccaneer girls have consistently come up short on the cross-country course.
Barely.
Three of the past five years have produced state runner-up finishes. Last year, the team placed fourth in Class 7A. As Hoover prepares for the upcoming fall season, the narrative of near misses rewinds through Hind’s mind. He’s tempering his expectations accordingly.
The 15th-year coach doesn’t want to overhype or undersell his team’s championship prospects, because he knows how unpredictable the sport can be.
He does, however, express confidence in his squad's composition and potential.
“I don’t know what other teams are doing, so I’m not going to say this is the year,” Hind said. “We’re just going to do the best we can. These girls have worked hard all summer. They’re hungry, so we’ll see. I think it’ll be our strongest team ever.”
His roster possesses praise-worthy credentials, as Hoover returns it full varsity team. Eight runners have broken 20 minutes for 5K, and two of them were All-State honorees in 2016.
Sydney Steely and Ava Weems formed a stout 1-2 punch as juniors last fall, often traversing the cross-country terrain side by side. Both are back for their senior years and will look to close out their prep careers in fine form.
“I’m hoping this will be their banner year,” Hind said.
Steely already has started off on the right foot. In July, she was named North MVP for her second-place finish in the inaugural AHSAA North-South All-Star cross-country race in Montgomery.
She has run for Hoover since her seventh-grade season at Bumpus Middle School and has earned All-State status each of the past five years.
“She doesn’t like to lose, and she’s just confident in her abilities,” Hind said. “She steps up. When it’s big time, she’s there.”
In addition to their two front-runners, the Bucs will look to juniors Emma Langley, Erin Cannon and Amellia Rumore, along with senior Caroline Sall, to push the pace up front.
Sall only started running last season and quickly emerged as a contributor. She also participated in the All-Star race with Steely.
“I’m hoping she’ll be right there with Sydney and Ava,” Hind said.
The Hoover boys, on the other hand, enter the season lacking the depth of the Hoover girls. They lost their top two runners from a season ago in John Paul Rumore and Tommy McDonough, the 7A state champion.
There are three clear-cut candidates who could move into those top positions, but Hind said one already has begun to emerge as the forerunner: John McCrackin, a senior.
He won the North-South All-Star boys race and, like Steely, claimed team MVP honors. Over the summer, he also broke a long-standing 2-mile record at Hoover’s cross-country camp on Smith Lake.
“John’s on fire right now. He’s running great,” Hind said. “He’s going to shock a lot of people.”
Fellow seniors Joe Leventry and Alex Leary are likely to race alongside McCrackin throughout the season. Together, the trio formed the core of a team that in 2016 placed third at state.
Behind them, Hind said, the Bucs will need a handful of younger runners to step up, even though many of them lack substantial varsity experience.
“They’ve been running for us, but they’ve been JV, and they seem to be improving,” Hind said. “That’s what has to happen every year. Somebody’s got to fill the gaps.”
The Hoover cross-country teams will open their 2017 campaigns Sept. 1 at the Montevallo Early Bird Twilight Invitational.
