Photo by Erin Nelson.
HV vs SP basketball
Hoover’s Madison Adamson (23) shoots the ball in a game against Spain Park on Dec. 6 at Hoover HighSchool. The Buccaneers defeated the Jags 56-32.
Madison Adamson already has two rings. The Hoover High School girls basketball team won the Class 7A state championship two of the last three years, when Adamson was a freshman and again last year during her junior season.
But that doesn’t mean she’s not hungry for one more.
“[I want] three rings,” Adamson said. “I want to leave a legacy for my team and a path that we can follow for the future.”
Adamson feels like she should already have three rings, but the Lady Bucs were knocked out of the playoffs during the regional tournament in 2018, her sophomore year. That disappointment gave her and her teammates a renewed focus, one that extended beyond the court.
“Our mindset was just win, win, win,” Adamson recalled. “Even off the court, we were working on our grades. We wanted everything to be right. It was such a heartbreak when you’re supposed to go to the state championship.”
That hunger resulted in a dominant 2018-19 campaign, as Hoover went 34-1, won their final 32 games and had an average margin of victory of more than 33 points per game in their six postseason games.
The Lady Bucs are on a similar track this season, having posted a 22-1 record through Jan. 20. The key to duplicating that success from last year will be remaining in the moment, Adamson said.
“We want to get back to state, but we also have to focus on each game and not forget about them,” she said.
Adamson is of great value to the Lady Bucs in many ways. On the court, she is a matchup nightmare for opposing teams. She can fit into any of the five positions seamlessly, comfortable playing on the perimeter and tall enough (she stands 6 feet) to play near the basket.
“Very versatile, very smart, she’s always had the highest IQ on our team, even when she was a freshman,” Hoover head coach Krystle Johnson said of Adamson. “She’s a good passer, she’s got post moves, she can shoot, she’s an inside-outside type of player.”
Adamson is one of two seniors on this year’s team, along with Janae Hubbard. Johnson contends Adamson has been a leader in some form since she was a freshman, so her role now has only evolved.
“Last year, she was one in a group of leaders. This year, she’s the one person,” Johnson said. “They look up to her; they listen to her. She just needs to understand that when it comes to being a leader of such a young team, she can’t take a day off.”
Following her high school days, Adamson will attend the Air Force Academy on a basketball scholarship. She said she became interested in Air Force early in high school, but a knee injury the summer before her junior year slowed her recruiting process.
She came back from the knee injury in six months, tearing her ACL in May and being cleared to play in November 2018.
“Madison has always been a hard worker, but I think that’s obvious by how quickly she got back from her ACL and how she came back, she didn’t really miss a beat as far as the player she was,” Johnson said.
Adamson was promoted to captain in the Air Force JROTC program at Hoover High in mid-January as well. It fits right into her future plans.
“I’ve seen what so many people have done, 9/11 and how people sacrifice their lives for others, and it really inspired me to help others,” she said.
