Photo by Erin Nelson.
Spain Park’s Zach Gray (22) shoots a 3-pointer guarded by Enterprise’s Kenneth Mitchell Jr. (5) in the second half of the AHSAA Class 7A boys state semifinal game at Legacy Arena at the BJCC on March 3. The Jags fell to Enterprise 73-58.
The Spain Park High School boys basketball program has had a great run of success over the last couple of years.
In each of the last two years, the Jags have advanced to the Class 7A final four, where they have fallen to the same Enterprise team in the semifinals.
In 2020-21, Spain Park entered the season with high expectations and reached those. Last winter, it was largely expected the Jags would take a step back, but they defied the odds and got back to the same level.
This year, expectations are probably somewhere in between.
“Every year is a new season and a new journey,” Spain Park head coach Chris Laatsch said before the season at Birmingham Media Day at Thompson. “You lose some guys from the year before, and we’re excited about who we have in our program.”
Laatsch, as one can imagine, spends little time worrying about his team’s external expectations. His favorite part of the season is showing up to work with his group of guys every day.
“I love going to the gym every day and seeing them because I know what I’m going to get from them,” he said. “I don’t have to poke and prod or try to motivate them to work hard. These guys bring it every day, so it’s a lot of fun.”
Spain Park has the requisite talent to achieve a season similar to the last two. The Jags finished each of those campaigns with 27 wins. In order to do that, or even go further, the Jags will have to excel in two specific areas.
“One of the things we’ve got to do is increase our toughness and grit,” Laatsch said. “We’ve got kids that want to do right, they want to do the right things, be in the right spots, doing the right things.”
Zach Gray and Sam Wright are the two players Laatsch brought with him to Media Day, for good reason. Both are key players for this Jags team who play hard every night and are strong leaders for the team.
Gray is a guard who has a reputation for being a shooter, so he said he has worked to develop his ball-handling and rebounding to increase his value to the team even if the opponent attempts to shut him down on offense.
Wright will anchor the post presence for the Jags, a strength of this year’s team.
“When you have bigs, you’re going to try to play through them,” Laatsch said. “We have bigs that can play, so they’re going to get touches. We also have a lot of guys that can drive the ball and shoot the ball. I think we can be versatile and hurt people in a lot of areas and have success in a lot of areas.”
Hunter Herritt and Evan Houser are also seniors this year, while Chase James is a third returning starter from last year’s squad. TJ Lamar and Jared Smith are two players who will provide depth at forward. Korbin Long also played big minutes last season.
Joshua Fonbah, Nicholas Richardson, Harrison Stewart, Jackson Bradley, Josh Helms, Joseph Buchanan, Parker Chase and Chapman Blevins will also contribute for the Jags this year.
Spain Park will compete in Class 7A, Area 6, against Oak Mountain, Chelsea and Hewitt-Trussville.
