WEST SIDE STORY
Girls basketball rivals from Midfi eld and Wenonah face off in their annual game.
BY LOYD MCINTOSH PHOTOS BY CARY NORTON
It’s Nov. 19 at about 6:30 p.m. and the Midfi eld High School Lady Patriots are fi nally about to tip off their home opener for the 2009 to 2010 basketball season after a handful of delays. The football team is advancing into the playoffs and, in order to avoid interfering with the gridiron gang, the start of the season has been rescheduled more than once. In fact, the game about to begin was originally scheduled for the next night.
As basketball fans, family and fellow students make their way into the 1970s-era gymnasium at Midfi eld High School, one of the most important games on either school’s schedule is about to get underway. With cheerleaders on both sides of the gym trading chanted barbs, the players are called to center court for the tipoff.
The girls game, like at many high schools throughout the area, is the lead-in for the boys game between the schools. However, the game between the Midfi eld Lady Patriots and the Wenonah Lady Dragons is the main event, and for good reason.
Since 2005, the two teams have combined to win four state championships; Wenonah won the 6A title in 2005 while Midfi eld is the three-time 4A defending champion. Both schools, in recent years, have sent players to college careers at SEC schools like LSU and Georgia, plus smaller universities like Alabama A&M and Montevallo. Since these teams are in separate classifi cations, a Wenonah- Midfi eld matchup never has playoff ramifi cations nor is a region championship on the line. The communities are separated by only three miles and some railroad tracks in the western section of Jefferson County. And, as the Birmingham metro area has sprawled in many directions over the years, communities like Midfi eld, western Birmingham and other communities in the Bessemer cutoff have mostly remained much like the communities they were decades ago.
PRIDE IS THE KEY
In many ways time has passed these communities by. The day of the 2009 Midfi eld-Wenonah game, for instance, Sears announced the closing of its nearby store in Fairfi eld. Still, these communities have a lot to be proud of, including two of the premiere girls’ basketball teams in the state and one of the area’s best sports rivalries. “Pride is the key,” says Wenonah High School head coach Emmanuel Bell. “That’s what makes a rivalry: how much pride your kids have for your colors, who wants to prove that they’re the best when they get out there on that basketball court.”
If anyone would know about what this game means to these girls, it’s Bell. One of the classiest coaches around, Bell took over the Lady Dragons program from Eleanor Pitts, who led the team to two state titles in 1986 and 1993, before leading the team to the promised land again in 2004 over Clay-Chalkville. In addition, he founded the Alabama Roadrunners basketball program with the goal of giving many talented girls from urban areas around Birmingham a chance play competitive Amateur Athletic Union basketball in the summer.He regularly recruits young women from Wenonah and Midfi eld to his team, and his current roster is no exception. Roadrunners on the fl oor tonight are Midfi eld standouts senior Asia Bragg, Mississippi State signee Britney Young and Jasmine Steele, a 5-foot, 3-inch fi recracker of a point guard. Leading Wenonah’s squad is 5-foot, 10-inch forward Teranisha Hollis, Stephanie Jackson and Victoria Billingsley, a player for which Bell has high hopes.
Bell’s face and name are well known in the Wenonah-Midfi eld area. Before the game began, for instance, several young boys in the gym lined up to say hello and shake his hand. He understands how intertwined the neighborhoods are and the game’s import.
“Many of these girls go to church together, go to the movies together and even grew up together,” says Bell, “so they all want to do their best when they meet each other on the basketball court.”
Midfield Head Coach Reggie Ware is a relative newcomer to the rivalry, coming to Midfi eld after leaving his native Mississippi to play basketball at Samford University. Young and energetic, Ware has built Midfi eld into a winning machine, earning three state championships to match the total number of its rival. He understands what this game means to his team and the community.
“It’s about bragging rights at Thanksgiving, after church when you’re going to Sunday dinner, at Christmas time when they all get together,” says Bell.
Midfi eld Athletic Director and Head Football Coach Ruben Nelson was in attendance for this game, one night before his Patriots team lost in the playoffs to Tuscumbia’s Deshler. A Midfi eld High graduate, Nelson is keenly aware of the signifi cance of this game.
“It’s big. Their school is right across the train tracks, and it’s big for us to win. But, it’s big for the community to come together in the spirit of brotherhood. This is a great rivalry and one that we want to go on forever,” Nelson says.
BACK TO THE ACTION
After trailing for much of the game, Midfi eld overcame a 10-point defi cit in the fourth quarter by nailing their free throws to win by a score of 52-46. But the game was much closer than the score indicates, with the outcome in question late into the fourth quarter.
“When you play Wenonah, you want to beat them,” says Britney. “It’s all fun and games, though.” Victoria agrees with Britney, saying friendships have to be put aside for the couple of hours the teams line up against each other.
Once the fi nal buzzer sounds, opponents become friends again, at least until the teams meet up again on the last day of the season on Jan. 29—this time across the railroad tracks in Wenonah’s gym.
“Once we get on the court all that is put to the side,” Victoria says. “It’s a rivalry and once you’re on the court it all has to be put out of your mind. You can only think about winning the game.”
For more on the AAU Alabama Roadrunners program, visit alabamaroadrunners.com.
