By DON FLETCHER
News Staff Writer
Jerome Webster, who guided Escambia Academy’s boys basketball team to this season’s Alabama Independent School Association (AISA) Class A state championship, has been selected by the Alabama Sports Writers Association (ASWA) as the state’s AISA Coach of the Year.
One of Webster’s veteran players earned a first-team slot on ASWA’s all-classification All State team, and a senior who was playing his first full season at EA was a third-team selection on the All-State squad.
Webster’s Cougars won their last 18 games, including a three-games-in-three-days playoff sweep of The Oaks (60-46), Trinity (49-45) and Abbeville Christian (47-42 for the title).
Last year, EA’s boys came up just one game short of the championship (EA’s girls, also coached by Webster, played their way into the Final Four). Webster said the one-game difference was due to the team’s depth.
“Last year, if our best players had to come out of the game, we weren’t able to substitute,” he explained. “Everybody contributed in one way or the other, all season, this year.”
The first-place trophy and the Coach of the Year award were both firsts for the third-year EA coach, who spent several years on the Monroe County High School staff and helped coach Escambia County High School’s Lady Blue Devils to back-to-back Final Four appearances.
The veteran hoops coach admitted the feeling is a good one, but one that is difficult to adequately express.
“You really can’t explain it,” Webster said during a telephone interview with Atmore News.
Ronta Watson, a 5-10 junior, exceeded the 1,000-point “career” mark this season and scored a combined 53 points in EA’s semifinal and final contests. That earned him a spot on the first-team AISA All State squad, a unit that also included Abbeville Christian’s Jayden Buckhannon, Hooper Academy’s Nolan Cole, Deshawn Hall of Valiant Cross and Tylon Shine of Evangel-Montgomery.
“He’s a good kid; he works hard on the basketball court and in the classroom,” Webster said of his team’s top scorer. “He has a good attitude and he’s coachable.”
Bryce Stevens, EA’s 6-6 senior center who scored a team-high 20 points in the championship contest and was named Player of the Game, was a third-team selection to the AISA squad.
Stevens, a relative newcomer to the team, blossomed as the season progressed. He didn’t hit a three-point basket all season until he nailed two shots from long distance late in the championship game. He later was chosen to play in the AISA All-Star game and was awarded the Most Valuable Player trophy.
“It was a good year for Bryce,” Webster said. “He deserved (the selection); he needed that. When he finally got the opportunity, he helped win a state championship, made the all-star team and was MVP of the all-star game. He had a good year.”