‘Green light’
- Updated: February 24, 2025
Inevitability took its coach’s confidence to heart, as Spring Garden’s girls show there’s as much to like about dominance as there is about drama.
BIRMINGHAM — There comes a time when every parent must let go, and Ricky Austin’s epiphany came in the locker room, moments before his latest Spring Garden basketball team took the court for Monday’s Class 1A semifinals.
The veteran coach’s thoughts didn’t just center on daughter Ace Austin, but on her senior class.
This Final Four is their last ride together. There’s one way to approach it. Just enjoy the ride.
“I told our seniors before we left the locker room,” Ricky Austin said. “I said, ‘Hey, I’ve coached you long enough. I’m not telling you all anything else. All of you all got the green light. Let it go. Let’s go have fun.’”
Fun came in the form of an 81-34 dispatching of fifth-ranked R.C. Hatch.
More fun comes Thursday, when Spring Garden takes on unranked Brilliant for the Class 1A state title.
It seems sheepish to say “if” Spring Garden wins. It sure seems like the Panthers’ toughest games in this postseason are behind them.
It sure looked that way Monday, as Ace Austin went triple-double with 32 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists in a game where it seemed she could name her point total.
Spring Garden’s third consecutive state title and 10th overall seemed like a runaway train at the crossing as Olivia Law popped for 19 points and Maggie Jarrett scored 16.
The only thing that can stop Ace Austin’s reign as one of Alabama’s greatest high school players is time, and time is near its end. She and classmates Law, Jarrett, Kristen Lewis and Avery Streward have one more game as Spring Garden Panthers.
Their last ride will play out where so many others have, on the sometimes cracked playing floor in Birmingham’s Legacy Arena.
The only thing that ever stopped this group was reclassification. They spent two years in Class 2A, knocking up against Pisgah in the Northeast Regional.
Inevitability showed up Monday. It’s hard to imagine a scenario where it doesn’t show up Thursday, so how to view it
Some might bemoan the fact that top-ranked Spring Garden played No. 2 Ider and No. 3 Winterboro in the Northeast Regional instead of Birmingham. Well, the best have to play the best challengers at some point.
Geographically suited regionals exist for a reason, and one regional essentially serving as a de facto Final Four for one classification or another is a reality as old as regionals. It happens almost every year.
At least the best 1A girls’ games went down in a smaller, more full coliseum as opposed to a cavernous, more-empty-than-not arena in the state’s biggest market. The best games happened in the best atmosphere.
So why fret if the final games look like Monday’s game against No. 5 R.C. Hatch?
Why not enjoy the dominance of a living legend, putting her final signature on her high school career before she puts her touch on college basketball, at Alabama?
Why not enjoy her launching 3-pointers with a light that can’t get greener if watered?
Why not enjoy her launching outlet passes to Jarrett, just with a new wrinkle? She does it blindly, sometimes.
“Sometimes, I don’t even look at the other end of the court,” Ace Austin said. “I just throw it because I know she’s down there.”
Isn’t it fun watching a team that good and connected do that on the state’s biggest stage, and do it with a Globetrotter-like abandon? It’s like they’re topping off our memories with as many highlights as possible.
And speaking of green lights, they extend to postgame news conferences. When Ricky Austin struggled to find the words to describe what another state championship would mean to Spring Garden, Ace Austin ran the green light like it was yellow.
She grabbed the mic.
“I’ll talk for him,” she said with her confident grin, sparking laughs in the room. “It’s been a fun run, but going back before I played, I told him many times that we’re going to be down here multiple times. They had just lost one time, and I said, ‘Don’t worry, dad, I got you in a couple of years.’
“It means a lot to be here again, but really for the community, We’ve had great support. We really don’t do it for ourselves. We do it for the name across our chests and the people who don’t even go to Spring Garden that support us.”
Her dad chimed in.
“Good assist,” he said.
The final ride doesn’t have to look great on the scoreboard when greatness can name its score. Just enjoy the greatness.
Video by Joe Medley
Photo gallery by Joe Medley, Shannon Fagan, Greg Warren
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