PREP NEWS: Hogan to lead ACA volleyball; Macon East's Poole signs with Talladega College
Amber Hogan with the ACA volleyball players after the announcement that she will become their new coach. (Contributed)
By TIM GAYLE
It might have come a little sooner than she expected, but Amber Hogan is excited for the opportunity to serve as Alabama Christian Academy’s head volleyball coach.
“I told them during the interview process this wasn’t something where I would just throw my hand in there and get accepted, it’s been a goal of mine for a while,” Hogan said. “I didn’t think the opportunity would happen this year, but that’s why it’s been important to get in the city and get around other coaches so being a part of CCJ (Capital City Juniors club volleyball) has been an awesome thing with learning and building mentorships.”
Hogan was introduced to the volleyball players during an assembly on Tuesday, but she’s familiar with many of them after serving the last four years as the junior varsity coach.
“We had three candidates we put through our interview process on campus,” ACA athletic director Aaron Greenwood said. “As we went through that and dug down into each of them, Amber really separated herself with her involvement in club (volleyball), her desire to learn the game of volleyball and with her passion to really want to develop each of our student-athletes spiritually.
“We’re excited to promote someone from within who has a knowledge of our girls already and who already has relationships developed with them.”
Hogan, a member of the 2002 ACA state championship team under coach Denise Ainsworth, is a 2004 graduate of the school and served as Holtville’s head volleyball coach before coming back to ACA four years ago and taking a role as the junior varsity head coach.
Hogan will replace Manuel Guice, who is taking on a larger role at the school and needed to reduce his commitment in athletics.
“Manual was approached with the opportunity to become director of student life,” Greenwood said. “He’s currently the AP biology teacher, the science department head, assistant principal, baseball coach and volleyball coach. When he took on this (new) role, he needed to give something up. And in talking to him, he’s got two girls coming up and he wants to be able to watch them play and not coach them.”
Guice took over as the Eagles’ volleyball coach in 2009, taking ACA to six quarterfinal appearances and two regional appearances in his first eight years, then to the 2017 and 2018 semifinals before losing to Deshler and Providence Christian, respectively. The Eagles have not made it out of area play in the last three years.
“There were a couple of factors,” Guice said. “One, the school had presented an opportunity for me to have another role in my job. The other aspect, as I told them several years ago, that when my daughter got into the program, I just want to be a dad.
“I’m super excited for Amber. She’s been on my staff for three or four years. I think she’s going to do a great job.
Hogan, meanwhile, said she is excited about the opportunity to build ACA’s brand in girls’ sports.
“I think it’s really important to develop .. a female culture of competitiveness,” she said. “Over a generation, sometimes that dwindles a little bit, so I’m really excited our head basketball coach is female, our head softball coach is female and now this. For us, to be examples of that (culture) and develop that, that can get girls excited.
“I’m really excited about the future because I see these young girls that are ready by the time they get to sixth grade to develop that passion for the game.”
Macon East’s Poole signs to play basketball with Talladega College
CECIL -- Maurice Poole has never wavered in his love for basketball, but the Macon East Academy senior admits a few months on the gridiron this past fall made him a better player on the court.
“It made me more physical and got me a little stronger in the weight room,” he said. “It made me really tough. I had never played football a day in life. I just went out there and I was pretty good at it.”
Poole increased his production on the court this year, averaging 17 points per game, while leading the Knights into the postseason. On Tuesday, he was honored at the school with a signing ceremony as he accepted an offer to play basketball at Talladega College.
“It’s like a dream come true,” Poole said. “As a young kid, I always dreamed of playing college basketball. It’s a big opportunity to play at the next level and I’m blessed.”
Poole came to Macon East from G.W. Carver after the 2020 season, helping the Knights to the Class AA state championship in 2020-21.
“Coach (Lincoln) Glass was telling me I could come over and really help them win next year and if I came here I could get a state championship and he could possibly get me into college if I would put in the work and put up the numbers,” Poole said.
Glass was right, but Poole would find the path a little difficult as Glass was replaced in the middle of the season by Glynn Lott and again this past season by new coach Reginald Sprouse.
“To be able to still do what he did through three different coaches, that was a testament to Maurice,” Sprouse said. “And he handled it pretty well because all three of us are different.”
Lott, who coached Poole on the football field this past season and on the basketball court a few months earlier, said the senior’s work ethic paid off in both sports.
“Maurice is going to work hard in whatever he does,” Lott said. “He played football this year and knew nothing about the sport, but got out there and ended up starting for us. He’s very smart and is going to work hard. He stays in the gym. You think about Maurice, you think about that smile. That’s what he give you, in trouble or not in trouble, he gives you the smile.
“He’s not a talker, he’s the quietest person on the team, but he kept everybody in check. He leads by his actions, not by his tone. They all knew that when it got down to somebody having to make a free throw or a big shot, that he was the guy to do it.”
Talladega College reached the NAIA national championship game a month ago before losing in the finals and Sprouse believes Poole will be able to help the Tornadoes maintain their winning ways.
“He’s going to have to put on a little more muscle,” he said, “but as he plays more, the smarter he’ll get and he’ll be fine. The first few months of conditioning will be a little intense, but after that I think Maurice will adjust and be fine.”