The Mountain Brook Spartans played a pretty much flawless game last Friday Night at Gulf Shores dismantling the home team, 56-6, on the strength of 383 rushing yards and an off the charts efficient night from quarterback Hamp Sisson. 

Sam Everette led the way with 18 carries for 191 yards and three TDs. Harold Joiner had a big night rushing for 50 yards on eight carries and scoring two 7’s including a spectacular 51 yard TD reception and run on a pass from Sisson with :02 left in the first half. On that play, Sisson dropped back, rolled to his right, found Joiner for a 10 yard completion which Joiner weaved and accelerated to the house. It was beautiful. Everette had TD runs of 41, 8 and 6, and Joiner scored on a four yard run. Sophomore A.J. Gates, on his first carry as a Spartan varsity player, took it to the house from 35 yards out, and sophomore Daniel Wilbanks added a 5 yard, seven. Sophomore linebacker Colton Yeager, Coach Chris Yeager’s son, and Will Wetzler led the defense in tackles with eight apiece. Nick Belt and Tanner Dean added 6 stops, and Bradford Turner chipped in five. 

Sisson completed 6 of 8 passes (75%) for 104 yards and one TD. Sisson also had 2 carries for 28 yards. Sophomore Paul Tyson came in relief of Sisson in the fourth quarter and completed his only pass for 15 yards. Joiner caught 3 passes for 79 yards, Wilson Higgins caught a pass for 15 yards and Clay Stearns added a catch for 12 yards.

An all around superb performance by a team with high aspirations for 2016. Yeager said his team needs to clean up the penalties, they were flagged 19 times last Friday Night. Yeager said that has to improve, though many of the calls by the South Alabama refs were highly questionable.

This week it’s 6A Helena coming into Spartan Stadium and Yeager said the task is a lot taller. Helena finished last season 9-4 and went to the playoffs, and have an excellent running back, 6’0″, 175 pound junior Kopeland Rosser. Linebacker Justin Watson is also a player at 6’0″, 245, and offensive tackle Keith Wright is 6’4″, 335. So the Spartans have to be ready for a serious battle.

One thing I left out earlier was the play of the offensive line. Coach Yeager was thrilled with center Sean Doud, right tackle Price Delk, and the rest of the line. When you run for 383 yards, the line is doing their job to say the least. Super performance by the guys up front.

Mountain Brook needs to keep running it well, Hamp needs to be super efficient like always, and the defense needs to stop the run for the Spartans to emerge victorious this week. Should be fun at Spartan Stadium Friday at 7 PM.

Coach Yeager

Coach Yeager and I were talking on the phone on Monday and yesterday and we got into a conversation about his family. His oldest son, Calvin, 27, is teaching English to young children and adults in Seoul, South Korea. Coach said that Calvin teaches from 7 AM- 9 PM every day and loves it. The children are learning the language and the adults, who are trying to matriculate into business professions, are learning the slang and conversation of the English language. Calvin has told his dad that he loves the culture, and the people are super motivated, their high achievers, and it’s somewhere he could very well stay his whole life.

Calvin played for Coach Yeager when Yeager was the offensive coordinator under Joey Jones. Calvin’s sophomore and junior seasons, 2005 and 2006, he rotated at center and was going to be a key player his senior year when Yeager took over as head coach in 2007. The only thing was that Calvin was really talented in theater. Pat Yates, the famed Mountain Brook theater coordinator, came to Coach Yeager with Calvin in the spring of 2007 and told Coach that his son was extremely talented in theater and that he should be heavily involved in it. Coach Yeager said that was fine, he just assumed that Calvin could practice football and work in the theater when he wasn’t practicing football. But Pat wanted Calvin in theater full time, and Calvin wanted that over football, though he was a good football player and slated to most likely start his senior year.

Coach Yeager thought about it hard, and let his son go into theater.

Calvin took off. He was in Mountain Brook and Fairfield High School’s production of “To Kill A Mockingbird”, the Harper Lee 1960 classic novel. Calvin played Bob Ewell, who was actually the bad character in the play, who falsely accused African American Tom Robinson of assaulting his daughter, Mayella. Mayella had originally accused Tom, who was innocent. The great lawyer, Atticus Finch, got Tom acquitted. Harper Lee, of course, was from Monroeville, Alabama and the book was based in fictional small town Alabama.

The play was critically acclaimed nationally and it was featured on the Today Show. It was a resounding success. Coach Yeager was extremely proud of his oldest son and Calvin was superb at acting. Calvin is doing some acting in Seoul as Coach Yeager says there is a shortage of actors in Seoul and Calvin loves it.

But the rest of Coach’s story gets even more interesting. Chris has seen Calvin twice in four years. A couple of years back, Calvin trekked the Santiago Trail in Spain, in which he hiked across the entire country sleeping at nights in a hammock or at Youth Hostels. He’s send his mom, Elaine, and his dad photos and messages every day by text or on Facebook. Coach hadn’t seen his son for a year and a half and really missed him, but was proud of him for doing the hike. The Yeagers woke up on Father’s Day morning and were looking for a picture of Calvin from Spain, it was his last day two days before and they wanted to see some more photos. They got up at 4-5 AM to look at the photos. When they looked on Elaine’s phone, they saw a picture of Calvin in their living room. Calvin was there for his dad on Father’s Day.  Coach Yeager said it was unforgettable.

While Calvin is excelling in South Korea, middle son Clay, 25, is a TV sports anchor in Dothan at WDHN, a popular Dothan channel, and, as Coach Yeager says, Clay’s “livin’ the dream.” Clay played defensive line for Coach Yeager at Mountain Brook in in 2009 and 2010 rotating with superstar Wilson Love in 2009 and with Harry Riech in 2010. In 2010, the Spartans went to the semifinals when Edward Aldag was a junior quarterback. John Beck and Mark Rector were key players on that team that lost a tough one to Hoover in the semis, but had a terrific year.

Colton, Coach Yeager’s third son, is a sophomore linebacker and Coach Yeager says he’s the one who’ll quite possibly get into coaching. Colton was around the program since he was born and the first time he walked was in Spartan Stadium.

I asked Coach Yeager if he’s talked to his sons about coaching.

“i’ve told them they have to blaze their own trails, “he said. “For me, I’ve never worked a day in my life. I wake up every day and when my feet hit the floor I’m motivated to coach. I wouldn’t have been fulfilled if I had to do something else. The main job in coaching is how you affect other people in a positive way.” Yeager loves his job and Mountain Brook football players unconditionally. But he wants his sons to make their own decisions about their professions. Calvin seems very happy in Seoul and Clay loves sportscasting and their dad loves to see them both happy and productive.

 “I want my sons to follow their dreams,” he said. 

Yeager has always been a passionate, outstanding football coach, and his sons look headed for awesome things as well.