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March 2013
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Volume 1 | Issue 6 | March 2013
Leader, mentor, winner
Hoover track takes State, Coach takes ‘nationals’
Arbor Day Event - Community page 9
Signing Day 2013 State Hurdle winners Marlon Humphrey and Brittley Humphrey.
Area seniors sign - Sports page 21
INSIDE
Sponsors ......... 4 Celebrations ... 5 City ................... 6 Community ..... 7 Faith .................. 10
Food ................... 14 Business ........... 16 School House .. 18 Sports ............... 20 Calendar ........... 22
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Longtime Hoover High School Track Coach Devon Hind’s indoor team won the 6A state championship in February. Photo by Nathan Kelly.
By NATHAN KELLY More than any other message, Coach Devon Hind impresses the importance of willpower on his athletes. And this year, that message of personal strength paid off in multiple ways. For starters, people often call his track athletes mentally tough, thoughtfully coached and poetically literate. This year, they can also call them state champions. In addition, on Feb. 5, Hind received news of winning the Mike Byrnes Coach of the Year
Award, which will be presented to him at the New Balance Nationals track meet on March 10. Hind’s normal routine for a big meet is to give his athletes a pep talk about positive thinking five days before the race. He lets the talk sit in their brains as he continues conducting normal practices the rest of the week. “Track is 80 percent mental and 20 percent physical,” Hind said. “When your brain is telling you ‘slow down, dummy,’ you have to push through the pain.” One of Hind’s unique coaching strategies is
The state champion 4x200-meter relay team of Asia Hart, Anaya Baker, Sarah Sanford and Gabrielle Morris.
through written word. Since he began coaching, he has written out letters to his athletes after meets that cover ways of improving everything from their physical training to completing goals, as well as positive reinforcement to carry with them the rest of their lives. Rebecca Phillips, a former runner for Hind, still has the notes Hind wrote to her when he was coaching her at Simmons Middle School. “The letters really showed that he cared for
See HIND | page 20
‘Show better, flow better’ Road improvements planned across Hoover
By JEFF THOMPSON 2013 is shaping up to be a banner year for infrastructure improvement in Hoover. With two major road projects already underway, Gov. Robert Bentley’s office announced in February that approximately $7 million would be headed to Hoover to fund six more.
According to Hoover Mayor Gary Ivey, Highway 31 south of I-459 will be easier to navigate come the holiday shopping season. A widening project that recently began will add a full lane going each direction between the I-459 overpass and the bridge over Cahaba River just south of Chace Lake – a distance of approximately a mile and a half.
To assist drivers travelling north, a full turn lane will be constructed at the I-459 interchange for drivers intending to go west on the interstate toward Tuscaloosa. Ivey said this would help reduce the bottleneck that sometimes spills onto the highway and impedes traffic flow. Hoover’s portion of the bill for the widening project will be capped
at $500,000, Ivey said – reflecting a 50 percent match with the State of Alabama up to $1 million. Any excess will be covered by the State. Another project at Patton Chapel Road is expected to wrap up by late spring or early summer, Ivey said, adding that work at the site is actually
See ROAD | page 6