Hartselle City Schools is committed to the next generation

IIn the last edition of Hartselle Living, I wrote about Hartselle’s legacy teachers. These teachers come from a family of Hartselle teachers are part of our Hartselle tradition. But the number of teachers who come from teachers pales in comparison to the number of Hartselle students who come from Hartselle student-parents –and student-grandparents and student-great-grandparents.

If you have never had the opportunity to speak with Hartselle’s David Burleson about the history of education in Hartselle and about its citizens’ determination to be the home of the first Morgan County High School, you have missed an opportunity to grasp this city’s deeply rooted understanding of the value of education to a small community.

BY SUSAN HAYES FEDERAL PROGRAMS COORDINATOR

in their Hartselle nest, we want their experiences to be rich ones. No one understands this better than Hartselle native Hesta Atkins Gurney who has written a children’s book entitled The Chicken and the Eggplant. Gurney is among those who attended F.E. Burleson as a child. Her children and grandchildren were also students there. This past fall, FEB invited Hesta to read her book to students, and among those FEB student-listeners was Hesta’s own great-granddaughter.

Generations of Hartselle’s children have had parents or grandparents who attended Hartselle schools, and many of those children, once ready to leave the nest, have moved on to other cities to pursue their dreams and careers. But interestingly, quite a few of those little flyers have returned home to raise their own children in an environment where they know those babies will be educated, nurtured and loved.

This speaks to the quality of the education Hartselle’s children receive, but it also speaks to the community and to its ongoing commitment to growing the next generation for the future – no matter where that future may be and where those children may serve. When our little chicks are still

With a sweet story and beautiful illustrations, The Chicken and the Eggplant follows four curious little chicks as they explore the farm on which they live. Thanks to a little guidance, the chicks learn that appearances can be deceiving and that there is value in real understanding.

There is something uniquely special about learning this lesson through your greatgrandmother’s reading of her own story. But there is also something special about learning this lesson and other life lessons under the care of those who also instructed older generations of your own family. Through school, scouting, Sunday School and more, many of us have benefitted from living in this village that so earnestly commits to raising its children.

And to those citizens who have not been with us long enough to have this experience – stick around. Hartselle will commit to you and your little chicks, too.

Get Ready for Grilling Season

STORY BY DAVID ELWELL PHOTOS CONTRIBUTED

TThe word “family” often comes up in team sports to describe a culture of success.

Terrie Nelson is the Priceville girls’ coach. Her daughter Carly Jo is on the team. Terrie’s sister, Jeaniece Slater, is an assistant coach.

When you talk about Nelson and Slater, the family ties in basketball go deep. Their father, the late Larry Slater, and Jeaniece were involved in one of the most memorable girl’s championship games in this state’s history.

It’s been almost 35 years since Larry Slater coached his Pell City team to a 77-76 win over Hartselle for the Class 5A state championship. Jeaniece Slater was Hartselle’s star player.

“We were just talking about that,” Terrie Nelson said Monday before her team boarded a bus to Birmingham.

“Jeaniece told my girls that the last time she participated in a state championship was against our dad.”

The bizarre circumstances of that game brought a lot of attention across the state and gave girls basketball a needed publicity boost. The attention helped give the girls championships an elevated presence that eventually placed them on the same stage as the boys.

According to the Alabama High School Athletic Association, Alabama was the first state to adopt a high school basketball championship format that brings both girls and boys teams for all classifications to one site.

The AHSAA began sponsoring basketball state championships in 1922. It started as one class, expanded to two in 1948 and grew to four in 1964. In 1985, the format went to six and then seven in 2015.

Girl’s high school basketball in Alabama started, stopped and then restarted. In the 1940s, the state board of education shut it down completely. Some board members thought the game was not fit for females. The 1972 Title IX law brought it back. The game returned with a championship format in 1978 with the first title games played at Huntsville High. Calhoun hosted from 1986-92.

Larry Slater grew up playing basketball in Cotaco. After serving in the Army, he settled in Hartselle. He became a strong advocate for girls’ basketball when his oldest daughter Jeaniece wanted to play. He coached her AAU team to the national tournament. The draw to coaching grew so strong that Slater got his teaching degree. He coached at Lawrence County and then landed at Pell City as one of the first coaches in the state dedicated to just girls’ basketball.

Slater was divorced from his daughters’ mother. The girls lived with her in Hartselle. Jeaniece became a star on the basketball court for the Tigers. In her senior season in 1988,