On the rebound: Huskies, Cougars play for first time in 4 years

TRUSSVILLE -- A three-and-a-half-mile drive took more than four years, but the destination has finally been reached.

The Trussville-Clay rivalry – or Clay-Trussville rivalry, depending on where you lay your head – can’t be measured in years like, say, Albertville and Guntersville, which have played football seemingly since the assassination of Austrian archduke Franz Ferdinand. The Hewitt-Trussville vs. Clay-Chalkville rivalry on the football field dates back only to 1998, two years after Clay-Chalkville High School opened.

Longevity can’t be the lone criterion of a rivalry, though it is key. Passion must be considered. Distance, too. For example, Albertville and Guntersville high schools are separated by 15 minutes, an eight-mile trek that includes a Lowe’s, Walmart, a couple car dealerships, an RV Park and a Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen. The three-and-a-half miles of Deerfoot Parkway between Hewitt-Trussville and Clay-Chalkville include a few subdivisions, a church, an animal clinic and a car wash. There is nary a map-dot distraction between these schools, allowing that passion to burn hotter than the Popeyes spicy chicken sandwich.

And on a frigid Friday, Feb. 4, the rivalry rekindled at Bryant Bank Arena for a 48-43 Hewitt-Trussville win. 

“The renewing of the CCHS-HTHS basketball rivalry is great for the community,” said first-year Clay-Chalkville head coach Chris Richardson. “HTHS is a great place and has always been very competitive in athletics. I'm just glad I get to be a part of renewing the rivalry for our community.”

Prior to Hewitt’s win Feb. 4, the last time these teams met in boys’ basketball was Nov. 14, 2017, a 50-49 Clay-Chalkville win in front of a full crowd. Two months later, Clay-Chalkville canceled all its games against Hewitt-Trussville for the remainder of the school year and the next two seasons. The reason? Football.

The Huskies and Cougars last played on the gridiron in 2015, a 53-35 Clay-Chalkville win. Then, the football matchup vanished. Talk to three folks from Trussville and three from Clay, and you may hear six differing versions of why Paws and Claws, a series that Clay-Chalkville leads 13-6, is now on an indefinite pause. Hewitt-Trussville in January announced its football schedules for 2022 and 2023. Clay-Chalkville was not included on either.

“That was one of the greatest rivalries in this state,” said former Hewitt-Trussville head coach Jack Wood, who led the Huskies to 141 wins from 1983 to 2001. “Everybody’s got what they think is right and wrong. I hate it for the kids. That’s your next-door neighbor. I hate that game is not being played. That was big stuff.” 

Perhaps the schools will find a way to renew one of the best football rivalries in the state. Maybe the Feb. 4 basketball game was the catalyst. Maybe that hardwood meeting will just be about one night, a final regular season game between two struggling teams. 

It was a game, his first against Clay-Chalkville, that Hewitt-Trussville head coach Jeff Baker had long awaited. He said he and former Cougars head coach Jeremy Monceaux got it on the schedule before Monceaux left to take the Springville job. 

“I've heard a lot about the rivalry from others in Trussville,” Baker said. “Any time you are so close and you have two great athletic programs, then it’s going to make for a great rivalry. The distance is the neatest thing to me. We don't have any other rivals so close, so I think the proximity plays into the unique nature of the rivalry.”

In this rivalry revival game in front of a near-capacity crowd, the building rumbling under the stomping feet of Huskies fans, it felt a bit like old times. The game wasn’t necessarily pretty, but it was competitive and close. The Cougars led 12-8 after one quarter and took a 20-18 lead into halftime. The Huskies buried three 3-pointers in the third quarter to take a 31-26 lead entering the final quarter. Both teams battled throughout the fourth quarter, trading baskets until each team had scored 17 points. Truthfully, this game mattered little. The teams are locked into area tournament play in different classifications. It had no playoff implications. But it was fun.

As Richardson watched a large crowd head back into the cold, he said, “I didn’t grow up in this community, but if you’re going to bring this many people out to a basketball game, you’ve got to keep doing it. It’s great.”

Sophomore Reid Stodghill led Hewitt-Trussville with 12 points. Legion Gaston poured in 10. Jalen Hudson led Clay-Chalkville with 18 points.

“The crowd was good,” Baker said. “It was one of our better crowds. I saw a lot of people that don’t normally come to our games that I think came because we were playing Clay. I think some of it is kind of, like, tip-toeing back into it. Hopefully it can become a thing. I like having it at the end of the season, a good game to have right before the playoffs. I think anything you do to build basketball in both communities … these kids deserve to play in front of big crowds.”

Former basketball stars from both schools still remember this rivalry game, and hearing about its return took them back in time. Marcus Baldwin, a 2013 Clay-Chalkville High School graduate, could not sleep the nights before games against Hewitt. He was too excited.

“I believe it’s a good thing for both schools, kids and even fans,” Baldwin said of the rivalry. “The kids get a chance to play in a big, meaningful, anticipated game in a packed-out gym. Those are the games that you remember forever.”

Former Huskies guard Jarvis Calhoun played against Baldwin and graduated in 2014. He remembered it as the greatest rivalry in Alabama simply because of the raucous fans. 

“If I could go back in time and play that rivalry game again I would,” Calhoun said. “Always a fun time in that atmosphere.”

Justin Haynie, now the athletics director at Clay-Chalkville, coached both boys’ and girls’ basketball. He remembered back to his first year as an assistant coach for the boys’ team. The Huskies had defeated the Cougars 19 times in a row, he said, and Clay-Chalkville trailed by five points with 15 seconds to play. Hewitt-Trussville students were chanting, “That makes 20!” 

“I believe Chris Goodman hit a 3-pointer for us with maybe around 10 seconds to go, which cut the lead down to two,” Haynie said. “Then he immediately stole the inbounds pass and hit another three just a couple seconds later, and all of a sudden we were up by one point and everyone in the gym was stunned. There were a couple seconds left and Hewitt had to inbound the ball, now down one. They took a shot from around halfcourt, which from my angle looked like it was going in. Luckily for us it did not, and we won the game.”

Haynie remembered that game because it was an improbable finish, sure, but also because it was played at Hewitt-Trussville’s gym at the former high school, poetically, on Trussville-Clay Road. He said he hopes moments like those happen again.

“I think it’s good that the two schools are playing each other again given how close our campuses are to one another,” Haynie said. “I’m not sure that the rivalry is what it once was. All of our high school seniors have not played Hewitt in basketball or football during their high school career. At one time it was a big rivalry, and maybe it could become that again one day.”