Photo by Erin Nelson.
Hewitt-Trussville’s Tyler Blake (1) shoots a layup in a game against Vestavia Hills at Braasch-Hatchett Court on Jan. 7.
Jeremy Monceaux is ready to build something at Hewitt-Trussville High School.
Monceaux was hired as the Huskies boys basketball coach in April and is set to embark on his maiden season leading a program that is “hungry for some consistency.”
“We’re trying to generate some excitement, trying to start that with our youth,” Monceaux said at the Birmingham Basketball Media Day event at Thompson High in early November.
Monceaux has a long-term vision for what he wants to do with the Hewitt-Trussville basketball program, one that he hopes to see rival the ascent of the girls program over the last several years under Tonya Hunter. But merely looking toward the future would be a slight to the eight seniors on the Huskies roster this winter.
“When people get a new coach, there’s all this talk of building things. But I have a little bit of an urgency to make sure they finish well with what they’re doing as seniors,” Monceaux said.
Monceaux brought two of those seniors with him to Media Day, saying Emeka Anwah and Legion Gaston were two of the first players to truly buy in to his vision for the present and the future.
“From day one, they were hitting the weight room hard, really doing all the conditioning stuff in the offseason. There’s the buy-in that they’ve given us, and they’re leaders,” Monceaux said. “These two guys are bought in, they’re eating it up and we’re hoping to send them out on a good note in year one.”
Monceaux brings a pedigree of success with him, as both a player and a coach. He held the Alabama high school record for career points, racking up 4,555 points at Parkway Christian, until 2019. From there, he went on to play at Liberty University.
He made a few assistant coaching stops in the college ranks at Shelton State, Campbellsville and Faulkner before getting the Clay-Chalkville High job in 2014. In seven years at Clay, Monceaux took the Cougars to the playoffs six times. The program’s best year was the 2020-21 campaign, in which Clay posted a 22-5 record and advanced to the regional final for the first time in school history.
Last season at Springville, the Tigers posted a 25-6 record and made it to sub-regionals, where they fell to eventual state runner-up Huffman.
One of Monceaux’s main tenets is playing staunch defense, something the players have grown to understand quickly.
“There’s a certain way to play defense and he’s harped on that in practice,” Gaston said. “You’ve got to lock in every night on defense.”
Tyler Blake, Ray Rolley, Karnell Smith, Knox Baker, Braxton Brown and Hopkins Long are the other seniors on this year’s squad. Caleb Hooper, Jathan Fulmer, Reid Stodghill, Jaqson Melton, Larry Eddleman and Lake Williams are all juniors.
Hewitt-Trussville competes in Class 7A, Area 6 against Oak Mountain, Spain Park and Chelsea. Spain Park has advanced to the final four each of the last two years, Oak Mountain has a new head coach but has been on a string of successful seasons and Chelsea is ascending to 7A for the first time.
“We’ve just got to do the little things and commit to that defensive end, and have pride in how we’re going to play and how hard they’re going to play. The rest will take care of itself,” Monceaux said.
