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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

The Oak Mountain Eagles will have a lot of challenges ahead this season, but they will have a new face on the bench to help guide them along the way.

Aimee Harris will lead the Eagles in her first season as the school’s varsity coach, taking over in May after the program was led by Beth Parmer for six seasons.

She has experience coaching some of the younger players from her two-year coaching tenure at Oak Mountain Middle School prior to being promoted to coach OMHS’ varsity side which has helped ease the transition.

“It’s been great,” Harris said of her first offseason. “I know a lot of the girls already, some of them I’ve coached, some of them I just know from being in the system. So, it’s been nice reconnecting with some of those older girls that I haven’t seen in a while seeing their excitement, their get after it, and so it’s been a good transition.”

Her first task since taking the job has been to build a positive culture within the program. Her goal is for the players to be selfless and constantly willing to improve.

“We want a culture and a mindset of that, we’re big team, little me,” Harris said. “We’re getting after it for the betterment of the team, each and every individual player is working super hard for the betterment of the team and we’re learning and getting better each day, like each day is an opportunity for us to improve. And so, that can be something that is encouraging, even if you’re not having all the wins at some point, like we are getting better every day.”

Harris also comes in with coaching experience at Westminster School at Oak Mountain and Indian Springs, but as a player, she also has experience building programs from the ground up as a member of Samford’s inaugural women’s basketball team.

While Oak Mountain certainly is not building from scratch with six varsity players and three starters returning, Harris did say the team is currently in a rebuilding period while bonding together and establishing an identity on and off the court.

“We are definitely kind of rebuilding,” Harris said. “We’re a little younger. Everybody’s trying to get the system down…And so, we’re just trying to do some preseason getting in shape, doing a lot of getting to know each other, some culture building, but really just trying to gel and see where we want everybody.”

As for those pieces, Caroline Kester was one of the team’s best shooters last season, averaging 12 points and 4.3 rebounds per game off 33 percent shooting from the field, earning an All-County Third Team spot.

In addition to her shooting prowess though, Harris likes how Kester finishes at the rim and leads the team.

Another key perimeter threat for the Eagles will be Lucy McKeown, as she will be back from a lengthy absence due to surgery. Expect her to slot in alongside Kester as a shooting threat.

In addition, Oak Mountain will have a pair of senior leaders in Elizabeth Butler and Meredith Renfrow leading the charge. Both have different leadership styles as Harris describes Butler as the energetic encourager while Renfrow is more of a quiet leader.

“They understand the pace,” Harris said of her two seniors. “They’ve been around for a long time. They know just the pace of the game. Some of our younger players are trying to catch up with that and figure that out.”

The Eagles will also mix in some newer pieces, including younger players like strong defender Joy Damron and outside threat Addison Green, both of whom played as freshman on varsity last season, along with multiple players who transferred to OMHS over the offseason.

After losing one of their taller players in former All-County star Reagan Whitaker, Oak Mountain’s roster is a shorter than last year, and Harris said the team needs to make up for their lack in height with a high basketball IQ.

“We don’t have a ton of height, so we’ve got to play a little smarter, so offensively we’ll do a little bit more five-out type actions,” Harris said. “Defensively, we’re really going to try to protect our side of the court. We would love some transition offense quickly and then being smart offensively in the half court. And then defense, we’ve really got to hustle back and protect our goal.”

The Eagles will have an uphill climb in their new-look Class 7A, Area 6 as the four-team group is headlined by the two teams who played for the state championship last season: Hoover and Hewitt-Trussville. Vestavia Hills is likely to challenge those two teams for a Sweet 16 spot as well.

Harris and the team are well aware of the challenges they will face come area play. However, they hope to keep the season in perspective and celebrate their small wins and improvements throughout the year.

The goal is for those improvements to build Oak Mountain into a program that can compete with the giants of Class 7A, and that starts this season with laying the groundwork for a culture that stresses working hard and embracing challenges.

“We just want to get after it,” Harris said. “We want to play hard and really try to continue to create a culture where we do those things. And so, the expectation would be, ‘Hey, we want to compete. We want to get after it and we want to do that together.’”