By BAKER ELLIS / Sports Editor 

There were a number of coaches in Shelby County who could have been named Coach of the Year in the county after this season. Nicholas Baumbaugh of Chelsea, for example, rallied his Hornets from the abyss of a 3-13 start to make a second-straight appearance in the 6A Sweet Sixteen, where they lost by three in overtime. John Hadder of Vincent took the thinnest team he’s ever had and marched the Yellow Jackets back to the 2A Sweet Sixteen yet again. Greg Dickinson of Montevallo, Donnie Quinn of Spain Park, Joel Floyd of Pelham and Chris Laatsch of Helena also had stellar years coaching, and could have easily been named the Coach of the Year.

However, this award has got to go to the man who has been roaming the Oak Mountain sidelines since the school’s inception in 1999. Chris Love, in his ninth year at the helm for the Eagles, led Oak Mountain to the school’s second-ever Elite Eight appearance, and did it with a team few outside of the Oak Mountain locker room believed could make that kind of a run.

It’s not the only, and certainly not the best, metric to evaluate success, and Love himself isn’t necessarily fond of the inevitable comparison, but it truly can’t be helped. Love’s Eagles went from an 8-20 team that didn’t make it out of area tournament play in 2014-15, to a 25-8 team that was a buzzer-beater away from advancing to the 7A Final Four just a year later, with essentially the same roster. That kind of immediate, one-year turnaround rarely, if ever happens.

Now, that 8-20 team lost eight games by seven points or less, including four games by three points or less, and played one of the toughest schedules across the state. That team was better than their record showed, which makes the perceived meteoric jump in production seem a little less grandiose. But that isn’t the only reason that Love deserves this recognition.

What made Love’s team truly special was the success it had came without a true superstar. Payton Youngblood was Oak Mountain’s leading scorer at 11.5 points per game and had a great senior season, but the Eagles simply didn’t have the size or raw athleticism that permeated a number of the rosters they played, yet they routinely beat them anyway, which is both a testament to Love’s job as a coach and the commitment of his players.

From the beginning of the season, Love preached defensive intensity and a commitment to rebounding and limiting turnovers as the keys to this teams’ success, and his bunch honed in on those three elements all year. In other words, Oak Mountain was good because it was a coachable team, and Love coached well.

He had pieces, for sure. Between Youngblood, Will Stephenson, Wyatt Armstrong, Gabe Haynes, Yeadon Patrick, Wyatt Legas and Warren Shader, just to name a few, the ingredients for success were there, it just took the right chef to stir the pot.

Which is why Chris Love is your 2015-16 boys’ basketball Coach of the Year.