Six years and two schools later, Ball is back in Talladega County and he plans to make Sylacauga his home.
“I want some longevity to a program,” Ball said. “I want to be able to plant and watch my kids. I want my kids to wear the cardinal; I want to see my kids play here at Sylacauga. I am here for the long haul and I want to develop something special and it starts this year.”
Ball, who has been coaching for 18 years, was let go by Sumiton Christian after his first year due to the school’s financial hardship. That opened up the door for him to move back to Talladega County.
“That opened up the door for me to leave,” Ball said. “Really I wasn’t looking; it kind of caught me off guard. One of my buddies told me that Sylacauga had a job opening. I always knew they had talent from being there at Childersburg, so when the job opened up I called (SHS principal) Matt Hubbard. Matt was the basketball coach at Sylacauga when I was at Childersburg, so we knew each other and had a relationship.”
Ball brings a scrappy and defensive mindset to the Aggies. The Aggies plan on trying to control the tempo under Ball. He also plans for them to play defense from one end of the court to the other.
“We always build around defense in every program that I have been in,” Ball said. “We are going to guard from one end of the floor to the other. We are going to try to dictate tempo. If you are fast we are going to slow you down and if you play slow we are going to speed you up.
“We want to be in control; we want to guard from one end of the floor to the other, extend the court, make it a full-court game, disrupt offense as much as possible and we are going to attack.”
Ball plans to base everything the Aggies do on the court on work ethic. Sylacauga basketball may not have the best players on the court every night, but Ball said they will have the hardest working team on the floor.
“We are going to attack offensively; we base everything we do on work ethic,” Ball said. “We can be out-talented, we can be out sized, but we can never get out-worked.
“That starts with me; I have to be the hardest-working coach and the kids have to become the hardest-working team.”
Ball came to Childersburg a year after Gerald Wallace left to play college basketball at the University of Alabama. In his two seasons he led the Tigers to the regional tournament and to the Final Four.
“That group of kids, they just bought in from the beginning; they just scratched clawed and fought,” Ball said.
“The next year we made it to the Final Four. Childersburg always has good players; they accepted the discipline. We are going to be men of character, class, and Childersburg bought into that.
“For the short time that I have been here they are just like that team.”
In the short time that Ball had to work with his new team he was impressed. He gave a lot credit to former head coach Bobby Hall for how hard this teams works on the court.
“We went 11-3; we did not get all of our play dates in,” Ball said.
“We really did not get a lot of work in, just a couple weeks that we had to work with them.
“I was real pleased they seemed like they are buying into the system and how hard they have to play to do it the way I want it done.
“Bobby needs to be complimented; a lot of times you come in, play as a hard as I demand a team to play. If you are out there you are going hard; if you don’t go hard I have a place for you right next to me, and you can rest all you want to.
“But when you are on the floor you are going to play as hard as you can possibly play. The kids bought into it and it was fun to them, so that part was good and they enjoyed it.”
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