Mountain Brook loses coin toss; Spain Park to host area tournament

Spain Park head coach Donnie Quinn was down on his luck. He said that out of a raffle of 100 tickets, he could buy 99 of them and still lose. But in this battle of 50/50, he chose heads. And he was right.

Mountain Brook athletic director Benny Eaves flipped the dirty, 1991-issue quarter up in the air, caught it, flipped it, and slammed it on the table in between Quinn and Spartan coach Bucky McMillan. Heads it was.

The purpose of the toss was to determine which school tied atop Class 7A, Area 6 would host the area boys basketball tournament. Spain Park and Mountain Brook split the head-to-head battles with each other and each finished with a 5-1 record. 

Last season, the teams flipped a coin as well, with Mountain Brook earning the right to host. The magic came from McMillan, who called heads. This time around, he yielded to Quinn to make the decision.

The draw is the opposite from last season. The second-seeded Spartans will take on Vestavia Hills in the first round. The Jags will take on Hewitt-Trussville. Vestavia Hills and Hewitt-Trussville were forced into a coin flip of their own to decide the third and fourth seeds in the tournament.

The semifinal round will take place Thursday, Feb. 11. Mountain Brook vs. Vestavia Hills will be at 6 p.m., followed by Spain Park vs. Hewitt-Trussville at 7:30 p.m.