Refusing to lose

Sean Elmore has the ability to bring the crowd to its feet on any given possession. Normally camped out on the perimeter, the junior guard from Mountain Brook High School usually has no trouble finding an open 3-point shot.

When he gets one, chances are he will knock it down. He is the Spartans’ most accurate sharpshooter, making his 3-pointers at a 43-percent clip midway through the season. 

The crowd goes wild when he strips the nets and extends a Mountain Brook lead, but that is not his favorite part of the game.

What is the thing he most enjoys?

“Locking down a defender and getting stops,” Elmore said.

He is pretty good at that, too.

“Sean is our best defender and most accurate 3-point shooter,” said Mountain Brook head coach Bucky McMillan. “When you can defend, you’re as competitive as he is, and you can knock down 3s, that’s a good combo.”

According to McMillan, Elmore is the ultimate competitor. Whether it is a game, an off-court competition or just a drill in practice, Elmore displays a refuse-to-lose attitude. And that is what separates him from others.

“The players that I have coached that have gone on to flourish are guys like Alex Peters, Jack Kline, Patrick Keim,” McMillan said. “All three of those guys, they couldn’t stand to lose.”

All three of the aforementioned are playing in college after moving on from the Mountain Brook program, somewhere Elmore hopes to be in the future.

Elmore’s goal of playing college basketball is certainly a far cry from where his athletic exploits began. As a child, football was the sport Elmore knew and loved. But during his time at Pizitz Middle School, his dad convinced him to give basketball a try. He started playing on the AAU circuit as a means of staying in shape outside of football.

At that age, Elmore admits he was not a good shooter. He was wildly inconsistent and sought help from a few of his coaches.

“They told me I had good form, but it was my touch,” Elmore said. “I worked on my touch all summer (following eighth grade).”

A move to Trussville coincided with his ninth-grade year, and before Elmore knew it, he was a starter on Hewitt-Trussville High’s varsity basketball team. He rapidly ascended into the role of leading scorer for the Huskies.

“It was pretty shocking,” he said. “I was kind of nervous because of how fast the game was.”

The Huskies struggled in Elmore’s lone year there, but the minutes he played at the varsity level gave him an eye-opening view of his skill set relative to his peers.

“It was a great experience to start, play a lot of minutes, see all the competition that’s around and see where I was personally compared to the people that could be going to college,” Elmore said. “Ever since then, I’ve just loved the sport.”

Joining Mountain Brook’s basketball team as a sophomore required Elmore to think of the game a little differently. No longer was he the primary scoring threat, thanks to rising star Trendon Watford. Whether Elmore scored no points or 20 points was no longer a primary indicator of the team’s success.

Defense became his top priority.

“I’ve had games that I scored double figures, and I go in to watch film, and the coaches are chewing me out,” Elmore said. “It’s about the little details. I scored 20 points, but I gave up 20 points (defensively).”

The devil is in the details, as the saying goes.

When Elmore speaks of the things the Spartans need to improve, the obvious answers of “execution” or “making shots” are not what he refers to. He searches deeper than that. Gap control on defense and spacing on offense are the things he notices that the coaches are trying to get the team to improve upon.

“One on one, you have to guard the person on the ball,” Elmore said of the defense. “You can’t go out and help because the more you help, the more the other team can just pass the ball around and have everyone running around, getting tired, and get wide open shots.”

Those details will make the difference in how far this year’s Mountain Brook team goes. Following three straight state title appearances — wins in 2013 and 2014 and a loss in 2015 — the Spartans were beaten by Gadsden City at regionals last year. 

Despite Mountain Brook’s impressive start in the season’s first two months, the Spartans still have plenty to work on. “With this team being young and not that many being on varsity last year, it’s kind of a slow progress, but we’re getting there,” Elmore said.

While young, the Spartans are extremely talented and possess the ability to play well together. If that progress continues, last year will not repeat itself.

“We just don’t want that feeling again,” Elmore said. “We’ve got to keep working.”