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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

While most of the outside noise was hyping up the Chelsea Hornets ahead of the 2024-25 season, coach Jason Harlow offered a much soberer assessment.

While the Hornets returned a core that would make most coaches giddy, including a trio of All-County players in Haley Trotter, Sadie Schwallie and Caroline Brown and the best-kept secret in the area in Olivia Pryor, he recognized two areas of need.

The first was replacing a pair of vocal senior leaders in Madeline Epperson and Baylor McCluney. While neither were key contributors on the stat sheet, their outsized influence on the locker room left a massive void for the Class of 2025 to fill.

“I understand that people are going to look at us on paper and think that we’re going to be really good,” Harlow said after Chelsea’s 2024 Elite Eight loss. “If we don’t learn from those two seniors (Epperson and McCluney) on how to approach the day-to-day and practice and grind and learn something from their character, then all bets are off next year.”

The second was in their ability to come together and handle adversity, something that derailed multiple Chelsea teams in the past but was especially evident last year when Brown was out for an extended stretch and later when the Hornets lost four times to eventual runner-up Hewitt-Trussville.

“We’ve got to handle hard things much different this year than what we did last year, and overcoming adversity is definitely got to be a point of emphasis for us, and just buying into the process regardless of what we have coming back,” Harlow said at preseason media day. “If we don’t buy into that process and attempt to get better every time we take the floor, it really doesn’t matter the pieces you have coming back or how much experience you have coming back.”

The Hornets needed to do just that after facing an early stretch of defeats against tough competition as a loss to eventual Mississippi 5A champion Pontotoc dropped them to 12-8 on the year. Brown would later say that the losing skid left the players searching for answers and a response.

Thanks to Harlow’s leadership though, both problems were resolved. Because of that, Chelsea lived up to its preseason potential and more by reaching its first state championship game in history, and Harlow is the Shelby County Coach of the Year for the fourth time in his career and second year in a row.

To address the leadership void, Harlow threw down the challenge for his senior class to step up as the vocal leaders that the team needed.

Trotter and Schwallie did just that, taking their years of experience on the floor learning behind past program legends to help shepherd along the next generation of stars like Pryor and Kamryn Hudson. Both were front and center throughout the year and set the example with their actions and words.

Joined with workhorses like Brown who set the tone with her relentless drive on the floor, the Hornets flipped a switch and came together as a true unit playing together as one with Harlow’s system as the guide.

That togetherness led to a more resilient team that rallied through the many challenges the season brought, beginning with the 12-8 start.

Chelsea won every single game between the loss to Pontotoc and the state title game to finish area play undefeated, win the Class 6A, Area 8 championship, win the Central Regional and get past the Final Four for the first time in program history.

The Hornets had to face multiple bouts of adversity along the way, including a slow start against Hueytown in the Sweet 16 and an even worse start in the state championship against Park Crossing.

While Chelsea only emerged victorious in one of those games, its fight was on full display for the world to see at Legacy Arena on Saturday, March 1. Facing a double-digit deficit at the break, the Hornets rallied to make it a 41-38 game off a 3-pointer from Schwallie in her final high school game.

That competitive drive was something that Harlow preached from the very first day that the team was together. It’s the force that drives the patented aggressive press that has been part of the Hornets’ DNA since the day Harlow arrived, and it’s what drove the team to new heights in 2025.

“I’m going on 20 years coaching in some capacity, and this was one of the most competitive teams that I’ve had, and that’s something we try to instill into the kids, when we start practice, when we start tryouts, everything we do, we keep the score on,” Harlow said after the Final Four win. “We’re just a bunch of Chelsea kids, but you have to instill competitiveness in them and I’ve had to do that with all my teams in the past. It just comes naturally with this group, and I think they enjoy one another, too. They really love one another, and it shows on the court.”

In a year full of incredible turnarounds from Shelby County’s Ashley Phillips, Calera’s Tanjanik Munford, Briarwood Christian’s Lorie Kerley and Westminster OM’s Kelly Jacob, Chelsea’s unity and ability to overcome adversity under Harlow stood out the most.

It’s what led Harlow to be named Class 6A Coach of the Year from the Alabama Sports Writers Association, and it’s what led him to repeat as Shelby County Coach of the Year.