By Shannon Fagan, WEIS Sports Director

SPRING GARDEN – If ever there was a strong resume for a coach to be inducted into the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame, Spring Garden’s Ricky Austin has it.

He’s won over 1,000 games coaching basketball through the years, including nine Class 1A girls state championships (with three more in volleyball).

He’s earned numerous coaching honors throughout his career.

His basketball teams have won 30 or more games 14 times – including the last six seasons.

He’s had the Panther court named in his honor.

He’s coached the only back-to-back Miss Basketball winner in his daughter, current University of Alabama freshman guard Ace Austin.

And now, Austin has been named a member of the 12-person Class of 2026. The induction ceremony is set for March 16, 2026 at the Montgomery Renaissance Hotel and Spa Convention Center.

For some, a Hall of Fame selection would be the closing chapter of such an illustrious career, but don’t expect Austin to give up coaching anytime soon.

He answers that question, along with several others about his career, in the following Q&A session.

Q: How did you find out you were selected for the Alabama Sports Hall of Fame?

A: “I was (driving) close to Piedmont and I picked my phone up. I saw I had a missed phone call from Mr. (Heath) Harmon. He was like ‘Coach Austin, this is Heath Harmon with the AHSAA. Please give me a call back on my cell phone.’ I thought ‘What have I done wrong?’ I called him back and had to leave a voicemail. Before I got outside of Piedmont, I was headed down Highway 9 at caution light and he called me back. He was like ‘Hey, I just wanted you to hear before you heard from somebody else. Congratulations on being appointed to be inducted into the Hall of Fame.’ I was like ‘What?’ That was the last thing I was expecting or thinking about. It caught me totally by surprise.

“You don’t think about things like that. It’s just a shock. I get it. I understand it, with the success we’ve had here. That’s what creates these things for people. There are a lot of people involved. This is way bigger than me. This is a lot of good players, a lot of good assistant coaches, administrators, Spring Garden community. I hope everybody feels they’ve been a part. This is a lot of people who gave this opportunity to me. I think that’s what makes it so exciting. You automatically think about how many people who were directly involved in creating things like this for you. It’s affected a lot of people. That’s what thrills me a lot about it.”

Q: You’ve coached in and won numerous state championships, coached all of your kids, and had the court at Spring Garden named in your honor. This is pretty high up there. Where does this rank among all the honors you’ve had?

A: “It’s just an accumulation of things. You talk about good players, had some good teams, some great assistant coaches with me. That’s kind of the foundation. Everything’s just built on top of that. You can’t win championships without good players and good assistants. You can’t get recognized like this without winning championships. It’s kind of a pyramid. I know what the foundation of that pyramid is. It’s the very fundamentals of coaching, and that’s trying to be successful. It’s just kind of a pyramid up to the top.

“I still come to work just trying to win today. I’ve never set any goals to win a state championship. I’ve never set a goal to be a coach of the year. That’s never in my thought process. I just want to try and win every day. I’ve just been blessed to unlock the front door of the gym and have a lot of people come in behind me. I think that’s added to the foundation. It’s made things like this possible. For sure, this is peaking up to the top. I don’t know what else can be at the top that can be better.”

Q: I know you have a good relationship with Coach Larry Strain. First of all, how proud are you to go in with a friend like Coach Strain, and second, do you have relationships with any of the other inductees?

A: “Coach Strain, I probably knew him way before he ever knew me, just from me looking out and about at coaches who have similar situations as myself. Him coaching at a small country school at Woodland and coaching his daughters got my attention at a really young age. I got to coach Courtney (Strain) at an Auburn Elite camp one summer. I immediately found out what a great kid she was. I knew she had to have great parents. That kind of led into Coach Strain and I being able to have conversations, talk about similar situations being at a small school.

“When Ace came along in the third grade, I had a list of coaches I wanted to call and talk to about coaching their kids. I called Coach Strain. Ace was in the third grade. I was about to really get involved with coaching her. He gave me some pointers. When I got off the phone, I just wadded up the piece of paper and threw it away and didn’t call anyone else. I knew his similarities and his thoughts. They aligned with what I thought. To be able to share this with him, knowing we’ve probably walked the same path a little bit, and how we’ve coached our kids, and even our teams … he’s such a good person.

“Anthony Edwards from Loachapoka, him and I go way back as well. We’ve coached against each other. We’ve helped each other with scouting reports over the years. He’s kind of been my south connection in the Final Four. I’ve helped him out when he’s played some teams from the north. He’s been retired a couple of years, but I’ve probably had 25-30 phone calls and text messages over the last three years with Coach Edwards. Him and I stay in touch with each other. He’s over in Georgia coaching now. It’s one of those long-distance friendships you share something with, and now it’s even more special. I think a lot of Coach Edwards. He’s a great guy and a great person.

“I don’t know Coach (Jeff) Smith (at Wellborn) personally, but everything I’ve ever heard about him and heard people say, the way he coaches is of phenomenal character.

“Kim Kiel from Pelham, I think a lot of her. I’ve been on some committees with her. I know what kind of ship she runs at Pelham. She runs a very tight ship as an administrator. I’m not sure she’s still the principal there. She may be in the upper office now. I think she’s a very good leader and a person to follow. I’ve listened to some things she has said over the past years, her thoughts on the Alabama high school athletic system. I really appreciate her.

“I’ve got a connection with a few of them going in. That’s really cool. It’s nice to go in with people that you know, who you kind of align yourself with, and then you end up here together. Maybe we’ve aligned ourselves with the right people.

“I know what I think of those people, everybody who’s going in. They are some of the best we’ve ever produced in our state. To be mentioned in the same conversation at them is a huge honor.”

Q: I know you share this honor with Dana. Could you put into words how much she’s meant to your success?

A: “After Mr. Harmon had given me the phone call back and told me, I immediately called her. I kind of had a sneaky feeling she might’ve knew a little about it. I knew they couldn’t have gotten all those numbers and stats from anybody who knows me any better than she does. She probably produced those for them. I said ‘I think you had a good idea.’ She said ‘I did. I didn’t know if you were in for sure, but I had to get some things for you to be nominated.’

“Any awards I get she’s right there standing with me. I’m proud for both of us. She’s been such a part of it. I would not be walking forward without her standing right there beside me, sitting beside me so many years with me on the bench.

“Years ago, when she started coaching with me, we’d ask ourselves ‘Are we really having that much fun?’ That same feeling is there. It’s just been so much fun to get to do it with your spouse, somebody you care so much about, somebody who understands you as well as she understands me. She’s probably been the biggest part of my success coaching. She deserves as much of this recognition as I do.”

Q: I know basketball has always been a passion of yours. How did you discover the love for wanting to become a coach?

A: “It kind of goes back to Dana and Jana (McGinnis). The summer between their junior and senior year, me and Dana started dating. I started developing some of their summer workouts, started taking them to the park, taking them to the gym. They looked to me and asked me for help. I was a little older coming through school, and I think they looked up to me as a player. They reached out to me and said ‘Will you help us?’ I started designing from workouts for them. When they got into college, I started really getting involved in some of their summer workouts. It’s not that I’m taking credit for any of their success. They were special people. I just helped them maybe fine-tune it a little bit. I just realized how much fun I was having, seeing them be successful.

“The girls game just became so pure to me. I was really locked in to the girls game when Dana started coaching a little bit before me. I helped break down game film for her. Just watching the game, diagnosing the game a little bit more, I just got really fond of the girls game. That’s what kind of led me into the coaching part of it.

“I had Coach Dale Welsh as a high school coach. I know how much I always looked up to him. I never ever wanted to disappoint him. I don’t care if it was on the basketball court, as a student, as a person, I never wanted to disappoint him. I know how he influenced me on trying to make good decisions. I never wanted to disappoint him.

“Before I got into coaching, I was helping Tommy Lewis coach his varsity team. That’s another name that’s huge in this equation. Tommy was very gracious to allow me to coach with him for a year. He played a vital role in Joan Rogers hiring me. I don’t think she really wanted to hire a male coach to coach a female sport at that time. He really talked her into giving me a chance to coach the girls. It was something I wanted to do.

“I think about that a lot. Ms. Rogers gave me that opportunity. Tommy Lewis really made it happen. Him being patient with me as a young coach, helping me get my feet wet and get started, helping me how to coach high school kids, he was very pivotal during the young days in my coaching career, and so was Mr. (Mike) Welsh. He was our principal at the time, and he just always believed in me. That’s kind of where it started. You had Tommy Lewis, Mike Welsh and Dana. Those three really, really just believed in me and never would let me take a shortcut. They were always there with me. That’s kind of where it all started.”

Q: How special is it that you’ve had all of your coaching success at Spring Garden?

A: “It’s really special. When I got hired here, when Ms. Rogers offered me the job, they wanted me to make a statement on how happy I was to be hired at Spring Garden. I just said ‘Cut me and I bleed maroon and gold.’ How can you not win here? That’s how I’ve always looked at this place – the community, the type of kids we have here, the support, and the importance to be successful. I’ve just always thought ‘How can you not win here?’We’ve had some years where I thought were going to be some really down, bad years. Then all of a sudden, something happens and it just becomes kind of magical at times.

“To do it here, to know all my wins have come from here, what I think about this place is I think we’re that little, small, forgotten place in the corner of Cherokee County. We never ask for anything. We’re just proud of who we are. We’re proud of what we have. We just take the resources we have, and we just try and shine them up, polish them as much as we can.

“That’s kind of like the opportunity I was given. I was small and undersized. All I wanted to do was be a part of Spring Garden basketball. Coach Welsh gave me that opportunity. I never wanted to go anywhere else as a player.

“Other people had bigger, prettier schools. They had nicer uniforms. They had bigger, fancier gyms. They had all of that, but I’ve never once thought that was an important part of who I am and who this community was. To still be here and to still have that same feeling as a player, it’s really special.”

Q: This question goes back to what I asked you recently at the Cherokee County basketball media day. So many coaches – not just in the county but on a statewide level – look up to what you’ve built and how you coach, and this honor further cements that. How much does it mean to you to have such respect on a statewide level?

A: “As many as have reached out to me about how I do things here and how I do certain situations, I’ve reached out to those guys. That’s just the coaching community. We all want to take care of each other.

“I’ve got several coaches people would think are my enemies – the Lisa Bateses, the Joe Carpenters, the Ronnie McCarvers. There are a lot of coaches I’ve coached against out there who I really like to beat, but at the same time we still reach out to each other and talk. That’s really cool that the coaching community kind of shows me how like people find each other.

“The only advice I give people when they ask what I do here, I’m like ‘We’re probably not doing anything different than what you’re doing. We just do it the way I believe in it.’ There’s more than one way to win. You’ve just got to do it the way you believe – what’s in your gut, what’s in your heart, what you really believe in. Stick with what you believe in. To have people come back later and tell me I helped them on that advice, that’s keeping it simple, keeping the foundation where it needs to be. I’m very fortunate and very blessed to develop so many relationships through coaching.

“I’ve called several coaches, not just about Xs and Os, but about life situations as well. That’s kind of who I am. That’s probably why I haven’t retired yet because that’s who I am. If I step out of that, then I’m stepping away from what I do every day. Those other relationships are what keep me going.”

Q: You have the uncanny knack of answering a question before I even ask it. What I was going to wrap up with is this. I know a lot of people make a big deal about how much longer you’re going to coach. You’re just 60 years old, still in the prime of your career. I know you’ve said you wouldn’t know what to do if you weren’t coaching, but now that you’ve been recognized for a hall of fame career, does this change your perspective of how much longer you want to coach?

A: “It really doesn’t. I’ve been very fortunate, very blessed. I kind of hit on it earlier. I don’t know how you can’t win at Spring Garden. Being here and the way we’ve done things has made it easy compared to what real life is like. This thing has been such a joy. How can you step away from such joy and so many blessings? That’s hard to just up and step away from.

“I’ve never coached here just for my kids. I coached here way before my kids came through. I didn’t know how I was going to feel (after last season). If it’s time for me to tap out, this would be a great time with Ace and her situation (at Alabama). It just never resonated in my heart that it was time. I’ve shared that information with other people. I just go with what’s in my gut. My gut just wasn’t telling me it was time. That’s why I’m still here. Going into the hall of fame doesn’t really make me think I don’t have anything else to earn. It’s not that. I’m still trying to win every day. I’ve got to win today.

“When I open up the gym doors every day, it’s an opportunity for something different. That’s how I felt this morning when I opened up the front door of the gym.”