MUSCLE SHOALS, Ala. (WHNT) — On Friday, Muscle Shoals was a sea of red.
As the Alabama Crimson Tide men’s basketball team heads out to Phoenix, Arizona for a final four face-off against the UConn Huskies on Saturday, the city of muscle shoals on Friday honored its star player, wearing the number 1, point guard Mark Sears.
“The whole team obvious for the state of Alabama represented in the final four but specifically Mark. He played four years here for us,” Muscle Shoals High School Basketball Coach Neal Barker said.
Sears was a star at Muscle Shoals high school Trojans for Barker’s teams. He started playing on the varsity team in the eighth grade.
As one of the leaders on the Tide team, his former teachers are proud that he displays the same leadership skill on the basketball court that they saw in middle school to succeed as he did as a student.
“His work ethic and his math work in the seventh grade is the same as it was on the basketball court. He gave it everything he had,” said Dane Glover, a math teacher at Muscle Shoals Middle School.
To support Sears, the school system has painted the town red, encouraging the entire city to don Trojan red or crimson red in his honor.
“We’ve encouraged all our kids,” said Dianna Ritter, Principal at the middle school. “There’s a lot of sea of red in all our classrooms. Lots of signs are being made about dream big and go Mark Sears so it’s really been a fun day and a great, positive thing for our school and our city.”
Barker told News 19 that Sears was made for the big stage of the NCAA Final Four.
“He won’t shy away from the big moments like he’s going to be this weekend,” Barker said. “He always took those as a challenge and wanted to prove himself. He’s a competitive kid and very special.”
The students at Muscle Shoals Middle School sent a rousing shout of support for their fighting Trojan.
“Mark madness!” they shouted.
The Tide will take on UConn on Saturday at 7:49 pm with a chance to advance to the program’s first-ever national championship.
