GOOD HOPE – Another change in the athletic department at Good Hope High School has taken place.
Girls’ basketball coach Michael Oldacre submitted his resignation Aug. 1, nine days before the new school session is scheduled to begin.
Oldacre took over coaching the Lady Raiders in 2000 and created a series of successes with 316 victories, three Cullman County championships and several berths to the AHSAA regional tournament.
Oldacre handled the squad in the summer, going from team camps to Chattanooga, Tennessee and a series that was coordinated by Danville coach Paul Wilson.
Good Hope was a young team in 2015-16 that reached the Cullman County Tournament finals and got to the sub-regional round in the 4A playoffs.
Kaylee Maddox was a key figure in last year's squad, but has graduated and is now playing volleyball at Wallace State.
The backcourt last season consisted of Kelly Pickett and Oldacre's twin daughters, Miriam and Micah. All three were eighth graders, coming off an undefeated middle school squad the year before and winning the county title.
In the post was Kate Kent, a sophomore, while Kyler Hembree, another eighth grader, gave the team depth behind Kent. Sadie Abbott was a junior, with the team very optimistic of the upcoming season because of the experience returning.
This squad accounted for 15 victories in 32 games. Their two defeats in the postseason were by a total margin of 10 points, falling by one to Locust Fork in the 4A, Area 10 finals and a nine-point loss in the sub-regional to Westminster Christian.
Good Hope upset No. 1 seed Fairview in the county tournament semifinals, falling in a close game to Cold Springs in the championship game. The Lady Raiders won the county under Oldacre in 2004, 2012 and 2013.
His program produced five winners of the Bill Shelton Award from the county tournament in Savanna Calvert (2002), Kim Clay (2003), Mary Lauren Mills (2004), Heather Buchanan (2007) and Nina Mills (2012).
His 2004 winner, Mills, is now Mary Hartline, and head coach at Fairview, waiting for her third season when it gets started in November.
Good Hope Principal John Hood reports the school currently has no unit open to fill Oldacre's vacancy. Oldacre was just a coach, no longer teaching at Good Hope. He had retired from the teaching ranks the previous year.
Oldacre had been teaching since the late 1970s with most of his time spent at Good Hope.
Hood said the school will have to either hire within the faculty, a non-faculty member or an employee with the Cullman County Board of Education.
The plan, Hood said, is to have the vacancy filled by the end of the week.
Hood, in his first year as Good Hope principal, is aware of Oldacre's success, as he was assistant principal and a teacher at Cold Springs High School.
"I watched him coach for many years. I was very impressed with his job. He will be missed here in the Good Hope community."
The new year for Hood and his students starts on Wednesday. Good Hope is also in the process of refurbishing the floor at D.E. Ryan Gymnasium. The project is expected to be completed in several weeks.
With a new coach to come into the girls’ basketball program, Good Hope has plenty of changes in its athletic program. Samantha Bryson took over for the retired Rosemary Brown in volleyball, Drew Adams was named the new basketball coach, Monica Bates softball with football coach Alan Scott being promoted to athletic director, taking the spot vacated when assistant principal Mike Jones stepped down to become principal at West Point Intermediate School.
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