Volume 3 | Issue 8 | December 2015
NO STOPPING CADEN JAMES
Suiting up
6-year-old Lil’ Rebels quarterback leads team despite Type 1 diagnosis
C
Harold Hagler dons a classic suit during the holidays. Read about his experience as the guy in red inside this issue.
By ANA GOOD
See page B1
Smylie Kaufman
Kaufman earned his first PGA tour win. Catch up with the Vestavia Hills alum inside.
See page B12
INSIDE About Us...............A4 City ........................A6 Business ...............A8 Community .........A21
Food ....................A28 School House......B10 Sports ..................B12 Calendar ..............B18
Caden James Mitchell, center, smiles as his coach encourages the team during halftime. Caden James was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes, and his football team, the Vestavia Lil’ Rebels, held a Blue Out game to raise awareness and money for research. Photos by Frank Couch.
Pre-Sort Standard U.S. Postage PAID Memphis, TN Permit #830
See CADEN JAMES | page A30
Future uncertain for mixed-use development in Cahaba Heights By EMILY FEATHERSTON
facebook.com/vestaviavoice
aden James Mitchell takes his place behind the center lineman under the bright lights at Sicard Hollow Athletic Complex. No. 24, Caden James is the team’s quarterback — though he sometimes plays as an outside lineman. As he waits for his coach, Tate Bowden, to finish positioning the team on the line of scrimmage, Caden James takes in the other team. It’s Hoover, the only team to have beaten his team this year. Despite the rivalry, Bowden said he sometimes has to remind his players to tackle their opponents. For this isn’t just any football team: It’s Vestavia Hills’ only pee wee football team, the Lil’ Rebels. The players staring back at Caden James might be his friends, the same boys he might play with on the playground. “It’s sometimes like herding cats,” said Bowden of coaching a football team of kindergartners and first-graders. As head coach, Bowden helps design the plays, but he’s also out on the field moving his players into place, à la Nick Saban on A-Day. “Last year, I had one of our best players come up to me in the middle of the season and ask me, ‘What’s offense?’” Bowden said with a laugh. “Our goal is to teach these kids the specifics of the game and mental toughness.” At 4 feet and 65 pounds, Caden James is a fraction of the size of his favorite players on the roster of the Alabama Crimson Tide,
A controversial mixed-use development project along Oakview Lane and Dolly Ridge Road in Cahaba Heights is facing an uncertain future. Rezoning requests for the property were scheduled for a vote at the Oct. 26 City Council meeting, where community members filled the Council’s new chambers to express their opinions on having the development built near Vestavia Hills Elementary Cahaba Heights. However, BREC
Developments Managing Member Steven Hydinger proposed a change to the council that would alter his plan for a four-story development to a threestory, removing the “conditional use” request from the ordinance that would allow the development to proceed. Hydinger’s request led the council to postpone voting on Ordinance 2608 until Dec. 14—if the changes were not significant enough to require the ordinance to make a trip back through the
See CAHABA | page A31
Steven Hydinger (standing, right) talks with a community member during a November City Council meeting. Other Cahaba Heights residents came to the meeting in opposition to his mixed-use development proposal. Photo by Emily Featherston.