The Orange Beach Makos are making good use of their new indoor area. The girls and boys basketball teams Have been on a roll and they have high ambitions.

Orange Beach Girls Earn Sweet 16 Berth

Coach Mike Chase has two players who can legally drive a car. The rest are too young to hold a driver’s license. And while his Orange Beach Lady Makos record – 15-17 – indicates a young team, that young team is heading to Montgomery for the regional tournament as one of the sweet 16 left playing in the Class 4A girls state basketball tournament.

Orange Beach will tip off at 3 p.m. Wednesday against Jackson, 20-8, in Montgomery at Garrett Arena. The Orange Beach boys’ team will immediately follow with a matchup against Jackson as well hoping to unseat the two-time defending 4A state champion Aggies.

Chase, a girls’ head basketball coach in Alabama starting at Mountain Brook in 1998, says he scheduled bigger schools to start the year to toughen up his team for the competition against schools in Orange Beach’s classification and area. Competition included the likes of Saraland in 6A, St. Paul, Fairhope 7A, Pell City 6A, Pelham in 6A, Oak Mountain 7A, McGill-Toolen 6A, Foley 7A, Baker 7A, UMS-Wright 5A helping his girls get a taste of the “speed and physicality” of the game the bigger schools tend to play. His roster includes a senior, a junior and seven freshmen.

“Even though our record is 15-17, I figured if we could make it through that gauntlet and learn how to play against these big schools when we got into January and started playing our area and 4A schools, it would pay off for us, and it has,” Chase said. “Our kids have really settled into a pretty good rhythm now that they are playing schools their size.”

A youngster is leading the way for Chase’s team in freshman point guard Allie Roach, who leads the team in scoring and rebounding.

“She’s had a phenomenal year for a freshman, handling primarily all of our point guard duties,” Chase said. “She gets the ball up the floor well, finishes around the basket, and she’s a really, really good free-throw shooter and puts up a lot of points from the free-throw line. She’s shooting about 80 percent on free throws.”

Chase says he’s getting great leadership from his only senior, Mia Watts.

“She is the glue that holds everything together,” Chase said. “This is my 30th year of being a varsity basketball coach, and she’s one of the best captains that I’ve ever had. That’s saying a lot because I’ve had a couple of state championship teams, and I’ve got a girl playing in the WNBA who played for me. She’s done an amazing job, averaging 10 points per game, and she’s our leading three-point shooter. She’s really, really come on in January.”

His other upperclassman is a scrappy shooting guard who can shoot threes and averages about 10 points per game, Arianna Santos.

“We rely on those two guys (Arianna) and Mia, to kind of steady the ship, and Alie is kind of our freight train locomotive that gets the ball down the floor and gets the ball to them when they’re open,” Chase said. I think we’ve got a shot to win on Wednesday if we play. I think we have a good game plan. Our goal is to get to the next level, the elite eight.”

Jackson has been a frequent postseason opponent for the Lady Makos, beating Orange Beach 54-48 in the Elite Eight in 2024. Orange Beach returned the favor in 2025 with a road 50-38 win in the subregional to advance to the elite eight, where the Lady Makos eventually lost to St. Michael’s, 35-30.

“Their girls’ basketball program is really, really solid,” Chase said. “We always know at some point in the playoffs we’re probably going to run into them. This is when it happens.”

If the Lady Makos get the win, they’ll face the Geneva-Escambia County winner on Feb. 24 at 4 p.m. with a trip to the state tournament in Birmingham on the line.

Chase is in his 30th year coaching basketball, and that run includes girls state championships at 7A Spain Park in 2018 and 2020.

Orange Beach Boys Set Record Pace

In just two years as the Orange Beach boys basketball coach, veteran Chris Laatsch’s teams have set school records for wins each year. Laatsch’s team had 17 wins last year, including a trip to the Elite Eight, and, so far, 26 this year, with a Sweet 16 berth in the regionals coming up. As a reward, his team gets to face the two-time Class 4A state champion to start regional play this week.

The defensive-minded Makos will face off against 22-1 Jackson on Feb. 18 at 4:30 p.m. at Garrett Coliseum in Montgomery. The same Aggies team beat Orange Beach 54-34 last year, with a trip to the state final four on the line. Jackson has also won the last three 4A football state championships.

 “We have a lot of respect for them. They are very, very talented, they have a really good coach who does a really good job,” Laatsch said. “I told my boys they’re the champs until they’re not, and we’ll go and try to be the one that finishes it.”

The Makos will try to end that two-title streak for Jackson with a young but hard-nosed group without a senior on the team.

“We’ve just got a bunch of great kids that have bought into what we’re doing and are playing really hard and committed to the vision the staff has set forth,” Laatsch said. “And they’re out there executing it every day.”

The Makos’ strength is on the defensive end, highlighted by allowing just 33.4 points per game over the course of 32 games this season, including just 39 points combined in the area championship win over St. Michaels (33-19) and a subregion win over Geneva (44-20).

“We try to change defenses to keep people off balance, and it’s been good for us,” Laatsch said. “We’ve had a hard time scoring, so we just hung our hat on being a great defensive team, and it’s amazing. We’ve allowed 33.4 points per game, which is just ridiculous. We’ve got good length, and our guys are really connected as we change defenses. We don’t have a lot of blown assignments. Guys, just get to the right spot. You’re just really disciplined, and really there’s not a lot of holes for guys to attack.”

Leading the way for Laatsch and the Makos has been 6-foot-6 sophomore standout Lee Steele, who does a little of everything for Orange Beach. His varsity career started as an eighth grader, and this fall, he surpassed the 1,000-point mark in his career.

“I think he’s got the chance to be one of the best players I’ve ever coached and I’ve been doing it a while,” Laatsch said. “He’s a hard worker, great teammate, coachable and just makes us better. He’s having to do everything for us. He’s bringing the ball up, he’s our leading scorer, our leading assist guy, he’s the leading rebounder and just kind of our leader in all areas.”

On the football field, Steele is a standout tight end as well and is considered the No. 6 overall tight end prospect in the recruiting class of 2028. Several SEC schools, including Alabama and Auburn, have expressed interest in Steele’s football abilities.

Laatsch said several underclassmen – he has no seniors on the team – have stepped forward to lead to the record 26 wins, including juniors Sutton Rambo and Miller Day.

“He’s kind of that utility guy that does a little bit of everything,” Laatsch said of Rambo. “He’s probably our second primary ballhandler, rebounder, one of our best defenders. He impacts every phase of the game in a positive way consistently. Another guy for us is Miller Day. He plays with an extremely high motor, one of the highest motor kids I’ve ever coached. Just plays extremely hard, keeps balls alive, rebounds really well.”

The rest of the top contributors have been sophomores Connor Ford, Jon Gentry, and 6-foot-5 sixth man Judah Spencer.

Orange Beach will face a Jackson team coming off of a 66-40 win over Opp in the subregion. The Aggies' only loss this season came against 7A Albertville by a 51-43 score on Dec. 19. The Orange Beach-Jackson winner will play the winner of St. Michael’s v. New Brockton on Feb. 24 at 5:45 p.m. with a trip to Birmingham and the final four on the line.

Laatsch came to Orange Beach last year from Spain Park and has coached at Helena High School, Briarwood Christian School, and UMS-Wright Preparatory School over a 30-plus-year career.