our coaches
Morris Finley - Executive Director
Morris “Mo” Finley is the owner and lead skills trainer at One Finley Way Sports™. As an athlete, he became UAB’s 5th all-time leading scorer, a 2-time All-Conference USA Selection and the 2002-2003 Conference USA Scholar-Athlete of the Year for Men’s Basketball.
After college, Morris played professional basketball for a decade throughout Europe. During that time, he was a part of several championship teams. After retiring from being on the court, he moved back home to Alabama to share his love of the game with young people throughout his local community.
In 2015, he founded One Finley Way Sports™ and has grown from serving two clients to working with over 1000+ youth present day.
Coach Mo is married and they have one son.
Cedric Drake, Associate Director
Cedric Drake graduated from LaFayette High School where he was a 3 sport (football, basketball, and baseball) athlete. He went on to play college basketball at Meridian Community College (1998-2001) and Auburn University at Montgomery (2001-2003). He was a Graduate Assistant at the University of Auburn at Montgomery (2003-04) before being named the Head Coach at Taylor Road Academy (2005-2009). Following that opportunity, he was an assistant at Prattville Christian Academy (2005-2009). He moved on to coach at the Montgomery Job Corps Center (2011-2012) before accepting the Head Basketball Coaching position at Meridian Community College in Mississippi (2012-2016).
Currently, Coach Drake is the head basketball coach at Shelby County High School. He was the 2019 Shelby County Coach of the Year. In addition to working with OFW Galaxy, he's also coached travel basketball with the Montgomery Challenge and the Montgomery Suns.
Coach Drake is married to Kiwanis Drake and they have two kids.
Tabios Darden, Associate Director
Tabios Darden is a former collegiate player at Claflin University, East Central Community College, and a semi-pro player with the Georgia Grizzlies. He’s returning for his third season with the OFW Galaxy.
He’s currently a coach and President of the Huffman Hurricanes Youth Football Organization and a Regional Scout for Diamond Sports Group. He also coaches the Mountain Brook Magic 3rd grade team.
Darden is also the former head coach for Mountain Brook Legion Basketball team, previous Offensive Coordinator for the Oak Mountain 6th grade youth football team, previous assistant coach with the 9th grade Nationally Ranked Birmingham Storm AAU Basketball team, and he has held the assistant coach position of the Oak Mountain 6th Grade Warriors basketball team. Coach T encourages his players to give 100% - 100% of the time!
Coach T enjoys spending time with his wife, Tracie and his five children: Tre, Tristan, Trinity, Taylor, and Lennox.
our coaches
Michael Sadler is a native of Birmingham. He played at and graduated from Tarrant High School in 2015. After high school, he played collegiately at Gadsden State Community College for two years before transferring to UAB. While at UAB, he assisted the program as a practice player and team manager. Coach Sadler graduated in May of 2020 with a degree in Sports Communications.
Coach Sadler served three years as the head freshmen coach at Thompson High School. Currently, he is a manager for the UAB Blazer’s Mens Basketball Team.
Tanner Brooks is from Columbiana, AL. He played high school basketball at Shelby County High School where he graduated in 2016. He played Division III basketball at Rockford University in 2019. Over the past few years he’s been an assistant coach at Shelby County High School, Evangel Christian School, Jemison High School and currently at Calera High School. He’s also the freshman coach as well. He’s coached AAU for the past 6 years. Coach Brooks is a huge Alabama basketball and football fan.
James Roethler is originally from Southern California. He attended and played high school basketball at Desert Christian Academy in Bermuda Dunes, CA. He then played two years at Saint Katharine University in San Marcos, CA (2013 - 2015). He then transferred and played one year at Life Pacific University in San Dimas, CA (2015 - 2016). He has since transitioned to coaching. He worked as a trainer for skill development, he was the 8th grade boys coach and an assistant coach at his alma mater for one year at Desert Christian Academy.
He is currently the JV and assistant varsity girls coach, at Victory Christian School in Pell City, AL.
coaches code of conduct
This guideline serves to inform anyone interested in the professional behavior of our coaches. The main purpose of the code is to secure a certain standard of coaching and to protect the welfare of individuals with whom coaches work, as well as giving the coach reference points as how to react in difficult situations. It also promotes fair and responsible behavior by the coach towards the athletes he/she is in charge of. The obligation of a coach is not only to promote, advance and support the athletic career of a player but also to encourage the individual to be a good person with stable notions of values, good behaviors, and manners. Illegal, unlawful, and harmful behavior toward players on the part of the coach will not be tolerated. Expected behavior and criteria for our coaches include exhibiting the following characteristics and standards: competence, trustworthiness, respectfulness, fairness, caring, responsibility, and integrity. Note: This Code of Conduct is expounded in detail outlining disciplinary guidelines and expectations with all of our coaches during our preliminary OFW Staff Meeting.