The Dallas County Hornets will take on Ramsay Thursday afternoon in the 5A state semifinals without head coach Willie Moore on the sidelines, according to assistant coach Marty Smith.

Moore, who guided Dallas County to its first ever state basketball championship last season, has the flu and has been unable to make the trip to Birmingham. In his absence, Smith said the Hornets will use a coach-by-committee approach, where he and assistants Charles Thompson, Cliff Nix and Kenny Allen will work together to guide the team.

Presumably, Smith, who coached John Carroll Catholic to two state championships, would lead the group. Smith said the group of coaches is more than capable of performing the task at hand, but that it’s impossible to replace the stability Moore brings to the table.

“The kids have been around Willie and have looked to him to make decisions. He’s been the stable rock for over 10 years in this program,” Smith said. “The kids are going to have to step out on faith. This is a good teachable moment for them. Kids are going to have to trust other people are going to make good decisions to help them win. That can be tough on a teenager.”

Smith said the team has handled everything well this week, from the AHSAA’s decision to postpone Wednesday’s games due to the weather to Moore not being able to make it to Birmingham.

He said any message Moore wants delivered to the team before the game would come through his wife Linda, who is the bookkeeper for the Hornets.

“Anything special that needs to be said he wants it to come through Linda because it’s a family affair with Linda and Willie and their three kids,” Smith said. “They look at these boys as family.”

Smith and Moore are very close on and off the basketball court. Before he took the job as Dallas County’s football coach, Smith sat behind the Dallas County bench during every game of their state championship run last season.

Smith said as they’ve become close friends through the years, their coaching philosophies have become almost identical.

“People don’t know how close Willie and I are and our whole families. Our basketball philosophy, we have really over the years talked and merged it,” Smith said. “He’s taken things from me and I’ve taken things from him when I was coaching. This program has been built almost the same way that I would have built the program 10 years ago.”

Smith said many of the players have written “win it for Slick”, Willie’s nickname, on their shoes.

Dallas County’s game is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. at the Bill Harris Arena at the CrossPlex.