Mention Columbine High School and most people remember the tragedy of a mass school shooting.

Wes Hart remembers Columbine differently. It is where he graduated from high school, where he won a state championship and earned All-State honors three times on the way to becoming a Parade All-American. Littleton, Colo., is where he first kicked a soccer ball, and where he learned the fundamentals that eventually led to a six-year playing career in Major League Soccer.

To Alabama's new soccer coach, Columbine was a happy place.

"All my memories of Columbine are of homecoming and prom and friends in school and soccer," he said. "When I think of Columbine, that's what comes to my mind. That's what Columbine is to me."

Hart, the 37-year-old who was hired last week to coach the UA women's soccer team after a two-year stint as an assistant at Florida State, graduated from Columbine in 1996. Three years later, on April 20, 1999, senior students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold went on a shooting spree, killing 12 students and one teacher before committing suicide.

By then, Hart was a junior soccer player at the University of Washington.

"I remember I was in the computer lab and I remember getting an email from my dad, I can't remember exactly what the email was but it was kind of referencing a shooting at Columbine," Hart said. "I thought it was really bizarre. I didn't really understand what was going on.

"I went home to my apartment and one of my best friends and my roommate, who happened to have also been a Columbine grad, he was glued to the TV watching it. His little brother happened to be a Columbine student at the time. At that point it kind of got real and got serious. Come to find out I had a lot of either old classmates or teammates or friends that had siblings there and stuff like that."

The teacher who was killed, William "Dave" Sanders, had taught Hart.

"I had him in a class in keyboarding or typing or something like that. I didn't really have a relationship with him other than he was an instructor of that class," Hart said.

Brian Todd, one of Hart's schoolmate friends, went on to coach Columbine's girls soccer team to a state championship. Todd's younger brother, Evan, is one of more than 20 survivors who were injured in the shooting spree, and the first student shot in the library.

Hart returned to Littleton after his playing career to work with the Colorado Rush youth soccer club.

"That's where I kind of got my coaching career started," he said.

Hart made a few trips to Columbine High to visit when he was coaching there.

"To be honest, I don't bring it up or discuss it with anyone," he said. "You know, I'm certainly compassionate about the victims and the people that were there, but I was out of the state, out of the area, when it all happened.

"I've got a few old classmates that are teachers there. I've got some old teachers that I was close with there that I've visited. To me, my memories of it are all fond memories. I enjoyed my years there."

Hart, who moved from California to Colorado with his family before his third birthday, coached the youth club soccer program in Littleton until two years ago, when he was hired by Florida State.

"For the longest time I never envisioned myself being in the college game," he said. "I had no interest. I very much enjoyed working with the youth, I felt that the impact I could have on players was greater, which was important to me.

"It wasn't until right before I took the Florida State job that I decided I'm ready for something different."

Hart was an assistant on FSU's 2014 national championship team under head coach Mark Krikorian. He had informed Krikorian from the start that he was entering the collegiate game with the idea of becoming a head coach, and it was Krikorian who recommended him to Alabama.

"I look at this as here's a job with a tremendous amount of upside potential," Hart said. "To me it seemed like a dream job."

Hart realizes there is a lot of room for improvement. Alabama has had only one NCAA Tournament appearance and four winning records in the last 16 seasons.

"It's Alabama, it's one of the most recognizable institutions in the country, especially when you're talking about athletics," he said. "You've got the football and the gymnastics and the softball and all the tennis and the golf, all these sports that have been successful and had championship teams.

"It's not going to be easy by any means, it's going to be a lot of work. It's going to be hard to break into the upper echelon, but certainly you've got the national brand, the resources, the facilities and the support from the administrative side of things and the academics, so many things that are appealing. You just look at it and you think, you know what, if they've been successful then certainly soccer can be successful."

Reach Tommy Deas at tommy@tidesports.com or at 205-722-0224.