Hoover High School (Alabama)
Encyclopedia
- This school takes its name from the city, which was named after founder William Hoover and not the former U.S. president.
Hoover High School is a public high school
High school
High school is a term used in parts of the English speaking world to describe institutions which provide all or part of secondary education. The term is often incorporated into the name of such institutions....
in Hoover, Alabama
Hoover, Alabama
Hoover is a city in Jefferson and Shelby Counties in north central Alabama, in the United States. The largest suburb of Birmingham, the population of the city was 62,742 as of the 2000 census and 81,619 in the 2010 census. Hoover is part of the Birmingham-Hoover, AL MSA and is also included in the...
, USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, serving grades 9-12. It was built as a replacement for W. A. Berry High School. It is currently one of the two International Baccalaureate schools in the Greater Birmingham Area. Outside of Alabama, Hoover High School is best known as the school featured in the MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
show Two-A-Days
Two-A-Days
Two-A-Days is a show on the United States cable television channel MTV. The show chronicled the lives of teens at Hoover High School in Hoover, Alabama, a suburb of nearby Birmingham...
.
Academics
Hoover High was home to ten National Merit Semi-Finalists in 2006, and fifteen in 2007. In 2009, there were 24 students recognized by the National Merit Corporation. Hoover High had 57 seniors who have scored a 30 or higher on the ACT, not including the October 27, 2007 test date. In addition to its International Baccalaureate program and strong pre-college curriculum, Hoover High features five specialized academies in engineering, law, finance, information technology, and health science. The academies offer a specialized set of electives to complement the precollege curriculum and to prepare students for collegiate work in the selected fields. The Engineering Academy competes in the BEST RoboticsBEST Robotics
BEST, Boosting Engineering, Science, and Technology, is a national 6-week robotics competition in the United States held each fall, designed to help interest middle school and high school students in possible engineering careers...
competition every year, and recently have moved on to the Regional competition, South's BEST, held in Auburn on December 7 and 8. Hoover High also fields highly successful Math and Academic Scholars Bowl Teams.
Athletics
Hoover High School plays in the Class 6A of the Alabama High School Athletic AssociationAlabama High School Athletic Association
The Alabama High School Athletic Association , based in Montgomery, is the agency which oversees interscholastic athletic programs for public schools in Alabama....
(AHSAA), and are known as the Buccaneers or more commonly, the Bucs. Hoover, the third-largest school in Alabama (by student population) and largest by square footage, has won over 40 state championships in 20 sports in the last 10 years. Overall, Hoover has made an appearance in 22 state championship playoffs.
The Bucs won the 2008 Class 6A baseball championship, defeating nationally-ranked Opelika in two games after losing the first game in nine innings in the best-of-three series. The title was Hoover's first state championship in 27 years; the last was when the school was still known as W.A. Berry High.
Coach Devon Hind has also led the Hoover High School track and cross country teams to multiple state champions, and were runner up many times for both the boys' and girls' teams. Both track teams were state champions in 2010. The boys cross country team is the second-winningest high school program in the state of Alabama after Mobile's McGill-Toolen High School Girls volleyball team.
In the 2009-2010 school season, Hoover High teams won the State Championships in Football, Wrestling, Girls Basketball, Girls Track & Field, and Boys Track & Field. Winning 5 State Championships in one year (of the 12 recognized sports by the AHSAA) is believed to be a record for one school.
Football
The Hoover footballAmerican football
American football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
team has been nationally ranked a number of times and has won the state championship six times since 2000, including four in a row (2002–2005) under the direction of former head coach Rush Propst
Rush Propst
Rush Propst is the head coach of football at Colquitt County High School in Moultrie, Georgia. He is the former head coach of the team at Hoover High School in Hoover, Alabama...
. Before the start of the 2006 season, Hoover was ranked #1 in the nation by USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
and Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated
Sports Illustrated is an American sports media company owned by media conglomerate Time Warner. Its self titled magazine has over 3.5 million subscribers and is read by 23 million adults each week, including over 18 million men. It was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the...
, a ranking it maintained until being defeated 28-14 by #6 ranked John Curtis
John Curtis Christian High School
John Curtis Christian High School is a co-ed private high school in River Ridge, Louisiana. The school colors are red, white, and blue. The mascot is a Patriot. John Curtis Christian High School was founded by John Curtis Senior in 1962.-Football:...
of River Ridge, Louisiana
River Ridge, Louisiana
River Ridge is a census-designated place in Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, United States, and a suburb of New Orleans. The population was 14,588 at the 2000 census.- History :...
on ESPNU
ESPNU
ESPNU is a television channel that specializes in college sports, and is produced by, affiliated with and owned by parent network ESPN. ESPNU originates out of ESPN Regional Television's ESPNU (often referred to as The U) is a television channel that specializes in college sports, and is produced...
High School Showcase
High School Showcase
High School Showcase, known under its corporate sponsored name as the GEICO High School Showcase, is a presentation of high school football and high school basketball on ESPN, ESPN2 and ESPNU.. Since debuting in 2005, it primarily airs on Friday at 8pm ET on ESPNU, following ESPNU Recruiting...
September 29. The team won four consecutive state championships from 2002–2005, and just missed winning 6 straight after losses in the championship game to Daphne in 2001 and Prattville
Prattville High School
Prattville High School, formerly Autauga County High School, is a high school in Prattville, Alabama and forms part of the Autauga County School System...
in 2006. Hoover defeated Prattville to win the title in 2009. The Bucs finished the season ranked in the national top-25 polls in 2003 (#16), 2004 (#4), 2005 (#8) and 2009 (#7). Hoover's football program is considered to be on the edge of joining a group of elite athletic programs in the nation; a group that includes Punahou of Hawaii, Mater Dei High School
Mater Dei High School (Santa Ana, California)
Mater Dei High School is a private, Catholic, co-educational secondary school in Santa Ana, California. It is located in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange. With an enrollment of 2,100 students Mater Dei High School is one of the largest Catholic high schools in the United States...
of California (football and basketball), Eden Prairie
Eden Prairie High School
Eden Prairie High School is a four-year public high school located in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. The present high school opened in 1981 and was significantly added to in 1990, 1994 and 1997. Eden Prairie High School has been graduating students for over seventy years. The school was named a Blue...
of Minnesota (hockey), and Randolph
Randolph High School (Wisconsin)
Randolph High School is the public high school in Randolph, Wisconsin. Thomas Erdman is the principal.-Basketball program:The school have won five out of the last six state championships in Division 4 and nine state championships , the smallest schools in the state of Wisconsin, but considered the...
of Wisconsin (basketball)
The 2005 football team is featured on the MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
show Two-A-Days
Two-A-Days
Two-A-Days is a show on the United States cable television channel MTV. The show chronicled the lives of teens at Hoover High School in Hoover, Alabama, a suburb of nearby Birmingham...
. Season two for the Two-A-Days
Two-A-Days
Two-A-Days is a show on the United States cable television channel MTV. The show chronicled the lives of teens at Hoover High School in Hoover, Alabama, a suburb of nearby Birmingham...
show, showcasing the 2006 football team, was filmed at the school as well and began its run in late January 2007.
Theatre
Hoover High School's drama program was started by Sandra L. Taylor, who retired in 2005. The school's on-campus theater is named in her honor. The program is now headed by Nancy Malone, and Hoover competes annually at Alabama's Walter J. Trumbauer Drama Festival. In 2006 the one-act play "World Without Memory", directed by Chris Strickland, was named the runner-up in state competition and was given a special invitation to the International Thespian FestivalInternational Thespian Festival
The International Thespian Festival is an annual week-long theatre festival that brings together U.S. high school theatre clubs, thespian troupes, and programs...
in Lincoln, Nebraska
Lincoln, Nebraska
The City of Lincoln is the capital and the second-most populous city of the US state of Nebraska. Lincoln is also the county seat of Lancaster County and the home of the University of Nebraska. Lincoln's 2010 Census population was 258,379....
.
Music Department
The Hoover High School Band program has had a long history of success since its inception. The marching band routinely get straight superior ratings at marching competitions and several "Best in Class" awards. For concert band, the group is divided up into three groups:Symphonic, Concert, and Freshman. Trips have included the Rose Bowl Parade, Orange Bowl Parade, Fiesta Bowl Parade, the Macy's Day Parade, and other numerous trips taken annually. The band is currently under the direction of: Ryan Fitchpatrick, Dennis Carroll, Sallie White, and Jeff Fondren.Controversy
Hoover High School became embroiled in controversy in the summer of 2007 over allegations that grades for certain athletes were changed to make them eligible for college sports under National Collegiate Athletic AssociationNational Collegiate Athletic Association
The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a semi-voluntary association of 1,281 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States...
regulations. The charges center around players on the football team. Rush Propst
Rush Propst
Rush Propst is the head coach of football at Colquitt County High School in Moultrie, Georgia. He is the former head coach of the team at Hoover High School in Hoover, Alabama...
, the Bucs' head coach (who was the target of charges about indiscretions in his personal life), denied any wrongdoing, as did then-principal Richard Bishop. Hoover Superintendent Andy Craig appointed retired federal prosecutor Sam Pointer to investigate the charges. The report was released on October 12, 2007, and found that grades had been changed for two athletes, along with various other issues. (The report can be seen on the school website.)
On July 25, 2007, the Hoover School Board voted to not renew Bishop's contract after one year of service. The action was based largely on a less-than-satisfactory performance assessment by a former assistant superintendent. Dr. Ken Jarnagin was named the interim principal; he started the previous month as the school system's chief academic officer.
Hoover High School again came under public scrutiny in October 2007 after reports that a player, Tristan Purifoy, failed to properly transfer from Hanceville
Hanceville, Alabama
Hanceville is a city in Cullman County, Alabama, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 2,951.-Geography:Hanceville is located at .According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all of it land....
High School. The AHSAA investigation resulted in the forfeiture of all games in which Purifoy played, reducing the team record from 6-1 to 2-5 at the time. The Bucs still qualified for the post-season playoffs, however.
The state director of K-12 accreditation for the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools announced his concern with the leadership at Hoover High. SACS asked for and received an outline of the changes necessary to fix the problems in order for the school to retain its accreditation.
On October 30, 2007, Propst announced his resignation before a special called meeting of the Hoover Board of Education. Propst continued to serve as head coach for as long as the team survived in the 2007 playoffs, and was then transferred to an administrative position through August 31, 2008, after which he was to leave the Hoover system. Propst actually left before that, however, when he accepted the head coaching position at Colquitt County High School
Colquitt County High School
Colquitt County High School is a public high school located in Moultrie, Georgia, USA. The school is part of the Colquitt County School District which serves Colquitt County, Georgia.-Sports:The following sports are played at CCHS:*Baseball*Basketball...
in Georgia.
On December 20, 2007, Josh Niblett, the former head coach at Oxford
Oxford, Alabama
Oxford is a city in Calhoun and Talladega counties in the U.S. state of Alabama. The population was 14,592 at the 2000 census. Oxford is one of two principal cities of and included in the Anniston-Oxford Metropolitan Statistical Area...
High School, was hired to replace Propst. (In January 2008, Niblett was replaced at Oxford by John Grass, who coached Hoover's cross-town rival Spain Park High School
Spain Park High School
Spain Park High School is a public high school located in Hoover, Alabama, USA and is managed by the Hoover City School District. The school opened in the fall of 2001. The principal is Chris Shaw...
to the 2007 state championship game and was formerly offensive coordinator at Hoover under Propst.)
Notable alumni
Notable alumni from W. A. Berry High School include:- Murry BartowMurry BartowMurry Bartow is an American college basketball coach and the current the head men's coach at East Tennessee State University. Prior to accepting the head coaching job at ETSU, he served as the head coach for UAB from 1996 to 2002, succeeding his father Gene Bartow, the creator of the Blazers...
, basketballBasketballBasketball is a team sport in which two teams of five players try to score points by throwing or "shooting" a ball through the top of a basketball hoop while following a set of rules...
coach at East Tennessee State UniversityEast Tennessee State UniversityEast Tennessee State University is an accredited American university located in Johnson City, Tennessee. It is part of the Tennessee Board of Regents system of colleges and universities, the nation's sixth largest system of public education, and is the fourth largest university in the state...
and formerly at the University of Alabama at BirminghamUniversity of Alabama at BirminghamThe University of Alabama at Birmingham is a public university in Birmingham in the U.S. state of Alabama. Developing from an extension center established in 1936, the institution became an autonomous institution in 1969 and is today one of three institutions in the University of Alabama System... - Jeff Brantley, baseballBaseballBaseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each. The aim is to score runs by hitting a thrown ball with a bat and touching a series of four bases arranged at the corners of a ninety-foot diamond...
pitcher, former ESPNESPNEntertainment and Sports Programming Network, commonly known as ESPN, is an American global cable television network focusing on sports-related programming including live and pre-taped event telecasts, sports talk shows, and other original programming....
baseball analyst, current Cincinnati Reds analyst - Mike KolenMike Kolen'John Michael Kolen' is a former American football linebacker who played eight seasons in the National Football League for the Miami Dolphins...
, Miami DolphinsMiami DolphinsThe Miami Dolphins are a Professional football team based in the Miami metropolitan area in Florida. The team is part of the Eastern Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
linebacker - Steve LowerySteve LoweryStephen Brent Lowery is an American professional golfer.Lowery was born in Birmingham, Alabama. He has PGA Tour victories in 1994, 2000 and 2008. All three of his victories on the PGA Tour have come in playoffs....
, PGA TourPGA TourThe PGA Tour is the organizer of the main men's professional golf tours in the United States and North America...
golfer - Daniel MooreDaniel MooreDaniel Abdal-Hayy Moore is a U.S. poet, essayist and librettist. In 1970 he embraced the Sufic tradition of Islam and changed his name to Abdal-Hayy...
, 2005 Sport Artist of the Year, sports artist - Stan WhiteStan White (quarterback)Stan White is a former American football quarterback.-High School & College:A graduate of W. A. Berry High School in Hoover, Alabama. He went on to play quarterback at Auburn University where he started every game from his freshman year until his senior year, a total of 45 straight games...
, Auburn UniversityAuburn UniversityAuburn University is a public university located in Auburn, Alabama, United States. With more than 25,000 students and 1,200 faculty members, it is one of the largest universities in the state. Auburn was chartered on February 7, 1856, as the East Alabama Male College, a private liberal arts...
quarterback - Heather WhitestoneHeather WhitestoneHeather Leigh Whitestone McCallum is a former beauty queen who was the first deaf Miss America title holder, having lost most of her hearing at the age of 18 months.-Early life:...
, 1995 Miss AmericaMiss AmericaThe Miss America pageant is a long-standing competition which awards scholarships to young women from the 50 states plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands...
Notable alumni from Hoover High School include:
- Chris Osborne, Inventor of the iPhone and Hot-Pockets. Recent guest on 'Deal or No Deal' and of course won the million dollars.
- Taylor HicksTaylor HicksTaylor Reuben Hicks is an American singer who achieved fame in 2006, when he won the fifth season of American Idol. Hicks got his start as a professional musician in his late teens and performed around the Southeastern United States for well over the span of a decade, during which he also released...
, 2006 American IdolAmerican IdolAmerican Idol, titled American Idol: The Search for a Superstar for the first season, is a reality television singing competition created by Simon Fuller and produced by FremantleMedia North America and 19 Entertainment...
winner - Chad JacksonChad Jackson-New England Patriots:On the first day of the 2006 NFL Draft, the Patriots traded draft picks with the Green Bay Packers to move up sixteen places in the second round to select Jackson, giving up a third-round pick acquired in a trade...
, Buffalo BillsBuffalo BillsThe Buffalo Bills are a professional football team based in Buffalo, New York. They are currently members of the East Division of the American Football Conference in the National Football League...
wide receiver - John Parker WilsonJohn Parker WilsonJohn Parker Wilson is an American football quarterback for the Atlanta Falcons of the National Football League. college football at the University of Alabama, he went undrafted during the 2009 NFL Draft, before signing with the Falcons as a free agent.-Freshman:After leading Hoover High School to...
, footballAmerican footballAmerican football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
player and former quarterbackQuarterbackQuarterback is a position in American and Canadian football. Quarterbacks are members of the offensive team and line up directly behind the offensive line...
at the University of AlabamaUniversity of AlabamaThe University of Alabama is a public coeducational university located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States....
now playing for the Atlanta Falcons - Will Pearson, founder and publisher of Mental FlossMental flossMental Floss is a bi-monthly American magazine, launched in 2001 in Birmingham, Alabama, that presents facts and trivia in a humorous way...
magazine. - Cory ReamerCory ReamerCory Reamer Cory Reamer Cory Reamer (born May 6, 1987 in Hoover, Alabama is an American football linebacker who is currently a free agent in the National Football League. He played college football at Alabama.-Early years:...
, footballAmerican footballAmerican football is a sport played between two teams of eleven with the objective of scoring points by advancing the ball into the opposing team's end zone. Known in the United States simply as football, it may also be referred to informally as gridiron football. The ball can be advanced by...
player and former linebackerLinebackerA linebacker is a position in American football that was invented by football coach Fielding H. Yost of the University of Michigan. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up approximately three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage, behind the defensive linemen...
at the University of AlabamaUniversity of AlabamaThe University of Alabama is a public coeducational university located in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, United States....
now playing for the New York Jets - Sidney SpencerSidney SpencerSidney Spencer is an American professional basketball player for the Phoenix Mercury of the WNBA.Sidney attended the University of Tennessee, and in April 2007 led the team to the national championship. That same month, she was selected in the 2nd round of the WNBA draft by the Los Angeles Sparks...
, Forward for the 2006-07 NCAA champion Lady Volunteers of the University of TennesseeUniversity of TennesseeThe University of Tennessee is a public land-grant university headquartered at Knoxville, Tennessee, United States...
, drafted in the 2007 WNBA draft by the Los Angeles SparksLos Angeles SparksThe Los Angeles Sparks is a professional basketball team based in Los Angeles, California, playing in the Western Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association . The team was founded before the league's inaugural 1997 season began... - Ross Wilson, Alex Binder, Dwarn "Repete" Smith, Cornelius Williams, Kristin Boyle, Mark McCarty, Charlie Zorn, Brandon and Byron Clear, Michael DeJohn, Kristen Padalino, Brittany Benton and Max Lerner, featured on MTVMTVMTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
's Two-A-DaysTwo-A-DaysTwo-A-Days is a show on the United States cable television channel MTV. The show chronicled the lives of teens at Hoover High School in Hoover, Alabama, a suburb of nearby Birmingham...
.
Freshman Campus (2007-2011)
The side of the Hoover City School System that Hoover High School serves is notorious among residents for being crowded. It is further exacerbated by the fact that portable classrooms are banned in Hoover. Due to overcrowding at Hoover High School, a separate campus was built for freshmen two miles away, using the same blueprints as the new Berry Middle School building. The building that houses the Hoover High School Freshman Campus was built as a quick fix and meant to be Hoover's fourth middle school. While it has its own sports teams, band, dance line, and cheerleaders, the campus is still part of Hoover High School, and should not be regarded as a separate institution. The main Hoover High School campus is now often referred to as the "Senior Campus".In February of 2011, the Hoover City school board approved a realignment plan that affected schools across the system. One change that will be made involves the freshmen being brought back into the senior campus, with a freshman-specific wing to be completed by the end of the 2011-2012 school year. Seventh- and eighth-grade students at Bumpus Middle School will be moved into the building that currently house the freshmen, with fifth- and sixth-grade students attending the yet to be named intermediate school that will be housed by the current Bumpus campus.