On
January 21st I arrived at Hoover High School for the MaxPreps Tour
of Champions presented by the National Guard. Back in 2005 in the Tour’s first
year, we honored a powerful Hoover squad.
And it was good to be back to this renowned football program.
I took a
few minutes by myself to walk around the outdoor campus and check out where the
football team practices daily during the season. After a few minutes I went into the school,
looking around at all the awards surrounding the halls, which helped me to
understand the history behind Hoover High School football and the state of
Alabama.
This
year Hoover (15-1) jumped out to a 28-10 halftime lead and held off 3-time Tour
of Champions recipients Prattville, 28-23, to capture the Alabama Class 6A
state football championship. Hoover claimed its sixth state title this decade
and has now won eight titles overall.
Hoover
Athletic Director Myra Miles greeted me and we took some time to talk about the
past season. She spoke of the tremendous win against the former #1 Prattville
team and the honor it is to be ranked #29 nationally and a recipient of our
MaxPreps Tour of Champions presented by the National Guard. Myra then brought
me through the athletic department and led me into the Main gymnasium where the
Pep Rally was to be held. In the gym, we met up with MaxPreps representative
Daryl Green, who walked with us as Myra showed us the boys’ weight room
attached to the gym where assistant coaches already had some of the players
training for 2010. After touring the gym we met up with Major Christopher Amos
of the Alabama National Guard who had been talking with Coach Josh Niblett who
was admiring the coveted National Guard National Ranking Trophy.
After
setting up and introducing everyone, the 400 students started pouring in. The
cheerleaders had already begun cheering and helping get the spirits of the
senior class excited. Mrs. Myles had arranged for the Tour of Champions video
to be played for the seniors. It was an opportunity to hear from MaxPreps
President Andy Beal who explained the history and the achievement of being
ranked #29 out of 16,000 high school football teams in the country. Mrs. Myles
then introduced Daryl Green who spoke about MaxPreps, and his history of one
time being a football coach himself in Alabama, and how proud he was of the
Hoover High School team and fans. He then introduced Major Christopher Amos,
who got the crowd riled up with a Hoo Rah, and explained being part of the
National Guard is like any team, it involves teamwork and working hand in hand
with the guy next to you to accomplish the goal set out by all teams, to be the
best. He then awarded Coach Josh Niblett and the team with the National Guard
National Ranking Trophy in front of cheerleaders, faculty, seniors and local
media. The whole crowd roared with excitement and the local media was swarming
the place getting interviews with players, and of course Coach Niblett.
Congratulations on a tremendous season and I look forward to coming back to
Hoover next year which would make Hoover High a TOC 3-peat!
