New face, same Bucs

There will be a new face pacing in front of the Hoover bench this season.

But out on the court, the Hoover High School boys basketball team will not look much different from previous iterations.

Scott Ware was named the new head coach of the Buccaneers in the spring and takes over a program with consistently high expectations. Nothing about the situation is new to him, though. He’s been a head coach in the past and has served as the lead assistant at Hoover for the past seven years.

“I had a lot of responsibilities as the assistant around here,” Ware said.

Ware called the transition to the head coach’s office an easy one, as he takes over for Charles Burkett, who took the same job at Athens after 14 seasons at Hoover.

“I tried to meet with the guys the very first opportunity I could in the summer when it was announced,” Ware said. “When that happened, we had a team meeting and they bought in from the get-go. We’ve kind of kept on with what we’ve always done.”

Adding to the familiarity factor, Ware was also able to welcome Trent Hosmer back to the fold. Hosmer is coming off a brief but successful stint as the head coach at Gardendale, and he will now serve as Ware’s lead assistant. Prior to going to Gardendale, Hosmer coached at Hoover.

“We had formed a great relationship,” Ware said. “He and I hit it off, and he’s great. For a young guy, he has a lot of things that you see in a lot of veteran coaches. I knew he was special.”

Hoover put together a solid season last year but fell to Sparkman in the Class 7A Northeast Regional semifinals. The Bucs were forced to play that game without their leading scorer, DJ Fairley, who was suffering from the flu.

“I don’t know if it would’ve made a difference in the outcome, but it left you empty that you didn’t have the full squad there to compete when you made it to that level,” Ware said.

Fairley is back this year for his senior campaign — one of seven 12th graders for the Bucs. Colby Carter is back and healthy after missing much of the last two seasons due to injury. Fairley and Carter serve as the team’s captains.

Parker Williams is back to man the point guard position for the Bucs and is a guy Ware calls an unselfish player. Chip Culpepper played his best basketball of the season at the end of last year and is expecting a breakout senior campaign. Shun Sheffield’s athleticism is enough to give every opponent problems as well. Michael Scott Myers and Scott Osborne are also seniors.

“They want to try to finish it off right,” Ware said.

Brodin Grady and Brandon Foster are juniors who held down the interior last season and will do so once again. Christian Bryant also contributed last season and should take another step forward. The roster is rounded out by TQ Richardson, Austin Montgomery and Elijah Herron.

Ware won’t change the Bucs’ style much. They will attempt to beat the defense down the floor and attain easy baskets. When forced to play half-court offense, the objective is to “shoot the shot we want to shoot.” Ware is also emphasizing grit and toughness to his team on the defensive end.

Those will be needed in Class 7A, Area 5, in which the Bucs compete against Oak Mountain (a final four team a year ago), Thompson and Tuscaloosa County.