Scott Ware promoted to Bucs' head coach

HOOVER -- Applications arrived at the desk of Andy Urban from places near and far, but the Hoover High School athletic director knew from the get-go the best candidate to take over as the head coach of the boys basketball program was within arm’s reach.

On May 29, Hoover announced Scott Ware as the Bucs’ new head basketball coach. Ware is no stranger to the halls of Hoover High, having a served as the lead assistant coach with the program for the past seven years.

Ware takes over for Charles Burkett, who took the head job at Athens High in mid-May after 14 years at Hoover.

“We had hundreds of applicants, but we knew we had what we felt like was the best coach we could get in our building. I told him that the day I met with him,” Urban said.

In his first comments in front of a small gathering on the day his hire became official, Ware had many people to thank.

“I have to first of all thank my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Without him, this wouldn’t be possible,” Ware said. “I need to thank [Hoover Principal] John Montgomery and Andy for having the belief in me that I can move this program forward. I also want to thank Coach Burkett for his friendship and support in this.”

Following 10 seasons as the head coach at Walker (now Jasper), Ware said Burkett called him “out of the blue” and expressed interest in Ware coming to be an assistant at Hoover.

“I didn’t know why in the world I was entertaining that,” Ware said of his thought at the time. “Right now, I know. I’m super excited, I’m ready to get back in the gym with the guys and go to work to be the best version of us that we can be.”

Montgomery expressed similar sentiments to Urban’s about the promotion of Ware.

“When this development came about, Coach Urban got with me and started talking about what we wanted to do as far as moving on about a new head basketball coach. It took me and him about two minutes to get to the answer,” Montgomery said.

Ware said he feels ready for the opportunity to take over the Hoover program, which compiled a 313-129 record and won the 2015 Class 7A state championship over Burkett’s tenure. Last season, the Bucs went 22-11, reaching the Northeast Regional semifinals.

“Taking a step back and being an assistant under Charles was really eye-opening,” Ware said. “There’s a lot of things that I’ve definitely learned from him and this program and watching others that we’ve played against. There’s just some things that I think this time around I’ll do different than I did before.”

One area Ware already has a leg up compared to most new head coaches is he’s already extremely well-acquainted with every single person in the program, from players to support staff.

“You know the kids, you already have a relationship with them,” he said. “I hope they’re just as excited as I am about this, because they already know me. They already know what to expect.”

Ware said philosophically, the Bucs won’t look much different, since Burkett always allowed Ware to have a great deal of input into how the team and program did things on and off the court. He’s “super excited” to get started.

“I love the guys and think we’ve got a really good group of guys,” Ware said. “I’m ready to hit the ground running. I’m very humbled and honored that they would even think to put me in this position.”