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Photo by Tosha Gaines.
Eric and EJ Kerley, a father-son duo who represent a divided family. Eric is the last Buc to make it to the SEC from the old Berry High before the school closed to make way for Hoover High. He's a Hoover Athletics Hall of Famer. But his son now stars for Spain Park. They're Hoover through and through on both sides of the rivalry.
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Photo courtesy of Eric Kerley.
Eric Kerley (99) was one of the state’s top prospects as a senior at W.A. Berry High School in 1993. Signing to play at the University of Alabama, Kerley was the last high-profile prospect to sign with an SEC school out of Berry before it closed to become Hoover High School in 1994. Clockwise from top: Eric Kerley (99), Brent Jones (68), Brad Hallmark (48) and Joe McCrady (39).
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Photo by James Nicholas.
EJ Kerley (7) takes a breather during a game against Gardendale. Kerley set a school record with 146 tackles as a junior at Spain Park High School, helping the Jaguars notch their first undefeated regular season. Kerley enters and enters his senior season gaining college attention while hoping to lead the Jaguars to their first state championship.
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Photo by Tosha Gaines.
The Kerley family represents the evolution of Hoover schools. Father Eric, left, was a standout at the old Berry High, the last Berry Buc to land in the SEC before the opening of Hoover High in 1994. Now his son EJ, right, is a standout at Spain Park, which opened in 2001 and is now fully matured to give the the Hoover City School two high-performing high schools that generate community pride and strong performance in both athletics and academics.
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Photo by Savannah Schmidt.
With award-winning teachers such as Kristin Bundren, Spain Park High School is now among the state’s finest, ranking No. 7 in Alabama in the latest U.S. News and World Report ratings and a graduation rate of 95%.
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Photo by Savannah Schmidt.
Former Hoover High principal Jennifer Hogan poses next to the bust of Hall of Fame football coach Bob Finley. The legendary coach of Berry High died just before the opening of Hoover High in 1994, but his legacy and memory still influence the programs at both Hoover and Spain Park, where both schools present Finley Awards to exceptional student leaders.
The air outside Spain Park’s stadium is heavy with July humidity, thick and still under the late-afternoon Alabama sun. Eric Kerley barely notices. He stands in the shadow of a stadium that didn’t even exist when he wore this jacket — his old Berry High letter jacket, draped over his shoulder, the black-and-orange pirate stitched on the sleeve faded but still proud.
Photo by Tosha Gaines.
The Kerley family represents the evolution of Hoover schools. Father Eric, left, was a standout at the old Berry High, the last Berry Buc to land in the SEC before the opening of Hoover High in 1994. Now his son EJ, right, is a standout at Spain Park, which opened in 2001 and is now fully matured to give the the Hoover City School two high-performing high schools that generate community pride and strong performance in both athletics and academics.
Next to him, his son EJ tosses a football in his Columbia blue Spain Park shirt, the son of a Buc now wearing Jaguar colors as he steps into his senior season.
Father and son. Buc and Jaguar. Two colors — one family. Two schools — one city.
Berry High School may have closed in 1994, but its black-and-orange Bucs lived on under a new name and a new roof.
Hoover High simply carried the tradition forward — same mascot, same pride, same standard. Eric Kerley helped build that standard. In the early 1990s he was one of the program’s stars, the last Berry Buc to sign with an SEC school before playing for the University of Alabama and earning a place in the Hoover Athletics Hall of Fame.
More than 30 years later, it’s his son’s turn. EJ is one of the leaders of a Spain Park program finally stepping out of Hoover’s long shadow, wearing different colors but playing on the same stage his father helped define.
When asked if cheering for his son has made him a Jaguar, Eric grins.
“Oh no,” he says. “I bleed orange. I’m gonna be a Buc until I die. But I’m gonna definitely support him in any of his dreams.”
That light-hearted exchange captures something deeper about Hoover itself — a city where football dominates the fall, where rivalries are fierce but pride runs deeper. In 2024, as Spain Park charges into a season of unprecedented expectations, that family dynamic mirrors a larger truth: Hoover’s tradition of excellence no longer lives in just one school.
In Hoover, the start of school has always meant the start of football season — and for decades, all eyes were on the Bucs. This year, though, the spotlight is shared. Spain Park returns from its breakthrough 12-1 season carrying the highest expectations in program history, while Hoover remains a perennial powerhouse. The Aug. 29 matchup at Spain Park is already the talk of both campuses — and the city.
But this is more than just one game — it’s the culmination of two decades of growth. Spain Park has stepped out of Hoover’s shadow, claiming its place as a full partner in the city’s tradition of excellence — on the field, in the classroom and in the community.
THE CHASE
Spain Park has spent two decades chasing this moment.
When the school opened in 2001, it was created to relieve overcrowding at Hoover High and serve the Hoover portion of the booming U.S. 280 corridor. At the time, Spain Park was a “cute little startup story,” but Hoover was Hoover. MTV’s “Two-a-Days.” Ring after ring. Trophy on top of trophy. The best football program in Alabama and a behemoth school that remained the state’s largest high school even after Spain Park was born.
On the football field, the gap was glaring. Hoover has dominated the all-time series 20-4, racking up 13 state championships while Spain Park still waited for its first. Entering last fall, the Jaguars’ last win over Hoover came in 2015; before that, you’d have to go back nearly a decade more. Region titles? Hoover’s 23 dwarf Spain Park’s 4.
“I’ve heard that they thought of us as little bro for the last couple of years,” EJ Kerley says. “They didn’t come up to us and say it, but you’d hear it. On social media, out in the community — they let you know.”
Last fall, Spain Park did the talking on the field. The Jaguars beat Hoover for the first time in nearly a decade, then went on to finish the regular season undefeated — a program first — and complete a 12-1 campaign. EJ played a huge part in it as a 5-foot-11, 215-pound linebacker who set a school record with 146 tackles.
For EJ and his teammates, it was more than just wins. It was proof that Spain Park belonged. And now Jags fever is at its highest point since the 2007 team won 13 games and reached the state championship.
“I definitely think winning attracts people,” EJ says. “As they see what we’re doing, they’re coming together. The community as a whole is just more positive. Students, fans, parents — they want to come and watch what we’re doing. And my dad said we’re doing it the right way. I think it’s a very special moment.”
THE ARCHITECT
Spain Park’s turnaround didn’t happen by accident. When Tim Vakakes arrived in January 2022 to take over the football program, he inherited a team in need of identity and belief. That first year, they only won three games. But things began to click in 2023 when they closed the season on a five-game winning streak.
Last fall, it all came together. Dropping from Class 7A to Class 6A, they reeled off 12 straight wins — part of a 17-game winning streak — before falling to No. 1 Saraland in the third round of the playoffs.
“I am the son of a football coach, so I was raised around high school football,” Vakakes says. “I appreciate the value of what high school football can do in the community. Those coaches were not only coaches but leaders in our lives. I wanted to be able to provide that for the kids at Spain Park, and I wanted to be able to give them a reason to stay here.”
He demanded accountability and investment — from his players and himself.
“I think when you invest in the people and you consistently do right by them, I think that just breeds success,” he says.
Quarterback Brock Bradley, the Clemson-bound senior who leads the offense, remembers their first meeting.
“I felt like it was my duty to come with questions because I really wanted the program to thrive,” Bradley says. “I have grown up in Spain Park my whole life and it was always my goal and mission to leave Spain Park better than I found it.”
Vakakes’ philosophy of character first and results second resonated.
“He’s doing it the right way,” Eric Kerley says. “Teaching them to be mean between the lines, but also teaching them to be good citizens. He wants them to be successful in life, not just in football.”
THE RISE
Spain Park’s rise hasn’t only happened under Friday night lights. In classrooms, hallways and arts programs, the school has grown into a destination — no longer just the overflow option for families who lived too far from Hoover High.
Photo by Savannah Schmidt.
With award-winning teachers such as Kristin Bundren, Spain Park High School is now among the state’s finest, ranking No. 7 in Alabama in the latest U.S. News and World Report ratings and a graduation rate of 95%.
Both are among the state’s highest performing schools in key academic measures. In the latest U.S. News & World Report rankings, Spain Park was named the No. 7 public high school in Alabama, ahead of Hoover at No. 11, and ranked No. 923 nationally. Its graduation rate of 95% beats Hoover’s 91%. More than half of Spain Park students take Advanced Placement classes, and 42% pass at least one AP exam — both slightly higher than Hoover’s benchmarks.
Photo courtesy of Eric Kerley.
Eric Kerley (99) was one of the state’s top prospects as a senior at W.A. Berry High School in 1993. Signing to play at the University of Alabama, Kerley was the last high-profile prospect to sign with an SEC school out of Berry before it closed to become Hoover High School in 1994. Clockwise from top: Eric Kerley (99), Brent Jones (68), Brad Hallmark (48) and Joe McCrady (39).
Eric Kerley said the academic environment at Spain Park is just as important as the sports culture. EJ is an honors student, now attracting college scouts with his play on the football field and the performance in the classroom to back it up.
“The teachers, the administrators — you can tell they really care about the kids,” Kerley said, beaming with pride when talking about EJ’s grade-point average.
Sara Franklin, a member of Spain Park’s first graduating classes, has watched the school grow up alongside the community.
“We were kind of creating our own legacy with this brand-new school,” she says. “Now you see kids walking around proud to wear the colors, parents coming out in bigger numbers, and the whole atmosphere feels different. Spain Park is thriving — not just in football, but in every way.”
Photo by James Nicholas.
EJ Kerley (7) takes a breather during a game against Gardendale. Kerley set a school record with 146 tackles as a junior at Spain Park High School, helping the Jaguars notch their first undefeated regular season. Kerley enters and enters his senior season gaining college attention while hoping to lead the Jaguars to their first state championship.
This fall, that progress will be on full display. The Jaguars are moving into a newly renovated $1 million locker-room complex — a facility that Principal Amanda Esslinger said will serve not only football but basketball, soccer, flag football, cheer and dance teams, about 600 students in all. New stadium lights are also going up in time for the Aug. 29 home opener against Hoover, signaling Spain Park’s arrival as a fully invested equal in Hoover’s storied athletics scene.
That long-awaited breakthrough on the field mirrored the school’s steady evolution in every other corner of campus. Spain Park has claimed its corner of Hoover.
THE LEGACY
For all the banners and rivalry talk, the Kerleys know this story is bigger than one family or even one game.
Photo by Savannah Schmidt.
Former Hoover High principal Jennifer Hogan poses next to the bust of Hall of Fame football coach Bob Finley. The legendary coach of Berry High died just before the opening of Hoover High in 1994, but his legacy and memory still influence the programs at both Hoover and Spain Park, where both schools present Finley Awards to exceptional student leaders.
Eric still thinks often of his old coach at Berry, Bob Finley — the man whose sudden death in July 1994, just weeks before Hoover High opened, left a legacy that still defines what Hoover athletics aspire to be. Both schools honor his name every year through the Finley Awards for character and leadership.
“Coach Finley was old school,” Eric says. “He taught us how to be men, not just players. That’s what’s still in both programs today — you can see it.”
That DNA — the standards Finley set decades ago — still runs through the veins of both programs. Even as Spain Park has forged its own identity and earned its place alongside Hoover, the values remain the same — two teams, one city.
Smiling at his son in the Jaguars’ blue and silver, Eric Kerley gives a quiet nod. Then, almost absentmindedly, he folds his old letter jacket, the pirate stitched on the sleeve, and lays it in the seat of his truck. Spain Park’s rise isn’t as much about rivalry as it is about revelation: the city has two powers in which to take pride. Like the Kerley household, the bloodlines reach both campuses.
“We’re all Hoover,” he says.
– Emily Reed contributed to this report.
