1 of 2

Photos by Savannah Schmidt.
Hoover High School girls basketball coach Krystle Johnson, left, and boys basketball coach Scott Ware have overseen a recent run of dominance. The Lady Bucs have won four straight and the boys have consecutive state championships, with each looking to add to the collection in 2025.
2 of 2

Photo by Savannah Schnmidt.
Hoover girls basketball coach Krystle Johnson and boys basketball coach Scott Ware stand behind the row of state championship trophies at Hoover High School.
People across the country know about Hoover High School.
They know about the stratospheric level of success the Buccaneers football program has achieved this century, much of that recognition stemming from the exposure and notoriety gained from the MTV show “Two-A-Days” in 2006 and 2007.
The football program has won 11 state championships since the turn of the century.
In recent years, however, Hoover has begun earning a reputation for its basketball program. The level at which the boys and girls teams are simultaneously thriving is difficult to parallel.
The girls have won four consecutive Class 7A state championships and 10 overall in the last 25 years. The boys have won two straight state titles. As of mid-January, both teams were ranked No. 1 in the Alabama Sports Writers Association poll.

Photo by Savannah Schnmidt.
Hoover girls basketball coach Krystle Johnson and boys basketball coach Scott Ware stand behind the row of state championship trophies at Hoover High School.
Consistently winning
The girls basketball program has a storied track record, advancing to the state Final Four several times under Bob Finley’s leadership in the 1980s and 1990s. But when Lori Elgin took the reins in 1999, she won a state title in her second year and took the program to the next level.
The starting center on that 2000–01 state championship team was Krystle Johnson, who is now the head coach overseeing the program’s present-day dominance.
When Donnie Quinn arrived in 2007, he inherited a program built to win, and the Lady Bucs did just that. In Quinn’s five years as head coach, Hoover won at least 30 games each season and claimed a pair of state titles.
“Lori was definitely more defensive-oriented, and I came in with more of a run-and-shoot concept,” Quinn said. “With their background on defense, they were already very good. Trying to score a lot of points at the same time and adding those together, it took off. Our philosophies together really worked.”
Tiffany Frederick coached the Lady Bucs for four years, winning a state title before Hoover brought Johnson back home to lead her alma mater. Over the last eight years, Johnson has led Hoover to six state championships.
Andy Urban, who spent nearly a decade as Hoover’s athletic director, knew Johnson had built the Huntsville High program into a steady winner but had no preconceived notions that she would be the hire for Hoover.
Her interview, however, left no doubt.
“When Krystle came in for the job, she won the job with her passion and energy for students. She has such a rapport with her student-athletes, and she has such a passion for the school because she played there,” Urban said.
Taking the scenic route
The boys basketball program’s rise to the top took a little longer. The Bucs had flashes of brilliance but lacked sustained success until Charles Burkett took over in 2006. Burkett had a vision for what Hoover could become and implemented it to perfection.
“Hoover was one of the premier schools in the state, the country, the Southeast for sure,” Burkett said. “It had all the resources to do great things.”
Things didn’t change overnight, but the Bucs won more than 20 games in Burkett’s second season and advanced to the program’s first Final Four in his sixth year. In 2015, his ninth season, Burkett led Hoover to its first boys basketball state championship.
“It wasn’t if, it was when,” Burkett said.
Burkett left Hoover following the 2019–20 season and passed the program on to Scott Ware, his longtime assistant. Ware has retained much of the framework he and Burkett built while adding his own characteristics.
That’s the thing about all the great players around here. They are great players, but they are also winners, and they’re going to do whatever we ask them to do in order to win.
Krystle Johnson
“We sat down and talked to [Ware] and said, ‘We can interview all over the country [for this job], but the best coach we can interview is in this school already,’” Urban said.
It’s hard to argue with the results, as the Bucs barrel toward a potential third straight state championship.
It takes a village
High school athletics in Alabama has seen many programs enjoy extreme levels of success over a few years. A transcendent athlete walking the halls can make that happen in a variety of sports.
When it comes to Hoover basketball, that hasn’t been the case. Multiple coaches have raised the blue map trophy. Superstar players such as Reniya Kelly and Aniya Hubbard in the girls program have come and gone, but the winning continues.
What makes it special? Being one of Alabama’s largest schools certainly helps in terms of numbers, but there are plenty of Class 7A schools that do little with a lot.
Being consistent with what you do and what you expect and what you demand, I mean, kids are willing to rise to that if you show them that you’re not going to budge.
Scott Ware
“That’s the thing about all the great players around here. They are great players, but they are also winners, and they’re going to do whatever we ask them to do in order to win,” Johnson said.
Some panicked when a team as talented as the 2021–22 version of the Hoover boys was eliminated in the area tournament. The Bucs were far too talented to exit so early, but a group of freshmen that included now-seniors Salim London (UAB signee), DeWayne Brown (Tennessee signee) and Jarett Fairley needed time to grow.
“Coaching outstanding players always makes you a better coach,” Ware said.
Johnson was an assistant on Quinn’s staff at Hoover, and the two worked well together from day one. Quinn spent time as an assistant at the University of Alabama before coaching the Spain Park High boys basketball team. Once he retired, Johnson convinced him to return to Hoover.
“I’ve always loved Krystle,” Quinn said. “We’ve been a pair for a long time. Even when I was at Spain Park, we talked all the time. It was easy to go back.”
Ware, Johnson and others point to the assistants — both past and present — for much of the program’s success.
Can they do it again?
Ware and Johnson have slightly different approaches to handling their program’s streaks.
The “Drive2Five” is alive and well for the Lady Bucs, and they don’t shy away from that goal.
“Most of the upperclassmen on our team have always won a state championship, and they’ve been here, so they know what it takes. There’s no confusion,” Johnson said.
For the boys team, any talk of “repeating” as state champions is prohibited. The focus is solely on the current year.
“Being consistent with what you do and what you expect and what you demand, I mean, kids are willing to rise to that if you show them that you’re not going to budge,” Ware said.
Both approaches have produced undeniable results, and there’s potential for both teams to sweep the state championships for the third straight year.
When a Hoover basketball team shows up in a gym, whether locally or on the other side of the country (the boys played in Alaska in January), the conversation is no longer solely about football.
“They know who we are,” Johnson said.