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SAVANNAH SCHMIDT
Chip English, introduced by Hoover AD Harley Lamey, is officially announced as the Bucs’ head football coach at the Hoover Met during a press conference on Dec. 10, 2024. Photo by Savannah Schmidt
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SAVANNAH SCHMIDT
Chip English, introduced by Hoover AD Harley Lamey, is officially announced as the Bucs’ head football coach at the Hoover Met during a press conference on Dec. 10, 2024. Photo by Savannah Schmidt
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SAVANNAH SCHMIDT
Chip English, introduced by Hoover AD Harley Lamey, is officially announced as the Bucs’ head football coach at the Hoover Met during a press conference on Dec. 10, 2024. Photo by Savannah Schmidt
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Photo by Barry Stephenson
Hoover head coach Chip English during a game between Hoover High School and Fairhope High School on Thursday, Nov. 7, 2024, at the Hoover Met.
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Photo by Barry Stephenson
Hoover head coach Chip English during a game between Hoover High School and Opelika High School on Friday, Nov. 15, 2024, at the Hoover Met in Hoover, Ala.
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Photo by Barry Stephenson
Hoover head coach Chip English during a game between Hoover High School and Vestavia Hills High School on Friday, Oct. 25, 2024, at the Hoover Met.
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Photo by Savannah Schmidt
Hoover HC Chip English talks to players during the Hoover vs Thompson game at Warrior Stadium on Oct. 18, 2024.
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Hoover head coach Chip English during a game between Hoover High School and Parker High School on Friday, September 27, 2024, at the Hoover Met in Hoover, AL. Photo by Barry Stephenson
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Photo by Barry Stephenson
Hoover head coach Chip English during a game between Hoover High School and Prattville High School on Friday, Sept. 20, 2024, at the Hoover Met in Hoover, Ala.
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SAVANNAH SCHMIDT
Chip English, introduced by Hoover AD Harley Lamey, is officially announced as the Bucs’ head football coach at the Hoover Met during a press conference on Dec. 10, 2024. Photo by Savannah Schmidt
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SAVANNAH SCHMIDT
Chip English, introduced by Hoover AD Harley Lamey, is officially announced as the Bucs’ head football coach at the Hoover Met during a press conference on Dec. 10, 2024. Photo by Savannah Schmidt
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SAVANNAH SCHMIDT
Chip English, introduced by Hoover AD Harley Lamey, is officially announced as the Bucs’ head football coach at the Hoover Met during a press conference on Dec. 10, 2024. Photo by Savannah Schmidt
HOOVER -- The interim tag is no longer.
Chip English is now the permanent head football coach at Hoover High School, as he was formally introduced Tuesday evening at a press conference.
English led the Bucs as the interim head coach this fall, pushing Hoover to a 10-3 record and an appearance in the Class 7A semifinals.
His leadership throughout the 2024 season was enough to earn him the shot to guide the Hoover program on a permanent basis.
“He proved he was the right candidate for this job,” Hoover athletics director Harley Lamey said during the introductory press conference. “He interviewed for it, and killed the interview.”
English provided stability through turmoil over the last several months, stepping in as the head coach after the resignations of head coach Drew Gilmer and defensive coordinator Adam Helms. Gilmer and Helms were embroiled in controversy after practice videos showing troubling actions surfaced in late summer and resigned in early August after being hired in January 2024.
“Trust isn’t built in a day,” English said. “Confidence isn’t built in a day. It’s in the consistency.”
English has been at Hoover for two years now, arriving prior to the 2023 season to be the quarterbacks coach under Wade Waldrop. He was set to be the Bucs offensive coordinator this past fall before taking on the head coaching role.
English said he is “excited to ramp it up about three notches” in terms of what lies ahead for the Hoover program.
“The standard is excellence in all we do,” he said. “We are putting out state championships every year [in different sports] and we plan on doing that in the football program. There’s no doubt in my mind we’re going to do that.”
English holds a 49-62 record in 10 years as a head coach.
He served as the Albertville High head coach for two years. Taking over an Albertville program that has won just two playoff games in the last 30 years, the Aggies had a combined 2-18 record over his two years there. In the two years since he left, the Aggies have not won a game.
Prior to Albertville, English served as the head coach at Grissom for four years. Grissom is another program that has fallen on hard times in recent seasons. The Tigers went 16-25 over his four years there, going 6-5 in 2020 and making the program's only other playoff appearance since 2004.
Coaching at Grissom was English's introduction to Alabama. English's first coaching stops were in North Carolina, first at A.L. Brown High School in Kannapolis as an assistant, and as the head coach at West Caldwell High School for three years. He turned around the West Caldwell program as well, taking over a team that had won one total game in the three years before he got there. By his third year at West Caldwell, English led the program to a 10-win season in 2016 before accepting the Grissom job.
West Caldwell has won a total of 10 games in the eight years since English left.
English and his wife, Heather, have five children. Their son, Trot, just completed his senior season on the Hoover football team.
Hoover’s 2025 season will begin next August. English has no shortage of expectations for the next season, his first as the permanent holder of the head coach title.
“I think we can win championships,” he said. “If they thought this year was good, hold on. We can do a lot better moving forward.”
