By Solomon Crenshaw Jr.
It was the golf game that Drew Gilmer won’t forget, even if one detail is a little fuzzy.
Gilmer was playing a round of golf with his family at Top Golf near Uptown Birmingham when his cellphone began to ring. At that point, the now former Clay-Chalkville High School football coach couldn’t think about whose turn was next to take a swing.
“I don’t know,” he said. “When I got it, I knew it was Hoover calling. I gave up my turn. I was going to make sure I answered that phone call.”
When he did pick up, he answered the call of Hoover High School, accepting an offer to be the next head football coach of the Buccaneers.
The Hoover Board of Education assembled in one meeting room at the Hoover Met last Thursday while media gathered in the Michael Jordan Room.
“It was a special board meeting,” Hoover Principal Jennifer Hogan said, “so he could get started.”
Wade Waldrop, the Bucs’ coach the past two seasons, resigned recently with a 16-9 record, including 5-7 in 2023. He recently was named the new head coach at Orange Beach.
Hoover Athletics Director Harley Lamey said the process of finding a replacement included bringing in people from the community, including youth coaches, parents and people who work at the school.
“We were trying to get a good cross section of people that had a vested interest in our program because this is an amazing program,” Lamey said. “Surprisingly, it lined up with what we wanted. The same thing we wanted, they wanted.”
Lamey said the search yielded “one guy” – Gilmer.
“There’s a lot of people that absolutely love Hoover football, and with good reason,” Lamey added. “I tell people all the time, this is the flagship program in the state, and I’m not just talking about football. There’s no doubt in my mind that Hoover High School is the standard.”
The Bucs indeed set the standard for high school football in the state. Former coaches Rush Propst and Josh Niblett won 11 state championships from 2000 to 2017 and Berry High, which Hoover High replaced, won two before that.
Impressive Start
Gilmer, 39, began his career as an assistant at his alma mater, Pinson Valley High. Jerry Hood, now the coach at Leeds, hired him as an assistant in 2010 at Clay-Chalkville.
Gilmer compiled an 81-12 record at Clay-Chalkville and won Class 6A state championships in 2021 and 2023.
Hood proudly stood in the back of the room as Gilmer was presented as the new head man at Hoover.
“In my opinion, he’s one of the top three or four coaches in the state of Alabama,” Hood said. “I think he is well suited, coming from where he came from and the success he’s had of running an organization this big. I think he will do a fantastic job.
“The guy’s won two of the last three (Class 6A championships) and he has obviously put out a bunch of good players and promoted his player. There’s opportunity for kids and, in a Hoover situation, you’re searching around for the best coach. At this time, he’s won two of three (and) lost 12 games in seven years. That’s pretty dang good.”
During the 2023 season, Gilmer led the Cougars to victories against two defending state champions – Saraland in the 6A final and, during the regular season, Thompson, the then four-time defending Class 7A champion and a Region 3 rival of the Bucs.
That’s if the Bucs truly have rivals.
“I’ll be honest with you,” Gilmer said. “We’ve got no rivals. We’re our own rivals. The competition is us. No one else.”
The new Hoover coach has been married to his wife, Lauren, for 13 years. They have a 9-year-old son, Will, and a 7-year-old daughter, Georgia Claire.
