Girls Lacrosse New Coach: John Streb

Coach John Streb will be the new girls lacrosse head coach for the upcoming season. This isn’t Coach Streb’s first time coaching a sport. He coached some of the girls previously in youth lacrosse.

“I have coached basketball and lacrosse in youth, never in high school.” Streb said.

I asked him what made him choose to coach at Hoover High School and whether he chose it for the people, the atmosphere or the program. With two of his daughters on the team, senior Ava Streb and freshman Lila Streb, Coach Streb has close connections to the team and wants to engage with his daughters and their friends.

“I just really wanted to spend time with my daughters and their friends and I hope I can do a new job,” Streb said. “I wanted to take that opportunity when the spot opened up.”

With him having experience coaching lacrosse and has worked with the girls before he has a foundation with the girls and knows some of their strengths and weaknesses.

“I’m excited to start the season and excited to work with these girls this season,” Streb said.

Junior lacrosse player Mahlina McFadden is excited to start her third season on the team. She has enjoyed having coach Streb during the off season training and now in the starting days of practice.

“I think he cares a lot about our position and whether we win and lose.” Mahlina Mcfadden said.

She thinks that he has a lot to offer to our team and she has hope for a successful season.

“I think he knows his stuff,” McFadden said. “He knows what we are doing and is determined to get us good and ready for the season.”

Girls Volleyball New Coach: Tiffany Odell

Coach Tiffany Odell will be coaching her first season at Hoover next fall of 2024. She is excited to work with the volleyball team and help lead them to a successful season. She has coached swimming before, along with volleyball.

She has had a lot of inspiration along the way of deciding to be a coach at Hoover.

“Past teammates of mine inspired me to do more coaching and my youngest son inspired me to coach at Hoover.” Odell said.

Her goal when coaching the girls is to teach them teamwork, as it is a good life skill to learn, especially at the high school age. It is important to her that her girls have a hard work ethic.

“I want to teach teamwork in my own community and local neighborhoods through the joys of volleyball.” Odell said.

She is enthusiastic to start her first year of working alongside the other volleyball coaches and is excited for what the upcoming season has to offer. She also left us with some inspirational words.

“I’m very excited for this opportunity and I look forward to reaching our fullest potential,” Odell said. “One of the greatest joys of playing volleyball is flying high and reaching new heights; both mentally and physically.”

Junior volleyball player Kate Oster is getting excited for the first season with Coach Odell. With her going into her Senior year, and used to the same routine, having a new coach for the last season may be a challenge.

“I’m a little nervous about having a new coach especially since it will be my senior year but I hope that she can critique us in the best way possible to have a good season and that we just overall have fun.” Oster said.

The team is having a meet-the-coach meeting coming up so none of the girls know her well as of right now.

“As of right now I haven’t met her so I don’t know much about her.” Oster said. I do know she played college volleyball and coached at Jackson so it seems she has a lot of good experience that she can apply to hopefully make the best of our season.“

Girls Basketball New Coach: Craig Nettleton

Coach Craig Nettleton just wrapped up his first season with the girls basketball team. Although it was his first season with the girls, he has been a head coach for boys and girls basketball over at Field High School. He also has dipped his toe into coaching for other sports.

“Yes, I have been a head coach for 27 years – including this year.” Nettleton said. I have been the boys basketball coach at Field and the girls coach at Field, Southeast, and now Hoover. I have also coached high school football and baseball.”

This isn’t Coach Nettleton’s first time being involved in and around Hoover. He has had sons that attended here and has lived in the area for a number of years. Being local and not having a big commute, he took up the job.

“There were numerous factors that made this position desirable – I have lived in the district for many years,” Nettleton said. “My three boys all went here and enjoyed their experience in the classroom and as athletes. Hoover has a great reputation and plays in one of the top leagues in the state.”

Coach Nettleton explains how he enjoys his first year on the coaching staff, he liked the environment, people on the team, along with working alongside the other coaches.

“I have truly enjoyed myself here in year one.” Nettleton said. “I work with a great staff each day and the girls have been tremendous and have been so welcoming.  They come to practice ready to work and have shown great improvement over the season.  We are already looking forward to next year.”

Junior girls basketball player Taylor Repp also enjoyed having Coach Nettleton on staff this past season. Although she was injured for the majority of the season, Taylor appreciated him continuing to work hard with the rest of the girls.

“He didn’t give up on us over the season and came to practice everyday with a positive attitude and continued to support us,” Repp said.