Aiming For Perfection

It's a tar-meltin'-hot Friday night in July in Alabama, and Ross Wilson is once again walking toward the brightest lights in his small city. With his helmet in hand, the 17-year-old quarterback for Hoover High strides through the double doors of his school's locker room and onto the asphalt road that leads to Buccaneer Stadium. Before Ross reaches the field, he's stopped on the sideline by his older brother, John Parker Wilson, the starting quarterback at the University of Alabama. As Ross chats with John Parker, a former Parade All-America who led the Buccaneers to state titles in 2002 and '03, a seven-year-old boy approaches, holding a football and a pen, and asks for an autograph from the most famous football player in all of Hoover. The brothers smile, and then John Parker takes a half step back while Ross gladly scribbles his name on the ball, then turns and strides onto the field.

The Southeastern Select 7-on-7 Tournament in Hoover is one of the biggest high school football events of the summer. Twenty teams representing 11 states have traveled to Hoover, a suburb of Birmingham, to showcase their quarterbacks, receivers and defensive backs for recruiting analysts from around the nation in what is, essentially, a glorified version of touch football--the quarterback has four seconds to throw, defensive players can't rush, there are no running plays and no linemen, and tackles are made simply by the touch of a hand.

Hoover's opponent tonight is perennial power Huguenot High of Richmond, but it takes just seconds for the Falcons to see why Hoover, SI's preseason No. 1 team (below), is the most successful big-time high school football program in America. On the game's first play Wilson takes the snap, drops back and looks to his right. No one's open, so his head snaps left, and he quickly zeros in on a receiver 25 yards downfield sprinting toward the sideline. Wilson pivots, sets his feet and slings a crisp, tight spiral that the receiver catches in stride just before he runs out-of-bounds. The unlucky defensive back shakes his head, the crowd roars and the jaws of several scouts bounce off the grass.

Hoover goes on to beat Huguenot 40--13, and in the first two games of the tournament Wilson completes 37 of 45 passes and throws for nine touchdowns. The games are a showcase for Hoover's high-flying, high-scoring and highly complex passing offense. The no-huddle attack was the first of its kind in Alabama when head coach Rush Propst installed it seven years ago, and, like a neon sign flashing HELP WANTED, it has enticed some talented players to transfer to the school. Every high school football player in the state--and beyond--probably wishes he could run and gun for the Buccaneers, who throw the ball around like kids in a sandlot and try to score on every play. "Around here," says Propst, "we call it 'basketball on grass.'"

One hundred five-alarm chicken wings are stacked on a tray in the main Hoover football office, and the Buccaneers' 13 coaches are at the trough. As Propst, 48, works through his plateful of wings, his cellphone bleats. He checks the caller I.D. but doesn't answer. "Another college coach trying to get me to convince one of my players to commit," he says matter-of-factly between bites.

Of all the statistics testifying to Hoover's dominance on the football field--five state championships in the last six years in Alabama's largest football division, Class 6A; an 84--5 record since 2000; an average margin of victory during the last three years of 27 points--this one may be the most impressive: 61% of the Bucs' starters have earned scholarships to a Division I-A, Division I-AA or Division II school since 2001. Even two nonstarters got I-AA scholarships.

Eighteen players on this year's Hoover squad have already received scholarship offers. It's likely that a dozen of those players will be on Division I rosters next season. Three of them are among the most coveted recruits in the country: offensive lineman Ryan Pugh, a 6'3", 270-pound road grader who has orally committed to Auburn; defensive tackle Kerry Murphy, a 6'5", 318-pound house of bricks who has narrowed his choices to Alabama, Auburn and Miami; and defensive end Josh Chapman, a 6'1" 280-pounder with a neck-snapping first step who has orally committed to Auburn. Ironically, one of the few Buccaneers who doesn't have a football scholarship lined up is the team's best player. Wilson has yet to receive any football offers from big-time Division I-A schools because he's considered undersized at 5'11" and has orally committed to playing baseball at Alabama. (He is a shortstop.) "If Ross were two inches taller--his brother had a growth spurt when he got to college--every school in the country would be begging for him," says Miller Safrit, a recruiting analyst for scout.com. "He's clearly got the arm to be a very, very good college player."

A few weeks after he was hired as Hoover's football coach in January 1999, Propst got a clear look at the challenge before him. He was eating dinner at a local restaurant when a woman approached his table. Jabbing a finger at Propst, she asked pointedly, "Are you going to be one of those coaches who run the ball up the middle three times and then punt?"

"Ma'am, let me make you a promise," said Propst. "We are going to have the most unorthodox offense in all of high school football. I will put you on the edge of your seat."

Before his arrival Hoover football had taken a backseat in an otherwise football-crazy region. From 1994 to '98 the Bucs had only one winning season, and the majority of the school's best athletes played basketball or baseball, but not football. To resuscitate the program, Hoover superintendent Jack Farr hired Propst, a native of Ohatchee, Ala., who in 1998 had guided Alma Bryant High of Irvington, Ala., to a 12--1 record and the state quarterfinals.

Propst quickly decided that the best way to make Hoover a power was to run a wide-open, no-huddle, spread passing attack, so he asked Kentucky head coach Hal Mumme, who ran the offense Propst hoped to install, if he could be an observer during the Wildcats' spring practices. Mumme agreed. The only catch? Propst, who had to be at work in Hoover each weekday morning to coach and teach, had to figure out how to get to the afternoon practices in Lexington, 411 miles away, and back home again a dozen times during a four-week span.