Lady Bucs Primed for 2024 Playoff Run Under Head Coach Krystle Johnson
As the Hoover High School girls basketball team prepares for their playoff run after a solid 2023-2024 regular season, there are not many other teams in Alabama – or anywhere for that matter – in better hands than the Lady Bucs are.
Krystle Johnson is in her eighth season as the team’s head coach and has spent a total of 17 years involved with the Hoover girls basketball program. The success that she has brought to the program as a player and as a coach speaks for itself.
Johnson has been involved in eight of the nine state titles that the Lady Bucs have won. That includes the 2001 state championship she led her team to and helped clinch with two crucial free throws at the end of the game.
Following a collegiate career that took her to UCLA for two seasons and back to Alabama for three years, Johnson returned to her alma mater and started her career as an assistant coach, where she helped the team earn two state titles in 2010 and 2012.
Johnson has continued that trend of success as the Hoover girls basketball head coach, winning five state championships in seven years. The first two came in 2017 and 2019, and she’s had the Hover girls on quite a run after winning three consecutive state titles in 2021, 2022, and 2023.
Johnson has an overall record of 345-65 at Hoover as the head coach and was named the 2022-23 USA Today High School Sports Awards National Girls Team Coach of the Year following last year’s 35-1 season and fifth overall state championship.
Johnson said her career has been shaped by those coaches she learned the game under.
“I played for three different high school coaches and four different college coaches, and I picked up different techniques and methods, different drills and advice from all of them,” Johnson said. “I really believe that playing under so many good coaches, that made me a well-rounded coach.”
Of her top three mentors, Johnson said: “I really learned a lot from my high school coach, Lori Elgin; my college coach at Alabama, Rick Moody; and former Bucs coach Donnie Quinn. I never played under Donnie because he was the varsity coach when I was the Hoover JV coach.”
Quinn now serves as an assistant coach on Johnson’s Hoover staff.
Can the Hoover Girls Basketball Team Win a 4th Straight State Title in 2024?
Johnson and her Hoover girls basketball team are wrapping up the 2024 regular season at the time of writing this story. While their overall record isn’t quite as good as last year’s 35 wins against only one loss, this team, which is younger than last year’s squad, is still good.
“We are 21-7 headed into our last regular season game against Spain Park before the playoffs begin,” Johnson said. “And that’s not bad, but it’s more losses than last year. And here at Hoover our expectations are always high. But we have an inexperienced team. We aren’t young in age; we are just young in experience.”
Johnson said that another difference is this year’s schedule.
“I intentionally made this year’s schedule tough,” she said. “I wanted to prepare these players for what will be a tough playoff run. I think getting them the experience they needed against top quality competition will help us down the stretch in the playoffs.”
Among this year’s opponents were a trio of state-championship-contending programs, including back-to-back Georgia state champion Woodward Academy; River Ridge High School, also from Georgia; Arkansas state champion North Little Rock High School; and Alabama’s own perennial girls basketball power, Bob Jones High School.
“I am proud of the progression our team has made this year, but we still have some stuff we need to work on,” Johnson said. “But hopefully we will get it together as we go through this playoff season.”
Hoover has done well considering they returned just four seniors this year. Johnson said that forward Kamryn Lee has the most overall experience among those four, while senior guard Ariana Peagler is the lone returning starter from last season’s state championship squad.
Johnson said that junior transfer Kaitlyn Gipson has been a welcome addition to the Lady Bucs this season. The point guard came to Hoover from Paul Bryant High School in the offseason.
The Alabama Sports Writers Association’s final regular season poll has the Hoover girls basketball team ranked at No. 4 in Class 7A, but with three straight state titles at their back and a head coach who knows a little something about winning championships, I would not bet against the Hoover Lady Bucs.
