Second-year head coach Chip English will send his Hoover football team against Bradenton, Fla., national power IMG Academy to open the 2025 season. The Bucs will host IMG at the Hoover Met on Thursday, Aug. 21.

IMG, a boarding school in Bradenton, Fla., finished the 2024 season as the No. 17 team in the MaxPreps rankings. The school fields four football teams for grades 6-12, according to its website – the National, Regional, State and Post-Grad. The Bucs will be playing the National team, which is “comprised of some of the nation’s top collegiate recruits as well as those with aspirations to compete in the NFL,” the site said.

“We play a tough schedule week-in and week-out,” said English, whose first team was 10-3 and advanced to the Class 7A semifinals. “There’s nothing really new about that. We’re not going to be starstruck.

“Our guys are excited about showcasing their talent and are really, really excited about having that opportunity to go up against arguably one of the best. We want to show the world what we’ve got and I feel really excited about what we’ve got,” he said of his new edition that will be replacing 12 graduated seniors.

The game will likely be televised, English said. “There are some negotiations going on, the top option being ESPN. Some other streaming networks want to try to run it, we don’t know exactly which one it will be on. Something is in the works for that.

“We had the opportunity to play in a big showcase down in Florida last year,” English said of his team’s season-opening 17-14 win over Western of Davie, Fla. “We got an invitation to go back and play IMG down there, but honestly, we had a big travel game last year and I told them ‘We’d love to have y’all at the Met.’ They agreed and we made it happen.”

Hoover athletic director Harley Lamey called the game “a great opportunity.”

“We have high expectations for all of our sports,” said Lamey, whose boys and girls basketball teams wrapped up state championships on Saturday – the fifth consecutive for the girls and third straight for the boys. “I think we have the best kids and the best coaches and we look at it as an opportunity for those kids to gain some exposure to play in big games. One of the things in all of our sports is we’re competitive and seek out opportunities to compete against the best.”

This will be the fourth meeting between the two schools and the Bucs are still looking for their first win against the Ascenders. Former coach Josh Niblett sent his team against IMG in 2017, ’18 and ’19 – falling 32-21 the first season, 48-7 the second and 38-7 in the only road game of the three in 2019.

“It’s very difficult to find games,” English said. “I think any top team in the state would tell you that – Thompson is always looking, Central is always looking, Auburn is always looking.”

The IMG website says tuition rates “are based on the comprehensive nature of our programming and resources available to student-athletes,” and quotes the 2025-26 full year football tuition as “$70,500-$95,000 depending on age and program enrollment.” The website also says over the past five year that more than 200 student-athletes played in college programs at all levels. As of 2024, 21 former IMG players have been drafted by NFL teams.

“Guys aren’t going there and not have the expectation of playing at the collegiate level,” English said. “Most play at the highest level. We have some guys who will play at that level, too. Some of the supporting guys will also have the opportunity to show ‘I belong on this level, too.’”

English also said he hopes that playing the AHSAA Week 0 game will give the Bucs a chance to showcase their talents to fans in the area.

“It’s exciting to out there where we’re one of the few games on that Thursday night,” he said. “Hopefully, everybody will come out and we’ll be the biggest show in town.”