They weren’t just well told — they hit a nerve. Some showed what’s possible when students get hands-on experience. Others uncovered identity puzzles or traced the quiet paths from local ballfields to streaming charts. These five stories helped us see the 280 corridor with sharper focus — and real affection.
“Class of 2025” (by Emily Reed): Born into the iPhone era, shaped by a pandemic, stepping into an AI-tilted economy. Spain Park’s Javairia Jehangir: “Face-to-face conversations are so much better than digital.” Hoover-area psychologist Josh Klapow saluted a class that has “shown an incredible amount of flexibility and adaptation.”
“Where the heck am I?” (by Tim Stephens and Taylor Bright): Annexation history turned the 280 corridor into a bureaucratic knot. Hamburger Heaven is the avatar: Birmingham mailing address, a Hoover sliver, unincorporated Shelby County across the lot and multiple fire districts within a few hundred yards. “We call Hoover; they say no, you’re Shelby County… Most of the time we’re just like — I don’t care who, just send someone,” said longtime employee Jeremy Polk.
Photo courtesy of Myles Morgan Music via Facebook
Hoover native and former Spain Park Sudent Myles Morgan will headline a show at Iron City in Birmingham on July 18.
“Myles Morgan, country cool” (by Tim Stephens): A Spain Park baseball kid turns country riser — first singles, a million-stream track, WME management, festival slots and a sold-out Iron City homecoming. The sign-in-the-crowd moment with Larry Fleet? Real. The grind that followed? Very real.
Photo by Tosha Gaines.
Eric and EJ Kerley, a father-son duo who represent a divided family. Eric is the last Buc to make it to the SEC from the old Berry High before the school closed to make way for Hoover High. He's a Hoover Athletics Hall of Famer. But his son now stars for Spain Park. They're Hoover through and through on both sides of the rivalry.
“The Kerleys” (by Tim Stephens): The rise of Spain Park as a football power and top-level school in its own right alongside the tradition-rich Hoover was told through a family lens. Father Eric (the last Berry High Buc to sign with an SEC program) and son EJ (Spain Park’s record-setting linebacker) embody Hoover’s two-school tradition.
Image courtesy of Hoover City Schools
Riverchase Career Connection Center
Hoover school officials are converting the former Riverchase Middle School into the Riverchase Career Connection Center.
“Real-world ready: RC3” (by Emily Reed): Hoover’s Riverchase Career Connection Center keeps scaling — 750-plus students, seven academies and real pipelines to prepare students to compete for good jobs in the workforce. Hoover Fire Chief Clay Bentley says the department has already hired roughly eight RC3-trained recruits: “We see the program as a tremendous opportunity.”
