The Hoover High football team has big plans for next year’s season. The Tornados’ schedule is all set. For the third straight year, Hoover will play an independent schedule, although two of its games will be against former Pacific League rivals.

Hoover’s first game will be against Pasadena Poly. Pasadena Poly went 1-8 last fall.

“A small private school in Pasadena, they’ve had some really good years in the past and some not so good years,” said Hoover football Coach Azad Herabidian. 

Hoover’s second game is going to be against Genisha High. 

“We played them last year and won by 7 points, the score was 14-7, it was a close game. I think we’re gonna match up with them again and it will be a similar game as they are in the competitive league,” Herabidian said.

Hoover’s third game is going to be against Gabrielino High.

“Both Genish High School and Gabrielino High School had the same play styles and they played the exact same,” Herabidian said. “Gabrielino High School was struggling with players last year; they only had 22 players on their whole football team.”

Hoover’s fourth game is going to be against South Pasadena. South Pasadena went 10-2 in its last season.

“This is going to be the toughest team we’re going to go against,” Herabidian said. “They have improved over the past 4-5 years, they were in the semifinals in division 12, two years ago this year they went up into division 13 and they are in the semifinals again. They are moving up in division every year.”  

Hoover’s fifth game is going to be Bernstein. Bernstein went 9-3 in its last season.

“The coach over there has turned the whole program around, they made the playoffs last year. They are 9-3 in a slightly easier division so I think we are going to match up well against them,”  Herabidian said.

Hoover’s sixth game is going to be against Crescenta Valley, its former Pacific League rival. CV went 2-8 in its last season.

“CV is going to be one of those tougher teams that we are up there with South Pasadena, I think we are going to match up well with them,” Herbidian said. “It’s going to be fun, and they are in our district, and it’s always nice to play against the schools in our district. I just found out that it’s going to be a home game for us so that’s going to be exciting,” 

Hoover’s seventh game is going to be Nogales. Nogales  went 6-4 in its last season.

“Nogales is one of the teams that we played last year,  they whooped us without sugarcoating it but we had a lot of injured players, the bus was late and we didn’t have anytime to warm up, and some of our coaches had some accidents that week, which lead to them missing a couple of practises.” Heribidian said. “They came off of a rival loss so they were ready to give everything to win this game.”

Hoover’s eighth game is going to be Temple City. Temple City went 2-8 in its last season. 

“Last time we played them it was a comeback from behind,” Herabidian said. “We beat them 19-15, we were down most of the game, but we put our heads back in the game and over there they have a really good head coach so I don’t expect the game to be easy. I still think it will be a competitive game.”

Hoover’s ninth game is going to be Viewpoint. Viewpoint went 2-8 in its last season.

“Viewpoint is like a small private school, they are from the Calabasas area,” Herabidian said. “Glendale played them last season and it was a close game but Glendale came short as they lost 10-7 and as you know we lost to Glendale, by a last second touchdown so I think based on that alone I think it will be a really good game. I viewed some games and they look like they have a decent team.”

Hoover’s tenth and last game is going to be Glendale . In its last season Glendale went 1-9, with its lone win coming against the Tornados in a miracle finish. 

“Glendale as of right now doesn’t have a head coach, they just lost the head coach, and they are in search of a new one,” Herabidian said. “At this day and age there is a lot of moving going on so no one knows what is going to happen. As we know this is a big rivalry game, so the last couple of years we lost and especially last year, it was an extremely close game but we came short again in the last couple of seconds. It was really hard to swallow that because we came back but they got the last point.”