Glendale Hoover goes from having no football team to being 3-0

Hoover High in Glendale was down to three students wanting to join the football team in 2019. The decision was made to drop varsity football and try to rebuild under new coach Azad Herabidian. There was no varsity football last spring, either.

But this fall, the Tornadoes have produced excitement and hope for the student body with a 3-0 start in their first varsity games since 2018.

Herabidian played football at Glendale College before transferring to UCLA to play rugby. He had been preparing for this season by working with the freshman-sophomore team. He has been selling the idea that he would help develop players by teaching them life lessons, create opportunities to make new friends and have fun in the process.

Herabidian has a player who grew up as a youth boxer and wants to be an MMA fighter. There’s also quarterback Ethan Davis, a sophomore who has completed 67% of his passes for 252 yards and four touchdowns in wins over Mark Keppel, Lynwood and Beverly Hills.

Herabidian knows his team will have difficulty once Pacific League play begins, but he’s committed to bringing stability to a varsity program that didn’t exist for two years.