Drew Gilmer wasn’t looking for a new job.

In fact, he was at Top Golf in Birmingham when he first heard from Hoover athletic director Harley Lamey.

“I’ll be honest with you; I was at Top Golf that night with my family and he called and asked if I’d be interested. My answer was ‘absolutely,’” Gilmer said. “Why would you not? I’m honored to be thought of for this job because there’s thousands of applicants, probably, and plenty of guys that were more qualified. But again, I believe in what we do and what we stand for, and we’re excited about the opportunity here.”

Gilmer, who led Clay-Chalkville to two of the last three Class 6A state championships and also defeated Hoover’s chief rival, Thompson, this season, was officially introduced as Hoover’s newest football coach on Thursday night. He replaces Wade Waldrop and will try to return the Bucs to the domination they were accustomed to under former coaches Rush Propst and Josh Niblett.

AL.com caught up with Gilmer following his introduction. Here is a little of what he had to say about taking over the Bucs.

What made Hoover the right job for you at this time?

“For me, I’ve been at Clay-Chalkville for 14 years. It was a special place and always will be. Hoover is and should be the flagship program, not just in the state, but in the country. They have all the resources to be super successful. I’m excited about the new opportunity. Change is rejuvenating sometimes. It gives you a new burning desire to do something different. I felt like it was the right time. It’s a great opportunity for my family and me. I’m not going to be a coach that moves all over the place chasing a job. I’m not chasing dollars. This was a chance for me to have a dream job, and I don’t have to pick up my family and move them. It’s kind of the perfect storm.”

Were you looking for a new job?

“I wasn’t looking at all. I had a great job at Clay-Chalkville. I had no desire to pursue anything like that. The girls were baking cookies at my house, and all the boys went to Top Golf to play there. Dr. Lamey called me and said, ‘I’m sure you’ve heard we have an opening, and I wanted to see if you would be interested.’ I thought it was an honor just to be thought of. We just took it from there.”

How difficult was it to leave Clay-Chalkville after all the success you’ve enjoyed there both as an assistant and as a head coach?

“Extremely difficult. It had nothing to do with the winning. It was difficult to say goodbye to all those people. It’s a great spot. It’s a great school. The administrators are great, the teachers, counselors, lunchroom ladies, the kids. You build relationships with all those people. In my profession, when you leave and take another job, it affects a lot of other people. A lot of the coaches on my staff came there because I went after them. When you take another job, it affects them, too. That’s tough. I’ve been successful, and I got this job because of those people. It’s not because of Drew Gilmer. It’s because of the people around you. That is what is so hard about it. You want to make sure you take care of your people because they have taken care of me.”

You officially started at Hoover on Friday. What are the first steps to getting this program back where you feel it should be?

“I met with the kids and the coaches this morning. Basically, I laid out my vision for the program and my expectations and our core values and the plan and the process of how we will accomplish those goals. I told them to get ready for Monday. We have to get in that weight room and start building this team and the program and doing the things the way I want it done. You don’t develop leadership in an airconditioned building. You build it in tough conditions and through adversity. We are going to fight and claw and sweat and maybe cry, and we will go through it all together.”

Can you describe that vision?

“Our vision is simply to build an elite program that is the standard for the country of what a high school program is supposed to look like. The goal every year is to win a state championship but also how do we win? A lot of people can go win, but we want to win the right way. We want to make the City of Hoover proud. Selfless, tough and discipline — those are our core values. If they buy into that, everyone else takes care of itself.”

How close is Hoover to catching up with other teams in Class 7A, Region 3, most notably Thompson?

“I don’t know where we are. We will see where we are over the next weeks and months. It’s like anything else. It takes time to get everyone on board and make sure everyone understands their role and their job. We have to develop that trust. The guys have to know they can count on me to give 110 percent every day, and I’m going to ask the same thing out of them. Those things don’t happen overnight. It takes time. We will start Monday and get one percent better every day. If we will do that and stay focused on the process and not the result, the results will take care of themselves.”

I assume evaluating the staff is a chief goal in the coming days and weeks?

“That will be part of the next steps. We will evaluate the kids and coaches and find everyone’s strengths and weaknesses and where they fit not only for them to be successful but for our team to be successful.”