Pinson Valley High School is looking for a new head football coach, its third in three seasons and fourth in five years, after Gentrell Eatman was relieved of his duties last week.

Eatman, a former Pinson assistant under Patrick Nix, was 4-6 in his only season as the replacement for Lee Guess, who left after a 6-4 finish in 2022. Guess resigned in order to spend more time with his family, he said.

Guess had replaced Sam Shade, who was 21-6 in two seasons and won the 2020 Class 6A state championship in his debut year. Shade left Pinson Valley to become head football coach at Miles College.

Both Eatman and Guess were 0-1 in state playoff appearances. The Indians lost in the third round of the playoffs in Shade’s final season and were 13-1 in the playoffs under Nix, who won state championships in his first two years and lost in the semifinals in his final campaign in 2019. Nix compiled a 38-4 mark at Pinson will lead his Central-Phenix City team into Wednesday’s Class 7A title game against Thompson, his second championship game appearance with the Red Devils

Nix took over from Matt Glover, who was 50-41 in eight years with the Indians.

Eatman, who played safety at UAB for Watson Brown, has a 19-49 record in seven years as a head coach, according to the Alabama High School Football Historical Society website. He was 8-20 at his alma mater, Greene County in Eutaw, from 2014-16. After coaching at Pinson Valley with Nix, he was hired at Woodlawn and led the Colonels to a 7-23 mark.

Pinson Valley reportedly had four or five players transfer off the 2022 squad before Eatman’s arrival in February. The Indians had 16 starters this season who had never started a varsity game before.

This post will be updated.