Calera’s Jerad Holder is in unfamiliar territory.

Offensive coordinator for the Eagles he past two seasons, Holder was thrust into the head coaching position when Jason Hamlin recently left to take an assistant coaching position at Hoover.

“It was a surprise, but you know what, I’ve been with coach Hamlin for several years now and he’s one of my best friends and I could not be more happy for him and the opportunity that he was given,” Holder said during AL.com high school football media days at Thompson High School. ‘It was a surprise, but I’m grabbing the bull by the horn and ready to get after it.”

Calera was one of 23 teams to face media during the first day of the event, which concludes on Tuesday.

It’s the first head coaching position for Holder.

“The biggest challenge right now is probably just getting everything organized and structured the way that I want it so that I can kind of make my list of tasks that I need to knock out,” Holder said. “Just going from the mindset of having to worry about one side of the ball and specific players and stuff like that to where now I have to worry about everybody and not just as it relates to on the field, but we have to do grade checks we got to do spirit bags with everything so that’s the biggest transition, but it’s going smoothly so far.”

The move has been an adjustment for players.

“The team took it pretty tough, but we’re going to bounce back from it and just come back and be a better team,” said junior receiver Kadarrius Young. “(Hamlin) laid a great foundation for us to be like a great team and he showed us what it takes to win and what we got to do to win.

“We’re just going to be Calera, no matter what. We’re going to come together, we’re going to do what it takes to win.”