Oak Mountain’s new head football coach will be traveling about 2,000 miles to get started building the program in his image. The Shelby County Board of Education approved the hiring of Shane McComb, 34, at its regular meeting Thursday evening. McComb comes to the school from Palm Desert High School in southern California.

McComb’s team, located near Palm Springs and about 100 miles east of Anaheim, has won six straight district championships and was 33-2 in its past 35 district games. He brings a 53-20 record to his second head coaching job, with seven of the losses coming in his first season. He led the Aztecs to a 31-8 league record in seven seasons. Palm Desert was 5-0 in the 2020 spring season (due to COVID-19 restrictions) and 8-3 in both 2021 and 2022.

“I wasn’t shooting blindly,” McComb said in a phone call with AL.com on Thursday. “I’m very aware of the football there, the level of coaching and the level of ball played. I know what I’m getting into.”

McComb replaces Tyler Crane, who was 10-12 in two seasons at Oak Mountain, 3-7 in 2022. The Eagles, in 24 years, have had seven winning seasons and four years of 5-5 finishes. Oak Mountain, playing in the rugged Class 7A Region 3 with perennial state championship contenders Thompson and Hoover, has made seven playoff appearances and has a 7-7 record in the postseason. Only once has Oak Mountain advanced past the second round of the playoffs. Under Jerry Hood in 2005, the Eagles lost in the semifinals to eventual champion Hoover.

“When I looked at Oak Mountain, I was very aware of the schools in the region,” McComb said. “I know the level of football they play, how they are run, how they are financed. I knew that before we even spoke the first time.

“I’m excited to challenge myself and to challenge my staff to make sure we can take care of business. There will be a lot of work the first couple of years – first putting together a staff and getting buy-in from the boys, from the youth leagues all the way up.

“We’re going to change the outlook for Oak Mountain,” the coach said. “I wouldn’t make this move unless I was willing to do that.”

Oak Mountain principal Andrew Gunn said he was excited about making the hire after he received McComb’s inquiry about the job.

“Ultimately, his record of success, his energy, his passion is what caused us to land on him,” Gunn said, “along with his plan for Oak Mountain football and its future.”

McComb is a graduate of Hemet (Calif.) High School where he was the league most valuable player as a linebacker. He was a first-team All-Mission Conference linebacker at Riverside City College and then team captain at Division II Upper Iowa University in Fayette, Iowa.

His first coaching experience came at Rockford (Ill.) University, where he was linebackers coach and special teams coordinator. Before taking the Palm Desert job, he was defensive coordinator and linebackers coach at Alamogordo (N.M.) High School.

At Palm Desert, McComb’s team jumped from Division 9 – of 14 divisions determined by success and strength of schedule – to Division 4. He was named the Coachella Valley Coach of the Year for six consecutive years.

“I had the opportunity to go to Georgia or Arkansas the last couple of years,” McComb said. “I wanted to get to that part of the country for football reasons and I’m getting married in March and starting a family and the Birmingham area is one place we wanted to explore. Oak Mountain popped open and the rest is history.

“We’ve got a lot of life changes coming and we figured we wanted to get to a place we want to live. We spent five days there and fell in love. We’ve got a couple of houses we might make an offer on this weekend while we’re out there, so we’re excited to get there and get things started.”

McComb’s official start date is April 3, but he said he plans to visit before then – including next week – in order to get his staff finalized and to oversee workouts that are being implemented for the Eagles now.

The coach praised his new administration for its straightforwardness during the interview process.

“Mr. Gunn wants somebody who will be a respectable communicator who will put together a good program,” McComb said. “He’s an honest person and I have full faith he will give us what we need, resources-wise, to make this a good program.

“The district athletic director (David Hogue) is a great guy and the assistant principals are awesome people.”