By Gary Lloyd
The Jefferson County Board of Education earlier this month approved former Pinson Valley High School offensive coordinator Chris Mills as the athletics director and head football coach at Clay-Chalkville Middle School.
Mills will also be a physical education teacher at the middle school.
Mills thanked Principal Ron Tillman and Clay-Chalkville High School head football coach Jerry Hood for the opportunity. Mills said the opportunity to work under Hood and be a head coach were factors in his decision, factors that move his career forward.
Mills said his goal as the athletics director and head football coach is to “blend” middle school athletics with those at the high school, using the same terminology, performing the same drills and having open communication among coaches at both schools.
Former Pinson Valley High School offensive coordinator Chris Mills is the new athletics director and head football coach at Clay-Chalkville Middle School.
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“The goal here is to get to prepare these kids to be high school football players,” Mills said of the middle school football team.
The middle school football team posted a 1-7 record last season. The team faces Rudd Middle School on Aug. 22 in its jamboree game and opens the regular season Aug. 29 at home against Simmons Middle School.
Mills is in his 11th year as a coach. He got his start as an assistant at Sumter Academy in 2003, then serving as an assistant at Wetumpka High School from 2004-2006. Mills was an assistant at Huntingdon College in 2007-2008 before serving as the offensive coordinator at Jeff Davis High School in 2009.
Mills was Pinson Valley High School’s wide receivers coach and ninth grade basketball coach in 2010. For the past two seasons, he was Pinson Valley’s offensive coordinator and head soccer coach for a boys’ team that reached the Class 5A semifinals both seasons.
Mills was a defensive lineman on the University of West Alabama football team from 1999-2002.
Contact Gary Lloyd at news@trussvilletribune.com and follow him on Twitter @GaryALloyd.
