By Erik Harris, sports editor
PINSON — After seven seasons with the Clay-Chalkville girls basketball team, head coach Justin Haynie has decided to hang up his whistle. He will continue teaching career tech at CCHS and has accepted a bus route.
He announced the decision to his girls following a 49-35 season-ending playoff loss at No. 3 Hartselle on Wednesday night.
Haynie says his decision was a difficult one, but necessary.
“It’s just gotten to a point where having a young child and trying to be in charge of a 6A basketball program — that’s become a year-around thing — I felt like I was probably going to have to give something up to be able to maintain max effort,” said Haynie. “The classroom is always going to be important to me and obviously my own child, so I just thought basketball was the one thing that I kind of had to give up. I hate it because I love our kids and we’ve got great parents.”
Haynie, in his seven seasons as head coach, climbed to seven playoff appearances, including a pair of Sweet 16 runs. He also won five area championships with the Cougars and had 11 players sign college scholarships.
He says he’s excited to see where his successor, current Clay-Chalkville boys assistant Kevin Conner, can take the program moving forward. Conner has worked under boys head coach Jeremy Monceaux for four years and also served as head boys coach at St. Clair County in 2018-19.
Conner says he spent three seasons as an assistant at Pinson Valley and eight more at Center Point where he helped the Eagles to a runner-up finish in Class 5A.
“I think he’s going to do a really good job, he’s been a head coach before and he’s been at a lot of different places, so I’m excited about it,” said Haynie of Conner. “He’s already planning some workouts and camps and working on scheduling, so he’s ready to rock and roll.”
Conner, Monceaux and the Clay-Chalkville boys captured the Class 6A, Area 12 tournament championship last week and will host Muscle Shoals in the Northwest Sub-Regional on Friday night.