By Johnny Sanders, Sports Editor
PINSON – The Pinson Valley Indians football program is on the hunt for their third head coach in as many years. 2023 head coach Gentrell Eatman has been relieved of his coaching duties as of this past weekend.
After starting the season 2-5, Eatman’s Indians won their final two regular season games against Shades Valley and Pell City to get them into the playoffs where they ran into a buzzsaw in Muscle Shoals in round one and ended up 4-6 overall. Despite the slow start to the season, Pinson rebounded and began playing well at the end. But not well enough.
Eatman took over after previous head coach Lee Guess stepped down due to time constraints as a head coach and the feeling that he was neglecting his family responsibilities as a father and husband.
Eatman did not come into this job with a lot of fanfare. Many in the community did not like the hire as Eatman came in with a losing record as a head coach at Woodlawn. Eatman was 7-20 as a head coach.
2020 was the year he took over the Colonels, which was a Covid year. His contact with the team was minimal during that time so it was difficult to coach them. The following season, Woodlawn went 1-9 before improving to 6-4 in 2022 in a season that marked the Colonels’ first winning season in 11 years.
Eatman was unavailable for comment on the unexpected firing.
We will update as details are available.