By Johnny Sanders, Sports Editor
PINSON – This is not déjà vu folks. Pinson Valley has hired their next head football coach, James Thompson just a year after hiring Gentrell Eatman to take over the program. Eatman was relieved of his responsibilities as Pinson’s football coach back in November.
The hire of Thompson was approved at the Jefferson County Board of Education meeting on Thursday.
“I really took my time properly vetting the right coach for this position,” said Pinson Valley’s principal, Michael Turner. “I spoke to several coaches throughout the past two months and Coach Thompson’s experience, coupled with his passion for impacting the lives of young people really resonated with me. His time in both high school and college have prepared him for this opportunity here at Pinson Valley.”
Thompson comes to Pinson as their fifth head coach in the past six years. Eatman served for one season after replacing Lee Guess, who also served one season after replacing Sam Shade.
Shade was a championship-winning coach at Pinson, winning the 6A state championship in 2020, his first season at Pinson. Shade left Pinson to take a job at Miles College. Before Shade, Patrick Nix was the head man for the Indians, winning championships in 2017 and 2018, leaving for Central-Phenix City after the 2019 season.
Thompson comes to Pinson with a successful high school coaching record. He holds a 50-23 record overall. Thompson started his head coaching career at Pickens County from 2015 thru 2017. The Tornadoes were runner-up in 1A in his final two years there. Thompson went to Carver-Montgomery after Pickens County, where he went 19-12.
His high school coaching career started as an assistant at Hillcrest-Evergreen as a 2006 Alabama State graduate. He played running back during his time at ASU. He served as linebackers coach before taking over as defensive coordinator. After that, he was an assistant on the staff at Carver-Montgomery before taking the head coaching job at Pickens County.
Coach Thompson is married to Jessica and they are parents to eight-year-old Jameson and four-year-old Jacob.
Thompson said the following about taking the Pinson job.
“I feel really good about getting back into high school. Being back in a position to oversee day-to-day operations of a football program. I am not concerned nor motivated by the recent coaching history at Pinson. I like to form my own opinion of every situation that I go into so nothing bothers me about what has happened in the past.
“To the community, school and fans, we are going to be blue collar workers. I believe in work, community and family. They are getting a worker and someone who will dedicate himself to the community and building young men and a football program.”
Thompson’s Indians look to get to work when he arrives back home next week from an NFL coaches conference in Charlotte. Pinson will have a spring program and they open the season on August 23 as they travel to Central-Phenix City.