Photo by Jimmy Mitchell.
Oak Mountain head coach Cris Bell during a game against Chelsea on Aug. 23, 2019, at Chelsea High School.
The Oak Mountain High School football program will be seeking new leadership for the first time in nearly a decade.
Head coach Cris Bell was approved as the new head coach at Scottsboro High School on March 18 after nine seasons at Oak Mountain.
In Bell’s nine seasons, the Eagles compiled a 47-49 overall record and advanced to the playoffs four times.
“I’m very grateful and very appreciative of this community,” Bell said. “I was proud to tell people I was the head football coach here. I hope we did some good things here and we left it in a good spot and have been able to improve on things. When you’re given something to tend to, you want to do it well.”
Bell said there was not one thing in particular that made Scottsboro the right job at the right time.
“The more I spoke with the people up there, the more boxes kept getting checked,” he said. “Looking at the community and the opportunity, it’s one of those things that was a great opportunity for all of us.”
Don Jacobs stepped down in January after guiding the Scottsboro program for four years and after succeeding Patrick Nix, now the head coach at Central-Phenix City. Scottsboro last made the playoffs in 2019, so Bell does not perceive the job to be a rebuild. But he is excited for the new challenge.
Bell’s coaching path has taken him many different places over the last 30 years, but the Oak Mountain community will always have a special place in his heart.
“That’s the really difficult part, just saying goodbye to them,” he said. “It’s a people business, and if you’re not in it for them, you need to find something else to do. We’ve been fortunate with the young men that have come through here.”
Last season was one of Oak Mountain’s best in school history, the Eagles starting off 4-0 for the first time. They ran into the meat of Class 7A, Region 3 play after that but still managed a first round playoff victory over Austin and nearly pulled off an upset of Hoover in the following round.
In the win over Austin, quarterback Evan Smith ran for 320 yards and scored four touchdowns. It was the Eagles’ first playoff victory since 2014.
“I get emotional thinking about how much this group means to me. Just so proud to see them succeed, and I’m proud of them,” Bell said following that game.
Bell’s 47 wins is the most by an Oak Mountain coach, as the school will look toward hiring just its fifth football coach in the school’s history.
“The next guy coming in has got some great kids, and it’s a good group, and they’ll work hard for him, and they’re coachable,” Bell said. “I can’t say enough about our kids and just how they go about their day-to-day business.”
If Oak Mountain played in a different region, Bell would have piled up significantly more victories. But he wouldn’t change that fact. He will now play in a region with perennial state contender Oxford.
“I loved competing in the region we’re in,” he said. “Maybe I’m a glutton for punishment, but I love that.”
