From The Tribune staff reports
PINSON — The Jefferson County Board of Education made it official on Thursday, March 24, but Lee Guess had already stepped into the drivers’ seat at one of the premier high school football programs in the state.
Image courtesy of Pinson Valley Football.
Guess, a Hewitt-Trussville graduate and longtime assistant for Pinson Valley, has officially been named the Indians’ head coach.
The 37-year-old — he turns 38 next week — had been working as interim head coach after Sam Shade was hired as head coach at Miles College on Jan. 26.
Guess was Pinson Valley’s offensive coordinator in 2021 and for the five previous years had been working as wide receivers coach.
He takes over a program where he won 6A state titles as an assistant under Shade and, before that, Patrick Nix.
“They all had the one thing that embodies a good head coach,” Guess told the media after his hiring was made official. “They had the desire to fight and win, to find ways to win. Everybody has a different spin and different personalities and their ideas on what to do with a program.”
As a long-time assistant, Guess learned under three different head coaches. He was brought aboard initially by Matt Glover, who left Clay-Chalkville as defensive coordinator following a state title win to take over at Etowah.
“You take different pieces and see the decisions they made and, of course, they are not always 100 percent right, but you take their process of how they wanted to achieve each week and get those goals across to the kids. Those were things that stuck with me and the things I took and processed to make me who I already am. I just want to continue.”
