Updated: Marietta Football Assistant Hired in Alabama

Updated 4 p.m.

Oak Mountain High chose Marietta High assistant Cris Bell over more than 120 applicants for the job of head football coach, the Birmingham News reported today.

Bell was set to meet students, parents and fans in Alabama today.

The News has more from Bell, Oak Mountain AD David Hogue and Marietta head coach Scott Burton about Bell's move west for next season.

Original Report

Marietta High’s football team will have to find a new coach for linebackers and special teams.

Assistant coach Cris Bell, who joined the Blue Devil staff last season as special teams coordinator and linebackers coach, has been hired as the head coach of Oak Mountain High in Shelby County, AL, the Birmingham News reported.

The Shelby County Board of Education approved Bell’s hiring as a general education and physical education teacher Thursday night, allowing him to take over Oak Mountain’s football team.

Bell’s Alabama job starts Aug. 6, the News said.

A native of Richmond, VA, Bell joined Marietta after four years as athletic director and head football coach at Strong Rock Christian School in Locust Grove, according to his Marietta High bio. He also served as an assistant and head coach at high schools in Virginia and a college assistant at Carson-Newman and his alma mater, Hampden-Sydney.

In addition to coaching at , he teaches history and PE.

He and his wife of 21 years, Kim, have four children. The oldest, daughter Haden, is a freshman at the University of Alabama.