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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

VESTAVIA HILLS – One of the most successful and legendary figures in Birmingham soccer is heading across town to take on a new challenge as David DiPiazza says goodbye to Oak Mountain High School.

DiPiazza was approved by the Vestavia Hills Board of Education to become the new varsity boys soccer coach of Vestavia Hills High School on Tuesday, June 3.

DiPiazza departs Oak Mountain after one of the most successful runs in Alabama sports history. He led the Eagles to a 59-1-1 record over the last two seasons, going 60 consecutive matches without a loss en route to winning the Class 7A state championship over Auburn High School in 2024, which is a state record.

That streak ended in the 2025 Class 7A state championship game with a 2-1 loss to Montgomery Academy in what ultimately proved to be the final game at Oak Mountain for DiPiazza in addition to his 16 graduating seniors. The Eagles remain ranked as the No. 1 team in the country from MaxPreps.

As a result, DiPiazza won back-to-back Large School Coach of the Year awards from the United Soccer Coaches Association as well as the 2024 Ray Woodard Metro Coach of the Year and boys soccer Shelby County Coach of the Year awards.

DiPiazza leaves Oak Mountain after nine seasons across two different stints, first as the girls soccer coach from 2015-16 and then as the boys coach from 2019-2025. He has 547 wins over the course of his more than two-decade career as a high school head coach and is a six-time state champion.

He won a state championship with the girls in 2015 before leaving to coach for the Birmingham-Southern women’s soccer team. He returned in 2019 to take over for the departing Dan DeMasters, the current Thompson girls soccer coach, and claimed a blue map in 2024.

Before coming to Oak Mountain, DiPiazza coached at his alma mater of John Carroll Catholic, taking over as the coach in 2002 before winning four state championships, three-straight from 2008 to 2010 and one more in 2012. He also won a girls soccer state championship in 2014, his final season with the Cavs.

Now, DiPiazza will become just the third head coach in the 45-year history of Vestavia Hills’ boys soccer program.

He takes over from Leo Harlan, who leaves after 10 years as the Rebels head coach, and the program’s only other coach is the state’s all-time wins leader Rick Grammar, who led the team for its first 35 years of existence and won 633 matches.

Oak Mountain will now hit the reset button after a large and successful senior class departs alongside its head coach in DiPiazza, and the school will look to hire a new head coach to keep its run of four-straight Final Four appearances alive.