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By TYLER RALEY | Staff Writer

NORTH SHELBY – Oak Mountain High School is now on the clock for a new baseball and softball coach as its two varsity leaders on the diamond have stepped away from their positions.

Following 10 years leading the Eagles baseball program, Derek Irons is taking a new position as an assistant coach with the Briarwood Christian Lions.

Irons leaves Oak Mountain as the winningest coach in the program’s history, racking up 222 wins over the course of 10 seasons at the helm. He led his squad to the postseason five times over the course of his tenure, including back-to-back trips to the quarterfinals over his first two years.

The 2025 season saw the Eagles finish with a 17-17 record, failing to make the playoffs for the fourth consecutive year.

In his opening campaign at Oak Mountain in 2016, Irons set a program-record 30 wins, making a statement to start his time with the Eagles. He followed that up in the 2017 by breaking that record again and setting the new bar at 32 wins, a record which has not been topped since it happened.

As a result of his 2016 performance,  Irons was named the 2016 Shelby County Baseball Coach of the Year after his squad defeated the national powerhouse of Vestavia Hills in the first round of the Class 7A state playoffs before getting knocked out by Hewitt-Trussville in the quarterfinals.

He exits the school with 499 wins combined from his years at Paul Bryant, Charles Henderson and Oak Mountain. Prior to making the trip towards the Eagles, he won two state championships with Charles Henderson and strung together three-straight seasons of 35-plus wins.

On the softball diamond, Jordan Burson is stepping away from the coaching game after five years with Oak Mountain in order to spend more time with his family

The 2008 Oak Mountain graduate recorded 95 wins as the head coach of the Eagles in his time with the program. However, Oak Mountain never advanced to regionals in the period.

The last two years of Burson’s stint with the Eagles saw an upward trend in wins, racking up 22 wins in 2024 and 23 wins in 2025.

Prior to his five-year career at Oak Mountain, Burson was the head coach of the softball program at Oakman High School, and before that was an assistant for two seasons at Thompson High School.

The Eagles now look to make hires and fill two more big holes of coaches who made strides with their respective teams. This is the third spring sports coach to leave Oak Mountain this offseason, as former head boys soccer coach David DiPiazza left for Vestavia Hills in June.