Familiar face to lead East Lawrence football

Jun. 10—East Lawrence turned to a familiar face to lead their football program last month.

After five years of building up the Eagles’ middle school squad, Jamie Suggs took over varsity after months of pressure from the community and school.

“I was actually hired to do varsity here when I came over,” Suggs said. “Our youth programs needed to be built up, and we didn’t have anybody, so I volunteered. Coach (Mac) Hampton tried to pull me up to varsity and I got him to let me stay there and keep building.”

After assistant coaching stints at Lawrence County and Whitesburg Christian, Suggs returned to his alma mater in 2021 to lead the middle school program.

From 2023 to 2025, the East Lawrence middle school team posted a 13-3 record. That success quickly made him a popular choice whenever the varsity position came open.

He takes over a team that has won just six games in the past four seasons. Last year, the Eagles went 1-9 after forfeiting two games due to Alabama High School Athletic Association transfer rule violations.

The school even tried to get Suggs to take over the program back in December, but he said no.

“Then eventually they came to me again and said I was their first choice from the get-go,” he said. “At that time, I still walked out thinking, ‘Well, no, I’m not doing it.'”

Then he went down to the practice field to watch varsity practice.

“One of the players called me and said it was totally different with me there,” Suggs said. “That they wanted me as their coach.”

“Then I got out there and one of the parents hollered at me and said that they wanted me to take it.”

So he went home and decided to take the job the next day.

Summer workouts started at the beginning of the month and Suggs said it’s been a whirlwind.

“We’re in the middle of redoing the locker rooms, so the lockers are all moved out and it was just chaotic from the beginning,” Suggs said. “But we were able to put together a good day, and that’s really a testament to the coaches here.”

He said this summer is all about the basics, integrating systems and setting a new standard on the field.

” We’ve got to take every advantage we can. We’ve got to be able to change up our snap counts on the offensive line without jumping offsides,” he said. “Play without getting silly penalties. We’ve got to eliminate all that kind of stuff.”

But ultimately there aren’t any expectations going into his first year. He just wants the Eagles to compete.

” I want them to have fun senior year. I want them to have fun playing football,” Suggs said. “My only expectations are just to have discipline, play football the right way, and compete.”

He said their goal this offseason is to stack good days and set a positive precedent for the season

” We had a good day today, we’ve got to come in tomorrow and have a good day again,” Suggs said. “Because if we take one step forward, then we take one step back all throughout the summer, we’re right where we started.”

For a program with just six wins in four seasons, Suggs is emphasizing progress one day at a time.