Pinnix builds Cummings football staff with deep Alamance County ties

Darius Pinnix moved quickly at Cummings High School, filling his football staff with coaches who know Alamance County from the inside and giving the Cavaliers a local network before summer workouts even got rolling.

Within a few weeks of his hiring, Cummings had announced eight assistants. Two more were added after that, giving Pinnix a staff built around former players, former coaches and nearby program ties that stretch from Graham to Southern Alamance and Western Alamance. For a program trying to steady itself, the message was clear: buy-in would start with familiarity.

Jamie Newman, a former quarterback at Graham and Wake Forest, was named offensive coordinator. Newman also coached at Woodlawn Middle School and worked with Eastern Alamance’s 2024 staff, giving Cummings one of the county’s most recognizable football names on the offensive side. Jaylin Chambers, a Southern Alamance alum, was tabbed as defensive coordinator and linebackers coach after most recently working under Jay Perdue at George Washington High School in Danville, Virginia.

Pinnix’s staff also reaches deeper into the county’s football roots. Jsi Hatfield, Pinnix’s college teammate at East Carolina and a former Southern Alamance standout, joined the staff. Kevion Roberts will coach the defensive line. Trevion McCollum and Isaiah Grice will coach receivers. Davon Falls will coach the defensive line after most recently being on Bartlett Yancey’s staff. Cedreck Marsh, who played on Graham’s 2000 state championship team, will coach safeties. Trey Smith, who was on Cummings’ 2025 staff, is staying with the program, and Isaiah McCain will coach offensive linemen.

The staffing push fits the larger rebuild around Pinnix, who was 26 when hired in March and became the third man in charge of the Cummings program in less than 10 months. He is a 2017 Western Alamance graduate who played four seasons at East Carolina and two at Tiffin, then coached at Tiffin in 2023 before spending the previous two years as running backs coach at Gardner-Webb. The Cummings job was his first high school coaching assignment, and several of the assistants he brought in have already helped with offseason 7-on-7 teams in the area.

That local footing matters in Burlington, where Cummings has been trying to move past a turbulent stretch that included David Grimm’s firing in late May 2025, Terrance Alford’s interim stint and a 3-8 finish last season. The Cavaliers had been more competitive in earlier recent years, going 8-3 in 2024-25, 9-3 in 2023-24 and 9-2-1 in 2021-22. Now, with Alamance County schools grouped together in the Mid-Carolina Conference, Pinnix is betting that staff continuity, local credibility and shared football history can turn familiarity into results.