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MP
BY RICHARD
DUMAS
forsyth@mymcr. net
Mary Persons has
found its new head base
ball coach, and it didn’t
have to go far down the
road to find him.
Former Taylor County
head man Clarence
“Clae” Mathis, 27,
was hired on June 6
as the program’s new
coach, replacing the
outgoing Jonathan
Gastley. Gastley, who
was named the new
head coach at Jackson
County, announced
his resignation last
month. Mathis’s hiring
came at the conclusion
of a specially-called
Monroe County Board
of Education meeting to
discuss personnel.
Mathis, who grew up
in Taylor County, has
a long history in the
Butler community. Both
of his parents are career
Taylor County educa
tors, including father
Clarence, who served as
a principal in the system
for many years. Mathis
graduated from Taylor
County High, starring
in baseball as a power
hitting first baseman
and designated hitter.
He then played baseball
at several state colleges,
including Toccoa Falls,
Georgia Southwestern
and Middle Georgia
State while also spend
ing a year playing pro
baseball in Canada in
the Toronto Blue Jays organi
zation.
After returning home from
the minor leagues, Mathis
served as a community coach
for five years and assistant
for one year at Taylor County
before being named head coach
in 2014. In three seasons as
the Vikings’ head man, Mathis
compiled a 52-30 record, includ
ing a program-best 22-8 record
in 2016, which included a trip
to the public Class A Elite
County’s Mathis
’ kmthis
Mary
head
Persons’ new baseball coach Clae
coach since 2014. (Photo/Richard
Eight.
MP athletic director Brian
Nelson said he interviewed
a handful of candidates, but
Mathis said he heard as many
as 250 persons applied to be
MFs baseball coach. Nelson
said Mathis’s strong resume
and solid baseball background
enabled him to rise to the top.
“He’s going to be a good fit,”
Nelson said. “He did a great job
at Taylor County.”
Mathis has been married to
Mathis has served as Taylor County
Dumas)
wife Taylor for six years, and
the couple has a two-year-old
son Charlie. Taylor Mathis
recently took a teaching job in
Marion County, as the couple
will continue to commute to
their respective jobs from
Butler.
Mathis, who said he has a
strong Christian faith, said
deciding to leave his alma
mater to come to MP was not
an easy choice.
“Believe it or not it was really,
really hard,” Mathis said. “The
first time when Coach Nelson
called me and let me know,
most of the time I didn’t really
think I’d ever leave. But as
time went on, me and my wife
talked about it. And honestly
when they called and offered
me the job, God told me, You
take it now.’ And it was one
of those things. It was about
a month’s time we prayed
over it. Obviously I think the
opportunity over here, there’s
no real limit to the opportunity
over here. There’s more kids.
You’ve got a lot of community
help.”
Mathis said he had no prior
connection to MP other than
having coached against the
Bulldogs when Gastley was
still the head man, but said
the chance to coach a strong
AAAA program was a signifi
cant draw.
“The biggest thing that
I kind of think about this
place now is a lot of people
are saying that you’ve got
to go rebuild,” Mathis said.
“I don’t really feel that way.
I feel like we can win right
now. I feel like there’s plenty
of talent here. I just think
sometimes you just need to
get some excitement around
the program. Definitely noth
ing against anything that’s
happened in the past, but
we’re just going to try to get
some excitement around the
program this year. And things
will be different. I’m not say
ing they’ll be better or worse.
They’ll just be different. I
think we can win now. I think
we can make a big playoff run
this year. There’s plenty of
pitchers here. There’s plenty of
kids that can hit. The biggest
thing I was talking about today
is that there’s actually going
to be good kids who aren’t on
the field all the time. Being
at a class A school, you don’t
always have a lot of talent on
the bench. Here there’s going
to be some good kids that don’t
get to start. There’s going to be
a battle for every position.”
Mathis, who plans to coach
third base, said his Vikings’
squads didn’t hit many homers.
Instead, he said they excelled
at playing small ball, which
included 12 stolen bases and
six successful bunts in a playoff
sweep of favored Commerce.
“I think they (Commerce)
were a better team talent-wise
than we were,” Mathis said.
“They had about 10 seniors,
and they were all good. They
had about four or five of them
going on to play college ball.
And we beat them 14-4 the
first game. They couldn’t keep
pace with us. My philosophy is
if we have a guy at first base,
he cannot be at first base when
that inning’s over. He’s either
going to get thrown out stealing
or we’re going to bunt him to
second. I’m very aggressive on
the bases. I get thrown out at
home a lot. But by that same
token, we probably score a lot
of runs by making them make
two perfect throws. Because
it’s hard to make two perfect
throws if a ball’s in the gap and
a kid’s on first. I’m aggressive.
Excitement is the word I like
to use. My kids don’t ever get
bored because they know some
thing’s going to be up.”
Mathis has begun leading
morning workouts several
times per week. He said when
the summer baseball sched
ule is over, he will transition
over to football, where he will
assist with both middle and
high school. However, Mathis
said he wishes he didn’t have
to wait so long to start playing
real baseball games.
“I’m ready to get going,”
Mathis said. “I hate that we’ve
got to wait all the way until
spring, but it’ll go by quick.
And we’ll be ready. That’s one
thing. We will be ready. We’ll
be excited. The kids are excited
right now. I’m excited. And the
community seems excited. I’ve
had a lot of people on Facebook
messaging me, so I’ve been wel
comed pretty good.”
Mathis also plans to host a
baseball clinic for local youth
ages 6-13 from 9 a.m. to noon
on July 13-14. The cost of the
camp is $50 per child.
Forsyth motocross sensation seeks second gold medal
Forsyth’s Jackson Gray heads to France on July 7 with
intentions of winning another gold medal. (Photo/Rich
ard Dumas)
BY RICHARD
DUMAS
forsyth@mymcr. net
Forsyth’s own world
champion motocross rider
Jackson Gray is back at
it again with plans of
capturing another gold
medal next month.
Gray, now 13, won
the gold medal while
representing the United
States in the 85 cc class
at the International
Master Kids Motocross
Championships in
Commercy, France as an
11-year-old in 2014. Gray,
who was also a member
of champion Team USA
in 2015, is scheduled to
return to France for an
11-day trip starting July
7 seeking to reclaim his
individual crown while
again representing his
country.
Gray also quali
fied on June 18-19
in North Carolina to
race once again in the
annual Loretta Lynn’s
Amateur Motocross
Championships, which
are slated for August
1-6 at former country
star Lynn’s ranch in
Hurricane Mills, Term.
To qualify, Gray placed
in the top six out of 64
racers in his classifica
tion. Prior to this year’s
qualifying, Gray said
2 minutes, 8 seconds
was his top time on the
Loretta Lynn track, but
he hopes to improve upon
that this year. His father,
Robert Gray, said pro rac
ers typically clock about
1 minute, 55 seconds on
that same track.
Gray, a national phe-
nom in the 85 cc class,
is expanding his talents
to different racing levels.
He is learning to race
on 125 cc bikes, which
are bigger and have
more horsepower than
the 85 cc bikes. He is
also heavily involved in
arenacross racing, which
Robert Gray said is an
indoor mixture between
supercross and moto
cross. Jackson Gray said
he hopes eventually to
amass enough qualify
ing points in arenacross
to turn professional. As
an evidence of his abil
ity to pick up new skills
quickly, Gray recently
captured an arenacross
championship in the 125
cc class.
Gray said the biggest
differences between aren
across and motocross
is that the indoor aren
across tracks are more
climate-controlled and
there is a lot more bump
ing and jostling involved.
Gray said because there
are two rows of eight
racers, 16 in all, start
ing arenacross races on
a shorter track than the
outdoor motocross tracks,
there is little choice but
to bump up against and
sometimes into other rac
ers.
The biggest obstacle
toward Gray’s upward
racing trajectory has been
injuries. Over the past
several years, he has suf
fered a broken arm and
ankle, the latter of which
kept him away from rac
ing for six months. To
pass the anxious time
spent off the bike recover
ing from his ankle injury,
Gray said he turned
his attention to fishing.
Robert Gray said even
with his son’s immense
racing success, he still
gets ner
vous when
he watches
Jackson
race. Robert
Gray said
it’s the
aggression
level of the
other rac
ers that
concerns
him more
than his
son’s own
talents.
However,
Jackson’s
grandfather
Dennis
Smith
added it
helps that
Jackson
has physi
cally grown
signifi
cantly from
when he
first started
racing.
“It’s not
quite as
scary as
when he
was little,”
Smith said.
Jackson
Gray, whose racing idol is
motocross legend James
“Bubba” Stewart, said
he does not consider
himself a super aggres
sive racer. Gray said he
prefers to lay back and
wait for riders in front of
him to make inevitable
mistakes. That could
mean something as small
as picking the wrong line
around the track or drag
ging a foot as the bike
rounds a corner or some
thing as major as a wreck
in front of him.
However, racing is not
Gray’s only talent. He is
also an accomplished stu
dent, who has maintained
a nearly all-A average
in accelerated classes at
Monroe County Middle
School despite missing
an average of 17 or 18
school days per year due
to his racing career. Gray
also took first place in the
district science fair for
two consecutive years and
won the STEM award as
a fifth grader.
Robert Gray said he
has tried hard to ensure
that Jackson continues to
take educa
tion seriously
while he’s
traveling the
world in his
racing career.
Robert said
the family
will take an
educational
trip to Italy
while over
seas this
summer and
while in Las
Vegas for an
arenacross
championship
earlier this
year, Jackson
visited the
Hoover Dam
and Grand
Canyon,
while also
jumping off
of the famed
Stratosphere
Tower near
the Vegas
strip. Robert
Gray said the
U.S. team
held a photo
shoot at a
World War
II monument
at the French
National cemetery on a
previous trip to France.
Robert Gray said, “It
gives them a chance to
see what we can’t see
here.”
Along the way, the
Gray family has also
made some international
friends. Robert Gray said
when Jackson recently
had a part break on his
bike, Robert contacted a
Danish trainer he met
overseas who promised to
overnight him a replace
ment part that wasn’t
available in the U.S.
Robert Gray said racing
can be both an expensive
and time-consuming
hobby. While there are
several nearby tracks
in the Middle Georgia
area, Robert said he
takes Jackson to prac
tice in Albany most
weekends under the
tutelage of Nario Izzi.
The family also travels
in motorhomes to tracks
in the 20 states in which
Jackson has raced.
Robert Gray said he’d like
to see Monroe County
build a motocross track
and hold races there. At
big national events, he
said there are about 25 to
30 motocross classes and
about 1,000 racers in all.
He estimated that includ
ing family members, the
races could bring several
thousand persons into
a town for a weekend,
which is a big revenue
boost for a local economy.
Jackson Gray said he
hopes to ride profession
ally someday, and Robert
Gray said he anticipates
his son’s career rise will
only heighten once he’s
able to drive a vehicle
in a few years. In fact,
Robert said he supports
Jackson riding a motorcy
cle on the road, a thought
that would freak out
many parents, because
it will force him to get
even better at his already
advanced skill of making
instantaneous decisions.
Robert Gray said of his
son: “He has great deci
sion-making power.”
Jackson will find out in
a couple of weeks if that
decision-making skill will
result in his once again
wearing a gold medal.