A BRIGHT FUTURE: Glynn Academy assistant Alex Mathis hired as UCF assistant director of player personnel

Apr. 7—An assistant at Georgia Independent School Association affiliate Frederica Academy two years ago, the coaching career of Alex Mathis has been on a meteoric rise.

The latest landing spot in Mathis' uphill climb will take him to Orlando where he will serve as the assistant director of player personnel at the University of Central Florida. The school announced the hiring Monday on Twitter.

"It's definitely a cool situation to be in," Mathis said. "UCF is moving to the Big 12 after this year, so being a part of something this big this soon — skip JUCO, skip DII ball, skip all this other stuff straight to this level football is crazy."

An educator for a decade now, Mathis began teaching at Jane Macon Middle School before taking on a job at Frederica Academy, where he spent five years in various capacities. During his time with Frederica, Mathis served as an assistant with the football team under head coach Brandon Derrick, helping the Knights win the GISA Class 3A state championship in 2018.

While at Jane Macon and Frederica, Mathis became close with standouts Jaylin Simpson and Jashawn Sheffield, who both went on to sign with Auburn and then-head coach Gus Malzahn out of high school.

While joining on as an assistant at Brantley County for a season and taking a spot on Rocky Hidalgo's staff at Glynn Academy this past year, Mathis has remained in contact with Malzahn, who was fired from Auburn before being named the head coach at UCF last February. The two spoke a couple times a month about recruits and potential transfer portal targets.

But a few weeks ago, Mathis was on his way home from a junior varsity baseball game against Savannah Christian when Malzahn had other matters to discuss.

"I picked it up thinking it was him to ask about a kid or if I knew somebody, but they had a coach leave and had a position available for assistant director of player personnel," Mathis said. "He was like, 'Man, I want you in this spot. I've been dealing with you for years; I trust you. I want people around me that I can trust, and I think you'd be good for this position.'

"He offered me that job on that Monday, and then I came down that Wednesday and met with him, kind of went through everything. It was a tough decision for me."

While taking the jump to a Division I program on the precipice of joining a Power 5 conference seems like a slam dunk for the coach who promised Simpson and Sheffield that each of the three would be at the collegiate level one day, Mathis still needed time to mull over his options.

Even now, the enormity of the situation is still sinking in.

"Honestly, it hasn't even hit me yet," Mathis said. "Something that you dream about, you pray about, you're waiting on that moment like, when they finally call, I'm going to have this response.

"But instead, with getting an offer came a lot of fear, doubt, confusion. Definitely not the feeling I was thinking I was going to have after getting a job offer. It became real that this is an opportunity that is in front of me."

A Waycross native who graduated from Ware County High School, Mathis obtained his bachelor of education at the College of Coastal Georgia before going on to acquire his masters from Georgia Southern. Since then, Mathis has spent his career in the 43 miles between St. Simons and Nahunta.

Simply put, Orlando wasn't home.

"I like being in Brunswick," Mathis said. "My boys, family, is still staying in Brunswick. Leaving them during the week was going to be a tough thing for me after being there every day, but I ultimately decided to just give it a shot.

"Talking to (Hidalgo), talking to (principal Matthew Blackstone), just talking to other people in the community, they're like, 'Hey, man, you can always come back and be a high school coach, but you can't just pick up the phone and call a Division I school and say I want to work.'"

Despite Mathis initial trepidation, his resume more than speaks for itself.

Even aside from Simpson and Sheffield, who began working with Mathis at Jane Macon, UCF's new assistant director of player personnel has consistently displayed his eye for talent, ability to cultivate relationships, and a ferocious devotion to doing anything and everything within his power for players.

"He's a guy that does a great job building relationships with kids," Hidalgo said. "I think that's where his value his. The kids instinctively trust him, they listen to him. I think he'll do a great job in that position at UCF."

Mathis assembled a cast of future Power 5 players that included Georgia receiver George Pickens, Oklahoma receiver Jadon Haselwood and Florida State quarterback Tate Rodemaker in starting the Cam Newton South 7-on-7 team, he identified Illinois recruit Tyson Rooks as a major DI football player the summer before his first and only prep season at Glynn Academy, and he birthed the Terrors Chop Shop program, which brought local barbers into the facility weekly to provide haircuts to players after practices.

He should fit like a glove into his new role where he will be tasked with crunching film, evaluating the roster, identifying needs, and establishing connections with the type of players his coaches prefer through the transfer portal or high school recruiting.

"I think he'll excel in it in the way he can communicate with folks," Derrick said. "Most of these kids in south Georgia and north Florida really know who Coach Mathis is, not just as a high school football coach, but somebody who has connections within the system.

"He's a little bit like Kenyatta Watson was when he was at Grayson. He just branched out, got a great line of communication, and he was able to excel in it."