New Clarke County High football coach Jason Massey was 83-41 in 10 seasons at Leroy, including the 2022 Class 1A state championship. (Call News/Jimmy Wigfield)
Leroy interim coach Chan Lowe lifts the Blue Map after the Bears won the 2023 Class 1A state title. Lowe is in line to succeed Jason Massey as the Bears’ permanent head coach with a 24-2 record and the state title. (Call News file photo)
By JIMMY WIGFIELD
Jason Massey, who led Leroy to the Class 1A state championship in 2022, has been hired as Clarke County High’s new head football coach and Superintendent Ashlie Flowers said she is looking forward to the influence he will have on and off the field.
“He has a proven record and we are excited about what all he brings to the table,” said Flowers, who oversaw a special-called meeting Monday when the Clarke County Board of Education hired him. “He is familiar to this area and the caliber football that is played and expected. He is also very familiar with 2A competition across the state. Coach Massey’s character and attitude will serve in making him an outstanding role model and mentor for our students.”
Massey started his head coaching career at Clarke County High, where he was 10-11 from 2011 to 2012. He was 83-41 in 10 seasons at Leroy.
Massey had to step away from coaching midway through the 2023 season when he was called up to active duty with the Alabama National Guard. In his absence, defensive coordinator Chan Lowe led the Bears to a second straight Blue Map and a 14-0 finish.
Massey said he had not planned on leaving Leroy since his active-duty commitment was ending by the end of May and he was set to return as head coach and Lowe as the Bears’ defensive coordinator. But he said Clarke County officials reached out to him in March.
“I wasn’t thinking about leaving or making a change,” Massey said. “I was happy at Leroy and I was excited, just for myself, excited to get back into all the full-time coaching. … You realize that you definitely miss it, just that idea of going out there in the competition and helping to mold young men and hopefully make a difference in their lives, not necessarily just on the football field but in their whole life and into the future.”
Massey is accustomed to success, going 19-7 in the playoffs and 45-20 in the region at Leroy. Clarke County won the 2021 Class 2A state championship under Stacy Luker and won four straight region championships under his predecessor, Rob Carter. In fact, Massey was the last coach to beat the Bulldogs in 2A Region 1. Since that 28-14 loss in 2020, the Bulldogs have won 22 straight region games.
“It’s a program that definitely has a recent history of winning and being successful,” said Massey, who will start there this summer when Clarke County starts preseason practice early instead of having spring practice.
Massey said he wants Lowe to get the Leroy job and if it happens, they’ll meet on Aug. 29 in a regular-season game in Grove Hill.
“He definitely deserves it,” Massey said of Lowe. “He has proved himself, stepping in for me when I was gone, and I know that it’s been a dream of his to be a head football coach. I couldn’t think of anybody better for those kids at Leroy. He has those relationships with the kids and the community and has done an outstanding job.”
Lowe, who also coaches Leroy’s softball team, said he will continue shouldering the responsibilities as the head coach football coach as he did in Massey’s absence.
“I’m not taking my approach any different than I have for the past year and a half,” Lowe said. “I was trusted to do this job when he got deployed to go serve our country and I’ll try to do it to the best of my ability and whatever happens, happens. I hate to see him leave. He’s done a great job at Leroy over the past 12 years, developing that culture and reviving the glory years when he and coach (Danny) Powell were there together. I know that he didn’t go looking for the job, they came looking for him. He had to make a decision that was best for his family.”
Lowe said he has had discussions with Leroy and Washington County school officials about being awarded the job permanently and given his 24-2 record and a state championship as an interim coach, it would seem he is the obvious choice.
“I guess we’ll just see how it plays out,” Lowe said. “Strange things happen. It’s whatever the good Lord wants. Whatever His plan is, it’s what we’ll do.”
At Clarke County, Massey succeeds Carter, who was arrested in Florida in February and charged with having sex with a student.
Carter, 55, was charged with four counts of having sex with a student, four counts of distributing obscene material to a student and three counts of solicitation.
