The first time he won a state championship at St. Aloysius, Scott Mathis said he was just along for the ride with a talented, senior-led team.

For the second one, he definitely took a more active role.

Mathis navigated the Flashes through a difficult schedule with a roster that rarely seemed to be at full strength. They finished 14-5, ended Central Hinds’ epic 71-game winning streak, and beat Starkville Academy for the MAIS Class AAA championship.

The first state title for St. Al’s boys’ soccer program capped a six-year journey for Mathis, the coach and architect of the climb to the top for a team that had been stuck in the middle of the pack for a long time. It also earned Mathis The Vicksburg Post’s soccer Coach of the Year award.

“It meant a lot,” said Mathis, who also coached St. Al’s girls’ team to the 2015 Class AAA championship. “Did it mean more than the girls? Probably, because I’d been with them longer. I had only been with the girls for one year. They won that. I felt I had more part of this with the boys.”

Mathis also led St. Al’s girls’ team to a 9-4 record and the Class AAA semifinals last fall. Once that run was over, he started trying to figure out a way to solve a perennial problem for St. Al’s boys’ team — how to get past a supremely talented divisional opponent.

When St. Al was in the Mississippi High School Activities Association, it often could not get past dynastic programs Madison-St. Joseph and St. Andrews. Occasionally, both of those teams were in the Flashes’ division and blocked them out of the playoffs entirely.

When the school moved to the Mississippi Association of Independent Schools in 2015, that obstacle became Central Hinds. The Cougars had reached the Class AAA championship game eight consecutive seasons and won it the last four years. Among their 71 consecutive victories were five against St. Al over the past two seasons.

Some of those losses to the Cougars were competitive. Others, like an 8-0 rout in January — when St. Al was missing several players to illness — were not.

“I had five out with the flu at one time. We had to cancel two tournaments because we just couldn’t play. For them to come back and do what they did is remarkable. It’s the same with the girls. For them to go through with as young as they were, it’s like David vs. Goliath,” Mathis said.

St. Al’s struggles against Central Hinds didn’t stop Mathis from calling his shot against them. Early in the season he said, “I’m taking it to Central Hinds this year,” and geared most of the season with a lasrlike focus on the two regular-season games and a potential playoff matchup with the Cougars.

Central Hinds won 3-1 and 8-0 in the regular season.When the teams squared off in the Class AAA semifinals in February, however, it was St. Al’s day. The Flashes won 2-1 in a game they controlled more than the score indicated.

The 3-0 win over Starkville Academy a few days later was practically anti-climactic. Even as they hoisted the trophy, the Flashes were still beaming about the semifinal win over Central Hinds.

“We worked hard all season and this is fitting. Central Hinds has won five years in a row or something like that and now we’re getting our chance,” St. Al striker Ryan Theriot said after the win over Starkville.

Now the Flashes will pivot to next season as, for the first time, the hunted instead of the hunter. The favorite instead of the underdog, on both the boys and girls sides.

Both the Flashes and Lady Flashes are only losing one senior, midfielders Jack Dowe and Mary Ranager, respectively, from this year’s rosters.

Mathis feels both teams are poised to contend for titles again.

“Both are set up pretty good,” Mathis said. “We’re going to have one big (girls) competitor, and that’s Park Place. Boys, we’re losing one player — and he’s a good one and he’s in the middle. As long as we have the program to back us up, I think we’ll be OK.”

Vicksburg Post soccer coaches of the year
2018 – Scott Mathis, St. Aloysius
2017 – Greg Head, Warren Central
2016 – Scott Mathis, St. Aloysius
2015 – Karen Carroll, Vicksburg
2014 – Greg Head, Warren Central
2013 – Greg Head, Warren Central
2012 – Greg Head, Warren Central
2011 – Trey Banks, Warren Central
2010 – Keiko Booth, St. Aloysius
2009 – Kevin Manton, Vicksburg
2008 – Jason Bennett, Vicksburg
2007 – Jason Bennett, Vicksburg
2006 – Karen Carroll, St. Aloysius
2005 – Jason Bennett, Vicksburg
2004 – Kristin Gough, Warren Central
2003 – Kevin Manton, Vicksburg
2002 – Kevin Manton, Vicksburg
2001 – Shirley Agostinelli, St. Aloysius
2000 – Jay Harrison, Warren Central
1999 – Kevin Manton, Vicksburg and Lucy Young, Warren Central