Joel Mathews, who was the Head Football Coach for the Lexington Minutemen this past season, announced recently that he will be leaving the District at the end of this current school year, to assume a position in the Blue Springs School District.

Mathews was the offensive Coordinator at Winnetonka High School before coming to Lexington this past Fall. The Minutemen had a 2-9 record this year, with a roster that included quite a few younger players. Lexington had a thrilling Homecoming comeback win over Carrollton, where they trailed 42-14 at halftime, but roared back to win 44 to 42.

They also beat Kipp Legacy 44 to 6 in their first District Playoff game, before losing to Carrollton 26 to 6 in a Semi Final game, where they led 6-0 at intermission. The Minutemen also led Higginsville for a good part of the first half in their Lafayette County showdown, but eventually lost 44 to 20.

In discussing leaving Lexington, Coach Mathews commented: “In many ways I hate to leave, because I believe that our Football program was moving in the right direction, I would have liked to have been here longer, because we will have some good players returning next year, including many talented freshmen and sophomores from this year. However, my two daughters are high school athletes, and I will have a better opportunity to watch them play. Plus, I will be quite a bit closer to home teaching at Blue Springs.

In assessing the progress of the Minutemen and his athletes during this year, the Coach stated: “We increased the number of football players this year, as we had 35 kids on the squad at one time. I also felt that we were much better as a team in the second half of the season, as we won two games, and we were very competitive and we definitely had our chances in four of the last five games that we played. I also thought that most of our players got much faster and stronger due to our weight and conditioning program, and they were much smarter football wise, and mentally tougher, in the latter part of the season.”

Coach Mathews will teach Social Studies at Delta Woods Middle School in Blue Springs, and coach eighth grade football there next year.