DALLAS — DeSoto’s Claude Mathis finally got his chance to hoist the hardware.
The Eagles football team defeated Austin Vandegrift for the Class 6A, Division 2 state title. A championship was elusive over his coaching career that spans more than two decades.
“When you see those other guys coaching and you’re a coach and they’re hoisting up that trophy ... I wanted to be one of those guys,” Mathis said.
Mathis, who’s in his second stint as the Eagles head coach, was coaching in college when DeSoto won its 2016 state championship.
“This is what they brought me for in 2008. They brought me to DeSoto to win a championship,” Mathis said. “It’s a journey, man. It’s a journey.”
It was a journey that was shared with two of his sons.
“He deserved this. It was long overdue. We finally got back here for him,” said Mathis’ son, Caimon. “We played for him. The type of passion he has. We carry that onto the field.”
Caimon Mathis and his twin brother, Crimson, are both DeSoto seniors.
“They always picked on him, because [he’s the] coach’s son,” Claude Mathis said. “He went through hell. Coaches picking on him during the game, coming after him because of his last name.”
“I used to let it get to me and beat me up. I used to cry in his office and it used to hurt me,” Caimon Mathis said. “It made me grow as a person and it made me more mentally tough.”
DeSoto’s title is actually Mathis’ third ring. He won two state championships as a player at Bartlett High School in the early 1990s.
“He’s just as intense a coach as he was a player,” said former Bartlett coach Wayne Mahaffey.
Mahaffey, who coached Mathis and the Bulldogs to their first title in 1990, watched from the DeSoto sidelines for most of this year’s playoff run.
“It’s a funny thing, how they say high school coaches have an influence in your life forever, and that’s true.” Claude Mathis said. “He’s meant everything to me.”
“I’m just so happy for him. To work this hard, and work this long, and finally he’s gonna get a championship,” Mahaffey said. “We’re gonna share it a little bit.”
A championship player and now a championship coach, along with that championship hardware that’s finally his.
“We all have rings,” Claude Mathis said. “But I’m about to have the biggest one, though. I promise you that.”