Editor, Gazette-Journal:

Mathews High School had a tremendous year with their academic and athletic competitions. Mathews is in the Tidewater District, but we compete with teams from the Northern Neck, Bay Rivers and Peninsula districts in a variety of sports to create competition from A, AA, and AAA athletic programs.

This year, Mathews was the recipient of the Traveling Trophy, which is awarded to the district team with the most district wins throughout the annual year of competitions. Mathews also ranked eighth out of 60 single A high school teams for the VHSL Wachovia Cup for Athletics Winners, which is recorded by the Virginia High School League.

Many athletic teams— cross country, tennis, track and field, softball, volleyball and wrestling—were district and regional champions and also competed in the Virginia High School League state tournaments. Academically, our scholastic bowl team placed first in the district, forensics placed second in the district, theater was a first-place finish in the district, and the robotics team competed in regional competition.

Many of our coaches received the honor of coach of the year for district and regional status as voted on by their fellow coaches in the district and region, and many of our student-athletes will continue competing at numerous institutions, such as the University of Alabama, the United States Naval Academy, the Veritas Academy of Athletics and Kings College. Many of our student-athletes play two and three sports throughout the calendar year and many were recipients of the Tidewater All-Academic Team carrying a cumulative grade point average of 3.3 or higher.

Without the support of our school board, Dr. Holleran, Mr. Malechek, and Mr. Foster it would be impossible to be successful. Our coaches and student-athletes dedicate days, hours and months to their sports, often traveling long distances to compete, and many coaches volunteer their time without compensation. I thank everyone for making our competitive programs successful.

Paul S. White

Athletic Director

Mathews High School