Taking aim at the ‘COVID coma,’ a teacher implores students to get to work
Matt Ray is an energizer.
He speaks with good cheer and darts from here to there more than he strolls. On a recent Wednesday, Ray greeted students, staffers and faculty on the picturesque, brick-laden Union Mine High School campus in the heart of El Dorado, a small-town guy who has come full circle.
The school’s first-year athletic director, Ray teaches strength and conditioning courses. He implores his students to get up, get active and keep moving. Not just athletes. Everyone. And the adults at home? Same theme.
It’s his battle cry to conquer the “COVID coma that’s hit a lot of people,” Ray said of a pandemic that shuttered schools, stalled businesses and denied teenagers activities such as sporting events.
”I worry about the mental health of students everywhere,” Ray said. “The cognitive function, get out of bed. Get off the couch. Get moving. Have a routine. Do something.”
Union Mine is back to on-campus learning, though students have the option to remain home and use Zoom online for their studies. For educators such as Ray, conditioning drills through distance learning is rooted in the honor system since he cannot be there to monitor in person.
A teacher wouldn’t want to hold someone’s hand for driver’s education. Same with lifting weights or jumping onto boxes.
“We’ve got to get the blood pumping,” Ray said with a laugh from his classroom that overlooks the football field.
On the first day of on-campus instruction earlier this month, the blood was pumping. It was the 22nd “first day” for the school since it opened its doors in 1999.
Principal Paul Neville and activities director Kevin Potter and faculty members such as Ray came up with ideas to keep students engaged during lunch breaks. A student disc jockey played music. There were games of corn hole, with students trying to get that bean bag into that small cut-out hole on a wood ramp; passersby had to duck if a wayward frisbee zipped by.
”This is a nice way to spread positivity on campus, and it’s good to be here, good to celebrate this,” Potter said.
Said Nevile, “In education, you’re focused on building relationships. It’s harder when you’re not doing it in person and it’s only online. We’re all social creatures as human. We need to be around people. So add some fun to it, too. Get active, have fun.”
Big rewards
Ray spent the last 12 years on a large campus in a busy part of town.
He was the founding football coach and a charter member of Antelope High of the Roseville Joint Union High School District. Through strength and conditioning, Ray built a foundation that helped sports programs become champions. Ray also helped send scores of athletes to the college ranks via scholarship.
As athletic director, he now oversees a lineup of Union Mine coaches, and he wants to get every athlete on campus through his program. Weightlifting and conditioning isn’t reserved just for football players, Ray said.
”It can be used for anyone, any sport, or no sports,” Ray said. “Conditioning doesn’t have to just be for athletes.”
There are benefits to being on a smaller campus, including during a pandemic. At Union Mine, it is much easier to spread out 600 students on campus than it is for a school that has 600 in a graduating class.
Much like Colfax in Placer County, small-town teachers and coaches have a motto of taking care of their own.
“We have an obligation to do that,” Ray said.
Ray, 40, grew up in Quincy in Plumas County. He played every sport he could find, set school passing records and played on scholarship at UNLV. He coached small-school East Nicolaus to championship success and landed at Antelope at the age of 27, a place he never expected to leave.
But sometimes change is good. Neville, the principal, can relate. He grew up in Sutter Creek and coached and taught at Amador High, a gig he never expected to walk away from. He is in his sixth year at Union Mine.
”It was time for a change for me, a breath of fresh air,” Ray said of his move to Union Mine. “A school in a community like this is an integral part of the community because it’s all connected. When we have a tragedy or success, we are sad together or we celebrate together.”
Using activity to help grieve
Union Mine has grieved in the 18 months. Beloved football coach Chic Bist died of cancer on the eve of the 2019 season, a program that includes his coaching son, Jake.
Campus student-athlete Logan Lyman died in a car accident and teammate Lawrence Lopez died in a bike accident.
“That hits hard in a small area like this,” said Union Mine student-athlete Jaxon King. “We all feel it.”
On the first day of on-campus instruction, King was hard to miss, and not because he had extra zip on his frisbee toss and a soft touch on the corn hole bag. He’s the biggest man at this setting, towering at 6-foot-8 and 285 pounds.
King is 16 years old with size 16 feet, and growing. He embraces strength and conditioning courses, from Ray or wherever he can soak it in. In recent months, King followed a strict eating plan, shed 20 pound of baby fat and replaced it with muscle. He is an anchor to the football team as a lineman for a sport that won’t kick off until January due to the coronavirus.
A 3.75 GPA student, King aims to play in college on scholarship. For now, he’s a man of the people on campus, imploring students to be involved.
”I’m a social guy, a brighten-the-mood kind of kid,” King said. “I love going to class, being active. This is the time of our lives. We need to enjoy this while we can.”
This story was originally published October 27, 2020 at 8:16 AM.