- July 10, 2025
Matanzas High School baseball is the latest sport with a head coaching vacancy in Flagler County with Jim Perry announcing that he is stepping out of the dugout after 33 years.
“The physicality of the game itself has become harder and harder. I felt it best to step away and give it to someone else,” said Perry, who has been the head baseball coach at Matanzas for 11 years and also coached at Flagler Palm Coast High School for 10 years, seven years as the Bulldogs’ head coach.
Matanzas posted the baseball position on Monday, June 23. The Pirates have also been looking for a new girls basketball coach, wrestling coach, boys lacrosse coach and boys and girls golf coaches. Athletic director Zach Rigney said boys golf and lacrosse coaches have been selected, and the Pirates are waiting for district approval.
FPC is also waiting for approval for its new wrestling coach, athletic director Scott Drabczyk said. The Bulldogs also have openings for head coaches for tennis, girls bowling and flag football.
Drabczyk said that while the district is making certification and background checks on the school’s choice to replace wrestling coach David Bossardet, the program has been in good hands with T.J. Gillin, Steve DeAugustino and FPC Principal Bobby Bossardet running the offseason program. They are all former head wrestling coaches.
“They have the wrestling room open five days a week, so the program is in good hands,” Drabczyk said.
Matanzas, meanwhile, is looking for a head wrestling coach for the second year in a row. Dennis Kitko is returning to Japan, Rigney said. Kitko had been a youth sports coordinator at a Marine Corps air station.
Perry has won 93 games at Matanzas and led the Pirates to the 2022 district championship game, the only time in school history that the Matanzas baseball team advanced to the district final. He also was an assistant football coach during his 10-year stint with FPC (1992-2002), an assistant baseball coach at St. Augustine High for three years, the head baseball coach at Menendez High for a year, the vice president for baseball operations for Palm Coast Little League and field supervisor for Flagler County Pop Warner football.
Perry battled cancer two years ago and his father passed away during this past season.
“I don’t know anything but going to school and practice every day,” said Perry who plans to continue as a PE teacher at Matanzas for at least two more years.
Perry said in addition to baseball season in the spring, the Pirates had a fall baseball program in September and October and an arm conditioning program in November and December.
As a coach, there is no time to relax, he said.
Drabczyk said the demands put on coaches and other stipend positions are higher than they’ve ever been.
“Not just coaches, but band directors, color guard, student activities, club sponsors, they play an unbelievable role in the lives of our students and the time commitment is difficult for a supplemental position,” Drabczyk said. “Twenty years ago, a coach would leave the field and he’d be done for the day. Now there is a constant need for connection with cell phones, emails and texts, which is positive but also increases demand. For any of our student life positions, it’s like having a full-time job within a full-time job.”
There is a coaching shortage throughout Florida, which pays coaches less than surrounding states. Two area head football coaches — FPC’s Robert Paxia and Mainland’s Travis Roland — left the state in recent years to take coaching jobs in Georgia.
FPC tennis coach Javier Bevacqua and flag football coach Tony Coates have stepped down partially to have time to watch their own children play high school sports, Drabczyk said. Bevacqua coached FPC girls basketball for 12 seasons, winning 239 games before stepping down in 2021. Coates will move over to the boys football side where he will be an assistant coach.
