Orange Park High School head baseball and boys golf coach Michael Johns is leaving the Raiders for a coaching position with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays professional baseball organization.
Johns informed the Raiders of his decision during Monday afternoon’s practice. Athletic Director Clayton Anderson announced the move to the media Tuesday morning.
During a prepractice meeting Tuesday afternoon, Orange Park Principal Mike Wingate named assistant coach Fred Matricardi the Raiders’ new head coach.
Johns, 33, is in his fifth year teaching and coaching at Orange Park. He had coached the Raiders for four baseball seasons, compiling a 50-55 overall won-loss record. Last year, however, the Raiders went 17-10, missing the playoffs by just one game.
His main job will be as an assistant coach with the organization's Single A, short-season affiliate in Princeton, N.J.
"It's Single A, but it's mainly for the guys that just got drafted," Johns said. "They'll go straight to short-season A ball. I'll be in spring training in March, and then extended spring training in April and May, and then I'll be in Princeton, N.J., in June, July and August and half of September for single A."
"I've had an opportunity over the past few years to go with them [Devil Rays]," Johns said. "And this was the right fit for me. The scouting area and that kind of stuff just wasn't for me. But this was a good opportunity. I hated the timing of it though. I hate to leave these kids. It was tough telling them last night, just because I tried to put so much into it, and I hate to leave. I feel like they are my own kids. I love them so much. But, at the end of the day, you've got to try to figure out what's best for yourself, and this is a good opportunity for me to move up the ladder. You know, everybody's goal is to be in the big leagues, whether as a player or a coach, and that's what I tried to explain to them. You guys want to play in the big leagues, and I want to manage in them some day."
Raider senior Tony Voiro could understand that. Sadness at losing his coach quickly gave way to opportunity, and humor.
"I asked him if he could get me drafted," the first-baseman joked.
More seriously, Voiro said of his coach, “I really liked the intensity he brought. Of course, he always made it hard. But it was like fun for us. He always made it seem tough, but not over-the-cliff tough, you know what I’m saying?”
Voiro said he expects his new coach will be very similar, since the two coaches were very close and worked well together.
“Coach Matricardi never really sounded like he wasn’t the head coach,” the first-baseman said. “He was always right there and strong when we needed it.”
Both Johns and Matricardi graduated from Fernandina Beach High School -- three years apart. The head coach brought his former Pirate teammate to Orange Park his first year.
Johns teaches physical education and history at Orange Park. He’s a graduate of Polk County Community College in Winter Haven and Tulane University.
In 1997, the shortstop was drafted 19th in the Major League Baseball draft. At Tulane, he was a two-time Conference USA all-conference selection on a two-time conference champion team. He played two years on the Colorado Rockies’ single A franchises in Asheville, N.C., and Portland, Ore.
Prior to his arrival at Orange Park, he was an assistant coach for four years at Fernandina Beach High School.
Matricardi played at Central Florida Community College and Lambuth University in Jackson, Tenn. He played two years in the Frontier League, an independent professional baseball league. Over the summer, he married Mandi Perry, Orange Park’s first-year girls basketball coach. Tuesday, the day he was named head coach, was his 30th birthday.