Staff reports
Former E&H assistant Matthews dies
Clayton Matthews, who coached under Curt Newsome at Emory & Henry College in 2014-15, died on June 19, according to the Daily News-Record. He was 40 years old.
Matthews worked with the wide receivers during both of his years at E&H.
As a blue-chip quarterback in Georgia, Matthews guided his team to a state championship.
He then played quarterback, receiver and kicker at James Madison University before beginning an eight-year run as an assistant coach under his father Mickey, who guided JMU to the 2004 FCS national title.
Clayton was involved in two auto accidents in 2003-04 that left him paralyzed below the chest.
On Aug. 3, 2003, Matthews had just completed his sophomore season at JMU when he was thrown from his car following an accident. Matthews, who suffered a broken neck, was not found until a teammate drove by the scene an hour later.
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Matthews underwent eight hours of surgery, followed by a grueling rehab process at the famed Shepherd Center in Atlanta.
In April 2004, Matthews was involved another serious accident while riding with his mother over Afton Mountain near Charlottesville, Virginia. Matthews broke his neck again and sustained more damage to his spinal cord.
Just after his first season in Emory, Matthews was involved in yet another accident in South Carolina where his car caught on fire before exploding. Matthews was barely able to roll and crawl away from the scene.
“Clayton is probably the definition of perseverance,” Mickey Matthews told the Bristol Herald Courier in a 2015 interview. “Sometimes you think that maybe you’ve had your share of the bad breaks in life, but there’s no such thing as fair. We’ve certainly discovered that.”
After leaving E&H, Clayton worked six years as a quality control coach for the Coastal Carolina University football program in Conway, South Carolina.
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