Matanzas High stays in community, hires Jordan Butler as new athletics director

Palm Coast Observer
Sports

Matanzas High School principal Jeff Reaves did not have to look far when identifying the ideal candidate to replace Zach Rigney as the school’s new athletics director.

Matanzas has named former Flagler Palm Coast High School baseball coach Jordan Butler as its new AD.

Butler has worked for Flagler County Schools since 2010, most recently as the director of the Flagler County Youth Center at 5510 E. Moody Blvd. and the George Washington Carver Center in Bunnell.

“Whenever you can bring somebody in from your community it’s always a positive in my mind,” Reaves said.

Reaves said there were over a dozen candidates for the position, and Butler was by far the strongest.

“He brings in a wealth of knowledge. I’m very excited to have him aboard the ship,” Reaves said.

Butler said he was looking for a new leadership position when Rigney stepped down recently.

“Everything just converged,” Butler said. “It seemed like the right move. I’ve always been around sports and I love when you can use athletics and change people’s lives. That’s what Coach Rigney did. He focused on the student-athlete, with the student and person first. I want to keep moving that forward.”

I’ve always been around sports and I love when you can use athletics and change people’s lives."

JORDAN BUTLER, New Matanzas AD

Butler played baseball at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and in the independent Frontier League. He was FPC’s baseball coach from 2012 to 2019 before becoming the youth centers’ director.

“My goal has always been to keep growing. Whatever opportunities that meant, I accepted those,” he said. “Matanzas is a wonderful school. It has a first-class culture that Zach Rigney created and I’m blessed to be a part of.”

Rigney had been the Pirates’ AD since 2017. He resigned to be a stay-at-home dad, Reaves said.

“Zach’s been an outstanding athletic director as far as helping us build our athletic department,” Reaves said. “I couldn’t be more happy for him and his family. I’m very proud of him for that decision to be a stay-at-home dad at least for the next few years and to put family first in that way.”