Jordan-Matthews Hall of Famer Jeff Stutts, the former girls’ basketball coach who led the Jets to the 2012 2A state title, died on July 20 at the age of 62.
Stutts lost his battle to cancer, per an update posted on Facebook by the Jordan-Matthews Booster Club. Before being inducted into the Jordan-Matthews athletics Hall of Fame in 2018, Stutts taught at Jordan-Matthews from 1984-2013, serving as the head coach for girls’ basketball and track and the athletic director for a brief stint from 1989-91.
“He was the best friend I could have had,” John Phillips, the former Hall of Fame Jordan-Matthews coach and athletic director, said. “We got to (Jordan-Matthews) the same year. We even vacationed together…We just had a connection that’s hard to articulate.”
Stutts was a multifaceted man known for his deep passion for researching and teaching history and the care he took to get the best out of his athletes.
“Anybody who attended Jordan-Matthews from 1984-2013 will certainly remember a man who worked hard, had impeccable integrity and was just a real professional,” Phillips said.
Stutts made lasting impacts in the lives of many athletes and students over the years. He reached four regional finals with the Jets’ girls’ basketball team, including the 2011-12 season when he led them to a 31-0 overall record and a state title victory over Wilkes Central.
“We never discussed the accolades, the championships or the wins until it was over,” Mylia Garner, a member of the 2011-12 team who scored a team-high 22 points in the state title game, said in a Facebook post honoring Stutts. “It was about being the best version of yourself…The intangibles he instilled in us won those games and, they won the championships. I just hope he knows he changed my life.”
In the post, Garner shared how she was at first upset that Stutts would put her on the second-string team in practice until he pulled her to the side and said, “they need you to believe in them.”
“That day created a leader in me I didn’t know existed,” Garner said. “That day and every day after, my intentions were to make everyone around me better.”
Taylor Paige, another member of the championship-winning team, said Stutts was a “great coach,” and it was an “honor” making him proud with the state title. Paige also shared how Stutts originally planned to stop coaching after the state title, but he stayed for her senior year after she asked him to.
“My freshman year playing basketball, Coach Stutts saw something in me,” Paige said. “I never really got much playing time, (but) by my sophomore year, I was the sixth man. I didn’t know or realize how important I was until coach Stutts reminded me of being the sixth man and saw how hard I worked to get to that point.”
Stutts remained steadfast with his outlook on life and the ability to see the bigger picture in his own time of need, turning to his faith in his time of illness.
Once a month, a group of mostly former Jordan-Matthews coaches meet with each other in Siler City, and in the last meeting in July, Stutts delivered a touching speech on his condition and the reality of being in his final days.
“He gave a Valvano-esque inspirational speech about how he had faith,” Phillips said. “He understood that he probably wasn’t going to be here much longer, but he accepted that.”
Said Phillips, “We were kind of speechless. Although Steve Lowman said, ‘Well Stutts, just stay as stubborn as you were when you were coaching.’ You know, you have to stand by your principles, and he had integrity…I mean people were very emotional.”
Stutts, an Asheboro native, a 1980 graduate of Trinity High School and a graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill, spent his final days at his home surrounded by his family. He, alongside his wife Kim, raised four boys, Andrew, Matthew, John and William, and he has four grandchildren.
“While his illness and passing is a tragedy, he was secure in his faith in God and his hope in Jesus and wanted everyone he met during his fight to know and to see the blessings he had received,” his obituary by the Pugh Funeral Home said. “He was always giving praise for what God had given him and was able to use his gifts to touch the lives of his family and countless students and players. It was truly a life of impact and fullness and one worthy of celebration.”
