Longtime Colony High head coach picked to lead Road Warriors

WASILLA — Amid turmoil following the controversial dismissal of its former field manager, Wasilla Post 35 has turned to a longtime Valley coach to lead its American Legion baseball program.

Former Colony High School head coach Jamie Mayo has been named head coach of the Road Warriors. Mayo replaces Myrl Thompson, who was removed by Alaska Legion baseball officials earlier this month.

“I am (excited),” Mayo said earlier this week. “Not real excited about the way it came about, but there’s nothing I can do about that. I’m looking forward to working with these kids.”

Mayo said, in addition to putting together his coaching staff, a first order of business is to help the team navigate waters muddied with controversy. Thompson, who led the Road Warriors to a 49-13 mark and two first-place regular-season finishes during three seasons as head coach, was dismissed after Wasilla Post 35 faced potential sanctions, which included a postseason ban for the 2015 season. Despite resistance from Wasilla Post 35 commander Jim Petito, legion officials fired Thompson. Much of the controversy stems from the 2014 state tournament. The Road Warriors were forced to forfeit a tournament victory for use of a player deemed ineligible by the legion. That forfeit became the team’s second loss of the tournament, and ended the team’s season.

Mayo said he has confirmed with league officials that the Wasilla Post will face no additional penalties, and the team will be eligible to qualify for the state tournament.

“My message to all the kids is, whatever happened, it happened. We can’t change it by dwelling on it,” Mayo said. “All it can do is continue to create a bad feeling. We want these kids to come out and play ball, and have a great time. We don’t want them to have to worry if they are going to be eligible for state.”

Since he was official named Post field manager, Mayo said he’s spent his time meeting with potential players.

“I’m trying to get to all of the players who may be interested in playing legion,” Mayo said. “(I’m) trying to get them energized, explain to them all this stuff transpired, but it’s really not their doing. Right now, we need to try to move on, get the team going in the right direction, and not worry about all the stuff that’s out of their control.”

Mayo said he hopes the new coaching staff can help the team continue the on-the-field success the program has enjoyed in recent years. Thompson led the Road Warriors to a second-place finish in the regular season standings in 2012, and first-place finishes in 2013 and 2014. Wasilla Post 35 was also the runner-up in the 2010 state tournament, under former head coach Steve Mossburgh.

“They’ve had a great deal of success and they have a lot of good players coming back,” Mayo said of the Road Warriors.

Mayo said he also expects to see quality young players continue to enter the program.

Mayo has enjoyed a long tenure as a baseball coach in the Valley. He helped create the Colony High School baseball program in 1995, and served as head coach from 1995-2010. He was an assistant on the Colony High staff from 2011-2013. During his time with the Knights, Colony captured eight conference titles.

Mayo was also a longtime football coach at Colony, on the staff from 1995-2010. He was head coach for five of those years. He helped lead Colony to state title games in 2000 and 2006.

This will mark Mayo’s first opportunity to coach legion baseball. He said he’s considered it in the past, but it wasn’t a realistic possibility

“I never had the time. Between coaching football, coaching high school baseball, work, I really couldn’t devote the time to legion that I needed to devote,” Mayo said. “In football, we had things going on almost every day during the summer.”

Mayo is no longer coaching football, and he retired from his position with the state in 2013.