Jo Beth Mathis enters her sixth full season as assistant coach at Arkansas State under Craig Cummings. Mathis plays an integral part in the Lady Indian Volleyball program as both a player and a coach as she has been entrenched in the program for 11 seasons. She has been a part of 399 total matches as both a player and a coach at ASU including 270 Lady Indian victories and six conference championships.
She has made an immediate impact since returning to campus as an assistant coach playing a vital role in the team’s recruiting. Mathis helped the Tribe to their ninth Sun Belt Conference title all-time in the 2004 season as the Lady Indians posted a 25-8 overall record on its way to an East Division co-championship.
Mathis, one of the most decorated players in Arkansas State volleyball history, rejoined the Lady Indian program for her second stint as an assistant coach on March 27, 2002.
Mathis, who was a three-year letterwinner at ASU from 1990-92 and led ASU to its first NCAA Tournament berth in 1992, helped the Lady Indians to consecutive NCAA appearances in 1994 and 1995 as an assistant coach for former coach Jeff Hulsmeyer.
Mathis, who transferred to ASU after one season at Rice University, was a three-time all-conference and all-conference tournament selection. She was also the 1992 Sun Belt Conference Player of the Year and Sun Belt Tournament Most Valuable Player.
Mathis was a second-team All-South Region selection as well as the 1992 Sun Belt Conference Medallion winner and the winner of ASU’s Terry Gwin Award, given to the most outstanding male and female athletes at Arkansas State.
She was also inducted into ASU’s Hall of Honor in 2000. As a setter and team captain of the 1992 squad, Mathis posted the highest single-season hitting percentage in school history at .411. She finished her career second on the school’s all-time assists chart (3,054) and highest is tied for second on the career hitting percentage list (.341). She also ranks second in career kills (1,359) and third in career digs (1,089) and blocks (421). Mathis is also one of the only three players in NCAA history to record a triple-1,000 with 1,000-or-more assists, kills and digs.
After a two-year stint at ASU as an assistant, Mathis served as an administrative assistant coach for the University of Arkansas volleyball program for former Lady Indian coach Chris Poole. In 1996, she took the head coaching position at Lyon College in Batesville, where she also served as Senior Woman Administrator for the athletic department.
She has been a seventh grade and eighth-grade volleyball coach for the Clear Creek Independent School District in League City, Texas, as well as head coach of the Club Wave 18-and-under Junior Olympic Volleyball Team for three years.
Mathis and her husband, former ASU baseball player Mitch Mathis, have two children—Megan (12) and Jake (9).
