Matt Larry enters his nineth season as the head baseball coach at Shorter University after a nine-year tenure as the assistant coach for the Hawks’ baseball program. In seven seasons at the helm, Larry has guided the Hawks to 182 victories.
A native of Stone Mountain, Ga., Larry attended Clarkston High School where he was selected to the Dugout Club’s East All-Star team in 1988.
He played two years at Dekalb Junior College as a catcher and finished up his collegiate baseball career at Shorter in 1992.
At Shorter, he was a member of the 1991 Georgia Intercollegiate Athletic Conference championship team under head coach Mike Sansing and in 1992, helped the Hawks to 36 victories and a District 25 runner-up finish while playing for head coach Ricci Lattanzi.
Larry earned All-Conference and All-District honors as a senior catcher following the 1992 campaign.
As an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at Shorter following his playing career, Larry was the architect behind Shorter’s 1998 and 2003 Georgia-Alabama-Carolina Conference (GACC) championship teams and in 2004, Larry successfully launched Shorter’s first-ever junior varsity program.
Larry took over as head coach of the Shorter baseball program in 2004, and in 2006, Larry was awarded the Georgia Dugout Club Coach of the Year honor after guiding the Hawks to a 34-23 overall record.
Each year, Larry gives countless young men the opportunity to excel both as athletes on the baseball diamond and in the classroom as students dedicated to earning a college degree.
Since 2004, Larry has directed the baseball program to a near 100 percent graduation rate and an overall team grade point average of 3.25 or better.
In 2009, Larry’s Hawks boasted seven Southern States Athletic Conference (SSAC) All-Academic Team honorees, two NAIA Scholar-Athletes and one ESPN The Magazine Academic All-District recipient in Jake Broome.
Last season, Shorter placed 11 players on the SSAC All-Academic Team -- the most of any SSAC institution -- and saw All-Academic honoree Matt Johnson also lead the conference in batting average.
Larry’s tireless efforts on the recruiting front continue to keep Shorter competitive both on and off the field in the SSAC.
Larry earned his Bachelor of Science degree from Shorter in 1993 and began his coaching career in 1994 as an assistant with the Hawks. He earned his Master’s in Education from Jacksonville State University in 1998.
Larry is married to the former Brig Bagley of Rome, Ga., and they have two children: a daughter, Alivia and a son, Bagley.
