Coaching Staff

Matthew Gilbert

Men's Varsity Head Coach

matthew.gilbert@walton.k12.ga.us

Coach Gilbert spent 11 years as the Grayson High School JV Boys Coach. He had been the Loganville High School JV Boys Coach for 7 years, now in his 4th year of Head Varsity Boys Coach.

A love for soccer started when playing soccer at 4 years old. He played his youth soccer for local club RYSA, and later played 4 years at Rockdale County High School. Coach Gilbert played 2 years at the college level at Atlanta Christian College (Point University). Coach Gilbert has three boys (Davis, Wilson, and Turner) and is a counselor at LHS.

Blakelee Gibson

Women's Varsity Head Coach

blakelee.gibson@walton.k12.ga.us

Coach Gibson began teaching at LHS in 2020. She began serving as the Women's Varsity Soccer Assistant Coach in 2019 and became the Varsity Head Coach in 2020. Coach Gibson also has been one of the LHS Basketball Assistant Coaches since 2018.

Coach Gibson graduated from Loganville High School in 2014 where she played four years of varsity soccer and basketball. After graduating high school, she attended Emmanuel College. While at Emmanuel College she played four years of collegiate soccer and studied biology. Coach Gibson completed her Masters of Arts in Teaching degree from the University of West Georgia.

Dylan Cheney

Men's Junior Varsity Coach

Coach Cheney has made a return home to Loganville High School teaching in the school he attended and played at. After graduating in 2013, Coach Cheney attended Oxford College of Emory University and eventually graduating from the University of Georgia. At LHS, Coach Cheney teaches Advanced and AP Physics. Coach Cheney is in his 3rd year as the JV Boys Soccer Coach.

Ashlyn Balon

Women's Varsity Assistant Coach

Coach Balon began working in the Walton County School District in 2021 as the Student Engagement Specialist. She enjoys working with students and helping them reach success.

Coach Balon played 4 years of Varsity Soccer at LHS before graduating in 2014. Coach Balon then went to the University of Georgia to obtain her Bachelor’s of Social Work and Master’s of Social Work (Go Dawgs!).

April McClendon

Varsity Assistant Coach

Goalkeeper Coach

Coach McClendon has served for 3 years now as the Area Director for Walton County Fellowship of Christian Athletes after serving 14 years teaching in Christian Schools. She was an Army brat and has had the opportunity to play overseas in Germany during her high school career. Along with goalkeeping, Coach McClendon played volleyball, basketball, and softball in high school where she attended Bitburg HS, in Bitburg, Germany and finished at Ellison High School in Killeen, TX. She also played soccer and softball at the collegiate level at Missouri Valley College her freshman year and then transferred to goalkeep at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, MI, where she played for two years; eventually finishing her degree in Ministry/Christian School Education at Nazarene Bible College.

This is Coach McClendon’s 3rd year coaching goalkeepers at the high school level in Walton County as a lay coach. She is married and has 3 boys who all played multiple sports at LHS, and so now that they are grown and she is not at all of their things, she is able to pursue her passion to train goalkeepers and coach athletes in all dimensions: body, mind, spirit. She is thankful to be home coaching at LHS where her boys played and her sports family is.

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