Instead of his usual travel to Huntsville this time of year, Baylor School offensive coordinator Cos DeMatteo is heading north to be receivers coach for the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League.
In recent years he’s been on the coaching staff of the Alabama Vipers arena team. His new job takes him away from the Chattanooga school.
“Baylor is an awesome place to be a part of,” said the former University of Tennessee at Chattanooga quarterback and receiver. “I feel like I will always be a part of Baylor.”
DeMatteo happened to be at the Senior Bowl, primarily visiting former teammate Richmond Flowers III, when he met some CFL coaches at dinner, including an acquaintance, Chris Jones. A former North Jackson assistant coach, Jones had coached opponents of DeMatteo’s Franklin County team and later recruited him for Tennessee Tech.
As is usually the case with football coaches, the conversation drifted to X’s and O’s, and Jones later called DeMatteo to ask if he’d be interested in interviewing for a job as running backs coach for the CFL’s Calgary Stampeders. In the course of the Senior Bowl dinner, DeMatteo had met Jim Barker, who at the time was a vice president with the Stampeders.
While DeMatteo’s interview with Calgary coach John Hufnagel didn’t lead to a job with the Stampeders, Barker later became Argonauts coach and called DeMatteo and asked him to coach receivers. DeMatteo was skiing on top of a mountain in Deer Valley, Utah, and was dumbfounded.
“He first asked me to interview and then said that he had researched my background and was going to go ahead and offer me the job,” DeMatteo recalled.
He said he went into back-pedal mode.
“I had a new baby, we had bought a house and I really liked Baylor. It was overwhelming,” DeMatteo related. “I prayed. I went back and forth. I know the CFL is a volatile league and there is no real job security in any coaching position.
“On one hand it was very flattering — a high school assistant being offered a job as a receivers coach on a pro team — but I didn’t want to leave something I loved just because of a great opportunity. Ultimately my wife and I decided this was an opportunity that comes along once in a lifetime.”
DeMatteo played in NFL Europe and the Arena league and had been a coordinator with the Vipers, but coaching in the NFL or CFL had never entered his mind.
“I never have had a plan. I have always just taken what the good Lord put in front of me and did the best I knew how,” he said. “Ten years from now? I want to be alive and have a great family, and if that’s what I’m supposed to be doing, then that’s what I’ll do.”
DeMatteo felt he’d be coaching the rest of his life but expected that to be at the high school level.
“Ultimately, you don’t go into coaching for the money. I did it for kids and for me,” he said. “I enjoy being around young people and being a mentor to them. Football is more of a pure sport at the high school level, where it isn’t tarnished by money or greed but where kids are playing because they love to play.”
That attitude is one reason why he’ll be missed.
“I hate to see him leave because he has been a great addition to our staff, but I understand the opportunity he has and I wish him the best,” Baylor coach Phil Massey said. “I’m excited for him. He’s a good coach and he had a great rapport with the kids. Any time you lose somebody that has that combination, it will be missed.”
Baylor athletic director Thad Lepcio, who along with Massey had been apprised of DeMatteo’s opportunities throughout the process, echoed the head coach.
“We very much hate to see him go,” Lepcio said, “because of his knowledge about football and our offense and because of his unbelievable rapport with the kids, but he has a great opportunity ahead of him.”