Class of 2025

Jason Clay, Vandalia

Coach

Jason Clay stepped down as the head coach at Vandalia following a great run of success in which his program went 504-110 in 19 seasons since 2006-07 during which time the Vandals qualified for the IHSA Dual Team Finals on 15 occasions and captured six trophies, with three of those being for second-place finishes.

His 2024-25 team went 40-2 and its only loss to an Illinois team came in his final dual meet, when Coal City won 32-25 over the Vandals in the title meet of the IHSA Class 1A Dual Team State Tournament in Bloomington, giving the Coalers their second state title in three years.

Jason and the program had three IHSA champions for the first in its history when Tyson Waughtel, the state’s all-time wins leader, took first place at 126 pounds to win his third title and first for the Vandals and Max Philpot added a title at 113 pounds as both finished unbeaten.

One week later, Sophie Bowers won her second-straight IHSA title at 125 pounds and she also finished unbeaten. She became the first individual in the new IHSA format to win a state title who was also on a team that was trying to capture a state championship.

That equaled the number of state champions that he had before the State Finals. The team just missed having another champion as Preston Waughtel lost 2-1 in the 120 finals. Jason also had career-bests for most medalists with seven and most qualifiers with 12.

He finished his career with 119 qualifiers, 44 placewinners and six champions, with Jo-E Smith (2007-157 in A) and Jarek Wehrle (2021 - 106 in IWCOA) being the other two boys title winners. He was selected as the IWCOA Coach of the Year in both 2016 and 2024.

In his first season, the Vandals lost 30-29 to Wilmington in the 2007 Class A title meet and in 2018, Vandalia fell 48-18 to Aurora Christian in the Class 1A title meet. They also took third place in 2019 and fourth place in both 2016 and 2024. The Vandals also qualified for the Dual Team Finals in 2008, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2022 and won regional titles in each season, except for 2023.

Jason has also been the Vandals head football coach for the past nine seasons and they’ve gone 69-24 with eight IHSA playoff teams and three conference champions. He’s taught Geography for 18 years and been Vandalia’s athletic director for seven years and is also the district’s athletic director. In the 2026-27 school year, he will become Vandalia’s principal.

He competed for Vandalia in wrestling from 1996-98 and went 41-10 and was a state qualifier in his senior season of 1998 for coach Glenn Exton, a 2014 IWCOA Hall of Fame inductee. Jason also played football for Vandalia and was a two-time all-conference selection as well as being a two-time all-area honoree. Jason attended McKendree College in Lebanon and played football there and graduated in 2002 with a Bachelor’s Degree of Arts in Secondary Education.