JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Marty Lee started coaching with one small promise to himself all those years ago.
If he could walk away at the very end of his coaching career at First Coast High School knowing that he’d made his mentors proud, then Lee fulfilled that promise.
Along the way, Lee wound up coaching a Mr. Football winner and became the second longest-tenured public school football coach in area history. In more than 30 years of coaching sports at the high school level, Lee has just about seen it all.
Now, he’ll see it from a different perspective, likely from a spot in a golf cart at the Shipyard next to his wife, Natalie, on Friday nights in the fall. Lee will remain as First Coast’s athletic director, but he’s turning the reins over to longtime assistant Jarvis Parker.
“Somebody asked me today, they said, ‘Coach, you going to be on the sideline Friday night?’ No, I’ll be in the golf cart,” Lee said. “I’ll set off into the off to the sunset and let y’all do your thing.”
It’s been a long time in the works for Lee, who notched the final four of his nearly 170 career wins during the 2024 season. He was working alongside head-coaching-in-waiting, Jarvis Parker, whom Lee said is the perfect leader to take his spot. The school officially announced that transition on Monday afternoon.
Turning the page from Lee to Parker is a significant one. Lee’s 28 consecutive years at First Coast leave him behind only J.P. Small in terms of football longevity at one public school program in Duval County. Small coached from 1934 to 1969 at New and Old Stanton and has a ballpark in town that bears his name. Locally, only Trinity Christian’s Verlon Dorminey (hired in 1991) has been a head football coach at the same school longer than Lee. Stack Lee’s head baseball coaching experience on top of his football duties and he’s coached at the varsity level in high school for 35 straight years.
Lee arrived in the area in the mid-1980s from Vicksburg, Mississippi, eager to start his teaching and coaching career. His first job was in middle school at Highlands, and Lee said he knew that he wasn’t cut out to teach and coach at that level. From there, he split four seasons at Jackson and Forrest (now Westside High) before going to First Coast when it opened in 1990.
A youthful Lee, complete with a full beard and a thick Mississippi twang accent, was there to greet students as they walked in for the first time. Lee wanted to coach football when he first started, but that didn’t happen out of the gate.
Troy Lamb coached the Bucs from 1990-94, followed by Billy McCann (1994-96). When McCann stepped down to take care of his ailing wife, Lee moved into the head coaching role. He juggled baseball, football and athletic director roles for a few years before handing off the baseball reins.
Ever since, Lee has roamed the sidelines of Bucs Nation as one of the most familiar faces in the volatile coaching profession. It’s not uncommon these days to see high schools churn through two or three coaches in less than a calendar year.
Lee has provided staying power that’s becoming less and less common, especially in the low-paying realm of public school coaches in Florida.
For comparison, Mandarin, which opened the same year as First Coast (1990) and is one of the area’s top programs, has had 10 head coaches since Lee was hired in 1997.
Craig Howard (1996-1999), Richard Burnoski (2000-2003), J.D. Hall (2004-2006), Luther Price (interim in 2007), Jason Robinson (2008-09), Robert Dean (2010-12), Brian Braddock, (2013-15), Quinn Gray (2016), Bobby Ramsay (2017-2021) and Toby Bullock (2022-current) have led the Mustangs in that span. Hall, a promising, young head coach, died of a heart attack at just 35 in June 2007.
Lee said that he didn’t get into the game for wins and limelight, although he certainly amassed plenty of both. Lee won 169 games at First Coast and had more than a dozen trips to the playoffs. During a five-year period in the early 2010s, First Coast was the place to be. From 2010 to 2014, Lee’s Bucs had four perfect regular seasons (a combined 57-6 record) and played for a state title. First Coast lost big to Manatee in that 2011 title game, but Lee said he’s still proud that First Coast got there. Only four Duval County public schools have ever reached the championship game (First Coast, Mandarin, Raines and Sandalwood).
Interspersed between the football successes were the family memories. Lee got a chance to coach his son, Justin, in baseball at First Coast. His daughter, Caitlin, was a cheerleader for the Bucs and spent every Friday night cheering on First Coast at the Shipyard.
First Coast held a place in time that few area public schools can say they did.
Blue chip prospects flooded the Northside program, and the halls of the weight room still bear testament to just how memorable of a time that was.
Lee coached a Mr. Football star in DeAndre Johnson and helped send more players into big-time college programs than perhaps any local public school coach ever will.
“People always ask me, ‘Coach, who’s your best player?’ That’s not [possible], there’s too many of them. When you put over 230 kids in the college, and see the success they have ... like what [former player] Ryan Stamper’s doing for the Jaguars now, yeah, it’s special to me when I see that. And that’s what it’s all about.”
A small-town guy from Vicksburg, Mississippi, Lee had no visions of ever reaching a hall of fame (which he did with a Florida Athletic Coaches Association nod in 2019). He said that he hoped to do in sports what his mentors did for him. Lee credits Richard Kincaid and Jack Sams for his football push first, followed by McCann and Lamb. In baseball, it was Parker High legend Howard May and then Sandalwood’s Charlie Matthews.
“All of those gentlemen have had an influence on all my life,” he said. “And my whole goal, was to make them happy. I hope I did them right.”
Now 64, Lee plans to remain in his role as the school’s athletic director … he’ll enjoy the games from a golf cart on Friday night .. next to his wife Natalie … the person he credits with keeping him healthy and going for so long.
Wins weren’t the ultimate goal; it was to shape the lives of young men and women. And in that department … Lee said that he hopes that he’s left First Coast better than he found it.
“That’s, to me, the greatest accomplishment, because I knew what my coach did for me,” Lee said. “And I just wanted to be able to be there for these kids to see them grow up. And I’ve talked to a bunch of my ex-players, and to see them become the leaders they are in the community [it’s special].
“Me and you talk about it all the time, I don’t really know what my record is; that never bothered me. But what I always wanted to be was just a small part of these young men’s lives. And I hope I’ve done that.”
