By Tracy Gupton
It has been 23 years since Matthew Roy Varner was last in attendance at Griggs Field. He received his high school diploma at the West Columbia football stadium at the end of Columbia High School’s 1999-2000 school year. Matt Varner excelled on the baseball diamond and golf course for the Roughnecks. Matt will return home Friday night as one of the newest members of the Roughnecks’ Athletics Hall of Honor.
Matt Varner recently left an administrative career behind, trading in a job as an assistant principal at Lufkin Middle School to take on the duties of head baseball coach at Zavalla High School in Angelina County. Matt is also teaching special education at the one-A high school in Zavalla, Texas.
His selection to Columbia High’s Hall of Honor this Friday night is a worthy one, based on his receiving All-State, All-County and All-District honors as a valuable member of the Roughnecks varsity baseball teams in 1998, 1999 and 2000. Former Columbia High School Athletic Director Randy Lynch coached the Roughnecks baseball team to their first playoff win in 33 years Matt’s sophomore season in 1998.
Matt played second base in ’98 when the Necks set a new school record by bashing 38 home runs that season. Matt led the team with 33 runs scored and boasted a .406 batting average as a 10th grader.
Matt Varner pitched for the University of Houston Cougars
The Roughnecks had one of the best seasons in school history Matt’s junior year, entering the 1999 postseason as district champions with an impressive 18-4 won-loss record under the leadership of coaches Randy Lynch and John Vernor. The ’99 Roughnecks baseball team defeated Houston Waltrip 11-2 in the second round of the playoffs and shutout Houston Furr 9-0 in the region quarterfinals before dropping a heartbreaking 8-3 decision to perennial state playoff team Nederland in the region semifinals.
Matt’s senior year the Roughnecks repeated as district champs, boasting a 20-5 record entering the playoffs. With future pro pitchers Brian Finch, Jared Wells and Matt Varner toeing the rubber for Coach Lynch’s Roughnecks in 2000, Columbia High’s baseball team had a memorable year but hopes of another deep run into postseason were quickly snuffed out by the Necks losing back-to-back games to New Caney in the first round of the playoffs.
Matt said he received Newcomer of the Year honors in Brazoria County as a sophomore second baseman but admits the Roughnecks’ 1999 deep playoff run his junior year remains his fondest memory from his times spent at Columbia High School.
Matt Varner, pictured kneeling third from right in this 1999 Columbia Roughnecks baseball team photo, was a standout pitcher and second baseman for Coach Randy Lynch (standing at left) for three seasons in high school.
He also enjoyed success on the Roughnecks golf team coached by another former Columbia High Athletic Director Brian Lane. Matt played football his freshman year and participated in both baseball and golf all four years in high school. While a senior in 1999-2000, Matt and Coach Lane’s other golfers set a new school record by scoring a 314 at the district golf tournament. Matt still enjoys spending his spare time on the links at golf courses around Lufkin.
He went on to successfully pursue a baseball career on both the collegiate and professional levels, having earned NJCAA All-America honors at Angelina Junior College in Lufkin. While pitching for the Roadrunners at Angelina College, Matt Varner was an All-American in 2002 and set several school pitching records. He was named to the All-Region and All-Conference teams in 2002 when Matt posted an impressive 14-1 won-loss record with a low 2.20 ERA for the Roadrunners.
Matt’s 14 wins led Angelina Junior College’s pitchers in 2002 and is a school record. Former Major Leaguer Clay Buchholz had 12 wins in 2005 at Angelina College, which is tied for second in Roadrunners’ team history behind the former Roughnecks hurler.
Matt was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the 38th round of the 2002 June Major League Baseball amateur draft but the former Roughneck opted to take a pass on the opportunity to go pro that year and remained in college. He transferred to Louisiana Tech for the 2003 season where Matt pitched both as a starter and out of the bullpen.
He led the Bulldogs with a 2.72 ERA in WAC competition, pitching 39 2/3 innings and saving two games for Louisiana Tech. Matt earned the Bulldogs’ win in the 2003 season opener with three innings of relief against Rice and posted a win and a save against Hawaii in the first two games of a WAC conference series against the University of Hawaii.
Varner then transferred to the University of Houston where he was an important member of the Cougars’ pitching staff while majoring in business. He went pro after his one season with the Cougars. Matt was drafted in the 11th round of the 2004 June Amateur Draft by the San Diego Padres.
His professional career kicked off at Eugene, Oregon, and he moved on to Fort Wayne, Indiana, later in 2004. Matt pitched in 54 games, all in relief, for the Fort Wayne Tincaps in the Midwest League in 2005, going 4-5 with 62 strikeouts. He was a mid-season All Star for Fort Wayne in 2005.
Matt pitched 43 games in relief for the Lake Elsinore Storm in California in 2006 in the Padres minor league system, boasting an impressive 2.28 ERA and 36 strikeouts. Matt then pitched for independent minor league teams in 2007 at Lincoln, Nebraska, and 2008 at Schaumburg, Illinois, before walking away from his pro baseball career.
In five seasons of professional baseball at the minor league level, Matt Varner pitched in 186 games.
2008 Photo of Matt Varner
As a Roughneck in high school, Matt was a first team All-District pitcher in 2000 when he earned All State recognition his senior year. Columbia High’s baseball teams were district champs all three seasons Matt Varner was a varsity player.
Matt, who earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology and sociology from the University of Houston and a master’s degree in special education from Stephen F. Austin University, is the son of Darrell and Wanda Varner of Brazoria. Matt and his wife Jaimee live in Lufkin with their three daughters, Elizabeth, Ellasyn and Maddyx. Ellasyn Varner is a cheerleader for the Lufkin High School Panthers.
There will be a meet-and-greet session at Columbia High School’s Student Center from 5 to 6 p.m. Friday, October 6th, for the public to have the opportunity to speak with the new Hall of Honor inductees. Joining 2000 CHS graduate Matt Varner in the 2023 Hall of Honor Class will be 2007 graduate Jared Flannel, 1978 grad Carl Williams and current CHS girls track and cross country coach Kathryn Carr, a 1989 Columbia High grad.