DANVILLE — Megan Mattingly learned a lot about being an athlete from Gary Gritton.
Mattingly said that he was a mentor for her career at Danville High School and now she will take over her mentor’s job.
The former three-sport standout for the Vikings was named the new Athletics Director on Wednesday. She will be taking over for Gritton, who passed away in September.
“I am thankful about the opportunity,” Mattingly said. “It is a very hard situation since I am taking over for a man that I looked up to as a mentor. It is a terrible situation, but I am thankful to step in and come back home.
“I had him as a teacher and he was close to our family. My brothers played baseball for him, so I followed my brothers around. He was a huge mentor for my brothers as well. He loved our family and we loved him and we were grateful to know him and be a small part of his career.”
The former Megan Burton’s greatest success in Danville was in softball, where she was an All-Big 12 player and former Commercial-News Softball Player of the Year. She would go to Eastern Illinois from 2018-2022 and in her senior year there, she was Ohio Valley Conference Player of the Year, OCS Scholar Athlete of the Year, All-OVC First Team and NFCA All-Mideast Region First Team.
After graduating from EIU, Mattingly worked at Southridge High School in Huntingburg, Ind. She was the head softball coach and worked within the physical education/strength and conditioning department from 2022-25. She was an assistant volleyball coach from 2023-24 and was the Southridge Middle School Athletics Director during the 2022-23 year.
She returned to Illinois earlier this year as the Director of Operations for the University of Illinois softball team.
“My family still lives there and I try to keep up with Danville sports as much as I can,” Mattingly said. “I went to Indiana and I was an athletics director and went into teaching and strength and conditioning and a head softball coach. I moved back home to Illinois this year, so I was able to move back home and be closer to family. Danville will always be my home and hold a special place in my heart.”
Mattingly will take over officially next month after finishing things up with Illinois.
“I will start December 8th,” Mattingly said. “Right now at Illinois, they are sending the girls back for Christmas break. So this is not ideal, but I am ready to go and get to work.”
With Mattingly coming back to the fold, she is wanting to build on what Gritton has done.
“I think that it is important that we have some talented people and athletes and my job is to build what we have,” Mattingly said. “I just want to build relationships and let them know I am there for them and ultimately we can grow together. Being in the middle of the year is not ideal timing, but I hope to be a great leader and hope to support them and our student-athletes.”