The first Tuesday of each month, we interview someone from Charlotte Latin Athletics with twenty questions to help the CLS community get to know some of our athletes, coaches, and supporters a bit better.
 
Even if you haven't met Jonathon Wylie, you've probably seen or heard his work if you are a CLS Athletics fan. A graduate of the Latin Class of 2006, Wylie started assistant coaching with the Hawks in his college years while he still knew many of the football players as his former teammates. He's coached numerous teams in multiple sports since then, but his role has expanded to resident DJ for the Hawks and social media guru. Read on to get to know Coach Wylie and find out what keeps him tied to Latin.  
 
1. When and why did you start school at Latin?
I started at Latin in kindergarten. I'm not exactly sure why, but we lived in Union County and we knew the Ashcrafts. Mark was my year and we carpooled with them.
 
2. Do you have any siblings?
I have a younger brother, Justin. He went to Latin through tenth grade, then went to a golf academy in Hilton Head. Now he's the head pro at Rolling Hills Country Club.
 
3. One of your many roles at Latin is assistant coaching the varsity boys' golf team. So is golf a family activity for the Wylies?
I started playing with my dad when I was really young, like three, and played every summer growing up. I'd play nonstop when school was out, but then other sports would start up and I'd put my clubs down and forget about it until the next summer. I played in junior club championships, but I never played golf for Latin.
 
4. What other sports were you involved in?
I played basketball from about five or six years old. I was in a rec league, then AAU and travel ball until about tenth grade. I was all about basketball, and we (Latin) were really, really good at basketball back then. I played on the JV team for Latin in ninth grade for (Coach) Berger. In tenth grade, I made the varsity team, but I didn't play much. We won the state championship that year with Anthony Morrow and a bunch of great players. I couldn't play basketball in eleventh grade because I had shoulder surgery, and that pretty much ended my basketball career as a player. I also played club soccer all the way through eighth grade, but I never played for Latin because it was the same season as football. Playing for the Hawks in seventh grade was my first experience with football. Roger Burge was the coach. We weren't very good and I didn't love it, but back then eighth grade played JV with the ninth graders, so I decided to give it one more try since a bunch of my friends were playing. We won more, which was more fun, so I came back again in ninth grade and that's when I really started liking it. (Coach) Smith was my coach. Then I made varsity my sophomore year and we won the state championship.
 
5. You won the state championship in both football and basketball your sophomore year?  
Yeah, it was great. I was a receiver and safety in football. I played some that year, but I was mostly backing up Flick (Fletcher Gregory '04). We beat Country Day in the championship and multiple guys from that team went on to play collegiate sports. The next year, my junior year, was the year we should've won states, but we just didn't play well. We lost to Country Day at Country Day. Then my senior year we were considered the underdogs and we beat PD (Providence Day) to win the title. Kyle Durham was the QB. I played receiver, safety, punted and backed up Kyle.  
 
6. Which position was your favorite?
Receiver was my favorite, but I was All-State at safety.
 
7. You had some Latin legends as coaches. What do you remember about them?  
Coach McNulty sticks out for all of his sayings. Holy catfish and all kinds of crazy things. He was tough with an old-school mentality, but still understood new-age football. He was really big on trusting the process and doing the same thing every day, always with the goal in mind. He would say, "Do it again!" all the time. When I was a sophomore, I didn't fully appreciate a lot of the stuff Coach Faulkner did. All of his sayings and the stuff he put up on the bulletin board didn't sink in that year. But now I see how (Coach) Berger has implemented that approach and how he uses it to teach things, and it's really cool. One thing about Faulkner, if you played for him, you were part of a family. Berger has carried on that tradition and whether you are a player now, graduated last year, or twenty years ago, we're all one giant family. You don't see that many other places.
 
8. Have they influenced the way you coach?
Definitely. I try to take what they've done and build on it. Berger and Faulkner both instilled that we leave places better than we found it. I teach that and all the small things to the Middle School kids: help someone off the floor, point to the passer, everyone stands up when a teammate leaves the court. We do those things in Middle School, then they go to varsity games and see those guys doing the same things. When the varsity can feel connected to the seventh grade team and the seventh grade team feels connected to the varsity, everybody feels as one and that makes the best programs.
 
9. What did you do after you graduated from Latin?  
I was all over the place. First, I went to Georgia Southern where I walked-on to the football team, but I had to take medical leave to come home and have another shoulder surgery. I'd already had two while I was in high school, which is why I didn't play basketball my junior or senior years, but I kept having shoulder subluxations. That fall, I helped (Coach) Smith with JV football. In the spring, I went to Wingate to play football and worked out with the team while doing rehab on my shoulder, but then my other shoulder needed surgery and I went to a shoulder specialist in Florida. Eventually, I came back to Charlotte in 2008 and went to Queens to major in communications and minor in marketing. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do but thought it would be something entrepreneurial.
 
10. Were you coaching during that time?  
Yeah, I was a varsity football assistant with Coach Mac (McNulty) and Coach Butler. We were really good and I still knew the kids from when I played here. I had great relationships with the players and getting to see and know those coaches in a different way was cool.
 
11. Did you think then that you might make a career of coaching?
I loved coaching from the get-go, but I wasn't thinking of it as a career. I was going to school, coaching, and working as a DJ on the weekends. After I graduated, I got my real estate license and bought my first property with a couple of friends. That evolved into commercial real estate and what I do now with The Morgan Companies. Trey Morgan (CLS parent) is the president. I actually didn't meet him through Latin, but then I coached Ben (Morgan) in both seventh and eighth grades.
 
12. How did the DJ role come about?
I just filled in one night as a favor to my friend that owned a bar. The guy that was scheduled didn't show up, so I played music that night and it turned into a regular weekend thing. I didn't really take it seriously until another friend of mine who worked in communications with the Panthers asked me to DJ for their game entry. It was a new pregame sponsored segment when the players would get introduced. It was awesome and there were some nice perks. I was on the field before the game, had access to the players, worked for about an hour, then got to enjoy the game with friends. But that was 2019 and then Covid happened and that was the end of that.
 
13. Now you get to be the DJ for the Hawks. Besides your coaching role, what else do you do for Latin?  
I'm a head coach for Middle School boys' basketball, and an assistant coach for the boys' varsity golf team. I DJ for all the home varsity basketball games and football games. I create the playlists for other Latin teams that want music during their warmup and halftime periods. And I do a lot of social media for football, boys' basketball, and boys' golf.
 
14. You do a lot for Latin's teams and athletes, and much of it is unpaid. Why?  
It's all the relationships. Seeing the kids that I coached as seventh and eighth graders grow up and go to college and then get jobs. Several have interned for me. These are lifelong connections. I think Berger has really instilled that in me, the way he stays in contact with all the guys that have played for him. Last year, we did a three-day tour to watch Ned (Hull '23), RJ (Johnson '20), and B-Lav (Brandon Lavitt '22) play in their college games, and it was awesome.
 
15. What's been your favorite moment as a CLS coach?
Hm. There are two. The state championship basketball game here against Cannon in 2020. Even though we didn't come out on top, seeing the SAC with that many people in it reminded me of back in 2004 when we hosted the Dell Curry Tournament here and it was four-deep around the track. That energy was incredible. The second was winning the golf state championship last year (2023) for the first time since 1994.
 
16. Alright, let's finish up with a few easy questions. What's your favorite holiday and why?
Christmas. I love the lights and all the cheesy holiday traditions.
 
17. Do you cook? If so, what's your specialty?
I do cook. My specialty is probably grouper piccata. My mom is a really good cook. She taught me well.
 
18.  What's your favorite sports movie?
Happy Gilmore or Hoosiers.
 
19. What's a hobby or skill you have that most people don't know about?  
I'm getting an MBA. I actually start in two weeks. It's the Charlotte Executive Program through Chapel Hill, so it's part online and part in person and it's a two-year program.
 
20. What keeps you coming back as a middle school coach?
I love how middle school is the first time you get to play for your school. You can play all the AAU and rec leagues, but there's something special about putting on your school jersey and playing for your school. It's the first time that it feels like it's for real. Like it's important. There's a lot more pride in it, and I love being part of that.