The man who started the Clayton State Athletic Department and built it into what it is known today, Mason Barfield is in his 19th year as Laker Athletic Director. He was hired as the first Director of Athletics in 1989 and served as head men’s basketball coach until 1995.

Barfield now oversees the day-to-day growth of all athletic teams and is committed full-time to building a sound athletic program within an environment that emphasizes academic excellence. In 18 years, Barfield has led the Clayton State athletic program from an NAIA program featuring just one sport to an NCAA Division II program offering 12 sports at the present time.

Under his leadership, Barfield has built Clayton State athletics into one top programs in the Peach Belt Conference, which is one of NCAA Division II’s most successful leagues.

The Lakers have won eight Peach Belt Conference crowns and had five runner-up finishes since 2000, along with capturing four Peach Belt Conference tournament titles and having four conference tournament runner-up finishes. In addition, Clayton State teams have competed in 14 NCAA Division II National Tournaments since 2000, and have produced more than 24 Division II All-Americans in that span.

On top of that, Clayton State has also finished third in the Peach Belt Conference Commissioner’s Cup standings in three of the last four years.

Clayton State fielded its first intercollegiate athletic team in men’s basketball during the 1990-91 season. Women’s basketball followed in 1991-92, and men’s soccer took the field for the first time in the fall of 1992.

With Clayton State’s intention of making the transition to the NCAA Division II level, Barfield oversaw an unprecedented move with the addition of five sports during the 1995-96 academic year, including women’s soccer, men’s and women’s cross country, women’s tennis and men’s golf. Men’s and women’s track were added in the spring of 1998.

Men’s and women’s indoor track was added in the spring of 2005, increasing the number of Laker sports to 12.

In his five-year Laker men’s basketball coaching career, Barfield compiled a 74-77 record. His team’s 62 wins during his last three years of coaching was the second highest win total of all four-year colleges in the state of Georgia over that period. He was voted Georgia Athletic Conference Coach-of-the-Year and Atlanta Tip-Off Club’s "Georgia NAIA Coach-of-the-Year" after leading his 1993-94 Laker team to a 25-7 record, a GAC regular season championship, and a season-ending national NAIA Top-20 ranking.

A native of Hahira, Ga., Barfield starred in both basketball and baseball at Lowndes High School in Valdosta, Ga., and at Alabama Christian Junior College (now Faulkner University) in Montgomery. Prior to starting the athletic program at Clayton State, Barfield was a former men’s assistant basketball coach at former Peach Belt rival Kennesaw State. He also had a highly-successfully stint as boy’s head basketball coach at Lassiter High School in Marietta, Ga., from 1985-88, leading the Trojans to the Class AAAA state semifinals in 1988.

Barfield holds a master’s degree and a bachelor’s degree in health, physical education and recreation from Valdosta State University. He and his wife, Elizabeth, have three sons: Josh, Ryan and Jess.