He is known for his winning ways at the helm as head football coach at the University of Utah, leading the Utes to historic success over 12 exciting seasons. We’re talking about Ron McBride, or Coach Mac as many have come to know him over the years.

On this episode of the Supercast, we have the honor of sitting down with the legend and hearing first-hand about his time coaching, recruiting, and giving young athletes opportunities they never thought possible. Find out how Coach Mac is continuing his passionate work in our schools today with the Ron McBride Foundation, making sure at-risk youth have every chance to succeed. Plus, hear how Coach Mac impacted the life of one of our very own, Valley High Principal Jacinto Peterson.

Audio Transcription

Coach McBride:
The world is about adversity and how you handle adversity and you got all this social media where all these kids are very mean to each other. You've got to get beyond that so somebody doesn't get their self-image spoiled.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, and the negativity sticks with you.

[MUSIC]

Anthony Godfrey:
Hello and welcome to the Supercast. I'm your host, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey. He is known for his winning ways at the helm as head football coach at the University of Utah, leading the Utes to historic success over 12 exciting seasons. We're talking about Ron McBride or Coach Mac as many have come to know him over the years. On this episode of the Supercast, we have the honor of sitting down with the legend and hearing firsthand about his time coaching, recruiting, and giving young athletes opportunities they never thought possible. Find out how Coach Mac is continuing his passionate work in our schools today with the Ron McBride Foundation, making sure at-risk youth have every chance to succeed. Plus, hear how Coach Mac impacted the life of one of our very own, Valley High School Principal Jacinto Peterson.

[MUSIC]

Anthony Godfrey:
We're talking today with Coach Ron McBride. Mac, thank you so much for being here today.

Coach McBride:
Absolutely, Superintendent. Hey, I'm glad to be here.

Anthony Godfrey:
It's a real thrill. I've been telling my friends I get to talk to you today.

[LAUGHTER]

Coach McBride:
You got to tell that to my wife.

Anthony Godfrey:
We have felt your support in Jordan School District through your foundation, and I think it was high time that we just talked with you about the great things that you have going and all the support that you give to our kids in need. So we just wanted to talk with you about the foundation and where that came from.

Coach McBride:
Actually, Lavell Edwards and myself started it nine years ago. The thing was to help the underserved kids and to give them a chance to see a brighter side of life. Basically, from the time I was in high school, junior high, I was always very involved, particularly with my teammates that were underprivileged because I came from a lower middle East LA neighborhood. So I understood, and my parents were month to month trying to keep afloat.

Anthony Godfrey:
So through your own experience and your experience with players who were underprivileged, you've always had this focus on helping people.

Coach McBride:
Absolutely, yeah. So I've always been. So when I retired from Weber, then and Lavell and I were doing the radio show on Fridays. So we said, "Let's start this foundation." West Jordan Middle was one of our first schools.

Anthony Godfrey:
You've done a lot of work with them consistently over the years.

Coach McBride:
Oh ya, lots. First of all, the principals, the vice principals, the people that worked there were outstanding. The librarian was outstanding.

Anthony Godfrey:
She really is.

Coach McBride:
Oh, yeah. And she cares. I mean, I think we did a book club was the first thing we did over there, right?

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Coach McBride:
This was many years ago. She was so appreciative and loved the kids so much. She was so excited about what we were doing, you know. Then I loved the principal, you know, and she was awesome.

Anthony Godfrey:
When you're able to bring resources to a school, and you see that the school has these caring adults that are trying to do their best for kids, it's got to feel good that you know that those resources are going to the right place.

Coach McBride:
Well, West Jordan Middle always followed up with whatever, you know. I mean, you go over there and check with their . . . watch the after school program. The lady that ran it, Ivy Erickson, one of the best people in the world.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, she's done like it.

Coach McBride:
But first of all, she the kids, she's all into the young people.

Anthony Godfrey:
Right.

Coach McBride:
She's all into the young people that have problems and she's a good listener.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Coach McBride:
And so she's excited about what she does.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Coach McBride:
So it's easy to go there and watch her in action.

Anthony Godfrey:
Well, I'm thrilled that you picked West Jordan Middle and they really are amazing people there.

Coach McBride:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
There's been some turnover since you started.

Coach McBride:
Well, yeah, Dixie was a principal and she's at a bigger job.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's right.

Coach McBride:
And I tell you what, she's, first of all, her dad, I think, was a principal at that school.

Anthony Godfrey:
Right. That's right.

Coach McBride:
And she has a real history in education.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yes.

Coach McBride:
She's a great lady. You know what I mean? The great thing about when she was at West Jordan, it was always open anytime.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Coach McBride:
We would go by to check out what they were doing or talk to the kids or whatever, but it was always very open to us. I think it was, that was the first school that, when Jerry Sloan was sick, we kind of dedicated that school to Jerry back then to begin with. So we called it “Jerry's Kids” to begin with over there.

Anthony Godfrey:
Wow.

Coach McBride:
And then, of course, Jerry had problems and finally, his problems took his life. It was too bad.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah, it is. You were really instrumental in helping those after-school programs happen at West Jordan Middle School.

Coach McBride:
Oh, absolutely.

Anthony Godfrey:
That made a huge difference for those students.

Coach McBride:
Oh, yeah. I mean, they had-- And they had a lot of things going on. Besides sports, you know, they had Pokémon and they had chess club, it's ceramics club. So they had a lot of things.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah. It was all this pent-up need from the kids and interest from the adults in providing those opportunities. Yeah, yeah. And when you come in with those resources with caring adults and needy kids, it was just an-- it's an incredible combination.

Coach McBride:
And they--

Anthony Godfrey:
And you've allowed us to do things we couldn't do on our own.

Coach McBride:
Oh, absolutely. And you know, they have a lot of-- since they've kind of redid West Jordan Middle, they have a whole bunch of access to things they didn't have before.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Coach McBride:
The shop classes are really good.

Anthony Godfrey:
Yeah.

Coach McBride:
Because, you know, in today's economy, it's important that young people know how to do a trade.

Anthony Godfrey:
Right.

Coach McBride:
Because that's where all the money is right now.

Anthony Godfrey:
That's right.

Coach McBride:
Trade-- so more young people need to go into trades because they're paying a good wage, you're going to make a good living, and you're going to be working every day.

Anthony Godfrey:
AI doesn't fix things or remodel things or repair things, you know?

Coach McBride:
Yeah, but we have a huge need in that sector.

Anthony Godfrey:
This feels like an extension of what you were able to do as a football coach.

Coach McBride:
Yeah.

Anthony Godfrey:
You gave kids opportunities as a football coach. Talk to me about the relationship.

Coach McBride:
Well, I always-- you know, we always divided the locker room into three segments because of red, yellow, and green. So the red guys were about 10% of your football team and these are guys that were underappreciated, needed academic help, needed structure help, you know? Just needed to put them on a different line. So we would put our red guys with our green guys and therefore, then they would get them to thinking a different process.

Anthony Godfrey:
I see.

Coach McBride:
The idea is to take the red guys and get them to the yellow and get the yellow to the green. So you hopefully, by the time they graduate from college, that they were all into the green zone where they could take care of their own problems, take care of their own situations, handle adversity, do things that people have to do to be successful.

Anthony Godfrey:
There's a lot of work off the field to help them become everything they can be.

Coach McBride:
It's a lot of brainwashing.

[LAUGHTER]

Coach McBride:
So, yeah, you just have to change the way people t...