It was an episode with TCU football coach Gary Patterson that was the catalyst for this purpose-driven life Chad McCarty leads.
Actually, there was another that could be termed as transformative, but the first involved Patterson, and it illustrates the best example of the worth of amateur athletics.
It was a biting yet honest evaluation of McCarty’s standing as a player.
Patterson said he didn’t see McCarty playing in his defense at all. He didn’t fit the mold of what the coach was looking for in a defensive end. Not driven to discouragement, McCarty asked Patterson what it was he needed to work on. It was his feet and speed he needed to work on, Patterson told him, if he had any chance to see the field.
“I took what he said, and I typed it out and hung it in my locker,” said McCarty, 39. “That drove me. I went out and worked on those things and going into my junior year, I was a starter. My senior year, I was a starter and wound up on leadership council two years.
“If he would have never told me that … I may never have gotten pissed off and tapped into my potential.”
It wasn’t as if he didn’t have good players looking to take his position.
Bo Schobel and Bobby Pollard both turned out to be pretty good defensive linemen, though their time was delayed briefly.
Patterson “was like, ‘Look, I’m not going to sit around here and wait on you to get better,’” McCarty said. “That’s how I treated life. That’s why I’m running for school board.”
The run for the Fort Worth school board is the latest in a career in education.
It’s never good to talk religion or politics at PressBox DFW. The most objective accounting of a political matter will cause consternation among some of the reading faithful. The writer will be accused … of something.
There are times, though, when there is an appropriate intersection.
McCarty, a former principal of Eastern Hills High School, is running for Place 2 on the school board against incumbent and school board president Tobi Jackson.
These local races, whether they be for the school board or city council, are a tough business. Public offices closest to the people have benefits, such as more effective responsiveness to constituents. It also has its disadvantages, most notably being closest to the people.
That’s just one writer’s opinion.
Early voting has begun and runs through April 30. Election day is May 4.
There have been issues raised during the campaign, including Jackson’s vote against the recommendation by the superintendent to terminate a football coach employed at Eastern Hills, where McCarty was the principal. Only the school board can terminate an employee on a Chapter 21 probationary contract.
Jackson said she voted against the recommendation, one of five to do so, because the allegations against Johnnie Cole were recanted and out of concern he might take legal action against the district.
“I know some people want me to say something negative about my opponent,” McCarty said. “I’ve worked with her a decade. Did I agree with all the things she did and how she did them as a school board member? No. You don’t agree with anybody 100 percent of the time. She did the best she could do. Do I think I can do it better? Yes.”
McCarty, like his brother Chance, four years older, was recruited from Eastern Hills in the Class of 1997 by former TCU coach Pat Sullivan and played under Dennis Franchione and Patterson.
If it weren’t for Chance, McCarty never would have gone to TCU.
In fact, the younger McCarty brother “hated TCU” as his senior season began. He didn’t like the way his brother had been treated. Chance was a quarterback at Eastern Hills, but only a few schools recruited him to be one in college. TCU was one of those, those Sullivan and coaches ultimately switched his position to defensive end.
“I felt they had lied to my brother and lied to my family,” McCarty said. “My brother was the one who actually sat down and talked to me. He said, ‘Chad, football is not the end-all. I used to think that it was. I know you may not like TCU because of what you’ve seen with me as far as my position, but all of that was my fault. I think TCU would be a good place for you, if you sit down and take that emotion out of it.’”
Chance’s honest discussion was another transformative event. Chance had made some mistakes academically and not always made the best decisions in school, Chad McCarty said.
And he was big enough to acknowledge that and give the advice he believed was best for his little brother. Chance also returned to TCU to finish what was left to do to earn his degree.
By the time Chad McCarty had left in December 2002, he had earned a master’s in education administration. During his last semester of football, he took 19 hours, a load he thinks Patterson never knew about.
He began teaching permanently after leaving the TCU staff in 2005, eventually landing as the principal at his former high school from 2013-17.
McCarty has since left the profession, though not totally. Not by a long shot.
He has put all his chips in an automotive business in Mansfield, though the objective is still education. The business is part of his and two other former school administrators’ efforts to fill what they saw as a void in Fort Worth and elsewhere.
The need for at-risk students to work for pay while also learning a trade and earning a diploma.
Many students in the inner city have responsibilities as wage earners in their homes. As McCarty reminded, they will make money one way or another. They can do it legally with a legitimate job, which most often requires missing school days. Or they can do it illegally and not miss any school.
More often than not what we’re talking about is dropouts.
AutoDuco, an automotive maintenance and repair shop in Mansfield, is designed to have four high school age apprentices assigned to each technician. While they’re learning a trade and income, they’re also working on their high school diploma through an internet-based home-school program.
The school district did offer a similar program, but not for the kids most vulnerable. That is, those not eligible for the programs because of attendance or behavioral issues.
“We try to hire young people that are having a tough time getting a foothold in society,” McCarty said. “We were tired, myself and my business partners … we got tired of kicking out the same kids. All of them had the same answers as to why they were doing things: ‘We need to find a way to make some money.’”
The three explored a number of vocations for students, including cosmetology for young women. However, McCarty said, automotive services had the best success rate.
The decision to leave the school district was a bold one.
Running for the school board was his latest bold step.
But, that’s the way this football player turned political candidate rolls.
He never would have played football at TCU otherwise.
“I would definitely back him,” said Patterson, who doesn’t live within Place 2’s east-side boundaries. “I like honest people. He’s an honest person who works hard. He believes in kids. For me, those three things are all of the qualities that would be great for someone running for school board.”
(Photos: TCU Athletics and Chad McCarty for School Board)
