Ricky McCoy sees plenty of growth at Roosevelt High since taking over as football coach
Taking over as the Roosevelt High football coach meant a lot of responsibilities for Ricky McCoy.
It’s something he embraced when he was named the Rough Riders coach several months ago.
And all he wanted to do is to continue the success he left behind as a player and bring that wealth and knowledge to his team.
It has worked out to fruition for McCoy and his Rough Riders.
Roosevelt blanked Madera South 44-0 in a North Yosemite League game at Sunnyside Stadium on Thursday night.
The Rough Riders snapped a two-game losing streak and improved to 5-3 overall and 3-2 in the NYL.
Not bad for McCoy’s Rough Riders.
“There’s a lot of growth,” said the former University of Washington and Fresno State standout. “There’s a lot of growth here in terms of character, and that was the biggest thing. Everybody knows the kind of stigma in games like this tends to get a little chippy. I’m proud of my guys being able to take a step back. That’s where we’re growing the most. Everything on the field. We got athletes at every position.”
McCoy took over for interim coach Josh Kloster.
Roosevelt athletic director Larry Lopez didn’t hesitate to name McCoy his head coach because he knows what he brings. He said he’s proud of how the players bought into the system.
Prior to being the head coach, McCoy was an assistant the past two years and is a Resource Specialist Program teacher at Roosevelt.
He graduated from Roosevelt in 2015.
McCoy played tight end and defensive end at Roosevelt and helped the team to the second round of the Central Section Division IV playoffs.
The Rough Riders finished the 2023 season 7-5 and 4-3.
So far, it’s looking like an improvement under McCoy’s leadership.
“The culture that we’re building around the guys that’s allowing them to be successful,” McCoy said.
Even after a loss like the two-game losing streak against Sunnyside (44-22) and McLane (42-14), McCoy wanted to see how his players would react.
He’s happy how they overcame the setback.
“We try to treat every game the same,” he said. “I’m almost more angry in this game than I was with the one last week. That’s because those little habits that we have to break are going to get us from losing the game like last week to winning it. That’s the game where a bunch of mistakes happen. We have to be able to keep on moving forward.”
This story was originally published October 18, 2024 at 3:47 PM.
