Mackey hopes to bring new mindset to Stockdale football
Daron Mackey burst onto the scene as a defensive stalwart on the 2005 section champion West Vikings, starred at Bakersfield College and earned himself a scholarship at Boise State. Since then he’s worked his way through the coaching ranks, leading his son’s youth football teams and enjoying defensive-coordinator stints at South and, most recently, Del Oro under his onetime West coach Rich Cornford.
On Jan. 30, Stockdale named him its new head coach.
“I’m actually living the dream right now,” Mackey said. “I haven’t had a second thought one second about what I’m doing.”
The Californian spoke with him Wednesday, on the day of his first coaches’ meeting. The interview has been condensed for length and clarity; the full version is available on Bakersfield. com.
TBC: What made you think this was the right time for you to apply for the Stockdale job?
DM: I’ve been wanting to be a head coach for a while now. Ever since I came back, I’ve watched programs here locally, and I just know that I have a passion for this, I know there’s some programs that may need some extra support, and so I knew that I had a vision to make a good program a great program. And so I have the opportunity in front of me to do so.
... I don’t have to think about coaching. This is one of the things that I’ll get up out of my sleep to do. I knew I wanted to have a program, I liked to see it done the right way and I think that’s the biggest thing, especially looking around, there’s not always (teams) doing it the right way.
My son is going to be going to high school soon, and it’s really a tough decision if you’re here in the local area, where you’re gonna send your kid to play some football, because it’s so (dominated by) just two different programs in town. We definitely gotta spread the wealth and I think this is the perfect opportunity to do so.
TBC: I know you’re coming along with Cartez Donald, your West teammate. Can you tell me about what his role is going to be and why it was so important to bring him with you?
DM: Oh man, yeah, that’s my guy, Cartez Donald. We go back since middle school, actually. We were rivals in middle school, and then we end up being teammates in high school. He’s literally been my best friend since
then. We’ve always talked about running a program together. We coached one of my son’s teams back in ‘16 or ‘17 together, he was the offensive coordinator, I was D-coordinator, we had a really successful season. And so, the juices have been flowing since then, and we’ve just been waiting for our opportunity to have a bigger role and a bigger impact here in Bakersfield. This is the perfect opportunity.
Cartez has been a varsity head coach at the youth level for a couple years now. He’s had a lot of success. Some of his student-athletes are some of the premier student-athletes in high school locally as we speak, so his production is spread around Bakersfield and he has a lot of parents and players that have vouched for him. But me personally, I know how dedicated he is, I know how serious he takes this role, I know the impact that he can have on a team with his knowledge and his tenacity to be better. And that’s really the biggest thing ... I know we can feed off that and our players will appreciate that.
TBC: Your mantra is “I can, I will.” Why is that phrase so important to you?
DM: It’s along the lines of ‘If I believe it, I can achieve it.’ That reflected through my path and my life since I was younger. I’ve always had a dream to ... play football at a very high level. Although my environment didn’t really motivate me to do so, I had an internal motivation and it was that little voice in the back of my head that said ‘I can, and I will. I refuse to be second, I refuse to not achieve the goals that I set forth for myself.’
That really led me through high school, college and now to this day. I wasn’t a good student, I wasn’t the guy that’s gonna be getting honor rolls, principal’s lists, things like that. In high school I was one of the guys that barely made it to be eligible. But I didn’t let that stop me. I went to Bakersfield College and that might be a roadblock for a lot of people, but I didn’t let that stop me ... I refused to leave that place without a scholarship and that’s what I did.
So that’s something I just truly believe in. If we believe in ourselves, if we make a plan, we can start moving towards that plan, anything’s possible.
Funny thing is, I remember being younger and people actually telling me, ‘You can be whatever you want, you can do whatever you want.’ Back then, it didn’t seem like the truth, it didn’t seem like it was actually reality, because of my circumstances. But now that I know the things I was able to achieve, it’s really just because I believed, it’s really because I just put my feet to the pavement, and I just worked, put one step in front of the other.
That’s the mantra, ‘I can, I will,’ refuse to be second, have a desire to get better each and every day, and that’s gonna drive me, and that’s gonna drive the team that I lead.
TBC: What are the first things you’re trying to accomplish now that you have the job?
DM: First things first is building this coaching staff, and that’s what I’ve been working hard on since they announced the position, actually even prior. We’re at the point where we got a good solid base as far as our coaching staff ... We’re planning on starting spring ball here shortly.
We want to get out into the community, that’s a big thing that we want to do, we want to be able to connect with our feeder program as well as other elementary and middle schools here in the area. We want to be visible. We want to let the people in our area know that we care for your student-athletes, we want them here, they don’t have to go anywhere else, and we’re gonna invest in their student athletes as much as any other school.
That’s pretty much what we’re planning ... I’m adamant about being present, I’m adamant about making sure the youth know we’re here, and just really expanding my impact as much as possible.