Two ex-RRHS athletes set up The MAC ‘sports academy’
‘We have a lot of plans,’ says co-founder
Just a jog away from the RAC (Rams Athletic Center) and the PAC (Performing Arts Center) on the Rio Rancho High School campus is a new place known as “The MAC.”
Founded by two former RRHS athletes, Michael McDermott (Class of 2006) and Zach Kamm (Class of 2004), the McDermott Athletic Center, formerly on Veranda Drive, is in what was originally the Iceoplex and then Blades Multiplex Arenas.
Rio Ranchoans probably won’t recognize what the building — which opened on Aug. 10, 1996 — will turn into: a baseball and basketball academy of sorts, with a weight room and a handful of other sports thrown in.
“Zach’s a Rio Rancho guy, I’m a Rio Rancho guy — we would’ve killed for a place with batting cages and basketball courts (here),” McDermott said.
Ultimately, there will be indoor and outdoor volleyball courts, too, and, for skaters — don’t panic — the ice will be left there for hockey, figure skating and open skating.
“Everyone thought we were getting rid of (the ice),” he said. “We’re keeping hockey. ... Zach has mastered Zamboni driving.”
“I saw the demand,” McDermott said. “Kids are playing multiple sports.”
His baseball academy, because of the demand in Rio Rancho and the West Side, was outgrown about six months into its existence a few years ago.
The MAC came about, he explained, when he and Kamm were attending a wedding and, having worked together at Best Buy, got to talking about starting an academy, namely after McDermott was telling Kamm what he hoped to do here.
“I need someone who can do basketball,” McDermott remembered telling Kamm, a former Rams cager and Cleveland High assistant coach. “It turned into reality.”
Originally, they planned to build an academy on Loma Colorado Boulevard, across from Rio Rancho Middle School.
“Right before we were going to break ground, we heard the owners of Blades were interested in selling it,” he said. “We sat down and we talked, decided it was a lot easier to use an existing facility. Also, we have (additional) acreage here.”
The land is leased from the City of Rio Rancho; McDermott compared the facility to a city rec center, “but privately owned.”
Soon, the west side of The MAC, which originally had a roller rink before indoor soccer and a flag football field, will have six batting cages and several basketball courts.
McDermott’s sister, former RRHS and Eastern New Mexico University infielder Katie McDermott, will be a softball instructor, with Michael heading baseball and the growing number of club teams, known as the Hooligans.
The front portion of the building, which includes what has been a pro shop, is being reworked to hold a weightroom, plus a party room — “I want guys and girls to hang out here,” he said — and a conference room.
Preparatory sessions for high school students about to take ACTs and SATs will be offered, with McDermott understanding the importance of a good education and the phrase “student-athlete.”
McDermott said the facility will have a grand opening, tentatively in the first week of November. He’s kept some of the former employees and added some new ones, namely former local student-athletes, such as Ryan Patrick and Marcus Williams. (Learn more at themacsports.com.)
He’s a realist, an athlete turned businessman.
“It was a big undertaking,” he said. “I did a worst-case scenario and it made all the sense in the world. If monkey juggling would make more money, I’d bring a monkey in here.”
McDermott has never juggled monkeys, of course.
“When it comes to baseball, everyone knows where my heart is,” he said.
His older brother Terry is working there, while his father, also named Terry McDermott — the one-time former pro baseball player — has been great when it comes to lending advice and expertise, and moral support.
“We have a lot of plans for here,” Michael McDermott said. “Rio Rancho has lots of needs and we can fulfill those.”