McCartney brought in as coach at W. Broward

West Broward has found its new head football coach.

The Bobcats named Brian McCartney the team’s new head coach, athletic director James Darr and McCartney told the Sun Sentinel on Friday.

“I really believe West Broward is a diamond in the rough,” McCartney said. “I’m really super excited.”

McCartney said he didn’t know much about the West Broward program until he learned the job was open, but he came away from the hiring process impressed with the school.

“I’ve lived in South Florida for seven years and didn’t really know much about West Broward until a couple people reached out to me and said, ‘The job was open. Would you be interested?’ ” McCartney said. “Right then and there, I went to check it out because I believe God opens doors. …

“I went over there, and I was really surprised because meeting the faculty, the kids, the support that’s at that school for all the other activities, I was really surprised with what possibilities could come out of West Broward.”

McCartney has not been a head coach before. He was previously on the staff at Western for a year-and-ahalf. Before coaching the offensive line with the Wildcats, McCartney coached at Cypress Bay for a year and at Mayfield High in Las Cruces, N.M.

“I learned a lot — a lot of good things [and] a lot of bad things,” he said. “From Coach [Adam Ratkevich], I learned a lot of good things: I learned how to build a community, I learned how to build camaraderie.

“My coach at Mayfield in Las Cruces, I learned how to build that brotherhood where it’s just one machine — there’s no I in team. It’s all of us together.”

McCartney takes over a West Broward team that went 1-9 last year but is just one season removed from going 7-4 and making the postseason.

“I was talking to some of these guys that come to these camps … and I was asking them, ‘So have schools called you? What schools are you looking at to transfer to?’ before I even started this process,” he said. “They were like, ‘Nah, man. We’re West Broward Bobcats. I don’t care what happened last year. I’m going to stay with my friends. We’re going to build this no matter who they hire.’

“There was a lot of pride and tradition at that school, and that’s what got me excited.”