A younger Ronnie McClary was wearing the blue and gold the last time the Goldsboro High School football team made it to the Regional Finals.
It was 2003, and the Cougars found themselves a game away from a shot at a state championship.
GHS would go on to lose to Wilson Fike that night 14-8, and McClary, a senior, saw his dreams dashed in his final high school game.
He had no idea that nearly 20 years later, he would walk into his alma mater’s media center flanked by family and friends to address a group of young men who plan on taking the field for the Cougars this fall — or that he would be doing so as their new head football coach.
But McClary did not spend his time talking about how much it meant to come home.
He didn’t go on and on about his glory days or promise his new players an immediate championship run.
Instead, he used those few moments to establish a new standard — to mark the beginning of a change in the program’s culture.
He did it by holding off on speaking until the young men removed their hoods and hats.
He did it by talking more about the importance of academics than about game plans or his coaching style.
“At the end of the day, your academics are more important,” he said. “I can sell a kid all day about how good of an athlete he or she is, but if on that transcript, you don’t look so smart, I can’t change that.”
And he did it by hammering home the notion of respect.
“When you demand respect and command respect, I can do that because … I’ll spend more time with you than some of your parents will,” he said. “But at the end of the day, you’re going to know that I care. And if I tell a person that I love them, you’re going to know that I mean it. Loving you is not just saying, ‘Good job, son.’”
It means staying on top of their grades and making sure they are respectful to their classmates, teachers, and other adults.
“When and adult asks you something, there’s none of that, ‘Huh?’ and ‘What?’ That isn’t gonna happen. No sir. If a person asks you, it’s, ‘Yes sir and no sir.’ That’s what I’m gonna hear. That’s what your teachers are gonna hear,” McClary said. “If that’s something you can’t get used to, you don’t need to be playing football here. Why? Because this is what’s going to happen. You’re going to go to a job interview one day … and that’s what they are gonna hear. That’s how you leave here better than when you started.”
And, perhaps most importantly, it means being a part of the legacy of “Cougar pride” that means something to thousands of graduates of Goldsboro High School.
“There’s something special when you say, ‘Cougar pride.’ It means something. It should mean something. And if it doesn’t to you right now, I promise you it will. It will,” McClary said. “I’m here because you need somebody who has been from where you’re from. Especially a black male who can go to Goldsboro High School and excuse some of those stereotypes. Go to high school and get a degree. Get a diploma. Go to college and get a degree. Go again and get a master’s degree. And if he chooses to come back home, he can. That’s what I chose to do.”
GHS Principal Ryan Nelson said more than 40 people applied for the position, but McClary stood out.
Some of it was his ties to the school — the fact that he went on to play college ball after success as a GHS football player.Some of it was the success he had as the head coach of Southern Wayne — not on the field, but with the young men he mentored and championed.
But it was the qualities he put on display in front of the team during that initial meeting Monday afternoon that set him apart — making him the clear choice to lead the next generation of Cougars.
“It’s not about wins and losses,” Nelson said. “He helps young boys become men.”
