By Brian Argabright
Frenchey McCrea Jr. always wanted to become an athletic director some day.
But to get that opportunity in his hometown is a dream come true.
McCrea, 38, was unanimously approved to become the new athletic director of the San Felipe Del Rio CISD by its Board of Trustees during the board’s regular meeting Monday night.
McCrea will replace Ric Smith, who announced his departure from the role earlier this year. He has already announced plans to retire in 2022.
McCrea is no stranger to Del Rio athletics or its fans. A standout multi-sport athlete at Del Rio High School and at Angelo State University, McCrea has served as the Rams head football coach and an assistant coach for multiple sports including girls basketball, track and field and cheerleading.
He was the head football coach from 2013 to 2018. Following the 2018 season he was relieved of his head coaching duties and reassigned to the district’s student services office where he worked in a more administrative role with the district’s students including overseeing the drug-testing program for student-athletes.
Away from school, McCrea has helped coach his oldest son’s travel baseball team, has become a certified mental training coach to assist young athletes in Del Rio and San Antonio, and has become more active in his church.
“Basically, I’ve been working to become a better me,” McCrea said in a phone interview Monday night.
McCrea won’t officially become the athletic director until July. He will learn the ropes from Smith and work to assess what the school district’s athletic programs need.
“Smith is going to be my mentor. We’re going to work together for a little bit. He has already reached out to me and said he would always be available,” McCrea said. “Obviously this is a big administrative role, so I’m going to learn from Coach Smith and he’ll teach me and we’ll go on from there.”
McCrea was still taking the whole process in Monday night and explained that he had always seen himself as an administrator with athletic director always being the ultimate goal. He said that after he was relieved of his head coaching duties he had the opportunity to leave Del Rio and coach elsewhere, but he felt his calling was here in Del Rio and was ready to serve in whatever capacity he was needed.
“Not many people can say they have been the head football coach and athletic director in their hometown. For me to be able to say that is probably one of the biggest things in my life. It had always been a dream of mine. I thought it would happen somewhere else and if it had, then cool, but it happened here in my hometown. I have ties in the community, my family has ties in this community, this is where I want to be,” McCrea said.
McCrea’s selection as athletic director also means he will have to work with the man who removed him from his head coaching role – Superintendent Dr. Carlos Rios. McCrea said the two have been working together during his time in student services and said the two men are ready to continue working together to improve not just the athletic programs in the district, but the relationship between the school district and the community.
“In terms of the community, my biggest focus will be to tie community support with athletics. We want to open up our fields for practices. Dr. Rios and I both agree that working with the community is important and the younger we can get kids involved in athletics the quicker they’ll grow and add to our programs,” McCrea said. “We want all our teams to be successful, but we all know that our varsity sports are the elite group. Whether it’s improving our facilities or getting our coaches the help they need, we want to help all our coaches be successful in all their programs.”
McCrea becoming athletic director could also mean a change in jobs for his wife, Jonte McCrea, who has been serving as the athletic director for girls athletics at Del Rio High School and Del Rio Freshman School. McCrea said he understood the optics of a husband-wife duo overseeing athletics and said her reassignment would be something the administration would handle.
He did add that it was something they talked about when he applied for the athletic director position and she stood behind him and supported him completely.
“I think, personally, as much as I would love her in that position beside me, I don’t see that happening. It’s not in my hands. I’m going to let administration handle that part of it,” McCrea said. “She and I are in agreement that this is something I needed to go after and we knew there would be some rearranging. For her to sacrifice that position for me … I don’t have words to express how wonderful she is and what that means to me.”
For now, McCrea will be learning the ropes of a new job. He intends to remain here as long as he can and his approach to this new role is the same as every other job he’s had.
“My goal is to leave things better than when I got there. I’m excited about the future, and with the help of God we’re going to do our best,” McCrea said.
