After 37 years of coaching cross country track and basketball at Poly, Rick Caragher, who also co-directs PolyGlobal, is stepping away from coaching, closing a legendary chapter in Panther athletic history. Beloved for his leadership, versatility and heart, Caragher leaves behind a legacy of athletic excellence and character-building. Before he officially jogs into retirement, Caragher took time to reflect, laugh, and share a few stories:
What’s your favorite sports memory?
In college, we won Pomona-Pitzer’s first men’s basketball conference title in 68 years and got to go to the NCAA playoffs. We got blasted, just absolutely annihilated, but it was still great.
What’s your favorite sport to watch?
My favorite sport to watch was whenever my daughters or Poly athletes were competing. I also really enjoy watching playoff basketball, including the NCAA women’s and men’s tournaments as well as the high-level NBA playoffs. If it’s in person, though, I think one of the most exciting sports to watch is hockey. It’s so electric, and that puck moves so fast. It’s incredible.
If you could have a conversation with any athlete of all time, who would it be?
I’d love to talk to a guy named Pete Maravich, “Pistol Pete.” I just had a basketball with me all the time because of Pete. He’s a guy I look up to to this day.
What’s the most spectacular place you’ve ever gone for a run?
I love to run when I go to cities in foreign countries or cities in the US and just explore. In the morning, you run through a city, you see it waking up, you smell the cars, the bakeries, and you just kind of get a sense of this place on the ground without a map. You just figure it out… I’ve taken my cross country team to Yellowstone, to Zion and the Grand Canyon, so those were all great as well.
What’s your favorite Poly sports memory as a coach?
The one that I come back to is cross country. We were ranked second in the Southern Section and at CIF prelims, we were up against the number-one ranked team, which had won two section titles in a row. They were in another heat, and after the end of the heat, two of my runners came up to me and said, “Coach, Woodcrest Christian wore watches, and that’s illegal. We need to tell them not to wear their watches in finals so they don’t get disqualified.” It wasn’t about trying to get them disqualified; we didn’t want to win on a technicality, on some disqualification; we wanted to win by having to beat the best. We ended up losing to them by six points. And although we missed out on our first boys other section title, we were still champions in my mind.
Who’s your academic inspiration?
I had a teacher in my high school psychology class, Mr. Dempsey. After I gave a presentation, he called me up and said, “That was quite a class! Have you ever thought about teaching?” That had a big impact on me.
If you could go back to the start of your coaching career and offer yourself one piece of advice, what would it be?
To focus less on the results and more on the development of your team as people and as athletes.
