What happens when a national championship coach leaves Los Angeles and decides to build something in a small rural town?
Coach Michael Teagardin—known to most as Coach T—is MCSA’s Director of Track & Field and Cross Country. He’s a former AAU National Coach of the Year, who helped lead the Southern California Comets to four national titles in five years. And now he’s choosing to invest that experience into the kids of Mendocino County.
In this episode, we talk about what it really means to develop athletes—not just for sport, but for life. From speed and agility training to building belief in kids who don’t yet see themselves as athletes, Coach T brings both vision and humility to everything he does.
We talk about:
His move from SoCal to Ukiah—and why it wasn’t just a change of pace
The challenges and beauty of building a program in a small town
The difference between a skill-based sport and a performance-based one
Why multi-sport development matters more than ever
How grit is modeled—not taught
And what he wants kids to carry with them long after they leave the track
Coach T helped launch our first-ever MCSA cross country and track & field seasons, expanding the Academy’s mission beyond soccer. And as you’ll hear in this conversation—he’s not just building runners. He’s building resilient, grounded, next-generation leaders.
If you’re a coach, a parent, or a young athlete—you’ll get something from this.
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