Brad Cesmat
I dropped a text to Charlie Ragle this week. The former Arizona assistant,is now the special teams coordinator/tight end coach at Cal. Saturday, Ragle will be across the field from Rich Rod as the Golden Bears host the Wildcats. Ragle was a lightning rod during his high school head coaching days at Scottsdale Chaparral. I asked him to send me some thoughts on his first year outside of Arizona and the emotions coming into this weekends matchup.
Written by Charlie Ragle
As I looked at this game on the schedule four months ago I really felt like it would be an emotional week, but as the week is finally here, I feel more relaxed and focused on what I must do to help my kids go on the field and win. The personal side of me, and anyone who knows me understands everything I am about is relationships. Looking across during the game and knowing not only am I doing battle with the man who gave me my college start, not to mention some of my closest friends will be extremely tough. Although not too tough I still wanna beat their butt:)
I have been here almost 8 months at Cal and what a great experience it has been. I have grown so much as a coach and person its really hard to describe. Professionally creating a brand new network has been awesome, and exposed me to so many more ideas. Anytime you leave “home base” Which is obviously AZ where all my family and friends are!! Requires you to rely more on your own immediate family structure and boy I am so grateful for my wife and kids!!
The thing I miss most about AZ is easy, its the people being there so long and establishing all those friendships, and relationships that’s hard not to think about on a daily basis. I am so thankful for those relationships and I truly know those will be lifelong relationships. By the way I miss my Mexican food:)
It has been 6 years since I was last at Chaparral, and boy does that seem like a lifetime ago, however going from AZ to Cal and all of the people I have worked with in between, has only increased my growth as a person, and coach exponentially. Anytime you get to work with some of the best and brightest minds in college football you can only become better, More importantly it has helped me shape and develop my own ideas for the future. I have been blessed to work with one of the top offensive minds in college football in coach Rod and now one of the top young defensive minds in the game in coach Wilcox, Talk about being fortunate!! I have been extremely fortunate this was my childhood dream and I am living it:)
