Super Bowl coaches share heartwarming high school memories

Years before they reached football's biggest stage, the stars of Super Bowl LX were just teenagers navigating hallways, practice fields, and the occasional awkward moment with their coaches.

Seattle Seahawks head coach Mike Macdonald made quite an entrance at New Centennial High School in Roswell, Georgia. As team captain, he called his new coach Xarvia Smith with an unusual request: they should go out to lunch together.

Smith was stunned. He told the rising senior that coaches don't socialize with students like that, no matter what his previous coach did. "Are you crazy?" Smith remembers thinking.

Then Macdonald's father showed up at Smith's house as the new booster club vice president and promptly drove over the sprinkler system. Not exactly the smooth start anyone hoped for.

But Macdonald's talent was undeniable. Even after injuries cut his senior season short, he stayed connected with Smith. After college, when Macdonald asked about coaching positions, Smith didn't hesitate to bring him aboard.

What Smith saw then is what the NFL sees now. The ninth grade team Macdonald coached recorded six shutouts. The varsity defense gave up just 4.2 points per game in Georgia, one of America's most competitive football states.

Smith told Macdonald he'd become an NFL head coach by 36. In January 2024, at exactly that age, Macdonald took the Seahawks job.

Sunny's Take

The story gets even better. When Seattle played in Atlanta last December, Macdonald took Smith and others out for a proper meal. They laughed about that rejected lunch invitation years earlier.

"Don't worry, I'll never pay for another meal," Smith joked. "You are paying for every meal."

New England Patriots coach Mike Vrabel has his own running joke with former coach Gerry Rardin from Walsh Jesuit High School in Ohio. Rardin taught Spanish and occasionally treated his class to tacos. Decades later, Vrabel still brings it up every time they talk.

"He asks about taco days," Rardin said with a laugh. "He talks like we had five a week." Vrabel sits in the front row of Rardin's memories as the most fun kid to have in class, someone who mixed constant humor with serious dedication.

That balance between levity and intensity carried Vrabel through a stellar playing career and now to the Super Bowl as a head coach. Rardin believes that authenticity made all the difference.

"Mike has never been afraid to be Mike," he said.

Sunday's game represents the culmination of decades of hard work, but these coaches haven't forgotten the kids who once asked for lunch dates and joked about taco days.