Coach tells compelling stories about his players

Jim MacDicken had just spent days painting a mural of three football players tackling a running back.

Poised to begin his first season as head football coach at Sultan High School, he wanted to spruce up the weight room.

It was pure shock, then, when he discovered someone had defaced the mural.

MacDicken gathered his athletes and asked why.

And, later, the culprit privately gave him an answer: The football player on the mural wore a jersey bearing a number of a dead teammate. The athletes had promised themselves to never use it again.

“I told him, ‘What you did was wrong, but why you did it was completely right.’ ”

In 39 years of coaching and teaching, MacDicken has collected a lot of stories like this one. He has compiled some of the best in a short, self-published book, “Ordinary Heroes.”

MacDicken came to Sultan High in 2000 after serving as head coach at Portland, Ore.’s Roosevelt High for eight years. There, he lead the team to its first league championship in 50 years. He also was Oregon State Coach of the Year in basketball and football. At Sultan, he re-energized an ailing football program, guiding the Turks to the playoffs his first year in 2000. In his last two seasons, MacDicken led Sultan to the Class 2A district playoffs. He also taught history and psychology.

The stories in “Ordinary Heroes” are drawn from his experiences as a teacher and coach, and all deal with students who have overcome odds. A tall but awkward girl barely makes the basketball team, works hard and ends up a tough, skilled player. A boy perseveres even though his mother is a prostitute and his father is in prison. A teen becomes pregnant and decides to raise the child alone, and years later, he finds a well-cared-for child and a mother taking college courses.

Some of the stories deal with former local students, but MacDicken said he changed the names to protect their privacy.

His coaching philosophy centers on class, dignity and pride rather than racking up the wins, and that spirit is reflected in the stories he tells.

A positive person by nature, MacDicken said he wanted to write a book that was true to life, but without the tragedy and failure. He hopes other students will read it and be inspired by what can be accomplished.

“The reason we have sports is to build community, to sacrifice, to create a sense of worth,” he said.

MacDicken retired from coaching and teaching last year after several high blood pressure attacks sent him to the hospital. He continues to write at the Gold Bar home he shares with wife, Jan. He’d like to transition into a public speaking career so he can tell more stories. It’s not enough to inspire, he said. He wants to impart principles.

“I want to leave people with more than just a feeling,” he said. “They should go out with things in their heads as well as their hearts.”

Reporter Debra Smith: 425-339-3197 or dsmith@heraldnet.com.