When the Marathon Dolphins football team takes the field for Friday Night Lights this fall, a new – but familiar – face will be calling the shots from the sideline.
On Feb. 7, the high school finalized the hire of 2022 offensive coordinator – and extraordinarily talented Keys Weekly Sports Wrap Podcast host – Sean McDonald as its new head coach. McDonald will take the reins from Mac Childress, who elected to step down after helming the program since 2018 as his family prepares for the birth of his third child.
“Being the head coach for the Marathon Dolphins was an absolute honor,” Childress told the Weekly. “(Sean and I) have coached together for several years. … He and his staff definitely have the potential and skill to take this program to the next level.”
McDonald is tasked with continuing the rise of a program that’s shown marked improvement under Childress’ tutelage. Following two winless seasons, the team posted a 3-6 record in 2021 before securing its first winning season since 2017 last fall with a 5-4 mark.
“Every coach wants to put their stamp on a program and wants to have the ability to have a vision and see if that vision can become a reality,” McDonald told the Weekly. “You have the ability to mold (the team) into what you think is going to be a successful program, and it’s going to help the players not only become successful during football season but also successful citizens in Monroe County.”
McDonald has deep roots in the coaching fraternity throughout the island chain, beginning in 1997 when then-Sugarloaf School principal and current Superintendent Theresa Axford hired him as a physical education teacher. Within two years, he took his talents a little farther south, coaching junior varsity football at Key West High School under coach Pat Freeman before assisting with the varsity squad under Greg Kramer. He also credits longtime Key West coaches Judd Wise and Robert James as “huge mentors” who supported his ever-evolving early career.
Realizing there was a void in organized football in the Lower Keys, McDonald and his wife Tracy began a 10-year partnership with the Key West Junior Football League to establish four teams that practiced in the Lower Keys before competing in the southernmost city.
Both Sean and Tracy made the move to Marathon in 2013, and Sean has been a mainstay with the middle school, JV and varsity football teams ever since, including a two-year stint as the middle school coach in which he guided his squad to an undefeated 12-0 season and a 20-2 overall record. After taking three years off starting in 2019 to watch his son Jackson, a former MHS star quarterback, play at FIU, the elder McDonald returned to the sidelines on Childress’ staff in 2022.
With a uniquely integrated middle school campus, McDonald said he’s excited to streamline a unified development program for players from sixth grade through senior year. It’s a pipeline that he hopes will build consistency and discipline, two of his teams’ hallmarks, among young players as his staff “helps them transition from sixth graders to becoming adults, in the classroom, on the field and in the community.”
It’s a vision that Childress echoed as he handed over the mantle, touting the “foundation we laid of good character and strong work ethic” over the last five years.
“We ultimately tried to build men, not just football players,” he told the Weekly.
“We really want to encourage as many middle school players to come out and play, even if they’ve never played football before,” McDonald added. “We’re gonna welcome them with open arms. The vision that we have … is working with these guys for seven years to become the best possible people that they can become.”
