Tom Bean names McBride part-time Executive Director of Athletics
TOM BEAN — The Tomcats have added to their athletic department once again, this time in a newly-created position.
The Tom Bean ISD school board approved the hiring of Joe McBride for the part-time role of Executive Director of Athletics.
“He’s a guy who’s got great experience and can help us continue to build up our extra-curricular activities,” Tom Bean superintendent Kelly Lusk said. “This will allow our coaches to focus more on the coaching of our athletes.”
McBride’s tasks with Tom Bean involving more of the administrative duties will give new head football coach Steve Fex, who was given the athletic director title as part of his hiring in late January, a narrower focus of building the program.
McBride retired after more than three decades of coaching in the middle of the January following his third year as the head football coach at McKinney Boyd.
Less than a week later Tom Bean hired Fex, who was McBride’s assistant head coach and co-defensive coordinator at Boyd and been under him on staffs at Coppell and Dripping Springs.
Prior to Fex’s arrival, the athletic director title was held by head softball coach Lance Cherry when it was given to him in May 2021 — the same time Aaron Whitmire was promoted to lead the football program. It was the first time the head football coach and athletic director roles were combined since they were split in April 2018.
In 10 seasons as a head coach, McBride went 73-39 with six playoff appearances, including his last two seasons at McKinney Boyd.
The Broncos went 8-3 this past season, the program’s best season since 2014, losing to Lewisville in a Class 6A bi-district contest and were 4-7 in 2020, also with a bi-district loss against Lewisville. McBride took over at Boyd after he had a second stint at Coppell in an athletic director-only role from 2015-18.
His time at Coppell was bisected with a 3-7 season at Dripping Springs. As the head coach at Coppell from 2009-2013, McBride won at least nine games in four of his five seasons with the pinnacle being a 13-1 mark in 2010 when the Cowboys reached the 5A Division I state quarterfinals before losing to eventual state runner-up Euless Trinity.
McBride started his head coaching career at Frisco Liberty, taking over when the school opened in 2006 and transitioning from two junior varsity seasons into a 5-5 record in 2008.
Before that he was the defensive coordinator for Hebron, helping win the Class 4A Division II state championship, in addition to stops at Magnolia, San Angelo and Austin High after graduating from Texas Tech in 1991.
Tom Bean is coming off an 0-9 season where the Tomcats were shut out in their final six games and managed just five touchdowns across the first three contests. Opponents outscored Tom Bean 452-40 on the season and 353-0 in the last six games.
Fex is the program’s eighth head football coach in the past 12 seasons with none of the most recent six getting past a third year.
Tom Bean hasn’t had a winning season since 2008 or won a playoff game since 2004. Back-to-back playoff appearances in 2018 and 2019 marked the first time Tom Bean made consecutive postseason trips since three straight from 2002-04 and for just the third time in program history, also joining three straight trips from 1993-95.
This article originally appeared on Herald Democrat: Tom Bean hires McBride as a part-time Executive Director of Athletics
