Although many may consider him a coach, or even further from the truth, a business agent, Kyle McRae has the same insight into sports and life that many of his players at Cal share.
As a former baseball player and the son of a baseball coach, Mcrae grew up with sports and is one of the few people that is able to say they have worked with athletics their whole life.
It’s just he isn’t in the huddle, or engaging in practice. Instead, he provides an unmatched platform for the Golden Bears that allows the team and its players to be known to a national audience. As a part of this, he has been helping young student-athletes find their way in the world despite the many troubles that are currently plaguing the country and world.
“It’s very complex. I’ve never seen anything like it in my whole career,” McRae stated, “There’s still way more questions than answers.”
Although his official title is Cal athletics associate athletic director of communications, Mcrae has much more of an impact on the college than first believed. A sports-rich background has helped propel him to his current position, one that he obtained through hard work and perseverance.
A large part of this background came from Mcrae’s father, a renowned baseball coach in the area. Mcrae played baseball and basketball growing up, excelling enough to be able to play at the high school level.
After graduating, Mcrae decided to stick with baseball and attend San Francisco State University, a D2 school in California. Despite his success at the high school level, Mcrae realized the true difficulty of college sports at SFSU. After realizing that he wouldn’t be able to make it to the pros, Mcrae stumbled upon the opportunity to work games and get paid for doing it. In his last year at the school, he applied for and got an internship to work games.
Eventually, Mcrae was able to return to SFSU and begin playing games for the school. After three years, he went to UCSF and did games for the university for another 4 years. After his gig, Mcrae finally broke into the top level of athletics as he went to Stanford and continued working with the athletics department. 8 years at Stanford eventually brought him to the San Francisco 49ers and finally Cal, where he has been working for 11 years.
Due to his vast experience and position at Cal, Mcrae has been able to do things that many aren’t able to do in their life. For one, his role in the stat crew of the Warriors has allowed him to attend lots of regular season, playoff, and finals games over the course of the Warriors’ dynastic run. He has also worked 3 US Opens, went to a super bowl, rose bowl, and has been to many iterations of the “Big Game” between Cal and Stanford. A part of both schools in his career, Mcrae has an interesting perspective on the rivalry that many can’t relate to.
Despite his position, Mcrae and the many athletic directors around him do not know what the future of college sports will be due to the current COVID-19 situation. As for the money issues that may be created by a lack of fans, Mcrae hopes that that money would be made up for with an uptick in online and television viewers.
“A lot of money will come in from TV money,” McRae said. “It won’t be as lucrative without the fans.”
His hopes remain high for the regularity of the season, but his main goal is to make the following years feel more normal.
"These times are exciting right now for historians and writers.” McRae explained. “Hopefully we can get back to simple life, talking about how good Tom Brady and Dak Prescott are, in the near future."
The money, however, isn’t what is bothering Mcrae the most about this quarantine and future seasons. Instead, it is the inability to see the players he has built up relationships with.
“I have a great relationship with Cal players, and interacting with them is the thing I miss most,” McRae stated.
Due to his close ties with the players, Mcrae has also been a bit worried about how student-athletes will be able to discipline themselves and avoid contact with others.
“It’s going to take a lot of discipline on student-athletes' parts,” McRae warned. “I think it’s going to be hard for that many people to discipline themselves effectively.”
A believer of better welfare of the players, Mcrae explained that he hopes players will be able to increase their ability to work and make money due to new changes such as the name, image, likeness idea.
Despite the many twists and turns that have impeded Mcrae’s life in one way or another, he still remains a sports enthusiast, fan, and most importantly, hopeful. With the return of sports having a clouded future, it will be key for people like Mcrae to continue to use their platforms to help navigate the public through the return of sports to the best of their ability.