McCauley leaving his mark with Half Moon Bay High School football team

A concussion ended his freshman season with three games to go; he played through his sophomore season with a bum shoulder and this past spring, he tore the meniscus in his knee just before the start of the pandemic-truncated season.

All of that, however, is in the past and McCauley is looking ahead.

“This year, my head is good, my knee is good, my shoulder is good,” McCauley said. “Honestly, I’m in one of the best shapes of my life.”

Which is good news for the Cougars and bad news for Half Moon Bay opponents. HMB head coach Keith Holden believes with a healthy McCauley, the Cougars have a winning record from the spring season, instead of a 2-3 mark.

“He’s good on offense,” Holden said of McCauley. “He’s a huge difference maker on defense. … He’s always been our middle (free) safety. [He] calls out the coverages. He can tackle in the open field. Not a lot of players, in general, can tackle in the open field any more.

“If he’s not on the field, we’re a different team.”

During McCauley’s freshman season, however, he made an offensive impact on a team that was one year removed from playing for a state championship. McCauley was a bright light on an otherwise disappointing season that saw the Cougars go just 3-7 overall and winless in Peninsula Athletic League Bay Division play.

In seven games, McCauley accounted for 200 yards of offense (167 receiving, 33 rushing) and scored 11 touchdowns.

In 2019, in an attempt to protect his injured shoulder, Holden concentrated most of McCauley’s play on the defensive side, where he finished with 54 tackles, including 35 solo.

Whether he’s lining up as a running back or holding down the defense from his free safety spot, McCauley is simply a football player, which is what drew Holden to him when he was freshman.

“He had a ton of Pop Warner (experience). There is a difference between guys who played Pop Warner their whole childhood and those who come in (to the sport) brand new,” Holden said. “He’s really football intelligent. Nothing we gave him confused him. And the fact he really wanted to be (playing at varsity as a freshman). We’ve had guys who we were going to pull up as sophomores who said, ‘Oh, I’m not ready,’ or ‘I want to play with my friends.’

“[McCauley] was all in.”

McCauley already had a mentor in former HMB star Tristan Hofmann, who also played four years of varsity football before graduating this past spring. But McCauley wasn’t expecting to be handed a varsity spot.

“Coming up (into my freshman year), I was stoked. [Hofmann] did the same thing. To be able to the same thing was cool,” McCauley said.

Holden said he approached McCauley about working out with the varsity team during the summer and if he felt it was too overwhelming, Holden would send him to the junior varsity squad.

McCauley never saw a day with the JV team.

“He started working out with us and training super hard,” Holden said. “He started doing 7-on-7 (summer passing league) for us and he was our best safety. I said, ‘There is no way he’s going down (to JV).’”

McCauley said he was buoyed by the fact that Holden asked him if he was interested in playing varsity.

“I thought it was something I could do. The fact [Holden] came to me and personally asked me, I felt honored,” McCauley said.

Once he got on the field, McCauley knew he could play with the big boys. He said he knew he belonged by halftime of his first game, coming up with an interception late in the first half of a 42-3 win over Jefferson. Two weeks later, he scored the first and second touchdowns of his career against San Mateo.

“(After that San Mateo game) I felt really confident,” McCauley said. “[Varsity players] were bigger and faster and I played with them,” McCauley said.

While injuries took their toll his first two seasons, he still managed to take the field. That wasn’t the case this past spring season. Not only did the COVID-19 pandemic wreak havoc with everything, including high school sports, but the knee injury cost McCauley all five games that were played.

It was the first time McCauley had a crisis of confidence when it came to football. Not because he didn’t want to put in the time to rehab his knee to be ready for the 2021 fall season. He was concerned there would not be enough time to be fully healthy.

“The reason it was so difficult was because with the other two seasons, we had six, seven months before hitting each other. This year, we had only a couple months,” McCauley said.

So he attacked his physical therapy with the same intensity of playing the game. McCauley said he was getting therapy four days a week and really pushing each session to be ready for the 2021 fall season.

He has been given the green light for full contact.

“I went extra hard (in rehab),” McCauley said. “I don’t believe I’d be where I am now if I didn’t put in that extra time and effort.”

And now he is gearing up for his final season of high school football.

“This past year, especially when I injured my knee, (I asked myself), ‘Is it worth it to push it to get back?’ I said, ‘Yes, it is.’ I don’t know how long I’ll play football for and I want to help my teammates.

“I just love the game.”