Mac McGowan

A sports fanatic since early childhood, Mac grew up watching the great San Francisco Giants teams of Willie Mays, among others. Also on the watchlist; the San Francisco (now Golden State) Warriors, the San Francisco 49ers, and Oakland Raiders. A decent athlete, he played basketball for Pacific Grove High and spent 10 years playing men’s open-division fastpitch softball. In his 30s, he began his coaching career, which spanned over 40 teams with kids as young as six all the way up through high school girls softball at Carmel High, where he headed the program from 1997-2006. After retiring from active coaching, Mac spent several years giving coaching clinics on topics including fundamentals, philosophy, practice organization, and team building for high school and youth league coaches. The insights into high school kids and coaching proved invaluable for these books. Add to that six children and 13 grandchildren, and he definitely knows kids!

Mac’s writing “career” began in high school as the editor of his school newspaper during his senior year. The idea of writing a series like this stemmed from reading the classic Chip Hilton books written by Clair Bee, mostly in the 1950s. From start to finish, the 12-book Rob Mathews Sports Series project “only” took 28 years to complete . . . family, coaching, and work kept getting in the way!

A native of California’s Bay Area and Central Coast, Mac and his wife Suzanne (Suzy) have a home in the Sierra Nevada Foothills east of Sacramento, the setting for the series. Ironically, this area was chosen as a setting for the series 25 years before acquiring the home.