🎙️🏴☠️🏫 Episode 33 — Josh McClurg: Coming Home, Leading Pirates, Building Community
Chopping It Up with Keith Saarloos · Released February 14, 2026 · Santa Ynez Valley, California
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About this conversation
Some people grow up here and leave.
Some people leave and never look back.
And then there are the rare ones who come home—and decide to carry the weight.
This episode is about one of those guys.
I sat down with Josh McClurg—born and raised in the Santa Ynez Valley, gone long enough to think he’d never come back… and now he’s back as San Ynez High School’s Head Football Coach and Athletic Director.
This is a conversation about why high school sports matter—not just for the kids on the field, but for the entire community that shows up behind them.
• 🏴☠️ Small Town, Big Heart
Why San Ynez feels like “small town Texas dropped into the Central Coast,” and how Friday nights, packed gyms, and local pride keep a town stitched together.
• 🧱 From Local Kid to Leader
Growing up riding bikes until dark, dreaming of wearing black and orange, and learning the hard way what responsibility really looks like.
• 🏈 The Long Road Back
Hancock → Chico State → football program cut → teaching in Sacramento → twins on the way → a leap of faith back to the Valley.
• 👨👩👦👦👦 Family + Faith + Grit
NICU twins, building a life from scratch, working weekends, laying floors, and doing whatever it takes to provide.
• 🧠 Why Sports Change Kids
How team culture pulls kids into structure, raises grades, creates belonging, and turns “lost” into “locked in.”
• 📈 The Golden Era of Participation
Josh shares that about 78% of San Ynez’s 750 students play a sport, plus why track and wrestling are exploding—and what great coaching really does.
• 🏟️ Rio Memorial Stadium
The story behind renaming the field to honor Jeff Rio and Carl Rio—and what legacy looks like when a community remembers its own.
• 🧱 Wall of Honor
Why Josh is pushing to recognize more of the “old guard” who earned it—and how pride and tradition get passed forward.
If you live in the Valley, this episode is a reminder:
these games aren’t just games.
They’re community.
They’re belonging.
They’re a training ground for becoming someone.
Go Pirates. 🏴☠️
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Saarloos + Sons archive host Keith Saarloos. Context photograph; not a portrait of the guest or a photograph of this recording.
