Bio

Jim McCarron was named the Riverside City College men's head track and cross country coach in 2006 and has re-established the programs as two of the premier programs both at the state and national levels. He is the most winning coach in RCC’s 100+ year history, with eight State titles and 29 conference championships. He is known for his focus on both the academic and athletic success of his student-athletes and his high rates of transferring student-athletes to universities and building winning teams with depth and quality in all event areas.

Under Coach McCarron, the Tigers have won 17 Orange Empire Conference Track and Field Championships – winning every year except his first year and the COVID years when there was no championship meet – and 12 OEC Cross Country Championships. RCC has also won seven State Track and Field Championships and one State Cross Country Championship. Individually, McCarron has coached 50 state champions, 175 all-Americans, and over 400 all-conference student-athletes in both track and field and cross country. 

The Tigers won their first State Cross Country Championship in 2016 after taking fifth at the SoCal Championship – a feat never accomplished in 3C2A State Cross Country Championship history. McCarron was named the State Coach of the Year after the amazing turnaround from regionals to the state championship.

In 2017, the Tigers finished second at State, missing first by just five points and erasing a 45-point deficit from SoCal Finals to State. The Tigers have had seven top-five finishes and 13 top-10 finishes at the State meet under Coach McCarron’s tenure.

The men's track program became the third program in the college's history to win three consecutive State titles in 2010 – joining the likes of men's basketball (Jerry Tarkanian) and baseball (Dennis Rogers). In 2014, he added a second three-peat when his track and field team won the 2014 state title.

Coach McCarron’s teams have compiled numbers that have rarely been seen at the community college level. In 2012 his team scored a record 200.3 points at the Southern California Championships, and in 2013 they bettered that record by scoring 225 at that meet.  The 2013 squad surpassed Taft Community College’s 1985 team as being the most dominant community college track and field team in history at that point, by scoring a record 151 points at the state championship, and was named the Press Enterprise Team of the Year.

McCarron has had only four track teams finish worse than third at the state finals: 2006 – his first team – which finished 28^th; 2011, which finished fourth; and 2015 and 2022, which both finished fifth).

For his efforts, McCarron is highly decorated.  In 2010 and 2019, he was selected as the OEC Male Coach of the Year. He also was selected as the 2010 and 2019 California Community College Track and Field Coach of the Year. He has won the conference coach of the year award for track and field 18 times (once as the head women’s coach at Santa Ana College), and 11 times in cross country.

Over the years, McCarron has made it a priority to provide Division I competition for his teams. In his third season, he started a dual meet with Long Beach State, and every year since then he has had Division I track and field programs come every year to Wheelock Stadium to compete against the Tigers. 

During coach McCarron’s tenure at RCC, the track and field and cross-country programs have become known for their ability to transfer student-athletes onto universities at high rates. 

Over 400 track and field and cross country student-athletes have received scholarships to universities. McCarron has had six student-athletes receive the RCC Student of Distinction (the highest academic honor awarded to the top student-athlete in all sports). His 2023 team had the most male academic all-Americans in the state.

Over his coaching career, Coach McCarron’s teams have also given back to the community in many ways. For the past 19 years, McCarron’s teams have organized and conducted clinics for Special Olympians and their coaches, while McCarron also speaks at track and field and cross-country clinics. He and his staff have hosted community all-comers track and field meets.

McCarron also wrote the training workouts for the Riverside Police Department Baker to Vegas Run. He has volunteered on many occasions for Riverside YEMP, a program where speakers from the community meet with middle school children in Riverside to share their profession and motivate them to pursue the best route to reach their professional goals. In his tenure at RCC, McCarron and his teams have volunteered with local organizations like the Assistance League of Riverside and Missing Children’s Resource Center.

Before RCC, McCarron coached women’s track and cross-country coach at Santa Ana College. Prior to that, he was an assistant sprint and cross-country coach at Fullerton College.

While at Santa Ana College, in his second season, he won the OEC track and field coach of the year. At Fullerton, he helped the Hornets’ men’s team win the 2000 conference cross country title, and the women’s track and field team won the conference championship.

McCarron began his coaching career as the head coach of John Glenn High School in Norwalk. He moved to Santa Fe High School where he was a history teacher and coached track, basketball, and cross-country.

In high school, McCarron was a two-time all-league selection in cross country. He helped Whittier Christian win two league cross country championships. As a track athlete, he was even better earning all-league and All-CIF honors as a 400-meter runner. He was a two-time league champion in the event. To this day, he still holds the school's record in the 4x100 and 4x400.

After graduating from high school, McCarron competed for Cerritos College for one season before eventually transferring to UC Irvine. After UC Irvine dropped their men's track program due to Title IX, he transferred to UCLA where he competed (400, 800 meters, and 4x400 relay) for the Bruins in 1993 and 1995, helping the Bruins to the PAC-10 Championship.

In 1994, McCarron spent his redshirt year running cross country and track meets throughout Europe.

McCarron, who holds a master’s degree in education from Azusa Pacific University and a bachelor’s degree in history from UCLA, has completed level I of the USA track and field certification program.

At RCC, McCarron is also a professor of kinesiology specializing in sport psychology. He lives in Riverside with his wife, Teresa, and their daughters, Catalina, Juliana, and Gabriela.