Pueblo D60 Director of Athletics Rick Macias retires after banner career

Jul. 2—One of Pueblo's most recognizable sports personalities retired at the end of June.

Rick Macias, who has been the District 60 director of athletics for the past 10 years, has been a familiar name and face in Pueblo.

And now, after a banner career as an athlete, coach and administrator, Macias is heading to the sidelines for good.

"It's been an awesome 36 years working with the district, kids, adults and teachers," Macias said. "It's time for me to go on to my retirement career."

Macias' sports career began in high school when he was a cross-country star for Pueblo East High School where he finished as the state runner-up twice and qualified for state in track as well.

Those achievements helped him earn a scholarship to the University of Southern Colorado (now Colorado State University Pueblo) where he became a four-time letter winner. Macias earned all-conference honors twice in the 1,500m and is still a record holder in the men's 4x800m relay.

After college, he coached cross-country/track at Central High School where the Wildcats won a couple city titles and even had a state champion in the girls 400m dash when Ronaleen Hancock won it in 2000.

Macias was enshrined into the Greater Pueblo Sports Association's Hall of Fame in 2018 and most recently was given a Lifetime Achievement Award by the Pueblo Chieftain during its annual prep awards show.

Macias was an integral part of bringing about renovations to Dutch Clark Stadium including installing new turf. He led the way in receiving a grant from the Denver Broncos Grassroots Community and received a matching grant in 2011.

The new turf was laid in 2012 and it was on to the next big project at Dutch: the scoreboard. Macias used leftover grant money and sealed numerous sponsorships to help fund Colorado's biggest high school scoreboard in 2015.

The system allowed for all kinds of new productions to be done like live broadcasts and instant replays.

Renovations for the wrestling programs in the city, scoreboards in gyms and countless other tasks have all been achieved under Macias. But one of his biggest tasks had an immediate impact on the field.

He helped implement a new concussion protocol at South in 2010 and expanded that to the rest of D60 in 2011. A year later, Colorado mandated an improved concussion protocol, putting Pueblo ahead of the game in the safety of its players.

"Trying to be someone to help out the schools and making sure kids were getting good equipment is something I wanted to do," Macias said. "Being a support, that was my goal when I was first got in."

Macias certainly enjoyed being on the board of directors for CHSAA for five years. He traveled all over the country representing Southern Colorado and Pueblo and he lists that as one of his top achievements.

Pueblo has been well represented because of Macias' work with CHSAA on numerous committees including the Handbook Committee, Classification and League Organization committees and spent two terms as chairman of the Cross-Country Committee.

"I'm going to do some traveling this summer, spend some time with my mother-in-law," Macias said. "I'm going to go to Virginia and visit my son and travel around the eastern part of the United States.

"Plus, I'll go sit in the stands and watch some games. I haven't been able to do that for a number of years."

Chieftain senior sports reporter Jeff Letofsky can be reached by email at jletofsky@chieftain.com or on Twitter @jeffletofsky