Mayfield football coach Michael Bradley retires

LAS CRUCES — The Mayfield football program is in need of a head coach after Michael Bradley announced his retirement.

Bradley, 59, coached the Trojans to three state titles since his took over the head coaching job in 2006. Bradley, a physical education and weightlifting instructor at Mayfield, is also retiring from teaching at the end of the 2022-2023 school year.

The son of a football coaching legend, Bradley brought a no-nonsense, businesslike approach to the sidelines, often championing character and conduct during his 34 years at Mayfield — 17 years as an assistant coach and 17 years as a head coach.

He got straight to the point during a news conference Tuesday inside La Posta restaurant.

"I'm calling it quits as far as being a head coach at Mayfield High School and I feel very comfortable about this," he said, noting he felt the future for Mayfield football was a bright one.

Bradley amassed a 139-63 record as a head coach for the Trojans, a win percentage of nearly 69 percent. He led the team to big-school state titles in 2006 and 2007, his first two seasons, and also in 2010. His teams lost title games in 2011, 2013 and 2014. Only twice did his teams lose more games in a season than they won. Bradley finished with a 6-13 record against in-city rival Las Cruces High.

Asked if he would start wearing more red and blue — Las Cruces high colors — now that's he's retired, Bradley said, "No." His wife, Shannon Bradley, chimed in from the audience, saying, "we're green and gold only."

What will Bradley do after retirement?

"I would like to do some other things with my life and I have no idea what those other things are because when I got into coaching it was 24-7, seven days a week," he said. "I'd like to climb some mountains. I'd like to go to the lake once in awhile."

Michael and Shannon have two adult children and four Labrador retrievers, named QB, Blitz, Coach and Champ.

"Maybe I'll walk the dogs more," he laughed.

Legacy of learning

Bradley, a former state coach of the year, said one his proudest accomplishments was establishing a character program at Mayfield.

"Everything we do and everything we say is a character quality and I try to get it in the hearts and the souls of my kids, whether it's a PE kid, or a weightlifting young man or a football player, or an aspiring coach or fellow teachers," he said.

Bradley became emotional when discussing his legacy.

"If I have a legacy, that would be it — to try to turn young boys into young men and to help coaches become a better coach and I hope that I have done that," he said.

"As far as my career goes, the wins and losses, I think the wins are basically how many kids you helped along the way. I think there's a lot of them out there.

"I think there's a lot of them out there," he repeated, his voice quivering and tears welling in his eyes.

Bradley gathered his composure and continued the news conference.

Becoming a coach

Bradley is the son of legendary New Mexico high school coach Jim Bradley, who led Roswell and Mayfield to multiple state titles. Michael took over the Trojans program when his father retired after the 2005 season. Jim Bradley died in 2015.

All three of Jim and Phyllis Bradley's sons — Jimmy, Michael and Gary — became football coaches.

However, Michael may have been the least likely to assume the headset since he didn't play high school football.

"I had a neck injury my sophomore year and was not able to play," he said. "After that happened, I was in a pretty severe depression as I just pictured being my dad all my life. It took me awhile to get out of that. Finally my dad and his coaches at Roswell High School got together with me and said, 'You didn't have to play in order to be a coach. You don't have to do that. You learn the game and you figure it out.'"

And that's what Michael Bradley did.

After one year as a graduate assistant for the New Mexico State football team in 1985-86, Bradley took a job coaching defensive backs for Mayfield under head coach Mike Draper. He said he didn't know the position, but studied it to the point where he was able to coach confidently through the 1990 season.

From 1991 to 1994, Bradley pursued a graduate degree at the University of Iowa and was a graduate assistant for the Hawkeye football program under coaching legend Hayden Frye.

In 1994, Jim Bradley returned to Mayfield and hired Michael to be his defensive coordinator, which the son would do for 12 years until the elder Bradley's retirement.

Best win and worst loss

Michael Bradley said one game he'll cherish is the 2010 state title game when Mayfield upended Manzano 69-42, at the time the highest scoring championship game in New Mexico history.

The Trojans limped into the playoffs with a 6-4 record that year and surprised everyone with four straight wins to claim the trophy.

The worst loss? "Obviously, your last loss in going to be in your head for a while," Bradley said, pointing to a 42-7 defeat at Piedra Vista in the first round of this year's playoffs. The 2022 Trojans struggled, finishing the year 5-7 without a district win or victory over city rivals Las Cruces, Centennial or Organ Mountain.

Moving forward

In 2020, the state reclassified Mayfield as a 5A team, meaning they would be in a lower division than the rest of the high schools in the city. The New Mexico Activities Association cited Mayfield's dwindling enrollment in making the change. The Trojans continued to play non-district games against their in-city rivals, but with a smaller pool of students to draw from, the talent disparity increased in recent years.

"Eventually, I hope they will be changing the boundaries in Las Cruces to make it equal opportunity for everybody," Bradley said, alluding to the school district ensuring about the same number of students go to each school.

"That's something that I'm going to look at trying to help out, get that conversation started. There's no reason why all four schools can't be on equal ground," he said. "They put us in a hole quite a while back and we've been climbing out of it ever since."

Mayfield has not identified a successor to take over the football program.

Last year, Gary Bradley joined his brother's staff as offensive coordinator. A former head coach at Farmington and Carlsbad, Gary is five years younger than Michael and attended Tuesday's news conference.

Asked if he would be interested in taking over the program, Gary said, "I really haven't given it much thought."

Michael Bradley noted he'd like to visit Mayfield from time to time to see how the program is progressing and assured he'll be visible moving forward.

"I'm going to be involved in something in the community, more than likely with the public schools," he said.

Michael Bradley's career at Mayfield

(records courtesy MaxPreps)

• 2006: 13-0 (state championship)

• 2007: 12-1 (state championship)

• 2008: 9-3

• 2009: 12-2

• 2010: 10-4 (state championship)

• 2011: 11-3 (state runner-up)

• 2012: 6-5

• 2013: 11-2 (state runner-up)

• 2014: 11-2 (state runner-up)

• 2015: 9-4

• 2016: 6-6

• 2017: 2-8

• 2018: 6-5

• 2019: 7-4

• 2020: 2-2 (COVID-shortened season)

• 2021: 7-5

• 2022: 5-7

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Lucas Peerman can be reached at lpeerman@lcsun-news.com or @LittleGuyInATie on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Mayfield football coach Michael Bradley retires